On the Mat Day 230: Unscheduled Private Lesson

My car had trouble starting last night and I thought I would not make it to training. It has been snowing here and the temperature has plummeted. However, my car cooperated on the 2nd key turn and I eventually arrived at the main dojo in Nonami. I was not suprised to discover that I was the only one there for training. The place was like a meat freezer. K-sensei and I started off with the usual closed guard warmups but we did them on the electric mat close to the kerosene heater. It was at least warm there. After that the lesson was basically me asking him a ton of questions mostly based on the questions I had prepared from last lesson. It was very informative and lead to other questions I had about certain techniques. The lesson was more like a private lesson than a regular class and I enjoyed the feedback from it.

The main questions I asked are below.
1. How to recover the top armbar if opponent hides it under his leg.
This was an interesting one. Say I have a top armbar position on the opponent's right arm. He hides his right arm under his right leg. I remove my left leg from over his head and push forward to force him onto his side (kind of in an S-mount position here). I grap his right (hidden) hand from beneath his leg and keep it locked in place. With my left hand I push down on his elbow which puts a lot of pressure onto his elbow joint and will probably cause a lot of pain. If he somehow drags his arm free from between his legs I can shift back to the top armbar position.

2. Best way to prevent opponent turning back towards me when I switch to back from x-guard.
I discovered that when I have both hooks in and my right hand holding their belt, my left hand is in la la land doing nothing at all. This is my main flaw in taking the back. My left hand needs to be either holding their left ankle or also holding their belt on the left side so they cannot turn into me.

3. Ask to see escape again when opponent has my back with his leg locked across my abdomen.
I already researched this escape but K-sensei added to it. If the opponent has his leg also wrapped under my hamstring I can drop to that side push with both  hands on his top knee and push my belly and hips forward to produce an ankle lock. If he does not have the foot locked under my hamstring or I cannot get to that position, I can drop to his knee side, insert my elbow into the groove where his foot locks under his knee and shrimp away from him. This will cause his legs to unlock. I keep that elbow in place and he will probably transition to mount. When he does the elbow will stop him and I then bring my closest knee under his leg, flip over my far side leg to push on his hip like I am going for a toe-hold and escape or move to x-guard.



4. How to finish the kimura lock against opponent who tries to double underhook pass my guard.
My main problem with this technique was that I did not secure the opponent's underhooked arm in a fixed place. I think I allowed the arm to move back towards him. I must pull on the arm while extending my leg. The technique is stronger if I rotate my body slightly towards the arm I want to submit.

My mats arrived a couple of days ago. They're the same type as we use at the Tsurumai dojo. I ordered 6 of them so they almost cover a 6 tatami room. 2 x 3 meter covering in total. I plan to use the room for solo drills, doing the bullyproof games with my son, yoga and maybe some Beachbody workouts. The mats were a really good buy at about 900 yen each and I cannot think why I didn't get some before now.

Reversible mats Red/Blue

In the days between BJJ training I have been using a couple of Android apps to build my strength. I've been enjoying doing them because they require only a little time to complete and involve two of my favourite exercises, pull ups and push ups. I would recommend them when you have a busy schedule but want to get in a little bit of strength training.

Click here to get them.


















Sparring time: 4 x 6 mins = 24 mins