Team A, Team B...again. :)

This is a shot from last night's Women's Class. We played Team A, Team B again. :)

It was me and Stephanie vs. Hooter, Joyce, Amy, Rowan and Shelby. In the picture you can see Stephanie arm-barring Rowan whilst being attacked by Amy. Behind them is me being attacked by Hooter and Joyce. LOL! 

We played another game that the girls really liked last night too. The technique was a guard pass that requires you to get double underhooks and to use your hips to break the other person's hips to the side. A common mistake, though, that people make is to try to use their arms to push the person's legs to the side instead of using their hips to get the person's hips to turn to the side. The legs follow the hips and go to the side as well, so you can pass. 

To get them thinking about using their hips instead of their hands, we had them do a drill that I learned from Fabio's class. We split up into pairs and try to pass the other person's guard without the use of their hands. The person on the bottom was also not allowed to use their hands. They could only use their hips and legs to keep the other person from passing. It was pretty hilarious, but they really seemed to get a better understanding of how important it is to use your knees and hips while passing guard, instead of relying only on your upper body strength.

I am training hard for a tournament coming up and, of course, I am working with injuries. Right now it is my neck again and a pulled muscle in my thigh. The thigh one is really bothering me because it hurts to lift my leg. I can't do much with guard because I have to use that muscle so much. So, instead I have been trying to do other things: a lot of passing, a lot of moving to try keep the top position. As much as I am really annoyed to be injured, this has been good for me. It is opening up my mind to different options of moving that I wouldn't have thought of as readily without this injury. 

Still, I am icing and heating the heck out of my leg and resting it as much as possible outside of class. I need it to be in good shape by the time I compete.