Posted 10:32 AM by spitgirl
PINS

After Saturday's very enjoyable evening, I was ready for a workout. Annnnd we got it! Well, it looks like I was just too exhausted when I got home and so I didn't remember to blog when I got home. We worked matwork yesterday, starting with four rounds of matwork (I got Galen twice, which was just as well, because although he's lower ranked and less experienced than I am, he also outweighs me by about 30 lbs). Afterwards, we started round robin teaching, which was fairly interesting. Dr. Link, Chris Peterson (who had gone bottle blond recently - fairly amusing), Laura, and Sung-Joo taught us a few very fun little pins and holds.

The first thing that was fairly odd was that the black belts outnumbered the lower ranks. Lower ranks, where are you? We were 12 black belts and 10 colored belts, half of them upper ranks.

Dr. Link taught an easy one from a turtle position. If someone grabs for a dobok lapel, you just cinch in and do a low shoot out towards the side of the arm, turning until you have a nice chicken wing or until they face plant and give you the shoulder bar.

Chris Peterson taught two interesting techniques. The first was one I'd never seen before - from an open turtle position, he took one hand and wrapped in what looked like a reverse nelson (one arm tucked from underneath the opponent's armpit and wound around the back of their neck) and the other hand simply tucking around the other arm, and then turning a full two rotations to get them into a fairly painful pin. The first time he did it, Steve went from turtle to pin in split second, having all of us (black belts included) gaping. Charles raised his hand and said, "Ummm... can you repeat that, at about a quarter speed?" The second was one that he'd taught before while Dr. Link was out of town, involving the elbow going up in the scarf hold.

Laura taught a neat little turnaround procedure where you as the attacker can duck the opponent's head underneath their dobok, then whip around, grabbing for a dobok lapel, and essentially launching yourself to the side, using your weight to bring your attacker to the ground in what I call the "shellfish" maneuver. (Where you pry open the clam...)

Sung-Joo taught us two interesting ones from the guard. If your opponent stands up and manages to sit back, you can push your knees together, grab their ankles, and push, which gets you into the full mount position. If your opponent stands up and is leaning over you (with center of balance forward), you can stick your heels into their hips and flip them over your head, turning until you get into another pin.

Afterwards, Lily and I trained together for another 40 minutes or so, warming up kicks and then doing spin hook kicks and some flying kicks. I had to leave early due to a prestudy, but it was definitely worth it to stay...