Currently the weakest part of my game is probably side escapes. I'm fine escaping from blues and purples but with most of the browns and blacks get on my side I'm stuck like chuck.
Last night I decided to spend the next month or 2 really concentrating on my escapes. One of the things that is killing my escapes is that the better guys are able to separate my arms. This usually kills any leverage I have to escape and by the time I get my arms back out of danger I'm usally pretty winded.
Another thing I need to work on is stripping the grip. Carlos will strip your grip so he can create space to work his escape. I usually either forget to do this or if I do remember it only works about 1/8 of the time.
So for the next month I plan on taking an @ss beating until my escapes improve. I did this about 2 years ago and it really helped my game. The only downside is the torn up face and exhaustion from the daily grinding. Oh well, I guess that's what I get for not taking up golf.
Putting on "You can Leave your hat on" by Joe Cocker, turning down the lights, and start taking off anything that grip really doesn't need to have fun with you... ;)
Sure...Carlos was working with us on this last night. If the guy has a grip on your sleeve or elbow, Carlos will use his other hand to strip the grip. If you have his left sleeve he will usually move his left forearm a little while his right hand pushes the hand holding his sleeve.
I'm a blue. In my last tourney, I spent seven minutes in various degrees of side control under a purple quite heavier than me. I felt a little satisfaction in not getting tapped. But, I'd love to get better at this.
Ok, so I've been working the side escapes for the last few week. So far the biggest thing I have learned is to be patient. A lot of times I would get try to make big movements and get myself in trouble.
Now, I've been concentrating on "setting up" the escape. It's kind of hard to explain but I'm focusing on much smaller movements. Also, if I ever start to get myself in trouble (like someone starts to attack the arm) I stop trying to escape and get myself out of trouble.
Another thing I would do is try to turn too early. The guy would have a good grip and I would try to turn to my knees. I'm now making sure I have better positioning and possibly stripped his grip before I go to my knees. This has seemed to help alot.
I've still got a lot of work to do but things are coming along.
2. It's good to be ugly like me becuase your face gets really torn up from side escapes
I have a 3 inch deep scratch down from the top of my hairline to just below my eyebrow - working with a brown belt on exactly that tonight. (side control escapes)