Training 2015/04/24 #016

Test! No, not quite

Well, today was supposed to be a test but it didn't happen because my training partner/uke had a family situation. I was then in a position to uke for someone else but they couldn't make it either. Oh well, the time wasn't wasted. Fortunately, I was able to review stuff with a much higher belt and review a few things.

Some lessons:

• O goshi -- I really need to get my hips way further across and not give up that sleeve grip. I think I was doing better at keeping my feat together so that's something.
• Mount escapes -- There's an old Rickson video that shows some tweaks for escaping the mount. One is to basically turn your head away from the direction of the upa. This way, you're not rolling directly to the side but into the space between your head and shoulder.
• Staple guard pass -- I really am rusty at this one. Stu had some tips. Don't have your wrists perpendicular to their body because they can just bring your arms forward. Keep them parallel (i.e., hammer fist to the hip bones). Get posture. Put your knee in the tailbone to break their guard. Really angle out that back foot. Keep your elbows in front of their legs so you don't get triangled. Move the knee that was in their tailbone up so your basically in combat stance with your shin against their hoo ha. Now, pick a side and staple your knee forward basically along the line that connects their hip to their pelvis. Either side works.
• Round-house kick. I basically need to over aim to correct. Try to kick immediately to his far side (i.e., 380-degrees) and you will probably actually hit him. Keep the toes pointed down.
• The old Klondike head lock escape. I screwed it up. You have to step to the other side; you need to get across their body for the escape. 

Rolling with Stu was entertaining. I could not, however, make use of my guard. Basically, he was in full guard and was giving me a paper cutter. I couldn't shake him and my gas just slowly seeped away. I tried to swim for the back, etc. but nothing really worked. Was he postured up? Could there have been some sort of sweep? What if I just broke his posture? I'm not sure how I could have made that position better.

UPDATE -- Stu had his right arm across my throat. I have a few different tools to work with. I want to move him back and break his posture and I want to set up the arm/head triangle from guard. What to do: reach over his back with you right arm. Try to grab his belt. Now, with your left arm, try to push his elbow out so that it saws across your throat. This could work since you are applying a normal force to the end of a lever so you have leverage. You can also open your guard and push his hips down and back.