Fundamentals and Noon Class

I started off the Fundamentals class with the Tarzan drill and drastically underestimated how long it would take for people to catch on. I conveniently forgot how much time Brian had spent on demonstrating it at the seminar. I think it was a good thing to cover, but I needed to allocate more time for it.

After that we delved into back-mount escapes. Two with a seatbelt grip and one without. I may not have put emphasis on quite the right things, but overall people seemed to get it. Also, in the future I'll probably do back-mount attacks before back-mount escapes so that people have a better idea of how to apply a bit more realistic pressure from the back. I put a fair amount of prep into this and am relatively happy with it. There were 8 people, which really made me happy.

Rolled with Rachael between classes. Can't remember the bulk of the roll. She ended it with a foot-lock during a scramble. 

Noon class we had 23 folks, which made for a crowded mat. James went over the 93 guard sweeps that I love. One of them has a couple of spots for a knee-bar, which I barely got into b/c of Rachael's brace. I found that I was struggling with keeping my knees tight when transitioning from the bottom to the top, which was causing my to lose the leverage on the knee. Would like to drill that with someone who doesn't have a suspect knee (and brace) to see if I can noodle it better.

Rolls with Rachael (twice), Sarah, Joyce and Savannah. I barely touch Rachael's knee unless I'm going in a straight forward/back motion with it. I kept trying to dive under it for a pass when she pulled DLR but she wasn't letting me get there. She had me in tight guard positions threatening back-takes or in top positions. I think I got to the top only once in the three times we rolled. 

Good roll with Sarah... tried to take her back several times but couldn't get there. We traded sweeps and moved through quite a few positions.

I let Joyce a bit, especially since she had a dodgy knee too. I did take her back at one point and she worked the escape pretty well. Very happy to see her put the newly dropped knowledge to use. 

Savannah passed my guard several times. I did play a little bit more effective open guard than usual, but the result was the same.

There's a local seminar tomorrow, but I'm probably not going to attend. I'd rather have a full day to myself without looking at the clock or having any plans.