09/05/2017 - Open Mat (Tuesday)

Class #820
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/05/2017

Today the main thing I did was north-south specific sparring with Chris. I can remember doing this about a year ago and being very comfortable: north-south is one of my favourite positions, as normally I can maintain it fairly easily. I say normally, because a year later, Chris was much harder to keep under control. While that's annoying for my ego, it's good for my jiu jitsu, as now I've got a strong incentive to get a good handle on that escape. From what Chris was saying, he was focusing on getting his elbow into their armpit, further strengthening that frame by driving through his same side hip. He also talked about getting your weight over onto the other arm and the angle of the bridge. So, lots of drilling north-south with Chris in my future, I sense. ;)

I prefer the idea of building a frame into the armpit, as that fits more with one of the escapes I've been trying from under north south, off Jeff Rockwell's sit-up escape system. As it also happens to be side control month at the moment and I'm looking to teach lots of escapes in the latter half of the month, that fits well. I still have those irritating injuries to deal with (nothing major, but irksome stuff like fingers and tailbone), but hopefully those will clear up soon. I'm relying on tape and cushioning (I did finally go see a doctor, which helped clarify the tailbone thing is probably due to all the cycling, so I replaced my gel cover thing for that too).