“Every journey begins with a single step.” Tonight, another step on my jiu jitsu path.

We started off with some self defense moves. This time, defending against the bear hug from the front. We’ve done the bear hug from behind several times before, but this is the first time I’ve seen it from the front. Defend against the throw by bracing your hands on his hips and keeping some distance, then switch to the T position and hip throw.

We built onto that later, landing in side control, jacking up both arms, knee sliding to mount, then a traditional cross choke. Next, we added another layer. After the choke, we release it, and the bottom guy upa and rolls, uses the Fabio guard break, backs away, and then the new bottom guy stands up in base and rushes in for the bear hug. So it cycles through.

After class, I decided to roll instead of doing the advanced class. Hooked up with Tall Josh for 15 or 20 minutes, and then with Dave for a few rounds. With Josh, I found myself in half guard most of the time. I experimented with a bunch of things I’ve been thinking about, none of which worked particularly well. Twice I tried the Eddie Bravo “Old School” sweep, and thought I had the perfect setup to get it to work….however he slid up to mount me both times. I’ll have to review that…I must be missing something.