By the time I got to the academy, Prof Carlos had us working on pulling guard into the tripod sweep, using the collar rather than the sleeve as the upper body grip. From here, he added an armlock of the arm that is on the same side as the collar pull. You swing that far side leg out wide, pendulum style, to get the space to roll into the armbar, and only grip the arm at the very end.
In the second half of training, we worked on some specific training, starting with half guard king of the hill, then spider guard king of the hill, then closed guard king of the hill (I was half guard king). It's a weird combination of familiarity and rust that seems to be my half guard game right now - which is probably a signal to change things up (especially now as I slide out of competiton prep mode).
Training wasn't especially heavy, with the Revolution tomorrow. The specific was very nice - I especially liked the opportunity to work against the leg drag during the spider/open guard segment of the specific. Again, I've really liked the kind of training we've been doing over the past month.
Live training found me largely in a defensive mode due to the situation. This will be one of the challenges (not sure I want to elevate it to resolution status) over the next year, trying to maximize what I do best against superior technique and superior strength. The transition training will help here, as will the flow training, as I hone my game down to fewer, but faster, decisions and actions.
I remember watching Marcelo in the 2009 Mundial. I felt like I knew his game well enough that I could anticipate how he would likely react to different situation in his matches against top guys like Thiago Alves and Lucus Leite. The trick is to develop those transitions, those chains of technique, for my own game and not sitting around on some plane of indecision.
That's another thing. I'm spending too much time hunkered down in guard positions - especially the half guard. The one thing I like about the sitting guard is that it gives you the opportunity to be really aggressive in the guard, at least with sweeps and reverses. Developing that attacking attitude from all my guard position (but especially my Cadillac half guard) is something that should probably be #2 on my resolutions list.
158.8 on the scale post-train. Par. Looking forward to the Revolution tomorrow. It will feel a little weird showing up just to watch. But one way or another, it may not be a weirdness that I'll need to get used to.
