Eastons Escape Side Controll, Pummel series

Publish Post

Some good / Some bad

Saturday proved to me that I can fight pretty proficiently from my guard, but I do not do well from someones side control.

First the good...
I fought my way out of an ugly situation after pulling a more advanced opponent into my guard. I didn't want to stay on my back for nearly as long as I ended up being there, but I was able to survive and eventually trive from there.
I had a 4th stripe white belt in my guard, and he grabbed my left sleeve, and stood up to try and stand out of my guard. I tried to grab his left leg with my right arm for a sweep and he managed to reach under my hips and snag my sleeve, he then stepped over my arm so he had my right arm pulled tight behind and across my back, and he had my left pulled across my front. Now I can't use either of my arms, but I have a real solid lock on my guard, and he doesn't have a free hand to break it. He tried to crush me by rolling me up onto my shoulders and sprawling, but my answer was to stretch out in my guard with my feet locked behind his back- just applying squeezing pressure to his midsection and stretching out effectively minimizing the pressure he had on me. I have extremely strong legs, so I could afford the effort, and it worked considering my position  Eventually, through squeezing and pulling with my legs I managed to work my arms free. I'm not sure if it was due to him letting go to look for another opportunity or not, but I got them free. I started looking for opportunities. I thought about omoplata, and I thought about an armbar. I decided to try faking a telegraph for omoplata, intending to get grip on his right arm for the armbar, but his wrist slipped from my grip and I ended up with his right arm clutched chickenwing style to my chest. No go on the arm bar, but a positive was that he read my fakeout as I had intended. I know this because he pointed out that I ought not go for an omoplata when he had his arm where he had had it- so he got the message I was trying to send, and he moved his arm to where I want to move it, but I missed my opportunity by botching the wrist grab.
So there we are, he is in my guard, and on his knees so I tried pulling him forward off his base. I got him in tight once and swapped my closed guard for a body triangle, but that was ineffective so, as I switched back he backed out- but when he did that he had his hands on my chest- I grabbed his sleeves, and put my feet up onto his shoulders in the spider guard. I caught him smiling, as I am sure he thought he was going to pass at that point, but then I sprang up off my shoulders hooking my left leg over his right shoulder, while shooting my right leg under his left armpit, immediately hooking my left foot under my right knee in a perfect triangle. At that point I figured- he is tapping I've got this, but it ended up being what felt like an eternity before I was able to submit him. It didn't help much that our professor was standing over us. I am sure my opponent didn't want to tap in front of the professor- we white belts are pretty ego driven at times as if we are out to prove something. Tapping to a guy that is a stripe below you can feel like failure. I had him, he should have tapped- he didn't so I started putting on the triangle pressure, making small adjustments- and ultimately grabbing him by the back of his head and pulling him down into me- and then the tap. It was a good moment, but I was totally spent from the effort. We had gone the whole 7 minutes of the drill, and we had gone through them as hard as possible.
The professor then went to check my class attendance- which can mean that he is thinking about promotion. I was kind of excited, but then came the bad round...

The Bad...
If I thought it mattered I'd caveat that I had just fought the hardest round of my training career, but it doesn't matter. I was spent, and had very little gas in the tank going into the round with my next partner- also a white belt one level above me. I was dragging for air, and felt like gumby. He had just fought a 7 minute round too though, so it is no excuse. He easily passed my guard, and got himself into a side control position and that was pretty much it. I had no tactic, and no juice to get out from under him. I was pretty pathetic- and the professor was still watching. No belt promotion on that day, and that is quite ok because unless I can escape from side control I don't have what it takes at this moment.  For this reason this month November 2010 is now "Escape From Side Control Month". I can ill afford to be crushed like that any longer, so my studies will be dedicated to getting out from under.

P

I 22 Buck and Roll, Knee to Elbow (high and low)

Sometimes, everything just clicks...

Saturday morning was one of those times. Everything was just clicking. We drilled the guard pass from this weeks video, and then when it came time to roll I was feeling good. I was breaking people down from the guard. I effectively deployed a spider guard, converting to a triangle submission. in the next round I went from spider, to butterfly guard, then to guard, breaking off an omoplata armlock submission to finish.  Everything I just mentioned was pulled against an opponent that is ahead of me in training by a level, so I was feeling pretty good about the way things went.

Another fun moment, there is a guy in class who I really just don't like. He has a poor temperment, and really is lousy to train with. Yesterday it was apparent he was avoiding me. I couldn't be happier.

Two months ago, this guy and I were paired up to train, and it was about as close to an actual "fight" as I have been since college. I had pulled him into my guard, and was looking for a sweep when he started dropping elbows into my chest trying to break my guard. Now, I have had people put the elbows into my ribs trying to push themselves out of my guard and create space, but this was not that- This was someone who was frustrated and started trying to sneak in some strikes. I used his momentum to take his back. It is a hate / hate relationship. I can live with that. I can REALLY live with it if I know he is afraid of me, which he appears to be.

Getting My Ass Kicked

So Wednesday I went back out to the Brothers school. The Intermediate group in Arvada is advanced beyond the group I train with at the Denver school. The training went well enough, but for the randori session afterwards I got my ass handed to me. Paired up with a high level blue belt, I couldn't even get the guy into my guard. I couldn't get to the mount, or maintain any sort of control over his movements. In short I felt totally ineffective. It certainly isn't easy to admit that, but I'll be damned if I am going to come away from the experience deluding myself. The reality is that practice, and time and skill outweigh enthusiasm. The only way to counter what I experienced is to push forward into the unknown, the unpracticed. To learn from what happened, and then keep on learning until it won't happen again. The thing is, there will always be someone better, stronger. Some people might consider that fact to be fatalistic- to take that reality and consider it bleak. Those people might quit. They might look at their 35 yr old body and develop a belief that they are past it.
I'm not past it. Actually, for what I set out to do I am doing pretty well. I never meant to become a world champion. Just stronger. Time, effort, persistance, and patience will have to be my new tag words. This is a refresh of my will to fight.

Somebody call a Doctor...

Not cause I am injured or anything, but I did need to see a doc about a physical today. The good news is I have clean bill of health. Having spoken to the doctor I learned that his background was in Sports medicine, more specifically collegiate wrestling programs. He was sufficiently impressed with the benefits of grappling. We discussed explosive effort as it relates to Jiu Jitsu, and the conversation was quite pleasent all in all.
The primary reason for getting checked out was to get clearance to run in The Tough Mudder up at Beaver Creek June 23rd. Tough Mudder is a 7 mile run, up ski slopes, over 12 ft walls, across rope netting and through frigid water while ducking under barrels and other obstacles. It is a confidence course, and I am pretty psyched for it. I stumbled into a team. A friend of mine from an online car forum recruited two more of his buddies. The four of us will be participating, and in the meantime will be looking for another 2 members to fill out our team.
What does this have to do with Jiu Jitsu? Nothing really, but it is training. I'll be working the couch to 10k program in an effort to build up my stamina to endure the run. It can't hurt my grappling to cross train and build up my endurance.

I 18 Guard pass over and under standing to open