I had some confusion about standing guard passes. I'm now okay on the idea that the leg on the northmost side is the side you take the initial, deep step up. But my problem comes in trying to figure out which leg is the one you step back with to help open the guard.
Rodrigo seemed to suggest that once you are good at the standing guard pass, you might not have to step back with either leg to get the guard open. You might be able to just "shimmy" the guy's legss down and open with both your legs relatively on the same plane.
What he wants to step up is the "groin stretcher" pass where you underhook the guy's up leg. I'm going to need to take notes while he's showing me this pass because I just don't ever seem to be able to remember the mechanics.
Here's how I think it goes: you grip the left cuff with your RIGHT hand. Elbow in tight. Excellent. Stand immediately. RIGHT foot first, LEFT foot second. Good posture. Push down with your LEFT HAND against the guy's right knee. Step back with your LEFT leg.
The guy's right knee/leg goes to the mat. KEEP IT PINNED. Now, here is the PASS:
Version One Collapse on that leg immediately with your RIGHT knee. This will require you to twist a little to the left as you are opening the guard. Remember that this is similar to the Saulo Ribeiro ground pass in which you turn your body toward the side that will be stepping back. I think this gives you a better base because your feet are perpendicular to each other instead of parallel.
Shoot the underhook on the far side with your RIGHT arm. Slide your body over the pinned leg into side control or scarf hold. Excellent examples of this are on Cesar's first DVD, series one, at around the 33-minute mark.
Version TwoCollapse on that leg immediately with your LEFT knee. This will require a back step with the RIGHT leg in order to complete. I think this is the one that Rodrigo has been showing us. He's shown us version with a straight backstep pass and with a groin stretcher. I need to ask him Saturday about this.
I'm watching the Cesar video. He points out that Version One is good if the knee goes to the mat. If the knee stays up, though, you don't want to fight against his leg, trying to force it down. Instead you want to underhook the leg.
As you do this, you want to do two things simultaneously. One, drive your underhooking shoulder forward into the guy's body. Two, sprawl back with the leg that's on the same side of the underhook.
A crucial point: with your other hand, that is grabbing the collars ... you want to avoid being triangled or armbarred. Do that by bringing that arm tight against your body, elbow to chest.
Once you've driven your shoulder in on the underhook and sprawled, reach across with the hand on the underhooking arm and grab the opposite lapel. Keep your hips low and walk around toward the underhooked side. Once you reach the side, release the leg and secure side control. Trick: you know that you've "reached the side" when you can put your head between his head and the leg. Specifically, the steps are (1)walk around to the side, (2) hips pressed down deep to the mat, (3) switch head outside his leg.
