Here’s a perfect example of what’s wrong with my training.
Monday night. We’re working on a pair of butterfly guard passes. In both, the key is to underhook the far side arm (the non-pass side) and to “tripod-up” with your head and both feet as the support points (actually I think it is more the shoulder of the underhooking arm and both feet, at least in the first pass).
Anyway, in the first version, you want to switch your base as if opening up your hips to the south or turning AWAY from the guy on the ground. As you do this, you want to slide your inside knee under the near leg. As you move back across, you pin the other leg to the ground with your inside knee and walk your other leg up so that you are stepping up near his shoulder.
Grab the arm on that far side and pull it up and toward you. Then plant the far knee on the mat. From here, all you need to do is flip your inside leg around and gain the mount position.
The second variation is in case the guy tries to block you from dropping that walk around leg. In this case, lean farther over in your tripod so that your head is on the mat (on the far side). You then lift up into a headstand, and twist your body in midair so that you land on the other side (the underhook side). Make sure you bring your knee in tight against his hips so that the guy’s movement is limited.
So those were the main moves from Monday. We do 10 minutes of guard/pass guard specific sparring. I work with that same new guy that Rebecca met, the guy whose name I can’t ever remember. I got a number of good sweeps, mostly the ankle underhook sweep when he stood to try and open my guard. I spent more time than I would have liked with my closed guard locked around his waist. I need to remember to open it up and try for one of the open guard sweeps that Rodrigo showed us awhile back. Or even a quick move to X-guard and then to the back—a move I’ve been desperate to work on.
From the top I did a pretty good job of passing his guard on the ground. I need to remember that when the guy opens up his guard to put a foot in the hip or on the mat, that I should immediately go after the pass. I should look at it as if he’s already done the “hard part” for me by opening his guard, and move as quickly and as automatically as possible into a pass.
After that we did another ten minutes of guard/pass guard. This time I was working with Clint the blue belt. Much different world here, though he didn’t have an especially easy time passing my guard. I think I even got a sweep once. Again, I spent too much time in the closed guard, instead of opening it up and trying a few different things (like the Shaka sweep). From the top, Clint caught me in a triangle and in an arm triangle that was tight but I didn’t tap because it wasn’t really there. I think the problem was that he was squeezing hard, but didn’t have any leverage because it was straight on.
Saulo makes this point in one of his instructionals when talking about the no-gi katagatame from the mount. Rather than stay in the mount, Saulo moves to a “knee-on-chest” position that allows him to just use the weight of his body to apply the necessary pressure. Clint tried pushing on BOTH hips with his feet, but I think if he had just pushed against ONE hip and tried to get an angle instead, he might have gotten the submission.
That was the class. Although tempted to watch Rodrigo and Mamazinho spar (!!!), I decided to roll with Tommy for awhile instead. And here’s the mistake I mentioned.
What techniques did we practice today? Butterfly guard passes. Who uses the butterfly guard more than ANYONE at Gracie Barra Seattle? Why, Tommy, of course. How many times did I try the butterfly guard passes we’d just learned when rolling with Tommy? Hello? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
It took me 24 hours to realize what I had (not) done. It’s no crisis, but it’s the habit in my game that I hate the most. It’s like there’s some post-learning, cooling off period in which I’m not supposed to try the techniques I JUST SPENT AN HOUR LEARNING!!! It’s not like I won’t get another chance to try these passes against the guy who’s got the best butterfly guard at the academy. But it annoys me that I don’t realize these opportunities when they present themselves. The same thing happens in tournaments, and keeps me from performing much better than I have.
Anyway, that’s that. Back at class tonight and Thursday now that my Eastlake errands are done for now. The diet is working nicely; I’m staying under 160 without too much trouble. Hopefully I can have some good training tonight and tomorrow, and then another good three sessions next week before getting going with the “30 days” part of the pre-tournament program …
Quick note: I was talking with Tommy about the triangle. I’m impressed that I’ve been throwing triangles at guys every chance I get—even if I haven’t tapped anybody with one in months. I’m having a hard time breaking the posture, and Tommy recommended focusing on pulling down on the head earlier in the attack as opposed to later. He pointed out that grabbing the leg and trying to break the posture that way can be difficult. When you think about it, if you can get a good grip on the head, then you’ve got more leverage to break his posture than if you’ve got a leg across his back or the back of his shoulders.
