Can anyone who has to train Gi relate?

So I was in the beginner class yesterday and we were being taught basic take down tactics when on the knees. I was starting to think to myself "Yeah, this is kinda like a setup for Oldschool but a different position and angle." Just before he finishes the demo, the purple belt helping out the instructor says "Olssschool." (mouth-guard lisp).

And later that night we practiced a less efficient version of what Herzog at 10th Planet Rochester showed with the "Ghost Escape Series". Instead of swinging the legs in a gentle arc we were kinda waggling back and forth to create space before swimming one arm under, but you always ended on your knees in the lower position. Or in my case, face smooshed to the mat.

Now the biggest weakness in my game is panicking when Im on bottom (usually in North/South or fully mounted), and Im 6'3" therefore I always roll with the biggest guys, so bottom escapes are my obsession right now as I want to avoid being crushed. Basically I was getting manhandled like usual and ended up trying the way we learned in class. After getting my face pinned to the mat for 45 seconds I managed to shift position to a wimpy version a the head arm choke . While I didn't get any taps, I was able to pull off a Ghost Escape two more times and almost sink in the choke both times.

It's interesting to see how all of these techniques are interpreted out there.

I train Gi and yes I can relate :] Just by keeping pressure you can increase your chance of succeeding a lot.
There are insane amounts of ways to do a certain move, just go with what works best for you.

I practice safe jitz (rubber guard) all the time in my Gi and there are similarities and differences everywhere you look. So far nothing as been more technical than 10P and there are fewer names for things in BJJ than 10P. So what one BJJ instructor will call a technique may be different from another showing the same. Sometimes the similarities are the same technique and simply grabbing the Gi instead of a body part, while others appear to be way off base. Good luck though and learn how to translate 10P to the Gi...it's helped my game tremendously!

I pretty much only train gi - it's rewarding to make the system work with that limitation.

The ghost can be significantly harder In a gi I've found. Look at the b smith in mastering the rubberguard. It's a really good principle that can be applied very regularly against guys transitioning to north south.