Today we warmed up with the pummeling drill before carrying on with improving our positional controls, focussing on that single control that needed to pin our opponent to the mat, if we can pinpoint exactly whats required we can then free up our other resources to submit our opponent. We also spent sometime dealing with some common reactions from our opponent. We then looked at how to deal with passing our opponents guard once they have established their grips, once again we focussed on using what resources we have left to pass.

Today we continued on from last week session and we continued to work on ways to improve our positional control by being "soggy", we took it one step further and looked to capitalise on it by setting up some basic submissions. We also looked at some of our opponents common reactions when trapped underneath and how to take advantage of them by simply changing the angle and using our body weight to manipulate their limb to where we want it. If we can have these mini plans in place and well drilled we can really improve our control and dominance over our opponent. We also spent a small amout of time working on our guard passing.

Today we rolled with the emphasis on improving a couple of points with our games, the first was to keep your back off the mat when working your guard or generally when underneath, by not having our backs flat on the mat improves our positional control. Secondly we worked on being "soggy" when on top of our opponent and imposing our weight on them, we finished off by drilling some omoplatas from the guard.

Don't forget tonights classes are switched around.
BJJ Fundamentals is now at 7pm followed by Gi-laess grappling at 8pm.

8pm is an open mat where you can roll or work through some techs but please make way for the grapplers! :)

See you at 7!

Well Sunday was my first look at the new time slot for the BJJ and Sub Grappling classes. Last week I was in Auckland following John around and going to Pukekohe. Thanks to Dion for running last weeks sessions.

This week I made the 7pm slot more of an open mat session that a Gi less class. 4 pairs of people did some Gi grappling for about 20 mins but apart from them everyone else rolled no Gi.

6-7pm BJJ Fundamentals. Great to see that the time change from 4pm has not affected the class size or enthusiasm. There were 31 of us on the mat and it was a pretty tight squeeze. We started with a quick warm up including hip outs and 3 person hip escape drills. Then we covered the guard drill. Escape Sidecontrol to Guard then our partner passes.

From there we moved into the Basic circuit. I went through several pieces of it bit by bit to try and instill an understanding of all the fine points but several pairs still rushed through in a hap hazard way. We did the basic armbar from guard drill that John showed us at the seminar then quickly covered Triangle. Both we designed to show what can happen if we leave one arm in when passing their guard.

In Auckland John taught a basic armbar form side control but did it as if we were all black Belt perfectionists. Tiny little pieces each as good as we could possibly do. Great way to get every little bit of a technique 100% correct. Something I will be trying in future classes.

Sub Grappling. As I said it was a more open mat to try and encourage people to stay and roll. As we were already there it made sense to stay and roll while we had the opportunity. Well I must say it was a fantastic success. 22 on the mat for Sub Grappling is fantastic. A couple of the newer guys stayed and rolled as well, giving them an insight to what they're in for when they join the main class.

The down side is that now I wonder if we need to reverse the time slots for Thursday? Going to BJJ at 7pm and Sub Grappling at 8pm? Hmmm?