MMA and me; day 187

After getting all stretched out, we went through our shrimping drills, excuse me, hip escape drills, and then went through shoulder rolls, from the backside and from the knees, and knocked out a two minute headstand. We went right into the arm bar/triangle/omoplata drill, and I realized that the higher you keep your hips off the mat during this drill, the easier it is to a) swing your hips around on the arm bar and triangle, and b) pop your hips down to the mat and roll up to the omoplata. We went through two rounds with two different partners, and then worked on the swinging arm bar drill, and the wrist control triangle drill. For the swinging arm bar drill, from an open guard, push off of their hip with the same side foot, and swing your leg as far down to the mat and around their head into an arm bar position, then using your momentum, push off their other hip with your other foot, and swing all the way around to the other side, putting their other arm in an arm bar. It's easiest to cup their elbows while doing this, because it helps prevent them from pulling their arm out, and it helps you keep your hips elevated, and pivot on your shoulder blades. For the triangle drill, grab wrist control from open guard, and peacock their arms out wide, bring one of your knees in tight to your chest, and then slide your foot up around their neck, pulling them in tight with the wrist control, and cutting an angle off to the side to lock in the triangle. Pull your legs out and back into the open guard, and then repeat on the other side, going back and forth, as smoothly as possible. Lastly, we worked on an omoplata drill from the guard. Grab the outside of the tricep with the same side arm, and with the other arm, push on the side of their face away from the arm you have isolated to create space, shrimping to that side and swimming your top side leg over the shoulder, and pinning that wrist in your hip as you come up to your backside. To finish the submission, get your feet behind you, and bring your head to the outside as far as you can, and then bring your whole body around their head in a circular motion for the tap. We went back and forth on each side to finish off class. Awesome fundamentals, and to cap things off, I received my bjj blue belt from my coach at the end of class. I feel that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of potential, and while I am incredibly proud to be promoted, it's only making me more motivated to learn as much as I possibly can!