For the last few training sessions we’ve been working on options from side control that are all based on knee on belly.
Gable grip and shoulder pressure from side control
Shallow thumb-in collar grip on head side hand
Leg side hand finds belt know
Elbows tight!
Knuckle push up to KOB, pull in, posture up, hips forward
Wait for hand reaction and shoot leg side hand through the loop, bringing them tight to your chest
Step over with head-side leg and talk on the phone with their wrist
“I Dream Of Jeanie” downbar, americana, kimura, unorthodox kimura or…
If they sit up, rotate hips out to go for omoplata
If they roll from there, cross legged arm bar option
If they hitch hiker out, back to the omoplata
If they posture up
figure four the legs and loop hand under leg for grip on cuff
straighten legs and lift the looped hand
step over head and release cuff for an S-mount
Yeah…a whole lot of stuff there, but it’s fun just to flow through it all. Crazy how many submission options you see during this flow that I didn’t even list here. Like, if you don’t get the hips out to go for the firs omoplata, there are arm bars, kimuras, and scissor chokes from that weird position we’ve worked on in the past.
Last night I was very out of gas for rolling. I basically just survived and tried to not get submitted. Didn’t get submitted, but got crushed by pretty much everyone.
And I didn’t ask permission to use the Neon Belly image, but hopefully a link is good too.
Two visiting purple belts–Ohio John (about my size) and Tampa Rachel (Ana’s height, and built a little sturdier). We went through the warmup pretty quickly with some running, minimal up-and-down drills, some solo drills (sit throughs and knee-ups), followed by guard retention and KoB rotations with partners.
For technique, we built off of the KoB work we did a couple of weeks ago, adding a scissor choke to the end. To execute, we get to the point of setting up the legs for the omoplata. Instead of the omoplata, we grip for the kimura. If the opponent posts out his far arm, we reach out with our leg and hook it, then rotate and get other leg across his belt, applying pressure for the kimura again. Their natural defense will be to roll out of the kimura, allowing us to cross our feet and extend for the scissor choke.
Rolled with John, Norm, Dr. Dan, and Ed
Was pretty happy with my roll with John. He was on the attack for the entire roll, but I was able to defend through the whole thing. Not so lucky with Norm on the next roll, but I think I’m getting a little better. Or he was hurt. Started with Dr. Dan in my guard and got a scissor sweep to get on top. My knee was caught and I spent a lot of time fighting to get that to the mat for full mount. Got set up for an Ezekiel, but couldn’t finish–Ana explained to me later that I wasn’t lifting my elbows. He swept again–back to my guard and was looking for a cross choke and an arm bar as time ran out.
A round with Ed where I focused on half guard and half guard sweeps. Getting a little more comfortable with it. Tried it again on another roll with him, but had a tough time escaping. He ended up finishing me with an arm bar. Ouch.
Rolling: Norm, Dan, Justice, Frank, Jonathan
Had a really good roll with Norm. Saw an arm and went after it. I know he was still giving me a lot and maybe trying to see what I would do and let me attack it for a while before armbaring me. Good roll for me though.
Dan (always favorite roll) was really fun. Tried to pass into side control and he was pulling my gi over my head–didn’t like where that was headed so backed out and tried to figure out a way to break his grips on my sleeves. We ended up in a crazy leg fight over half-guard. The result was me in his guard, and I tried to bait him into going for the triangle again so I could test out the last-ditch escape we learned from Gerry. Worst case I just tap, and I don’t care about that. But Dan The Man didn’t take the bait, so I’ll have to try to get him to do it again next time.
Dang…Justice is big. And heavy. I was expecting 30 seconds of hell. I got it and weathered it and ended up in side control, but he just pushed me off and I got full guard on him. Went for the classic arm bar but couldn’t get my leg all the way over in time. He stacked me up and as I tried to roll him down for the omoplata he just crashed on me. Ouch. Luckily he was gassed and I was able to wiggle out and mount him. Ended it with Americana. We went again and I tried for a long time to get the take down and establish top position. DID NOT want to be on bottom with him for another second.
With Frank, I actually got side control and held it for a little bit with kesa gatame. But, yeah, same result as always.
Jonathan–I’m really liking rolling with him as well. He does a great job of taking the techniques we’re learning in class and applying them. I get to work on my sweeps a lot with him as well. I see arm bars everywhere when we roll, and that’s what I got him with. He grabbed a toe hold for a bit and was close to having it. I was able to get out, but I think it may have done a little damage on my knee. Lesson here for me is that I’m just not going to be grabbing people’s feet and legs until I know what’s up with feet and legs. At the 30 second mark I rolled over to guard to see if I could quickly get an arm bar with the intent of getting one last sweep if I wasn’t successful. I was trying to put some pressure on myself to make something happen. Wasn’t able to arm bar, but with 6 seconds left I started setting up a scissor sweep and got it.
There was a new student at the gym–big guy who trained as a kid and has taken 12 years off. Since I was the smallest student tonight (besides Ana), Coach Frank threw us some stuff we can use effectively with an omaplata option at the end for the squirmy types to finish with.
After warmups we did some knee on belly drills which flowed directly into technique.
Side Control -> KoB -> Arm Attacks
Thumb in shallow collar grip (elbow tight)
Belt knot grip (elbow tight)
Push up to Knee On Belly
Opponent’s natural tendency is to push the knee
Shoot arm through the hole and c-cup the shoulder
Roll opponent toward you and step over head, shooting other foot deep underneath
Pop elbow up to move arm between shoulder and neck (crook of the elbow to elbow)
Slide up the arm and “I-Dream-Of-Genie” to finish the down bar
Option
If defense reaches across your face, grab the wrist and modified Americana
If defense reaches low, swap grips and kimura
If defense is jump to the knees, swing legs to set up the omoplata
Rolling
Twice with Jonathan, once with Frank, twice with Norm. I was plumb tuckered. Caught a few armbars against Jonathan but couldn’t get anything at all (typical) with Frank and Norm. They both tapped me out multiple times (again). By the end of my last roll with Norm, I was just showing up out of respect for him and doing what I could to defend, but I was completely out of energy. I had to put my bag down and change hands walking from the door to the car.
Really sweaty warmup for me. We did sit-through and rotate drills, which we haven’t done in a while in class, and I could really tell a difference in my fitness and agility with these, which I credit to a weight drop.
Technique was more working from the armbar out of closed guard. I really like that we’ve been working on the different variations from this same setup because we’re getting a lot of reps on the armbar itself. I can tell I’m getting a little better at the finer details that make all the difference–things like keeping my knees pinched!
Rotate and sit up to side-by-side with (KEY POINT)legs straight and grip enemy across belt to hold in place
Post foot out and scoot hips out, dragging enemy to flatten him out
Move legs to s-mount, pinching trapped arm between your rib cage and thighs
Underhook other arm and gable grip to hand above shoulder
S-mount drill forward/up while bending down to tell him how much you love him
It’s sort of like this, but with more detail. I just like this fella’s accent.
We went to 4 five minute rounds of rolling.
First up was good ol’ Ed. We started with him attempting a guillotine, which I used to work towards side control. Once I got it I focused on the collar and getting mount, where I focused on the collar more. Went for an americana once, which he quickly defended.
The next round was Ed again, but we me having his back. Skipped the RNC and went straight for the bow and arrow. I think I got close, but couldn’t finish it. Moved to my guard and attempted the worst triangle ever, which he got around. I ended up back in mount and got an armbar a few seconds before time ran out.
Next was Rudy, who came at me really hard tonight. I put up a decent fight for a while, defending the armbar and eating a couple of bicep crushers. Defended one seated triangle, but tapped to another. I know he got me with something else too, but I was so exhausted I don’t even remember what it was.
Norm got the scraps tonight. And ate them all. I think he tapped me 3 or 4 times. I know he gave me one sweep from half guard, but we spent a lot of time with him on top. After the last submit we had about 20 seconds left, so I pulled guard and tried to defend that as best I could, knowing he’d try hard for a quick submit. He passed right as time was running out.
