Monday’s class is always something to be savoured; not only are the techniques always good, but a good bit of training on a monday night can really set you up for a good week.
Given my next normal training day is a Thursday, the gap between training is sometimes frustrating, but on the other hand it does give enough time to consider exactly what you’d covered, exactly what direction you’re going and more importantly, the direction you want to go.
Tonight’s class was no exception, and it was honestly one of the best sessions that i’ve attended in many weeks.
Lee started the class tonight by showing the “XXX”; a choke technique which seems a little suicidal at first glance, but after you look into it, it’s a seriously effective technique and it looks to be quite a high percentage move; there’s not much chance of the guy getting out of it. He also showed a variety of ways of finishing it; just simply pulling, inserting your knee between his head and your body, and the more flashy, reverse-gogo-plata-style setup which i immediatley fell in love with.
Lee showed a setup from this from the top turtle position, then from the sprawl, which is possibly my favoured method. Because of the way that the grip is achieved, you can either go straight for the XXX or tease the clock choke, which is something that i did with some degree of success during the specific training.
The specific training itself was fairly interesting; i trained with a few different guys and got a feel for the movement types. One problem i did encounter was in the XXX choke that Lee showed; as i went to grip his belt, i found this would give him enough space on the hip to turn into me, but i’m sure this is a problem more with my execution rather than the structure of the move itself.
Mixing together the clock choke, the XXX, and taking the back into a rear naked choke seems like a natural combination of techniques, and it’s beautiful when in your mind, a series of submissions such as this clicks. This is an area i’d like to look into more, and particularly with the current worldwide turtle renaissance that seems to be taking place, it’s good to get to grips with attacking this defensive position.
The class then turned to some light rolling, again training with different people to get a feel for the way people move. It’s awesome when things flow, which is something i felt particularly happened tonight, although by the end of this part of the session i found that my lack of fluid intake during the day was adversley affecting my performance.
Training with Adam, i looked to keep my guard and regain guard, and training with Tim i looked to pull guard; as i’m sure this indicates, my current focus is very much on the bottom game, and in particular the closed, rubber and open guards.
After the class finished, and a short water break later, i found myself sparring with the newly promoted Jez Lord, who has become a (relativley) phenomenal BJJ player in a short space of time.
A quick note here; the standard of jiujitsu at the gym has become increasingly high lately, which is only reflected by the promotions that both Lee and Braulio have distributed. With an ever growing intake of new members, the gym seems to be going from strength to strength, an improvement that has showed throughout the class, i think everyone would agree.
Jez raised the most salient point of the night to me, as i was beginning to (read: try my best to) transition to mission control, he pointed out i’d forgotten that he’d posted his hand out, essentially allowing for a Kimura. It’s these kind of short-term lapses of concentration (or more likely a short term focus rather than allowing everything to sink in) that can cause issues come competition time, and the mental aspect such as this is something i’ll be looking into in the next few weeks.
Regardless, tonight was an excellent training session with some good sparring, techniques and specific training that in my opinion, pushed my game forward.
Until next time,
Keep rolling kids.
