Not a bad week of training, not a great week of training.
Mornings have been good. The 2-day split resistance work is fitting in nicely if I'm up by 6 am. I've just been doing crunches to warm up. I'll probably add some more ab work next week, maybe some of the things Michelle had us do in Wednesday night's class. More about them later.
Missing training on Thursday. That and not lifting this morning (chest/2xback) are my chief demerits. I don't plan on missing any more scheduled classes (3xMWR through August 31, then 4xMTWR through September 28) between now and the tournament on September 30.
Wednesday night Mamazinho had us doing some different things. He had us working on basic side control escapes, emphasixing the hand positioning in particular: one hand to block the hip against a move to north/south, one hand between your body and his that is working to swim under the far arm.
Another key detail is that in order to turn to your knees, you will have to walk your body toward north/south in the OTHER direction. This is to give your swim arm room AND to give your body the space in order to get to your knees.
You want to get your head tight against his body and come up with the knee on that same side to drive him over.
It is basically the same elements in the sequence that I'd been shown by that one (Filipino?) brown belt with the serious ink: THROAT, SWIM, WALK, FLAT, PULL, BOOM. I'd more than half-forgotten that when we were actually doing the drill ...
We also did an interesting drill where we tucked our hands in our belts and the top guy tried to stay on top while the bottom guy tried to work his escape. The emphasis here was to move your body and to get in the right body position for the escape (or the control, if you're on top.) Good stuff.
I was able to use the upa pretty effectively in my drill to dislodge the guy I was working with (a white belt with a few months of training at most, more or less my size). I'm much better at using the upa than I am at moves involving twisting my body when I'm on the bottom. During this "Three Weeks" period, I really need to work on non-upa escapes.
We learned some other things also. There was a series Mamazinho showed us for dealing with a guy once he does make it to all fours. It involves reaching under and grabbing his far arm with both hands, and then pulling his arms toward you as you bump his body over and away from you.
You want to wind up in the scarf hold, kesagatame position. If the guy tries to prevent being rolled by posting a leg out, then you want to attack higher up his body closer to his head. I had a harder time getting this one correct, so I might want to ask Mamazinho on Monday to show me that detail again.
I've been working a lot on my triangle choke in sparring when I get a chance. This is a perfect time to work on it--even though I haven't once been on my back in any of the four tournaments. I've been trying the spider version Tommy showed me, as well as the stuff I'm picking up with the triangle from following Ryan Hall. Hall does a great job of commentating on some of his matches, and I already think I've picked up a few basics that will help me attack with a choke I'd pretty much given up on.
I'd love to model my submission game around chokes. I think I remember reading somewhere that Rickson got a majority of his submission victories by choke, and I definitely remember Rodrigo pointing out that the choke is the most efficient submission. Adrenaline might help a guy fight off a joint hyperextension in a heated moment during a competition. But when it comes to a choke, blood is either flowing to the brain or it's not.
