Day 68: Jarhead

I peeled myself out of the sack with just enough time to get to Saturday's class on time. My alacrity was of course rewarded by Roger being late. Turnout was good, however, and after warming up my old bones I sparred a bit with Marc after we practiced the hook sweep from butterfly guard. He is still much better than me and showed me a measure of positional control that I would like to emulate. Oh yeah, and he's 17.

Varush was looking lonely, so I asked him if he wanted to drill a bit. He is a friendly guy so he was game. We worked the pendulum sweep-amrbar combination (what a coincidence!). In his variation, you underhook the leg the same way for both the sweep and the armlock. When your free leg swings out, instead of chopping the leg for the sweep, you bring it back over uke's head for the armbar, taking him over under your mount for the finish.

Roger arrived and continued the armbar-from-guard theme. When your opponent pulls his arm out, you have several options.

• Triangle. If uke pulls his right arm out, control the left, and bring your left leg over his head to the left. Push off his hip with your right foot to get a better angle. Adjust your leg with your hand and lock up the triangle.


• Z/Shin Armbar. Slide your left leg down so your shin is on uke's throat and your foot hooks his head. Cross your right leg over for the armbar.


• Omoplata. Control the wrist and let it rip.

There was also a sweep and some other fancy stuff from there, but I had my hands full with the basics. I drilled the combinations with Varush and Larry for a bit and felt pretty comfortable. After fifteen minutes or so Roger broke us up for some guard circuit training. I got passed, swept or submitted every time, which was pretty sucky. The Saturday crowd is pretty accomplished so it was nothing to be ashamed of.

During free spar I got Varush to roll with me. He's a big thick guy, goes 250 I guess, with crazy grip strength and some nice moves. Last time we rolled he wrecked me pretty good. This time, I pulled guard from the start. Varush worked his pass by trying to pin my biceps and back out. I was able to prevent that and threaten his arms and neck. I think I went for a triangle and he stacked me and passed. He was very fast when I ended up turtled, and I'm still not entirely sure how he failed to get my back. Nevertheless, we ended up neutral, facing each other from our knees. I must have done something clever.

Soon enough the big man had me in side control once more, and this time he got the keylock and submitted me. Definitely a learning tap; I picked up a lot from Varush's pace, positional control, and selective explosiveness. Great class.

Oh yeah, and I shaved my head.