On the Mat Day 290: How To Make White Belts Hate You

F-sensei taught us chokes from the back. That's the theme for the week. He showed us to go for collar chokes when the opponent crosses his hands over his throat judo style, how to peel off grips and bring your arm behind your head then quickly back across the opponent's throat for a naked rear choke. It was a useful lesson but I still find it hard to apply the principles versus strong opponents.

During sparring I wanted to really work on side escapes but did not have the right type of partners. A white belt who I can easily escape from and prefers to drop to half guard instead of take top. A blue who is super heavy leaves very little room so I get frustrated when I can't escape, and of course F-sensei who allows me to work escapes but closes down my options once I am close to escaping.

Ouch!

I'm a big fan of knee on belly and used it twice last night to tap the white belt. He is lighter than me but very fast and slippery as hell. I usually use KoB to pin him to the ground or I expend all kinds of energy working to pass again and again. I sort of purposefully used heavy pressure and pulled his head up to increase the force. It must have been painful because he tapped. I did it later to him once again. I felt like a dick and he probably dislikes me, but then again believe it gives him a valuable lesson. The first questions in his mind when he goes home and looks through books or videos is... "How the hell do I escape KoB?" I've been tapped by KoB and had my ribs cracked but then I worked escapes. I only really have one real good one for it that works maybe 70% of the time but does manage to get their weight off me.

I'm usually a nice guy during sparring but I've decided to develop my KoB on the guys at my gym to see if I can effectively use it offensively. At the least it may open them up for the armbar or choke. They all may hate me in the end and pay me back later on but that's all good.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins