Takedowns That Don't Go Horribly Wrong

11/18 - Morning

This is shaping up to be as busy as last week, if not more so. Walter is coming on Thursday. Seminar on Friday night and belt testing on Saturday. I couldn't be more thrilled that I'm not testing, b/c those dudes are stressed out. I want to do my part to help them, so I told Russ I'd come to the evening classes this week so that he could drill. Sooooo.....it's looking like seven classes for me this week.

My heart dropped a bit when James said we're doing takedowns today, but I should have known better. He is not a brutal takedown hip-throwing guy. He really embodies the gentle art. So we did Russian tie variations (at least I'm pretty sure they were Russian tie-ish). The first one I really liked, as you simply sit at your opponent's feet and then sweep their leg out. Easy peasy.

Rolled with Todd, Jason, Nate, Dennis. Focused on establishing a solid DLR, since that's what I want to work on with James when I have my private lesson(s). (Trade for making nice medal boxes)

I don't recall any successful sweeps coming off of DLR, but otherwise it went ok. I tried the back-take several times and was close on one. I controlled a good portion of the roll with Todd and was really happy with my guard work. I was finally understanding the importance of holding the ankle that is hooked.

I had a surprisingly good roll with Jason. Nothing special to note, but I felt like I neutralized his DLR and was able to at least force some scrambles instead of being swept.

Wasn't able to keep guard on Nate well. He's so ridiculously scrambly. I had him dead to rights with a double-ankle sweep and he went down as expected but didn't stay put long enough for me to come up. I didn't reach for the sleeve grip as he went down, so I wasn't able to use his momentum to help bring me up. At one point I had the inverted triangle from bottom side-control but I had no idea which way I needed to angle myself to finish it.

Dennis and I didn't have one of our usual barnburners, probably b/c he was getting over from being sick. He was out all last week and still sounded a bit froggy. I think I was working guard for the most part. Ready to get back at it tonight...