Yay, me

Last night, I was happy that Scott had managed to save a significant piece of the advanced class for rolling. I like rolling.

Then he announced that one person in each group had to grab onto their belt with one hand and couldn't use it.

I hate stuff like that. With one arm against two, the restricted partner went into defensive mode. The other automatically played attacker. No submissions occurred, and nothing else interesting either. If you go into full defense no matter how many arms you have, it's hard for the other person to submit you.

After a bit, he changed the rules a little. Both partners had to latch onto their belt with one hand and only use the other. Now we're talking.

Neither went into a defensive mode. We struggled along trying to submit our chums.

What you might not realize, is that most of our submissions cannot be done with one arm against a resisting opponent. Take the basic submissions. Rear naked choke is “possible”, but you can't generate much squeeze with one arm. The guillotine choke can't be done at all. A kimura armlock needs two hands, as does an Americana. Not only that, but the trapped arm is pretty much protected from attack.

The only obvious attack route would be a triangle choke. It would be difficult to set up, but if it is then 90% of the finish is leg work. For me it wouldn't work at all. A triangle requires two legs that have two knees that can handle significant pressure. I'm one knee short right now.

Quite a puzzle to solve.

We rolled.

I managed to work a one-arm collar choke of my own invention on Rob. He tapped. Against Tawha, I planted a crushing one-hand choke I learned down in Torrance, and she tapped. Finally, by moving slow and steady like a boa constrictor, I managed to line up a one-handed armlock just seconds before the rolling ended.

Turns out that nobody else scored with anything except triangle chokes.

Yay, me...