A hot one tonight. Thankfully they’ve got a 4′ industrial fan blowing across the mat now, that helps.

Everyone was taking it easy tonight and moving a little slow. We spent class reviewing and practicing the cross choke from mount. Which may seem odd, because it’s a very basic technique. But it’s one of those core attacks that is always effective. In fact, Roger Gracie just won the Heavyweight World Championship. 9 matches…9 cross collar chokes from mount. Good enough for him…good enough for us.

We also did a variation of the armlock from mount. If the guy on bottom gets to his side trying to escape, you can trap his top arm with your body weight, switch to a knee pillow position, grab both arms and armlock him that way. I found a key spot where I was getting stuck and realized where I was going wrong.

After class I was going to roll some, but Russ-the-spaz wanted to practice some sweeps, so we went back and forth. He’s calmed down alot since that last time I partnered up with him. He even made a comment to the effect that he knows he could power through alot of us…but is consciously trying to focus on the techniques. Good for him.

Fundamentals was supposed to be….cross choke from mount! But Luke mixed it up and taught us two new chokes. The thrust choke, in which you cross grip his lapel and thrust it across the neck while pulling the other side. And a variation of the paper-cutter choke from the knee pillow position. Demoing thrust choke was a pain, the motion tends to pinch your neck. I liked the paper-cutter. It’s similar to the bow and arrow choke we learned last week.