Monday night. (more) Mount.

I Wasn't really revved up for class today. Work was generally no fun because the websites were fighting back. Websites are not supposed to fight back.

Arrived at the gym about 20 minutes early. I was expecting a relatively small class this week because they threw a 'grading' night last week which I didn't attend, but presumably had a fair few people moving up from fundamentals to play with the big kids. Nobody in sight when I arrived, although there was a kids MMA class going on.

The kids are fun to watch. Two of them in particular amuse me greatly. There's a tiny little girl (8 maybe? I'm horrible at guessing kids ages) who absolutely terrorizes the boys and generally should be named "little miss Armbar". The other one is a boy who appears to be made completely of rubber. His arms seem to bend to completely cringe-worthy angles with no apparent discomfort. I hope I'm not there the first day one of them breaks.

On to class. My mood was way better by the time we got started, and people seemed to appear from nowhere right at start time. 24 people? Where the.. what the... ? We're going to need a bigger gym. We also have a 3-stripe white belt (Dale.. I figured he knew what he was talking about a bit) and a 4-stripe white belt who are apparently using the class as a warmup.

Standard warmup. Not even remotely tired this time. Cool! I'm not completely wimpy anymore. Intro to class. Seems this is now the 'start' of the 3 month fundamentals cycle. Guess what that means? We start with... mount. Yay. I bet we learn armbars and shoulderlocks and how to take your partners back and apply a RNC if they roll.

Site note. Apparently what we've been calling a "Kimura" is really an "Americana". In class today it was referred to as a "Figure 4" so I guess we'll stick with that for now. It probably doesn't matter what you call it, it still hurts.

Paired up with Lee for drills again. Armbars from mount. All on one arm because Lee says he has a dodgy left shoulder. Sloppy, horrible, dreadful, decent, decent, decent, good. I guess I need practice on this mount stuff.

Rear naked chokes, first with opponent sitting up, then starting from mount and getting them to roll. I like these. Lee does not like these. Drilling goes for a very long time. I don't think we're getting to the ... Figure 4 shoulderlock (That's painful to type) tonight.

10 minutes left. Positional sparring time (Hooray). 1 minute rounds (boo!). First one is interesting because I've only done it once. One person starts sitting down, the other person starts on his back with hooks in and a "Seatbelt" grip. One person has to defend / escape, the other has to stay on / submit them. Good fun.

Starting out attacking. Plans? Actually it's not very complicated. Keep hooks, stay on his back, work for choke if I can manage it. This plan actually worked very well. Lee doesn't know how to defend from this position (neither do I. Apparently defending still isn't fundamental around here) and I was able to stay in place rather handily. Sunk a quite decent choke about 20 seconds in for a tap. Yay. Reset, start again. Was working to try and get my arm in under his chin again when he tapped. I guess my bony forearm against your throat isn't very comfortable. No time for a third go.

Defending! Plans... well.. don't let him choke me? Try to figure out how to get rid of his legs? I actually felt rather comfortable in defending my neck from here. Lee never really got his arm around my neck. Couldn't work out of the hooks very well though, he has pretty long legs. I did manage to pop one leg free just as we finished up.

Next up.. focussed sparring from mount! Also 1 minute rounds. Attacking first. So what am I working on? Get a nice high mount, stay there and see what I can get Lee to give me. Oh and don't shoulderlock his sore arm. That'd be mean.

This was the first time I've felt really comfortable on mount. I was up nice and high under his arms and he wasn't really going anywhere fast. After about 30 seconds he actually rolled to his right.

Brain and body have a little conversation:
Brain: Wait.. wait we know this one!
Body: Shut up, we've already got one hook, leave us alone.

I'm doing things without thinking. I like it. Managed to get my second hook in and was working towards a choke when time ran out. I want 2 minute rounds at least dammit!

Defending? Well this mat is really really crowded and we don't have much room, so I'm just going to work on an escape the kids were drilling before class (roll onto your side a little, straighten out your bottom leg and wriggle backwards until you can get it through). Started out quite well. Almost had a leg out when my head came into contact with a wall. Ow. Reset. Restart. Manage to wiggle a leg free for half guard almost immediately. Fun! Reset. Time!

Not tired! I want more class! Class is over. Sad. I wish I knew guard so I could train with the big kids. I might just do it anyway next week. I pay my money, they're not going to kick me out right?