Well, what can you do? In some ways, tonight's training was a lot like the old days. Poor hip movement from the guard, entirely too difficult time breaking posture, a fairly half-assed half-guard ...
But in some ways maybe I'm learning how to make the best of a so-so session. PTMU wasn't too bad--even though I was paired a few times with heavier guys that I really didn't want to lift. Even when I didn't PTMU, I stood to deal with the guard, using a sort of thrusting choke to keep the bottom guy's shoulders pinned to the mat. I think Clint managed to sweep me down once from that position, but we came up neutral: no pass for me, no sweep points for him.
Speaking of Clint, he caught me in two armbars, one pretty conventional, the other pretty "where-the-hell-did-that-come-from?" I've been caught by his triangles, but not too many of his armbars. Good for him.
Near the end of the work day, I kept reminding myself to go over the blog and review some of the things I've been working (and meaning to work) on. Even though I only missed one day of practice last week (and no gi practice, at that), a part of me felt a little like it had been a month since I last trained. Jiu jitsu is definitely a "contact" sport--and part of that "contact" is regular training. As I've argued here and elsewhere, there is a multiplier effect the more often you train. I'm willing to bet that a person gets more out of training four days in a row than they do with four sessions scattered over two weeks.
I should probably make this an errata item. But I'm having a hard time breaking the posture of these big guys. I've been practicing pulling guard, or even half guard during sparring out of the so-called Marcelinho guard, mostly as a way to get the game started quickly and spend less time pushing back and forth from the knees. Fine enough. But I'm not doing the things I need to do to break the posture of bigger guys like Mike, Jeff and James.
There are some tips in The Essential Guard I'll look over tomorrow. There are also some guard replacement ideas for dealing with knee on belly, which is still a weak spot. A part of my problem with knee on belly, truth told, is in not fighting the side control from whence the monster known as knee on belly comes.
I have a bad tendency to wait and react, rather than push an agenda on the mat. That's one thing I love about that Werdum v. Lindland match I've been so obsessed with. Werdum just goes after Lindland. Judo armlock. Pendulum sweep. Kimura. Crossover sweep. Judo armlock. Kimura. Crossover sweep. I don't think I'll ever be a real guard player, but I can appreciate that there is something really magical about watching an aggressive guard player attack.
We actually worked on the pendulum sweep tonight. I'm going to stop calling it Rodrigo's cradle since I know better. I threw one at Clint during sparring that didn't go too far, but I'm glad I at least did it. Mamazinho was on the side, exhorting us to experiment, to try the "move of the day" and save the defensive stuff for the tournament. He couldn't be more right about that. And I'm finally starting to feel like the rest of me is ready to belive him.
