Pop, pop

Inducing a certain state of mind is sufficient to control those who don’t know any other way than reacting to stimuli. - Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Wednesday evening BJJ at Sleeper.

Opponent is in your closed guard. Grab hir rt lapel with your rt hand(cross grip) and hir elbow with your left. Hip-bump to place hir rt elbow on your belly, if it's not there already. Climb or jump the legs up so that you have hir rt shoulder trapped. (I continue to struggle with this- I wish I had longer legs.) Hir elbow should describe a 90-degree angle. Curl your  body to the left like a Cheeto to lock the wrist/elbow. If that doesn't get the tap, and s/he tries to pull the arm back the other way, let it go and turn your body 90 degrees with it. This is a very committed and decisive thigh thing here.... you should be cranking forcefully with both thighs in a scissoring motion and forcing hir head right down. Note that the toes need to point up (I got called out again on "ballerina toes" here).
Move the foot and finish the armbar.

Alternately, from when the opponent tries to pull the arm back the other way: let it go (helped along by your hand locked on the wrist) and quickly hoist your top half over hir back and grab hir lapel (the one nearest you) around her neck. Push into hir- most people instinctively push back- let hir own power roll hir over you to the other side. Now you have hir in clock choke position. You can also get an armbar from here just by catching the arm and straightening up (bonus if you put your hand behind hir neck), or another armbar by lying down and bringing your foot over to finish that way. I like the choke, though.

And yet another option- as they pull that arm back, you throw your knee over it to straddle the arm (the top of your foot is resting on the back of the opponent's neck), then continue the roll till you're on your side. Try to finish the armbar from there. Note that you really need to be tucked up to the person for this to work. If you don't get the tap here, you may be able to force the opponent into a roll, then finish a foot-over-the neck armbar once you have hir on hir back. I think this could be a good one for me- it seems to favor my short legs, and I feel agile enough with the movement to pull it off without kicking the person in the head.

Several spars- everyone twice, except for Drew (only once). Tried to keep moving, even though I was getting tired. I was delighted to tap a guy with that choke where you begin sprawled on top of the shoulders, get a collar grip and and under-the-armpit grip, and then roll them over you.... the one that I almost broke my own nose with by rolling that big cop over my own face a few weeks ago. It worked this time, and I didn't roll the guy over my face, although he didn't tap immediately upon being rolled and I had to crank it around a little. I seemed to have him well restrained, though, so I was able to adjust until he tapped. He was impressed. I also got him with a keylock. He got me with an armbar.

At one point, my trick wrist popped out, and I had to stop for a bit. Then it seemed okay, so I went back in, but it is being troublesome on and off. Usually when it does this, it pops in and out intermittently for a week or two before calming down. Resting it doesn't seem to be helpful- in fact I'm starting to think it has a better chance of popping back in if I keep working- so as long as I'm not screaming in pain, I guess I'm going to just try to work through it.

Lots of gi burn from the chokes tonight. Crossing fingers that we will not be working any gi chokes tomorrow.