Gi and no gi tonight. Cindy led both classes. For the first hour, we worked on the arm stuff triangle and the omoplata transition if the guy defends by wrapping his trapped arm around the leg.
Working on the arm stuff triangle reminded me of the Machado Principle when it comes to the triangle choke. All you have to do is get your lock in with a trapped arm. From there, there are plenty of ways to break the posture and get the choke. Cindy also highlights another part of the Machado Principle by consistently grabbing her shin and pivoting off the free leg to get the proper angle to finish the triangle.
There's no reason to expect to land a picture-perfect triangle on the first attack. Get the lock, and then make the adjustments and reel him in.
The no gi class was mostly some crazy guard passes against the sitting guard/Cobra guard. A step-over pass, a knee-through pass, and a cartwheel/roundoff pass. Very "Cindy" like moves in the way that they are surprisingly efficient and straightforward. Although she has her share of fancy moves, Cindy's jiu jitsu is remarkably practical - the way she breaks down the triangle choke is just one example.
Some interesting times in sparring. I worked a pretty decent defensive moth guard, but when it was my turn on top I succumbed to a perfectly executed moth guard sweep - one of the very sweeps Rodrigo recently showed us and that I had told myself I wanted to start using.
No gi was a little more adventurous, getting to work some good mount and rear mount - the latter including a mata leao finish.
It was obvious what three days in a row of training have done for me. I'm starting to get a nice feel back, which is exactly what regular training will do for you. I haven't trained three times a week consistently since that great spring stretch from March 17 through April 25th when I got my shoulder injury.
In that six week stretch, I trained 21 times (average 3.5 times a week), and made some of my best gains in years. I'd love to be able to set a 3.5/week pace (3x weeks alternating with 4x weeks) from now until the November Revolution event. I can definitely feel the different mat time makes.
159.4 on the scale, post-training. A push.
