About halfway through the Blackhawks/Red Wings first period, still 0-0 (I DVR'd it) ... Hoping the Blackhawks can at least make a series out of it ...
It's been a week since I was on the mat, taking a little time off on both ends of the Memorial Day holiday weekend to soak up some extra rest and recreation. It was nice to be back. Stephen taught what I thought was a very well-structured class from warm-up to finish. Good pacing, a nice steady aerobic pace ... hopefully he'll join the cadre of GB Seattle instructors teaching regularly once he gets his black belt.
The instruction was the balloon sweep, pulling on both sleeves near the elbows and pushing up with both feet on the hips to roll the guy head over heels. One detail Steve highlighted was how you want to rotate your grip on the elbows to help bring the guy's head down to the mat, a rolling motion that reminded me of the way you'd flip-roll a towel if you wanted to snap it at someone like a whip. It really helped.
From there we worked on an armlock attack from the balloon sweep. Essentially, say you are attacking the guy's right arm. Once you've got him "ballooned", you want to rotate him slightly so that you are moving his head a little away from you and his legs a little closer. This is to improve the angle of the armlock by getting him more perpendicular to you. Actually, it's kind of the only way to rotate him - go the other way and you see that the armlock becomes almost impossible.
Again, attacking the right arm you would then drop your left foot off the hip, which will make his right side start to fall first. Push a little on the other hip with your right foot to help turn him more if necessary.
As he drops, swing your left leg over the face and your right leg up under the arm. Keep it tight. Grip the wrist. Thumb up. Hips up.
We did a sort of specific drill with this (I was working with both Reuben and Jared). Then Stephen had us do a king of the hill drill with side control/side control escapes where everyone remained down for an 8 minute session. I felt more and more comfortable swimming for the underhook. The more aggressively you attack with one escape, the more others open up. I saw this in particular during the sparring with my half guard. But more on that later.
After the side control specific we did some paired sparring and some open mat. My cardio was in pretty good shape given not being on the mat for a week. I think the LSD work - and the fairly regular training - has started to pay off. I feel like I'm thinking a little more clearly when I'm rolling - another huge benefit from cardio improvements.
No gi tomorrow and hopefully I'll get on the mat Friday, as well.
