On the Mat Day 151: Single Leg Takedown

Now that I am off work with paternity leave and things have calmed down a little at home, I decided to go training again today. This is the first time I have went over 2 consecutive days and I really didn't feel so beat up. Morning classes seem to agree with me because I have the rest of the day to recover and relax. I was the only one who turned up so lucky me got a 1-to-1 lesson with F-sensei. He asked me what I wanted to know and I told him that since we were doing takedowns I would like to do single legs. I learnt a lot and really need to get the information down in a notebook. My memory is not to be trusted these days. He also showed me a counter to when you go for a single leg and the opponent uses a reversing throw by sitting down. This was one of the reasons I stopped trying single leg takedowns because I would always be reversed with the throw.

Single leg important details:
Keep head inside of opponents leg
Push down from navel once his leg is clamped in place

There were some hand details also using mata leon when the oppoent is resisting by hopping around.

We sparred for 3 round, 5 mins with 1.5 min breaks. I asked F-sensei if my breathing was making me tired faster. This question was prompted by a recent Stephan Kesting informative email that mentions the reason most people gas is they are holding their breath. F-sensei told me that yes I did tend to hold my breath when I used strength. This probably goes back to my days of lifting weights, like squats and deadlifts. He said that I also push too much instead of holding and shrimping away to create space. I am aware of this but these things are hard to work on when the guy is better than you. However, I will make more effort to focus on these two things during sparring. It was a really informative lesson but I suspect I can only find my weaknessses by asking F-sensei directly. I don't think he is the type to come out and say "This is bad, work on it." I also nearly caught him with an americana and he reversed me with an UPA from half-guard. He said that during his Rickson seminar he was told that the best thing with an americana is to actually move back away from the arm and pull it with you, as long as the elbow is on the floor it will submit the guy. What he did was he kept moving his locked arm away from his body to make me move over him and therefore transfer my center of gravity to a point where I could easily be reversed. Sort of like teasing a fish out of water. Sneaky.

I was also lucky enough to borrow a copy of Andre Galvao's new book, Drill to Win. I like the idea of drills to use to get your body used to moving. Some of them require a partner, well actually a lot of them do so that is a problem for me. I will try to ask some guys after class.