Picture Day

Surprise, surprise! I stop by the Ballard club for the club photo and end up in a training session with Mamazinho and one of his black belts and the Ballard class. Off the top, I prefer the South Seattle location. Smaller, darker. And Rodrigo does a better job of setting up new techniques with drills to make them easier to remember and practice outside the gym.

It was kind of a whirlwind session. We sorta worked takedowns, judo throws mostly. The technique of the day was a sweep from the guard. It involved using one leg on the hip and hooking the opposite leg with your leg. Then you pulled on the sleeve with one hand (with elbow cocked deep) and hooked the ankle on the same side as the extended leg-in-the-hip. Then you pushed with the extended leg and pulled with the opposite grip, sending him in the direction of the hooked leg and the pull. Roll over with him, keeping the grip tight, and cross your trailing knee over his leg as you get in the full mount position.

I'm going to have to run through this one some more. I didn't especially care for the guy I was working with this time. I'm reeally going to have to rely on myself to break these techniques down as we're learning them, maybe into 1-2-3 step manuevers, to keep them memorable.