Thursday, March 25, 2010

Mmm...post BJJ grapefruit...


Of course, class was great. Whenever I freak out the most, that's when I have the best classes. There were only two of us there, and the extra instructional time was nice. We went over a move called "over and under" and man...the details. They're all centered around making sure you have control and don't leave any room for escape...or maybe that's the case with most finer details and I just had an epiphany...hmm. Anyway, the ones I had problems with are...
 
 
1) Keep your shoulder tight under his knee
2) Make sure your arm is wrapped all the way "over" the opposite leg, almost gripping the back of the knee.
3) SWITCH...YOUR...HIPS (it felt like my balance was off so I had some issues with this...hence the caps)
4) Free your trapped leg with an outward, whipping motion. This also gives you momentum to drive it under the close knee
5) Gain control of the upperbody  (knee deep in armpit) then adjust the legs.
 
After that, we moved on to some rolling, then open mat. I worked with one of the blue belts that stayed behind after the advanced class. I learned...
 
1) Aim for mobility. I have a tendency to start a roll on my knees. It is a bit easier to move/react with one knee elevated.
2) Grabbing the middle of the belt to start a roll can leave you open to a variety of attacks.
3) In armbars, I have a tendency to let go of the arm for a split second when adjusting my body.
4) I also use too much of my upper body to power myself around.

2 comments:

A.D. McClish said...

For me, I think working on mobility -- being able to move between positions and being able to transition between submissions -- is key. I used to try to use too much of my upper body strength as well, and realized that I was using my upper half and lower half at different times, never in sync. When I started using them together, my mobility increased dramatically. Sounds like you're moving in the right direction!!

Megan said...

So true. Coordination is definately a challenge, but it's coming!