Wednesday night we warmed up in our groundfighting class with shrimping, tumbling and ground positional changes.
We then practiced our 360 degree outside defenses and our inside defenses against punches. That was followed by lying on our backs and having our training partner mount us and attack us with punches. We were required to make the appropriate defenses from that position.
Next, we practiced three different ways to escape from an opponent’s full guard.
Continuing in the first hour, we practiced trap and roll techniques against the full mount. We were allowed to execute the technique à la Krav Maga style or any other grappling style that we knew. We switched training partners a few times and then we moved on to the continuous trap and roll drill.
We were required to wear our protective headgear for the continuous trap and roll drill. In this drill, you had to lie on your back. Then one by one, a different training partner would get on top of you and attack you. You had to defend against his attacks, sweep him, and then get up. You continued with this drill until you defended against each training partner in the class.
In the second hour of the class, we played a game called Sharks and Penguins. If you were designated as a shark, you could only use your legs and not your hands to engage an opponent. The use of your hands was only to maneuver yourself on the mat.
If you were designated as a penguin, you maneuvered around on the mat with your knees and could only use your hands to engage an opponent.
Oh... and the other thing you could do was double or triple team a shark or a penguin. Picture a school of sharks surrounding a poor little penguin. After a couple of minutes we reversed rolls.
Next, we reviewed some techniques that we learned prior to the holiday break.
Then we learned a couple of collar chokes. They seemed to be a version of the Kataha Jime Judo chokes. Pretty cool stuff. Essentially, you use one hand to strangle your opponent with the collar of his shirt and the other hand is placed behind the neck to control the head.
Then we learned how to apply an arm bar from the Scarf Hold position. It’s called a Near Side Arm Bar. It is so named because you attack the arm closest to your body.
The class ended with some free rolling which is always fun. It gives you a chance to try to apply, on a resisting opponent, what you’ve learned in the class.
