No-gi BJJ report

Had a great night. We started off our warmups with hip-escape laps, and then shrimping, followed by 'wiggles' across the mat. 'Wiggles' are an absurdly uncomfortable movement, where you (from your back) rock your shoulders and hips back and forth alternately, resulting in a sideways shuffle. I suppose it won't be so bad when I am better at it.

We then started with a cyclic submission drill.
Starting from open guard, first thing to do was to set up an Extended arm-bar (Tornado) from this position, the guy on top removes one of his arms, and at this point, we swivel around into a Triangle. When they press their elbow on the inside to escape, swiveling at the hips, and threatening a sweep under one arm with shin on bicep, to solicit a reaction, ie: post. When they post, we utilize this momentum, to lock the opposite leg over their other arm on the outside, above the elbow, tucking the instep under the chin, and rocking up on our inside hip edge, to flick the outside leg around, and take control of their waist, to prevent a roll, taking our final position, the Omoplata. If they escaped the Omoplata by rolling, because we didn't take the waist early enough, we needed to roll forward also, and when we 'catch up' with their rolling defense (sometimes took 2 or 3 rolls) taking the opposite underhook, resulting in a Double omo.

After we drilled this for about 15 minutes, we started rolling.

The first guy I rolled with was my best mate at the gym, Adam. (He's the guy in the photo holding me from behind) He caught me in an early triangle (20-30 seconds) and after that, I was more careful. We then rolled for perhaps another 6-8 minutes, neither of us landing a submission. I concentrated on working my defensive game, with a specific focus on keeping my all my 'external' muscles firm enough to facilitate a basic level of control/defensive control - but trying to keep the muscles around my neck and chest relaxed where possible, taking controlled, deep breaths, to give myself the maximum time to attempt an escape before I was gassing and gasping for air.

The next guy I rolled with was my evil twin, Nick. Familiar with my inexperience, he generally lets me get pretty far with transition attempts/submission attempts until the last moment he is able to mount a reasonable defense, and then we struggle for position until either I can submit him, which I can do about 30% of the time (he goes pretty easy on me).

After Nick, I got to roll with Connor. Connor is a purple belt, and a badass! I've spent the last 3 days watching, rewatching, slow motioning, rewatching, watching in reverse, in fast motion, upside down and every which way an outstanding arm-bar montage video made by Omega of Bullshido.net fame, an ex-pro fighter. http://www.facebook.com/video/?oid=206249487538&s=15

At one moment, I had a brief spark of confidence and clarity, and I attempted the roll over arm-bar from Omega's video, and I nearly landed it! Sadly, my confidence wasn't matched by my experience, and Connor shrugged it off at the last moment, passing at the same time into side control. I said: "Noooo.. I was robbed!" and he says, "Yeah that'll happen sometimes." :)

After a few more Omoplata drills (it was the theme of the lesson) We rolled for the rest of the lesson. I rolled with Adam again for the rest of the class (15 minutes) and then it was time for the advanced class, so I headed home. (this class is invitation only)

Tomorrow night, is Full Contact MMA night. can't wait.