After last week's focus on the armlock from the guard, this week began with a counter and guard pass off the armlock attack.
The CBDP for the move was:
Hug / Step / Head / Pull / Clinch / Switch
HUG the head with the free arm. STEP up with the trapped side leg behind him to set your base - keeping your other knee on the mat and tight against his body. HEAD is a reminder to keep low and use your head to apply pressure to the leg so that he doesn't open up and transition to the triangle when you pull your arm free. PULL is the "jackhammer" motion to pull your trapped arm free. CLINCH refers to grabbing the shoulder with the now-free arm on the same side. SWITCH is to switch your hips to get in position for the pass. The easy way to think of it is that the knee that is up goes down and the knee that is down goes up. This makes it easy to scramble around, pass the guard, and get to side control.
I'm going to try and use this method for remembering moves as I learn them, instead of when I'm trying to recall them. Setting up a CBDP and then repeating it as I drill the move might be just what I need to better retain what I learn on a day-to-day basis.
Tatame was a mixed bag. Honestly, I put in an average performance - particularly for a Monday. I didn't feel as if I was able to focus on anything in particular - though I did a halfway decent "first day focus" on standing to pass the guard. I even had some success with that Ricco Pass, which I've never had before.
For now, my guard passing is going to be focused on standing to pass OR forcing butterfly guard and working my butterfly guard passes, mainly the Wallid and the Watchdog passes. I actually had some success with the Wallid pass today, which I mostly credit to being aggressive (something that Rodrigo has been emphasizing for the past few weeks - though mostly with regard to the guard).
That's another point. Rodrigo has been talking about being aggressive when pulling guard, of pulling guard to go for the sweep instead of just pulling guard because you feel "more comfortable" on the bottom. I think that's especially true for guys like me who are 90% sweep oriented anyway when it comes to the guard. I also think it's applicable to guard passing as well. You want to move to create opportunities - and then to jump on those opportunities immediately when they present themselves. This is part of what my practice in trying to force the butterfly guard is all about. But it is also a part of what I'm trying to learn about passing the guard from standing. What can I do to create those "green light" moments when the leg is low enough to drop my knee, for example - or high enough to be scooped as part of an underhook pass?
This I need to keep up as my primary project - not just for the next two weeks before the Inter-School but as The Project for 2010. For what it's worth, I do think that consistent guard passing - and a somewhat more diverse guard game - represent the difference between burien top team qua faixa roxa and burien top team qua faixa marrom.
Rodrigo incidentally showed us a very nice variation on the armlock from the guard - something I don't think I ever remember seeing him show us before. Essentially, it's a combination of the flower sweep (or windmill sweep or pendulum sweep or whatever, you know what I'm talking about) and the armlock, where you control the arm at the elbow, and dive under the leg with the other arm (this is from the closed guard). Kick your legs wide as if going for the flower sweep, but instead of kicking your arm-control-side leg back under you, you roll back over and swing the leg over the guy's head for the armlock (you've maintained control of the arm throughout and can bring your other arm into play to help finish.)
You never know what variation of a technique will suddenly make that technique work for you. This flower sweep armlock has made me more optimistic about actually having a coherent armlock from the guard attack than I've ever been.
156.6 on the scale post-training. Given that the weigh-in is IBJJF style for the Inter-School on the 13th (155-169 in the gi), I'm right where I want to be.
