16/04/2015 - Teaching Notes at PHNX

Teaching #310
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 16/04/2015

There was a visitor down tonight all the way from Stone, which is cool. Lewis (a Fighting Fit student under Chris Paine) was at the GrappleThon last month and was working in Bristol today: always good to catch up with friends from around the country. In terms of additional pointers compared to yesterday, I think the main one was using the far arm for extra control and base. Previously I was emphasising leaning towards their stomach and potentially basing on your hand by their head. Wrapping up their far arm and pulling that in seemed to help too, so that's something for me to experiment with.

As always when I teach something, I try to use it more often myself in sparring both before and after the class. I'm writing this up about a week later, just after some drilling with Chris J, where I played with the armbar some more. Angling out the leg by the head did help stop him turn in towards me, but during one of my armbar attempts I didn't think enough about my other leg. That was a bit looser, and I think gave him the space to turn. I therefore need to be careful I don't concentrate too heavily on just the leg over the head, as it's both legs that provide full control.

Either way, I'm glad I'm at long last starting to get over my aversion to armbars, if slowly. The tighter I can make them, the more comfortable I'll feel. ;)