03/11/2015 - Open Mat | Turtle & Back

Class #677
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 03/11/2015

I went to another kettlebells class first, as there is now a daytime session. For my third bit of kettlebelling at Move Strong, David added in the one handed swing. Felt ok, though I reckon my arm was going a bit off-centre with the left-handed swing on the 16kg. I'm cautious, so always gravitate towards lighter weights if possible, though like David said, on the double handed swing, the extra weight on the 16kg seems to help get the form right. He got me to have a go with the 32kg in my second class last week, which was interesting: managed the swing and I didn't strain anything, but I don't think that's going to be my default for a very long time! ;)

At open mat, everybody wanted to practice back position, presumably because it is back month. I've got two back escapes in mind that I want to run through this month (the bridge and that arm over one), possibly something on turtle too. A couple of people were asking about turtle, so I reckon I need at least a couple of classes on that to introduce it, maybe a drill too. I could do a class on the basic tilt, then incorporate that as a drill, maybe with an escape too?

Specific sparring against the turtle, I was looking for the crucifix again, but I need to remember I can just do a basic tilt to the back too. I'm over-focusing on that crucifix. On escaping the back I've tried to add the arm over into my repertoire (seeing as my back escape repertoire is basically just one, that bridge). It worked a couple of times, though I was leaving too much space as I wriggled into position and my neck was too exposed.

I was tending to dig my hands underneath to then get into a lifting posture, which feels like I am leaving an elbow out, ripe for being grabbed. I'll have to test this on the more experienced grapplers too, as it feels like I'm leaving dangerous gaps. Plenty of opportunity to practice it this month. Also I need to watch out for the collar grips: I'm pretty sure Kirsty would have landed her bow and arrow choke on me yesterday if I hadn't been bigger.

It's also another good reminder to be careful that with escapes I'm not relying on a size advantage when sparring smaller people. Something I always have in mind, but hard to be sure. Getting put in submissions is probably a good test, as that shows you if you simply resist with brute force to avoid getting tapped or not.