Side Control Subs

12/22 - Downtown

More with the fairly complex techniques. This time, subs from side-control. Isolate and control opponent's near arm, loosen their gi jacket if it isn't already, pull the bottom under their arm, knee on chest. Can cross choke or head-and-arm choke. Also an arm-bar variation.

I did ok with the techniques, but it didn't feel like anything I would ever try unless I had repped it another 20-30 times. Just isolating the near arm required quite a few steps, all of which need to be done while staying tight to your opponent.

Rolled first with Russ, which went ok. Rolled with Antone, who got me with a gi choke using his gi. Totally took me by surprise. Roll with Manny and I didn't feel like I could put anything together and was just getting crushed. Roll with Wayne went terrible, he was much more active, scrambled very well and put a lot of pressure on from the top. Felt like a total n00b. Wanted to quit after that, but ended up with a last roll with Joe. Did ok with him, but he passed my guard too. Blah. Felt like utter crap for most of the rolls, unable to do anything. Had one of those moments where I was tired of being on the bottom and being crushed all of the time.

James had a nice talk with us after the rolls with a brief retrospective over the past three years. He's come a long ways, the team chemistry is good and we're in an awesome new space.

That was a much better note to end on than my terrible rolls. I'm glad to have at least three days off to get my head together. I think my expectations from training more may be outpacing my ability.