I felt really good yesterday at class. The warm-ups were run by Bill, so we did a lot of abs and neck exercises. While the ab work is getting easier, I still have problems keeping up on the neck exercises.
The technique we worked on yesterday were reversals from a scarf hold or “Kesa Gatame” position. Anyone who’s been pinned by a heavy guy who knows how to keep his head low and control his weight knows how much being in this position just sucks. Your hips are locked down, your arms are trapped and largely inneffective, and you very likely have a tremendous amount of weight directly on your ribs/diaphragm making it very difficult to breathe.
For these descriptions, I’m on my back and my opponent’s legs are splayed out to my right side. My right arm is trapped up on his thigh, pinched between his thigh and his left arm. My left arm is isolated with an underhook.
Technique number one is a reversal.
1: Start by reaching around and grabbing my hands however works best for me: gable grip, s-grip, grabbing your wrist, whatever.
2: Bridge over my shoulder into my opponent. I’m bridging over the shoulder that is closest to my opponent’s hips.
3: While my hips are up off the mat, I’m going to move them in as close to or under my opponent’s hips as I can. I will only be able to do this if my hips are off the mat and I’m driving him away.
4: Drop my hips. At this point, depending upon how far under his hips I got, he is essentially swept but may not know it yet.
5: Reaching up with my arms (still clasped together) and bridging over my other shoulder, I’m going to roll and sit through to a scarf hold position.
Of course, I might want to think about not stalling, in case my opponent knows this reversal, too. 
The second technique is a way to take the back or move into a different control position from the scarf hold.
1: In this technique, the first step is to remove the underhook on my arm. So, I’m going to swim my left hand around and as I shrimp out to my right side, I’m going to give him a push on the face so that I can extend my left arm. As Bill said, “This isn’t going to be comfortable for him. It’s not friendly.”
2: I’m not trying to create a huge amount of space, although if I do, I could certainly get a knee in a pull guard. But that’s not the point of this technique. I’m simply trying to create enough space so that I can swim my left arm under my opponent’s right arm and get the underhook myself.
One detail here is, as I’m swimming my arm underneath, I want to frame it so that if my opponent continues to drive in on me, I’m in a good position to continue the technique rather than getting flattened back out.
3: Once I have the underhook, I’m going to bridge over my right shoulder and at the same time punch that left arm out straight. It’s got to be explosive to really drive him over and away from me.
Now, I should have enough space to take his back or, if necessary, jump to my feet or get side control… or whatever I want.
Some good comments and tips. Kesa Gatame for me is the strongest hold to get out of (as long as the guy doing it knows the correct way). I hats it when i get caught in a pillow Kesa Gatame, which takes bridging out the equation.