Tuesday's class was huge! There must have been twenty or thirty people training! It was a good mix of Ballard people, South Seattle people and some folks I hadn't seen in quite awhile.
Space was tight. The warm-up was pretty short: mat laps mostly, and some shoulder work. Elbow escapes.
Technique work including the dueling clinch drill. I worked with Arnell tonight, who is a pretty good guy to work with. We also worked guard passes, which really killed the tops of my feet as I tried to hold the closed guard against the pass.
Gracie Barra really believes in standing out of the guard. Cesar Gracie mentions it and every pass that Rodrigo teaches involves standing out of the guard. Saulo Ribeiro--the Jedi Master--is also a big fan of standing out of the guard (or at least posting out with a leg).
The first half of the guard pass is opening the guard. We did this by jumping up to our feet from inside the guy's closed guard. Place the knee of one leg right under the butt by the
sacroiliac. Then slowly and under control lower yourself to sit on your other heel. The pressure of your knee against the butt is what will open the guard.
The other technique we worked involves actually passing the guard once it has been opened. In both cases, you pushed one knee to the mat. But from there things got a little tricky.
