6.16.08 #62

Advanced Class with Joey & Beginner Class with Ferret

Tonight were two very contrasting classes. Joey taught 9 different neck crank variations in under an hour - it was impressive. I missed the first few moves and then didn't have a partner to work with until the last few moves. So not much sunk in tonight. The moves were vicious and painful, and of course we learned the "midget twister". Did I tell you I hate neck cranks?

In between the advanced and beginner class, I rolled with Original Mike. I took his back twice after going to mount and the second time I was able to finish with rear naked. The next roll, Mike was able to take control and take mount on me and I put him back into half guard before Ferret called us for class.

In Ferret's class, we learned only one move - triangle choke. Even after 15 or 16 months of training, I still can't do a triangle choke very well (and I thought I was able to defend them fairly well, more to this story in a second). We started with the very basics step and for an hour we went deeper and deeper into landing a good triangle. When open mat was called I asked Wally to roll. After a few minutes and several failed attempts at passing Wally's loose guard, I dropped back on my back, hoping to be able to sweep Wally and catch him during a transition. Wally easily passed my guard and took side, we bounced back and forth between side and half guard, with some minor sweeps on my part but nothing that I was able to mount any offense. After 10 minutes or so of back and forth grappling, Wally was able to catch me well in a transition, put his foot to my hip and sink the triangle choke. I know Wally has been training for a long time and is very good at the triangle, but it was pretty sad getting caught in the move of the night in front of about 20 on-lookers. After our roll, I asked Wally a few questions about my guard pass versus his open guard and Ferret came over and we talked about the roll and a few things I need to work on. I don't have any "medium" or "high" passes as Ferret put it. I feel more comfortable passing on the ground. I also tend to have issues passing guards of long limbed, flexible people and that is just something I need to get used to. Lots of things to work on after tonights training.