Shorter class, with Cindy leading.
Still struggling to follow the gameplan. I rolled with Tommy, Adam and Ryan (who I sold my Torah gi to)--three very different kinds of guys. With Tommy, the issue was passing his guard--which I came close to doing on a couple of occassions. With Adam, the issue is more "keeping moving" and letting him get more and more accustomed to the flow of jiu jitsu. With Ryan, the issues were more conventional, but I still didn't do as good a job as I would have liked in terms of following the gameplan.
Let me add before I forget that Cindy showed us a nifty little closed guard pass that I'll call "the Cindy." It looks like it might be a good compliment to the Saulo Ribeiro pass. It works like this: you grab the same side collar for upperbody control. You don't want to reach across the guy's body because that makes it easier to get arm-dragged and pulled across. Keep the other hand on the belt or on the hip or upper thigh.
Establish your good posture. Then bring your knees together in the middle (a dangerous move because your base is temporarily very weak) and push down on the knee opposite your collar grip. When the knee goes down, step over it with your knee and keep it pinned. Hook your foot underneath that leg to help the pin.
There are two options from here. If the guy's other leg stays up, then you want to release your collar grip, underhook that leg and backstep toward the trapped/pinned leg.
If the guy's other leg moves across your body in an attempt to block you, then you want to release your collar grip and underhook that leg. THEN you want to reach as far as you can with your other hand and reach behind the guy's head. You are going to cradle him by bringing your hands--the leg underhook and the head wrap--together, or as close as you can get.
Keep your hips low and walk your way around the legs. Once you've gotten clear of the legs, press forward, rolling the guy onto his back, then move in for side control.
I think this is a good compliment to the Saulo Ribeiro pass because they are opposites. Saulo has you move your legs wide to "break" open the guard. Cindy has you move your legs together to give the guy less to hold on to. Being able to do both ground passes should help me keep my opponent off-guard (no pun intended).
Back to the April GGP. I tried to catch Ryan in a triangle, but didn't get my hips nearly high enough. Remember what Peligro says: move your hips as close to your target as possible. I can do this either by bringing his body down (such as when stepping on the hip and pulling the arm toward me) or by bringing my hips up (stepping on the hip and lifting/bridging my lower half up). All that said, remember what I wrote in yesterday's review: get the leg underhook/overhook combo, lock the legs and THEN work to improve the triangle position.
I also spent more time than I would have liked on the bottom with Ryan in side control. I need to do a better job of transitioning from side control bottom to half-guard bottom. Lockdown. Get underhooks. Go Old School or Twist Back.
