9/8/11

By: Tortuga
Another day goes by with more training to report on.  Today's class marked the return of our teammate and my little brother.  He'd missed a couple days with some family issues, but he's back now and ready to train.  So today's class is just as big, if not bigger, than the first, and most have there gi's in tow as they step into they gym so to say that I was excited is an understatement.  We may just get a few rolls out of today, but first, the warm up!

Rivera starts us off with a long jog around the mat.  As we run we alternate between different stretches and workouts for about 20 minutes until everyone's covered with a sheen of sweat.  By then Rivera stops the torture and sits us down for some neck stretches and push ups.  Then it's off for our line drills, the class lines up in six rows as we start with hip escapes.  Some of our teammates forgot how to do them so Rivera demonstrates them for us once more.  Then were off to shrimping!  The rest of the drills go smoothly so our instructor sits us down to begin the technique portion of class.  He starts us off with a basic guard break.  Posture up with your butt touching your heals, and your knees spread in a wide base similar to a pyramid.  Then place your left hand on your opponents chest, with the same hand grip both the lapels tightly, then with your right hand grip his pants in the thigh area and bring both of your elbows to the inside of your opponents thighs.  From there, position your left knee on the crack of the buttocks then reposition your right knee so as to regain your original pyramid shape.  Keep your left arm stiff, and use it to keep your opponents hips pinned down then turn your hip towards the right while at the same time pushing your elbows into there thigh and driving your left knee like a stake.  Once the guard is broken we were shown to bring one knee up into a combat base to keep your partner from regaining guard.  Basic stuff, but essential for any grappler.  We partnered up and drilled it for awhile then went on to situational drills.  With the top mans job to break the guard and the man on bottom working to stop him.  I was paired with my bro as usual and we stalemated for the most part, though we figured out some nifty tidbits to help with keeping your guard closed.  As he brings is knee to your butt you can alleviate the pressure by scooting your hips up on top of his knee.  15 mins of that and Rivera calls us back in and has us drill our hip escapes next.  We drill for a good long time and before we know it times up and class is over.  Guess were not rolling till next week...or are we...

I manage to sneak in a roll with Macaco, though sadly I don't remember what happened exactly, but fear not!  I'll review my notes (when I find them in this mess) and update this post later..sorry!