Sat morning, I worked for 2 hours on my RPC code, did some
chores, watched a great video from Relson Gracie Academy
(more on that later), and headed to the gym at around 11:00am.
This was the second time I attended a regular class. More
people showed up including our blackbelt instructor J,
purplebelts B and K, bluebelts B, S, O, and R, and
whitebelts N, R and me.
O led the warm-up with the three whitebelts and it was brutal.
The partner drills including the 20 armbars from guard were
not a piece of cake either. Thank God I was in good shape
and was able to handle. I learnt more about the guard
recovery drill as O showed the same-side version.
J gave the order and the next drill was a sparring session.
In turn, the standing students went into the half-guard of
one of three guys lying on their backs. I didn't know
exactly what to do but guessed this was what was happening.
The top guy tried to transition to side-mount, the bottom
guy tried to achieve full-guard, and both tried to submit
the other.
B taught me that one of my goals was to get my trapped leg
out. Over the dozen trials, I attempted a couple of
Americanas on R but he was very quick and got my back. I got
my leg out once in the whole session. Most of the time, I
was submitted or trapped in full-guards.
Today's techniques included
- initiating the Americana armlock from mount,
- turning modified-mount when the guy tries to elbow-escape,
and
- three attacks from the modified-mount:
- the collar choke,
- the armbar, and
- collar choke after taking the back.
There was another sparring session after this to try the
skills on each other. I was happy: I gave S one cross-choke
and two arm-bars and was able to defend when he was on top!
One and a half hours passed and I was hoping for the coach
to annouce the end but one drill came after another. The
class turned into a 2.5-hr grilling. The time I left, three
pairs were still at it. When I got home, I was satisfied and
dead-tired. Sunday morning, my legs were sore and I was
still recovering.
