Two weeks out from the tournament ... last night, Monday, was a C+ performance in training. I gassed a lot quicker than I'd thought I would while sparring with Clint, who is an especially important guy for me to roll with insofar as he is a quality blue belt in my weight class. He caught me with an omoplata after a scramble. I'd managed to reverse out of his side control into my side control, but my side control game is still too prehistoric to catch advanced belts.
Rolling with Tommy during the specific drill that had us starting from side control was certainly testament to that. He got out of my side control repeatedly and I think I might have managed one escape to knees when he was on top, but that would have been it. I need to remember Ray's dictum in terms of getting out of side control, that I've boiled down to: THROAT, SWIM, WALK, FLAT, PULL, BOOM! Just for practice/preparation sake, I need to find myself in side control tomorrow night at least a few times to try and get this escape ingrained in body memory.
A little more active from the top Monday night, but still not where I want to be. If I'm not getting a submission, then I need to rack up the points. I liked my movement back and forth from side control to north/south--though I did a lousy job of working either of Mamazinho's armbar or kimura from north/south. For some reason I completely neglected the south-facing side control, which would have helped a lot against Mike the white belt, who is pretty good at replacing the guard.
I mentioned Mamazinho's armbar and kimura from north/south. One key to remember is that you want to put your knee deep in the side of the arm you are attacking. In a way, it is similar to what you are trying to do when attacking the arm from the guard. By wedging your leg in there, you trap the arm and make it easier to isolate and exploit. I need to remember that.
That reminds me of something else I've been thinking: after the tournament on the 30th, I think I'm going to exclusively practice armbars from the guard--it has truly become my worst technique. But that's what I thought about the triangle choke also ...
And THAT reminds me of something else. I was trying to work the arm wrap choke against Clint. I got farther along this time, but still couldn't pull it off. I want to keep working that as one of my key techniques from the guard. But I also need to open things up with the Tommy's Spider Guard Triangle/Omoplata combo. I haven't been playing much open guard, at all. I may not wind up with somebody in my guard on the 30th or not. But I don't want to be paralyzed if it happens. I've got plenty of things to do from the guard--and that open guard triangle/omoplata is one of them.
