Same Side Grip with Elena

Tonight, I practiced at Seattle Jujutsu. It was a sweltering day, for Seattle, and it was already hot and sticky even before going into the dojo. At least the fans were running and the music blaring. I stretched out, warmed up then practiced uchikomis. I got to practice some uchikomis with Elena and she has an awesome domineering grip. She also got quick reversals/combos that were fast. I tried to learn some from her and it was really cool. She showed me a defense for the overhand grip where you hook your arm over their arm and turn, and sacrifice throw. I need to practice it a bit more to get the hang of it.

Anyways, the technique of the night was an armbar from the butterfly guard. This was hizagatame or Knee hold. For this armbar you are using the same side hand and your hips (via the knee on the elbow and foot on their ribcage) to apply pressure to the elbow joint. Did this quite a few times, gotten a good hold of it.

Then we got into newaza randori. First guy was cool, he got me on an armbar the first half. The second half, I had more gas, and was able to move more quickly; where I got the dominant position. From there I was able to get a few pins, and a good armbar. I was finally able to get the armbar that I've been working on at Budokan for the last few weeks; which was cool.

Second guy I went into newaza randori just simply dominated me. I need to work on my reversals and escapes. I did some decent reversals. He did a great guard sweep that was really good. He had a good base, I also need to move more quickly in the mat and keep looking up. I tend to hunch down and not have good posture. I have to look up and get the inside grip. I also have to work on my guard. But that's another story altogether. I just need to be more flexible, have more gas and have better posture. Simply put, I just need to work out more.

Then I did some tachi-waza with Elena. She's got really cool sacrifice throws, seios, leg picks and ankle picks. I was telegraphing like crazy. It's hard to get under someone who is much smaller than you. She weighs -48kg so is probably half my weight and she is barely 5 foot tall. I tried to work with drop seios or drop kata gurumas or leg/ankle picks. Again she can see these a mile away. I tried some deashi harai, kouchi, ouchi and harai gosh. It was hard to get underneath her. Especially hip throws, which wasn't going to work. My ouchi/kouchi were lumbering in comparison to her super fast lithe frame. She told me that I tend to push people around, which caught me in a few throws, as I was already providing the kuzushi for them. Anyways that randori session with her taught me a lot of things, and it was just fun. She had an awesome same side grip that was unbreakable and she would be relentless in her attacks.

We just did some cool downs (meaning laying on the mat and vegging out) and chilled and shot the breeze. Overall a good practice night.

Came back home and it's still over 80 degrees inside. It's hot, wicked hot and sweltering in Seattle. I'm taking a shower and going to bed.