Training 2015/08/21 #031 -- positional review

We really just went through various escapes from different positions.

Mount -- I used the typical ones. Block an arm and a leg; upa and roll. Elbow knee escape. Etc.

Side control -- we reviewed some of the options from here:

1. Push the elbow and sit up to avoid getting into the position.
2. Play dead and stay protected until your opponent postures up and gives you space (a la Roy Harris).
3. Hold their head and tricep (if they have the cross face) and just hold on until they aggressively posture up and out (a la Ryron).
4. Attack with the choke. Keep your hands inside (Home Alone). Make space by pushing up into their throat like a typical elbow-knee escape. Reach around their head with the other arm to go for an Ezekial choke from bottom. Lock in with three fingers into the elbow. Alternatively, if you're holding their head Ryron-style you could set up a baseball choke from the bottom. Again, use three fingers.
5. Attack with the arm bar. Keep your hands inside (Home Alone). Hip bump to make space. Curl up and get your outside leg in front of your opponent's head. Extend your legs for the arm lock. If you miss and they move to north-south, move your Home Alone hands further up your face to protect the choke (a la Firaz)
6. Hip escape to guard. Get your arm under their throat to make space. Upa and push on their hip to recover guard, half-guard, or at least a butterfly hook (a la Roy Dean)
7. Escape to knees. Stay up on your side but keep your top leg up as a support. Keep your hands in (Home Alone). Bring your bottom leg under your top leg to switch your hips. Come onto your knees and either drive through the single leg or do a wrestler's sit out and take the back.
8. Invisibility roll. You're stuck in side control and they have the full cross face with the shoulder of justice. Uncomfortable. Try to make yourself as "invisible" as possible by minimizing the surface area of your chest. Get onto a hip if you can and start pushing your opponent down towards your hips. Bridge up and over like an upa escape while trapping their cross-facing arm.
9. Iriminage roll. I don't know what else to call this one. It's like the invisibility roll but you go the other way. Basically, push into your opponent. When they push back, roll the other way bringing your open-side arm through their armpit/head (kind of like iriminage). Take side control and sit through to kesagatame.

Back mount -- 

1. The scoop. This is taught by Saulo Ribeiro. When they have your back, start moving down towards their feet and defending the choke with your hands. Kick out one of their hooks and try to pin their leg with your butt. Grab the thigh/hip/leg of their opposite side to control that leg and roll through into side control.
2. Back slam. Same basic idea but in this case your are basically bridging back hard to force them to carry your weight. Keep sliding around until your back is towards the floor. Kick out the hook, control the opposite leg, etc.

Oh, my aching back!

Yeah, my back has been giving me some grief. For the last two months I have been waking up like the Tin Man and just generally feeling weak. Finally, Claire badgered me into seeing a physio. The assessment basically said that I have nothing overly wrong other than been old and tight. Awesome.

So, intervention one:

• McKenzie method (kiwi)
• Knees to chest and side-to-side
• Cobra
• Repeat every morning and several times per day

Intervention two:

• Mulligan method (another kiwi)
• Do something about the awesomely bad external rotation in my left hip
• The Mulligan method looks pretty cool and it seems like Kelly Starrett has put together a few ways to get a similar (although probably muted) effect without the intervention of somebody else. See:

Intervention three:

• O'Sullivan method (yet another kiwi)
• Do something about some of my screwy movement patterns

That is all.