More front mount

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to be over,
it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.




4:30pm basics class: Adrian is out of town, so we had no teacher today. Open mat. I rolled with Lindsey for 40 min. It is so unusual to work with someone who is lighter and weaker than myself. I used strength/weight a couple of times, but I was very conscious of doing it. It was unsatisfying. I let her put me in bad positions- especially bottom side mount, since I hate that. I felt less intimidated trying to work from that position with her, since I knew I could probably just Donkey-Kong her off at any time. I attacked her feet, but was not able to finish anything. She is very flexible, and her technique is good. It was a good time.



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Study Hall. It was just me and Kelly. Awesome. We started rolling to warm up. I haven't worked with her in a long time, but she has a history of sorta physically and psychologically overwhelming me somewhat with her aggressiveness. Maybe she was going lighter or something today, but it didn't seem quite so bad. She was still getting the better of me, but I didn't feel steamrollered.


The Prof asked her what she wanted to work on, and she said she was having trouble with front mount. Whoot! So we worked on that.


Carlos suggests that we not plaster ourselves to the opponent, but stay mobile on top to defend getting rolled. Kelly apparently has a similar problem as I do with being TENSE and stiff and trying to strongarm people who are a lot stronger.


Cross-collar choke from mount: keep elbows in- I knew this, but apparently I'm still not doing it adequately. Roll hands inward, pull elbows to belly button, you can also lift the person's head off the mat or bow your own forward.


Keylock from mount. Carlos suggests that I try pinning opponent's hand to the mat further out than is my habit. When I tried this on Kelly, she was tapping pretty promptly with only a tiny lift to the elbow.


Ezekiel from mount. Hug opponent's head with left arm. Place your right hand at opponent's ear. Left hand grabs inside your own right sleeve cuff. Make a blade hand with little finger toward opponent's tender, juicy throat. squeeze. You need not grab anything with your right hand- keep it in a blade. If the opponent rolls you, you can finish the choke during the roll (Carlos demo'ed this on both of us... I now have a headache just from being Ezekiel'ed by him two or three times).


We also did some positional training from side mount. When in top side mount, every time the opponent moves, use that opportunity to suck up more space and get tighter.