Randori w/Ollie

As Jude (and others) are in Paris for a no gi competition today he was not here to run the Randori class.

It was a good class, even though I was not feeling super energetic I rolled all but about 5 minutes of the sparring sessions. In trying to get down to Middle fighting weight for Seni I have been cutting carbs and it has made me somewhat weak and tired in training. I am not sure if this is the best way to approach a competition. But seeing as I have the inspiration to cut the weight and I don't really have too much at stake I figure why not go for it? Though I lost 1.5 kilos a couple days into it I have now plateaued there - it should start going down again.

I had in mind for class today to just concentrate on keeping tight and keeping my base - not necessarily in that order. It worked to some degree. I asked a friend to show me how to get out of a submission setup she often gets me in and it was hard to concentrate on what she was telling me - I guess that is why instructors show these things over and over again. Let's see what I can recollect...

1) she starts in side control and moves to north/south position

2) she then pins me down and sets me up for an arm bar - she is essentially pinning me down by sitting on my head and (I guess?) holding my arms and shoulders with her knees/thighs/arms

the first escape is to use my hands and arms to push her back off and away from my head and then to quickly get on my knees - but I have to do that before she gets one of my arms

3) she gets one of my arms and is readying to apply the arm bar

I take my arm from between her legs and brace it (actually brace both arms) against her leg/calf and make enough space to snake/roll to the side and get to my knees, remove my head and take side control - or - (and here I am pretty fuzzy on the logic) if her arm bar is loose, I can work my head from under her leg to the inside and push with it laterally to release the pressure on my arm while I get to my knees - but I need to think this through because it seems like a triangle would be imminent if I did this series of moves...?

I don't think that trying to learn new tricks now will pay off in competition in two weeks time but I would like to concentrate on remembering some sweeps - especially from open guard and to make choke attempts.