Week 32: submissions from mount

Free form striking from bottom control: Big gloves on for the heavy and continuous striking. Not allowed to break from the position but bottom player needs to break down the posture to prevent striking.  Person on top needs to keep posture up to allow for more effective striking. I found having my back on the food was drastically more tiring as I was using my legs to create space and control his body. Actually on the second round I was near to giving up as I was so drained. When I went into top position I was surprised at how less fatiguing this position was. Going back to having the back on the floor I found that using straight line punches, from my wing chun training proved to be effective. This is because the punch comes from the elbow in the centre of the chest as opposed to the usual elbow in line with and driving from the shoulder. This economy of motion and shortest distance between two points is a straight line is a useful tool in this particular aspect of MMA. 

On a side issue it is only now after training in MMA that most applications shown by other martial arts are crap. The applications they show usually are thrown from a static attack with no resistance, hence amazing looking skills. I used to train in tai chi (both purporting to be martial) and thought, at the time, that I was learning sound martial skills. Perhaps I was. Perhaps there were many elements of the training that would be useful. Never did we train against non compliance or static fed attacks. To this day I still in my own training continue to practise the tai chi form as I find it good for my body.  That is my to perspective through wiser eyes. Years ago Bruce Lee was promoting cross training, stepping away from the classical mess and discarding that which is 
not  useful. It is a shame that so many martial artists are not bold enough and too insecure to step into the waters of non compliance for learning and self development are greatest in them.

Back on track.
Submission from north south: Forgotten what Lee labelled this position as hence north south.  Incidentally it is the only one in MMA that regularly receives sarcastic wolf whistle from the audience. Instead of taking the inner forearm head control (guillotine) you assume a reverse version and insert a fist suppression to the front of throat for a painful and swift submission. We then looked at an elbow extension from the same position. 

From centre attack (mount) leg over sit on arm. Essentially you are sitting on the shoulder joint. This was my first experience of this position. This does require lower body dexterity as you need to essentially triangle his arm. Take a tricep control keeping the arm nice and tight. From this position we then learned a series of submissions. 
Firstly fall into an inner leg suppression. It is important to get it in very quick as if you don't they will escape or pass. 
Secondly was the  arm extension.
Thirdly was the horribly painful wrist compression. I was demo dummy for this and had to tap out early on and ask for the demo on my other wrist. A recent fall in a school football match has left me with a very tender wrist. So much so that I can't even do press ups or dips at the moment.

Finally we looked at a downward shoulder rotation. Similar to the first submission you need to allow to fall on your back giving them the feeling that they are escaping. Thankfully they are falling into a downwards shoulder rotation.  Tonight I learned that in BJJ 2 moves, the kimura and omoplata are both downward shoulder rotations.

The last part of training was Easter free form fun.

All against all free form ground fighting, tag team free form grappling and ended with rounds on Charlie who had a new partner every 60 seconds to keep him on his toes (or back!!!!).