Day 15: Tough guy golf

Great session today. I learned a whole lot, had some good rolls and some good laughs.

I drilled a single leg takedown with Damon first. Your grips are reversed- you have lapel-elbow, and he has your lapel where you have his elbow and vice versa. You want the leg near his lapel grip. Pull that arm to bring the leg forward, then dip your head into his shoulder. Release your grip on his elbow and push downward with your forearm and elbow into the crook of his arm. This exposes his leg. Shoot and take it, then sweep out the remaining foot for the takedown.

Omar then worked with me on a funky sweep from the spider guard based on the arm wrap. You have joysticks, his arms in. Turn onto your right side and dip your foot inside his arm, keeping your grip and hooking his back. Then get your other knee and shin up against his midsection, using a grip on his knee to turn away from the wrapped arm. Now, pull him onto your shin and sweep him over at 45 degrees. This is a tricky one.

I rolled with Omar, Jack, and Spencer. Omar is a good training partner. He is close to my size and skill level (slightly smaller and better, respectively) and he understands the technical aspects of the game so that we can interact on those terms very well. We had a good, long, semi-relaxed roll that ended up with me tapping to an armbar. Jack annihilated me again but also gave me some good pointers. I kept getting my arm trapped across his waist trying to pass guard, leading to an easy sweep. He showed me the merits of digging my elbow into the inner thigh and grabbing the skirt or belt as you attempt to pass. He also showed me another way of dealing with the butterfly guard: get into it real deep, then reach under one hook and grab the opposite ankle. Then you can smush his legs downward and pass.

Toes are feeling better. Still sore, still loving it. Nogi tomorrow.