Arm-Bar Escapes

9/20 - Downtown

James took pity on me and went over arm-bar escapes. One was especially harsh on the body, b/c you bridge into them...and then walk your legs in the opposite direction that you're bridging. Neither Antone nor I could even do it the first couple of times we tried it, which is saying something b/c we are both pretty flexible. I eventually sortof got it, but definitely not my first option.

Rolled with Antone, Dennis, Oello (sp?), Taylor and James. I wasn't expecting Antone to turn up the heat in his first roll for the week. He bolo'd me about a dozen times, and when I tried to figure-four my legs at one point he immediately put on a calf slicer. It turns out that a figure four isn't a good solution. Other than he kept bolo'ing me and I kept trying to regain a semblance of guard so that he could pass and bolo me again.

Dennis and I had a pretty good back and forth roll. He had a head and arm triangle that was pretty tight, but I was able to keep him from getting the second leg all the way over so he wasn't able to finish it.

Oello did his first class today. Big Hawaiian dude, at least 200lb. He seemed to do ok during class, and I assumed that he didn't know any BJJ. The very first thing he did was grab my leg and fall back for a foot-lock. I couldn't believe it, and tried to shove my foot farther through. I was worried that big dude slamming on a foot lock would turn out badly for me, but shoving my foot farther through worked, and I was able to work my way around and free my leg. Ok, so lesson learned. I worked my guard game after that, going for arm-drags and arm-bars. I took his back at one point and then let him escape and restarted from guard. I really did not want him on top of me. It appeared that while he seemed somewhat versed in foot locks that he didn't know much about passes or escapes. At one point he grabbed three of my fingers, which was kinda weird as I don't recall anyone grabbing fingers before. I thought that was a white belt myth, but apparently not. He was a nice dude though, and he'll probably be back.

I let Taylor work from a variety of positions. I realized that even as I was letting her work that I was making some fundamental mistakes with my bottom side-control. It's amazing that I spend so much time there and don't seem to learn my lessons, or at least I'm learning them very slowly.

Pulled guard with James, and I fell to the correct side but I don't think I kept my leg extended. From there it was a fair amount of pass and sweeps on his part. He had a head and arm triangle at one point too, and even though he tried to americana the hand that I was using for the telephone defense, I was able to stave it off (or he wasn't trying quite as hard as he could have). Either way, he abandoned it after awhile. I wasn't as much in the flow as I was on Monday, but it was still a fun roll.