Deep Half

8/28 - Downtown

Had a very mild 24hr cold yesterday, so didn't go to class. Today I felt better, so I went. Good choice, as it was a small class and pretty mellow.

My focus today was to not allow (to the best of my ability) my opponent to get DLR. It's a good enough goal in and of itself, but it was born of trying to prevent being bolo'd. As a result, my flow rolling was utter shite b/c all I could think about was defending DLR. Also I was a little rusty from taking a day off. :p I was thinking waaaaaay too much instead of just flowing. I hate, hate, hate being a poor flow rolling partner.

Deep half for the technique portion. Was happy to go over this, as I've been making a couple of bad mistakes on both sides of it. Not one of the more intuitive positions for me, but it's something that I should try to incorporate into my game as an escape option from mount and back mount.

Rolls with Sarah, Dennis and Jason (b). Focus on being aggressive (i.e. don't fall to guard) and don't allow DLR hook. I was patient but determined in my roll with Sarah. I thinking tournament, with position, points, etc. I ended up using a little bit of muscle at one point, but was mainly technical. Got a bow-and-arrow and an arm-bar.

Roll with Dennis was mostly him in superior position. I tried to pass his guard and was so focused on preventing DLR that he was able to dump me with something else pretty easily. 30sec timer went off with him in mount, and my goal was to get out and get a sweep. I did manage to escape, but not even close on the sweep.

Jason started off with a dominant top position and had an arm-bar that started from technical mount that I was able to fight off for awhile. I eventually get my elbow out, but had got my other arm in the process and he promptly slapped on a triangle. I was almost able to pop my head out (I was kindof sprawled out at that point and poorly postured) but he took my arm the other way and got an arm-bar anyway. We restarted and I went for a pass. Fought off a DLR and was in the midst of a pass with him in a kindof half guard. I think I might have been on my hip facing him at this point. I had a burst of inspiration and wrapped my near-side arm around his head and then grabbed my lapel. I kept feeding my hand as high as I could on my lapel and then arched my back and got a tap. Don't think it was a crank, b/c I didn't have to arch very far and I was off to the side. I have no idea what it was that I did, but it felt freaking awesome to make something up on the fly that worked and on a tough opponent to boot. I don't have any illusions that I invented something, but it's been a long while since I got a sub by simply using the principles of submissions instead of focusing on the submission itself (if that makes sense).

So that was pretty cool. :)

I feel like the 6-7 classes a week is starting to make a difference. I'm noticing that my instincts--at least on defense--are keeping me in a roll longer and am staving off more submission attempts. Not necessarily true against all partners, but by and large I'm seeing improvement in survivability and getting back to a neutral position.