I circulated some of the new flyers that I made on the weekend. I'm keeping some in the car now in case i see an ideal place to post them while i'm out and about.

Trevor's recovering from some kind of stomach bug - he said he should be there on wednesday. Tonight it was Grant and me again. I finished off working the yellow belt hold escapes with double rear arm pins, full nelsons, and bear hug from the side. I introduced the finger come-a-long when we did the double rear arm pin. We spent the last 30 minutes going over hip throws and body drop throws. Grant has experience in other martial arts, though he only claims to have done Judo when he was a kid. He picked up on the hip throw and body drop throws instantly and his breakfalls were excellent!

Sensei Krista was visiting and was at class tonight.

Tonight we did 2 hands on the throat from the front, left, right, and rear. for all but the left side, we gained release and then executed a hip throw or takedown. from the right side, i showed them how to get into the twisting arm lock.

After the juniors class was finished we played around in a jiu jitsu circle (Sensei Mariedke, Sensei Krista, Trevor and me) and had some fun.

class was awesome tonight. We got some new focus mits and muay thai pads so I put them to good use.

Ran through breakfalls 1-6, and 8.

We then shifted to boxing. 4x2min rounds, jabs, crosses, hooks, upper cuts.

Using the thai pads, we did front kick both legs and knee kicks.

We then worked bear hugs from the front, over and under arms, and lifting.

I then got Colby and Trevor doing hip throws. Once the hip throws were flowing relatively smoothly, we started with uke throwing a hook, tori defends with a high forarm block, steps in for the hip throw, knee drop, stamping kick, and then into the supine arm bar.

Sensei Krista and Trevor were at class tonight. After breakfalls, I ran through the principles of balance and breaking balance. I explained that in order to perform technique properly and most effectively that uke's balance must be broken first. I used the batons to illustrate the direction that tori needs to take uke to break their balance and we worked on breaking balance in the 8 different directions. Emphasized the line between the ears and hips and when the ears are off the hips balance is compromised. Also showed how getting uke onto the balls or heels of their feet is an indication that balance has been compromised.

We then reviewed some yellow belt hold escapes, but emphasized finishing with a hip throw and after throw. Trevor seemed to be a little bit discouraged/frustrated as he really had the movements down last week but was struggling a bit this week. I told him not to worry; perfecting the hip throw takes a LONG time and that I was being overly fussy about his technique to make sure that he doesn't develop any bad habits now that he will have to unlearn down the road.

Sensei Mariedke finished off with the double knee pickup (sidewalk slam). This was the perfect takedown to illustrate the principles of breaking balance as you want to make sure that uke is on his heels and leaning forward so his ears are off the hips.

Tonight was just Trevor and me. We started off with some breakfalls and going over some new takedowns: collar takedown (both grabbing collar and hooking over shoulders as well as pushing knee forward and sweeping at the tibial nerve), inner wrist lock takedowns from the front and side, and jugular notch.

After working on the inner wrist lock takedowns, I started incorporating them into wrist-grab hold escapes as variations. I also showed Trevor a few new afterthrows: shoulder lock and a turnover into the handcuffing position. Later we did another turnover, the "rowing the boat" armbar turn-over using your shin and finishing with an arm pin.

To finish off class we reviewed the hip throw and started on the body drop throw from a hook punch.

Lastly, I played around with some more grappling moves: if Uke is in Tori's guard:
1. uke scoops tori's knee to pass the guard into side control
2. tori counters by a) turning to his side and planting his leg on the ground and trapping uke's hand between the leg and mat or b) Tori allows uke to scoop his knee and uses that lift to pop his knee up onto uke's shoulder and execute a triangle choke.
3. counter to 2a) if uke is scooping tori's right leg with his left arm and gets it trapped, uke will bring his toes up to tori's thigh and put his shin on tori's anterior femoral and come across to put his knee on the mat "stepping over" the leg and has his right hand on the mat around tori's left hip for balance. if uke doesn't leave his toes on the mat and use his foot to lock tori's leg, tori can counter this by grabbing the hand that uke is using for balance and execute an arm lock like we worked on on Monday.

Grappling is like a human chess match. you have to goad and lure your opponent into doing something that you want them to do, but not having them realize that you tricked them into it.

Tonight it was just Trevor and me.

We worked breakfalls 1-6, 8, 9, 10, and 11 for a warm up.

we then started with ground defense:
two hands on the throat, sitting on chest
two hands on the throat kneeling between the legs
scarf hold
defense from a scarf hold

I also worked in two armlocks that I learned from an instructional video that i was watching on the weekend:

1. Tori has full mount. uke has his hands and arms up in a turtle block to protect his fact. Tori "punches" across uke's body with his right or left hand and grabs uke's right or left wrist (respectively) with his hand (no thumbs) and drives it onto the mat. Tori's elbow is up against uke's BPO and uke's elbow is bend 90 degrees. With tori's other arm, he slides it under uke's bicep and grabs his own wrist (no thumbs) in a figure-4 lock. It is important that uke's tricep is braced against tori's bicep to provide a solid base. Tori brings his head down beside uke's head and pulls uke's wrist down along the mat causing trauma to the shoulder.

2. Tori has uke in his guard. Uke places his left hand on the mat beside tori's right hip to regain balance. Tori grabs uke's wrist with his right hand. Tori gets up sideways onto his right elbow and with his left arm reaches over top of uke's arm and then under uke's arm and grabs his own wrist to get the figure-4 lock (no thumbs). This force uke's elbow to bend. It is important that Tori uses an open guard for this as it makes it easier to maneuver vs having the legs crossed behind uke. Tori then falls back to his starting position and brings uke's arm with him. this will pull uke forward across his body. While doing this Tori swings his hip out to the right so he is lying on his left hip and swings his right leg over top of uke's back to prevent uke from rolling out of the lock. Tori then tries to bring uke's wrist to his ear.

We finished grading Trevor for his Yellow belt and awarded it to him after class. We also started Trevor with the hip throw.

Llyle and Trevor were at class tonight which gave Sensei Mariedke and I the perfect opportunity to run Trevor through his yellow belt exam. He did really well. We also went over breakfalls 1 through 11 which were done very well and introduced Trevor to the hip throw. I also helped Sensei Mariedke give a self protection seminar at her work. We covered the basics: open hand strikes to the head, shin kicks, and knee kicks.

Tonight was another fun class to give some of the novices a taste of what's to come.

Tonight I worked on some of the more sporting aspects of jiu jitsu: shooting and takedowns. We worked on the basic entrance to the shoot and practiced distancing so you end up in the proper position for the takedown. From this position we worked 4 takedowns: a single leg ankle-thigh, a double knee pick-up with your shoulder in uke's abdomen emphasising your forward momentum to aid in the takedown and following through to end up in a full mount.

The next takedown was a cross between a sidewalk slam and a takedown to the rear: Enter the shoot as usual, but instead of entering the takedown from the #1 position, you pivot such that you end up with your right knee to the outside of uke's right foot and your left leg with knee bent @ 90 degree behind uke's right leg. Your left hand passes in front of uke's right leg and hooks behind uke's left knee. this arm pops uke's left knee and leg up and you rotate your hips forward and push your left thigh into the back of uke's right knee. Uke will fall backwards over your thigh. You must keep your right hand up to protect your face because uke's right leg has a tendency to pop upwards.

The last takedown had the same entrance as the previous one except your right arm hooks behind uke's right knee and bends as if you were doing a bicep curl. your left hand reaches up and grabs uke's left lapel. in one smooth motion, you pull uke down and back with your left hand while scooping up uke's right knee to get uke on his back with his leg hooked. From this position you are in a type of side control. You reach up with your right hand while still keeping the leg hooked and reach for uke's right lapel. From here, you can apply a scissor gi-choke.

After working on these four techniques, Kyle and I worked on hip throws and comparing and contrasting our different styles of throwing: I grab around the waist/lower back while Kyle bends his elbow @ 90 degrees so the palm is placed between the shoulder blades.

I also finished reading Sensei Lori's book, Weapons of Opportunity. It brought back a lot of feel-good memories from my training in Ottawa and made me feel very nostalgic and energized when I was training tonight. I hope that feeling stays for a LONG time to come.