#entry 09

[aidotweb]

i miss her. i wonder what she really looks like.

[magistralucis]

The bear blinked. "That I am," he said slowly, tilting his head to the side to get a better look at the squirrel. "And so are you," he said in return. The squirrel nodded, a shadow falling over his face. "Yes, although I am hungry," he said, before looking at the burgeoning leaves. He had become quite scrawny, skinny even, and the bear looked at him again. "I think your bees are still alive as well," the squirrel said, almost shyly, gesturing toward the beehive, and the branches covering it.

.

[enjoyachoke]

Entry 09 - Stay on Your Side

Stay on your side.

Learned a lot in today's randori/open mat class. One thing I need to work on -- and even brought up when we had a class discussion -- was knowing how to elbow-knee escape from under the top mount position, and more or less not staying on my back so much.

Here's the situation: You're on your back under somebody's top mount and they're riding high and tight on you where you can't hook their leg or bump them off you enough to try a sweep. What do you do? Simple, elbow-knee escape.

This is something I remember learning years ago but have forgotten since. I need to keep this in mind and apply it every time I get stuck under the top mount. Also, if you feel you're going to get top mounted, try your best to shrimp onto your side so that you're not flat on your back. Squeeze your elbow between your body and your opponent's knee, trap his/her foot and slip your leg underneath, slide your leg out and hook his/her leg, then try again with his/her other leg to finally get into the guard position. You don't even necessarily have to end at the guard. Elbow-knee shrimping out from underneath the top mount will offer you more than one opportunity to escape. You can try going to guard but you can also try shrimping out from bottom position entirely, opening up the game for attacks. 

Breathing. For the most part, your breathing was very controlled. Always control your breathing; don't let the breathing control you.

Look for attacks.

I've noticed I've been very defensive lately. Or pretty much since my return to the mats. Since you've been this way for some time, it feels almost foreign to you when you're on top position. You're not sure where to go from knee on belly, or cross side, or full mount. You already know more than several offensive techniques both no-gi and gi, but you just have to start applying them more often. Or at least get into top positions more often so you're able to apply those techniques.

Butterfly guard.

You need to work on this positioning more. It feels very foreign. 

Also, something to think about

"There are triangles everywhere!" - Diego