Another small group for no gi last night.

We were late getting started, so I took charge and led the warm up. Tim taught the lesson of the day, and then we got to rounds. The technique was an entrance into the crucifix. We bait them to go to deep half, and when the do, we drive our knee over, so we’re in almost 3/4 mount. Pop our free knee up and over, and wedge it in between our trapped one and their body. Then immediately shoulder roll and seat belt them. From there, we can raise our hips and straight armlock them, or if they bridge into us and try to escape we shrimp away, figure four their trapped arm, and choke.

For rounds, I had Meli, Tim, and Long, twice each, starting in half guard. Meli and I were pretty relaxed. Tim went as usual, though I did grab a kimura, got him to the star gazer position, he rolled up, I got on his back, and I transitioned to the seat belt. No hooks, and time ran out.

No gi night. Even though it’s starting to cool off, we were all hot, sweaty, and working hard last night.

We warmed up with a series of passing drills. Pop up guard breaks, leg throws, knee slices, etc.

The lesson of the night was escaping mount. In no gi, your gripping options are limited, and this hinders your typical upa and roll escape. So we work and elbow in, elbow escape, switch directions, elbow escape again and re-establish a guard. The biggest thing I took away was the importance of switching directions and escaping our hips again. Space is the friend of the guy on the bottom.

We also did a variation when the top guy is cross facing you. Much tougher to hip escape with that, so we hook their leg into a half-guard like position, then switch directions and hip escape as normal. It’s very important to not stop once you get to half guard. The top guy’s submission options are much greater there than from mount.

It was getting close to our normal quitting time, but we weren’t getting out without rolling. We broke into groups of 3. 20 minutes in, 10 out. I had Dave and another blue belt. I did pretty good with both guys. LOTS of back and forth, slippery action all around. Submissions are tough in no gi, every time I thought I had something going, I’d loose my grip.

No gi is such a nice change of pace. You wouldn’t think that I’d like it, with it being more favorable to faster and more dynamic guys.

Lesson of the day was a arm drag setup, double leg take down, headstand pass, and into mount. JR and I drilled together. The setup took a couple of tries to get right, with us trying going both left and right before deciding on the correct way to do it. The pass worked best when doing ABC, rather than A. B. C. Gotta make it all one move.

We also added in a choke back up. If they’re being particularly squirmy, you can wrap their head up, feint a mount, and then roll back to guard with a Marcelo style guillotine choke already locked up.

For rounds we did 10 minutes in, 5 out threesomes. I had JR and Daryl. Did really good with Daryl right off the bat. Even-ish with JR most of the night, then tired out with Daryl again.

It was going to be a sweaty night of no gi. Hot and muggy all day.

Lesson of the night was a continuation of the guard break we did last week. Pop up, open the legs, and go directly into a knee slice pass to side control, and then to mount. If he catches us in half guard, retreat and stabilize, then continue the knee slice pass. If he squares up his hips, switch to 3/4 mount. From either 3/4 mount or full mount, we creep our hands up one at a time to really stretch him out, it kind of feels like Superman flying with his arms outstretched. From there we wait for them to roll, catch them half way, giftwrap, then take the back and choke.

Bob and I drilled slow and steady due to the heat. For rounds we did two 10 minute ones. I had Bob and then Corey. Did good with Bob, including a great back take into a triangle from the back. Not so much with Corey. He didn’t crush me, but he did control things most of the time. We talked about some grip breaks that would have helped me some after the fact.

I’ve decided I like no gi. It’s similar enough that most of what I know translates, but I like being slippery. I’m not really athletic or explosive enough to really make it work, but it is entertaining.

Damian led class. We started with a closed guard break. We posture up by thrusting both hands towards their throat, then broad jump our feet forward, stand, pop our hips, and then step back into a combat base. JR and drilled together. It didn’t take long for our lack of explosiveness to become apparent. That jump/stand/pop combo is tiring.

The rest of the lesson was on the opposite side. They pop up, we go to DLR, they shuck that, we go shin-on-shin sitting up then into single leg X. The shuck that, to avoid the heel hook, and from there we went right into the single leg X ankle lock we’ve done before in gi. Same technique, just slightly different grips due to the lack of gi.

For rounds, we split int groups of 6 and did a round robin. I had Bob, JR, Brady, New Josh, and Mongoose. Did great with Bob. JR and I were pretty even. I did better than I expected with Brady, threatening a darce choke at one point. New Josh may be a white belt, but he’s wrestled before, so he was surprisingly tough. Mongoose and I were both entertained in our 5 minutes. Very slippery and active. I got a darce, and he did the BJ Penn style arm isolation from the back into a one arm Marcelo style choke.

Summer is here. I fully expected a hot and sweaty night of jiu jitsu. But I didn’t expect it to be no-gi night! Apparently it’s going to be no gi on Mondays going forward. Caught some guys off guard, they didn’t have shorts. Not me, I’m always prepared.

Tim led the class. For drilling, we did a very basic break down from closed guard, the no-gi simple sweep, and a triangle setup. I drilled with Seth (formerly known as Little Seth).

For rounds, we split into groups of 3. 10 minutes in, 5 out. I had Wade and Tim. It’s going to take a while to get used to no-gi again. Both Wade and I were going for grips that just don’t exist anymore! I did pretty good with Wade. I had a really slick arm triangle escape into a back take. I did okay with Tim too.

I doubled up on classes last night. Thankfully our heat and humidity have broken, so I didn’t die.

Time led the intermediate class. We covered the wrap around lapel choke and it’s variation. Ron and I drilled together. For sparring, we set up a few guys in the middle and rotated everyone else in. Starring in closed guard. Top guy has to pass, bottom guy sweep or submit. Winner stays. I did alright. Passed Rento and another guy. Got passed by Tim and Brady. Go figure.

Advanced class was no gi. Been a year since my last no gi class. Brady led. We warmed up with some wrestling drills, single and high crotch setups. We did two actual techniques of the night was a low single takedown. Drop very low, then shoot out like a snake and grab their heel. Drive in with your shoulder and down they go. The key is dropping quick and getting under their defense. Mongoose and I drilled together.

The second was breaking down the turtle guard. Ideally, getting them onto their side or back, with you in side control.

For rolling, we broke into groups of 3. Starting in turtle. I had Will and Brady. Did well with Will. And did okay with Brady in our rounds too. After a couple of cycles, we broke off and did some regular sparring. I had Will again and Nolan. Did well with Will, getting both an arm triangle off of a back take and a regular triangle. Wasn’t able to finish either however. Nolan took it easy and we had a good roll together too. He got an inverted triangle on me while I was attempting a omaplata sweep. I won’t make the mistake of grabbing his leg like that again! Right at the buzzer I did have a nice armlock/triangle combination going, but again, couldn’t finish.

Rather than have normal classes on Halloween, we did an early open mat. I showed up even earlier, and was happy to find Long there already, stretching. He and Chim are going to the no-gi world championships this weekend in California. So, he was dressed for no-gi. No biggie, I left my gi top off and away we went.

He was moving well. He had a strange roll from De La Riva guard sweep that he got me with several times. He was also a guillotine machine, constantly attacking with it while I moved from open guard to the single leg. My cardio is still lagging, so I was going slower that I probably should have. Long took a break and Brady grabbed me for more no-gi. That went about as well as one would expect, IE, not so well for me.

JR arrived and wanted to do some gi, so I grabbed my top and we went for a while too. He was showing me his newly invented “Jay La Riva” sweep to the back. We fooled around with a bit of this and that, moving but not going particularly hard. It was just about my speed for the night.

Thank goodness too…it’s been Africa hot here this week.

No lesson tonight, just rolling. No gi sure gives me an appreciation for MMA. The grip strength that those guys must have just boggles my mind. And when the commentator mentions how slippery the fighters are in the later rounds, you better believe it!

I had some good rolls with Short Josh, Purple Belt Tim, Justin and Ron. Tim got me in a slick “Peruvian Necktie”

And later an arm triangle that I was defending…and then things got “buzzy”…and then he let it go because he said I was snoring and out. Ooops.

Ron and I had a pretty good back and forth going. The sweat added a significant element, as it was pretty easy to slip out of anything that wasn’t on tight.

At the end of class Damian showed an interesting sweep from the scarf hold position. I’ll have to play around with it some more.