Troubleshooting Side Control

If opponent sticks their arm between my side control, go to mount. -Justin

Reflections

• Work on getting better grips and stronger wrists.
• When mounted, consider the Americana instead of the front choke.
• Remember Dominic's back defensives, the key concept is to turn facing the opponent's knees. Well, this might depend on their grips, because they could take your back(?)

Steve thinks my BJJ is fine and cannot discredit it. I think he also thinks I'm "quiet" and states keep coming to class.

More Tips to Improving My Game

Thumb in first Front Choke (Opponent is in your guard):

• Start with cross-face arm, thumb in first and goes all the way to the back of opponent's collar.
• Opposite first grabs opposite collar about halfway down.
• The key to this choke is to flair out the elbow with the thumb in and pull down on the fist halfway down.
• This choke works slowly, so be patient and doesn't give up and readjust.

Positional Training - Back:

• The interesting thing I learned was that Brian turtles up to defend this position.
• When a person turtles and does this, I must follow them and replace my hooks.

Positional Training - Mount:

• Base out with my knees more.
• Apply more body pressure.

Positional Training - Side Control:

• From Top -
• Control your opponent's elbow so they can't bridge.
• From Bottom -
• Fist/Wrist under opponent's armpit and elbow to their throat.

Positional Training - Deep Half Guard:

•   From top - 
• Needs to apply heavy pressure on the knee near opponent's head.
• The opposite leg needs to stretch out to avoid opponent from grabbing for a sweep.
• Body needs to be heavy and close to avoid X-Guard.
• Attack the far arm. (Kimura, straight arm bar laying down, straight arm bar against my shouder).
• From bottom - 
• The legs need to wrap high around opponent's knee to prevent them from advancing to mount.
• Should grab leg in the guard to sweep.
• Transition to X-Guard.

Think about turning in for a single leg takedown; the options are there.

Back From Europe

So I'm back from Europe and just trying to get back into competitive shape. Today we learned another hip throw and how to escape from a high mount. The one we learned was feet to opponent's armpit then roll them to the side. Which is almost like the 3 high mount that is shown in this video (but the video shows ending up on the opponent's back):