As a continuation of my public notebook: I started a new daily blogging challenge to begin solidifying the learning that I’m doing while training jiu jitsu. Every day I will be doing a recap of what was done in class, what I liked & didn’t like, how my rolling (freeform fighting) went afterwards, and additional overarching takeaways from that day.

What I did,

On Thursday May 23rd

Thursday was mount escapes. This came at a good time, because as mentioned in my last post, I keep getting stuck on my back.

Walking through a recap of what I repped:

Trap and Roll: If the person sitting on you is squirmy or sitting high, trap one of their arms at their waist, trap their foot on the same side, and bridge hard upwards in that direction. Taking away their ability to post, and tipping them over into guard.

Trap and Roll (Weight Shift): Starting from the same trap and roll, but they know it’s coming this time. To counteract what they think you’re going to do, they shift their weight heavily to one side, making it harder for you to bridge them off of you. To get out, explosively shrimp out of the side their weight is no longer focused on and do a technical stand-up or get to your knees.

Hip Turn: Fight to turn to your hip. At the same time frame on their waist and knee. Pushing their knee down into your half guard. Do another turn and get up to your elbow, setting up for a sweep or fighting to get to full guard.

Hip Turn (Leg Post): Starting from the same setup, this time they post the leg up that you’re trying to trap. Instead, place your bottom knee up into the back of their knee and grab their ankle–trapping their leg. Tip them backwards by driving your knee in that direction.

A Super Locked Mount: When in a position where their ankles are locked and you can’t get out, put your hands on their hips and bridge. Pushing your knees up, putting them up into your butterfly guard and back on the ground.

High Mount: When unable to fight back with your elbows, C-clamp their armpits and bring your feet up to your hands. Bridge hard and escape out of the back.

Rolling

We did rotating rolls at the end of class. It was all men, that I don’t normally go with, and I did about three rounds. When rolling with people bigger and stronger it’s always a challenge.

Conclusion of May 23rd

It’s always good to get reps in, especially with something that I’m having challenges with! I was told to be painful with my elbows and hips, be explosive, and to remember to be spherical so that I’m hard to sit on. And again, patience with attacks opening up escape opportunities.