I have officially registered for NAGA Nashville! Whoot!

My goal for today was to avoid letting anyone pin me flat on my back. I get flattened a lot (it’s a small person thing) and it really limits my techniques and breathing!

Trained for about 4 hours today. Started with a 6:30 am class and learned how to get a kimura from N/S top position – it’s pretty slick. What we do is drill the moves, then coach sticks a pair in the center to try it live for a minute (longer if it gets interesting). I didn’t get the move live, but I avoided getting flattened!

I did get hollered at by coach for not going flat when someone was trying to toss a kimura at me during free roll time. Sigh! Everything has its place I suppose.

At 8:00ish I had a private lesson with coach. He put me through some guard passing drills then asked what I wanted to work on. I just shrugged and told him “you’re the one watching”.
He taught me how to deal with side control bottom. Option #1 involved opponent with double underhooks controlling head and arm. (Starting with side control from the right)

If you miss the arm, no worries. You just go into full guard and play from there. Coach said always take the arm if it’s there.

The other option is for if someone has side control and is blocking my hip with an arm so I can’t hip escape. (Again, side control from the right)

Coach is into drilling, which is awesome. Can’t wait to get a chance to whip these tricks out of my pack!

The 10:00 class is team training and is pretty laid back rolling (usually doesn’t start until 10:30).
I started out with a 4 stripe white belt and managed to avoid flattening out – which made for a much more interesting roll! Neither of us got a submission – but we sure had fun!
One of the brown belt instructors snagged me for a round. He has been promising me a beating for the last 2 weeks.

What I like about “beatings” from the upper level belts is that it’s all technique. I call it the “kill me gently” method – and a learn a lot from it! I know exactly when I messed up, I know the move is coming, but there’s nothing I can do about it – because it was my own mistake. But I know what not to do for the next time!

11:30 is the into Gi class. We went over the same kimura from N/S as we did at 6:30, but my instructor tossed in a choke to use if you can’t break their grips for the kimura. Since you have them on their side, sitting on their head with a knee on each side; you just lean forward, slide a foot under their head, and roll off onto the mat leaving your knees locked around their neck. Then you just straighten your legs for the choke.

We also went over a bow/arrow choke from N/S top.

Pretty awesome choke! I’d so love to use this in competition!

That was it for today. I’m writing techniques out step by step for my own reference – this way I can rehearse mentally.