One thing I've been working on consistently over the past two days has been the lockdown step in the half-guard. I've tried it on guys like Kevin, who have short, thick extremely strong legs ... guys like Chris the Purple, who managed to work around to take my back without ever really "escaping" the lockdown ... and plenty of those in between. It's really funny what can happen when you focus on a small detail in your game, a simple 1-2-3 ... I remember how aggressively Rodrigo fought off the lockdown when I tried to put it on him when he was in my half-guard. That was the first tell that the Bravo's lockdown is a solid advantage to attain. Sparring last night, on Monday, I was again impressed at how well the lockdown can work.
Of course, the point isn't just to lock the guy down. The point is to get a sweep. I've got a contrarian attitude, so I'm always looking for twist back types of sweeps, and got one very nicely Monday night after faking in the "tackle" direction. To make my half-guard sweeps more effective, though, I need to make that tackle move more credible. The key detail is to secure the lockdown side underhook and COME UP ON THE INSIDE ELBOW AND KNEE. That needs to be the next thing I start focusing on whenever I find myself in the half-guard.
I still need to keep working into half guard and practicing the lockdown. That's the key, initial step. Fighting for the double underhooks, thanks to our no gi classes, is pretty automatic. Let's start to focus on that elbow escape, as well.
