Kimura and Head and Arm Escapes

3/11 - Downtown (Morning)

I was asked to warm up the class, which surprised the hell out of me. I don't think I've ever been asked to run warm-ups before. I had to ask for clarification two or three times to confirm that I was hearing correctly. I did the usual running plus 10 burpees at the end for good measure.

We started off with "flow" rolls, then drilled a couple of escapes, then more rolling. By "flow" rolls, I mean we started off at about 80% effort and then quickly moved to 110%.

Technique


1. Head and Arm Defense: Get off your back and roll to the side opposite them. If they are on your R side, roll to your L and try to grab under your R knee with your R hand. Can also use this to wriggle off your back and onto your L side.

2. Head/Arm to Kimura: Once you're on your side, wait for them to loosen their grip, as they may switch to an Ezekiel or something else. Keep rolling to the L and make sure their arm stays trapped to your body. Stay tight to them with the arm trapped and you should come up with your back on top of their back. Kimura from here.

3. Head/Arm to Side-Control: Instead of rolling more to your L, get a grip on their elbow and pull down to relieve pressure as you walk your legs to the L. You should come up with your back perpendicular on their chest. Shoot yourself across their body as you hold their arm to pop the grip (if they're still holding it). Face their legs and get control of their hips with your hands, then scoot your butt back to clear their arms. If you're feeling froggy, feed your L hand behind you and under their neck from L to R. Move to N/S, then over to their L side for d'arce.

4. Kimura Escape from Side-Control: You are flat in bottom side and opponent is trying to get kimura on your L arm. Spread fingers out and plant palm down on the mat. Get on your L side as much as you can and then try to get your L knee (I think) in between their grip and your arm. Once you break their grip, immediately feed your L hand as an underhook on their R side. My instinct is to start framing with it, but James' thinking is that they are going to keep going for the kimura.

5. Kimura Escape from Guard: Cup their leg if you can't get to yours. Kick your leg out to make it easier to grip your own leg, then immediately tuck it back in. Now you can start to work pass to the side.

6. Kimura Escape from Half-Guard: Grip your trapped wrist with your other wrist, keep elbows tight and lift their arm up and behind them for your own kimura.

Rolls

Had a lot of rolls. Flow rolls at the beginning were 4min each: Sarah, Julio, Antone, Nando, Eddie(?), Matt, James.

Second set of rolls: Sarah (2), Keven, Chris.

I felt really good during the rolls. For some reason, I seemed to be seeing opportunities to take the back and I was going for it. Probably subconsciously trying to make amends for not getting to the back on Saturday. :p I was determined to not let Chris get into side control and performed better than I ever have in that regard. I think he got around once, but I was able to regain guard. Overall I was really, really happy with how I rolled. Things just seemed to click today. I'm still leaving my foot out and am giving people a lot of opportunities for foot/ankle locks.