I won’t pretend that my half guard game is Eddie Bravo like. But I like to believe that I can at least use it to slow down the attack of higher belts. As I wrote a little while back, I still have some basic mechanics that I need to improve on, like coming up on the inside knee for tackles and getting the proper foot/leg positioning for twists …
But all that said, I didn’t expect to see my half-guard game get blown up the way it was last night.
Smallish class, as normal of late … We did some intense throwing drills (in part to keep warm in that warehouse, I’m sure) and then went straight into four-on-one sparring. I ended up rolling with Jesse the Purple, Maggie, a big white belt just starting whose name I can’t remember (Cliff? Kyle?), and Mario, who is making his comeback. Both Jesse and Maggie blew through my half-guard lockdown almost as if it wasn’t there. One thing I noticed that both of them did well was twist their hips and move their bodies to “unscrew” their trapped leg from my lockdown.
Believe it or not, but there are higher belts that struggle (relatively speaking) to get out of a tight lockdown. This also leads me to a story that might help me figure out what to do with guys (and gals) who know just how to counter the lockdown.
I was rolling with Chris Cerna. He asked Mamazinho what he thought the best way to beat the lockdown was. Mamazinho said that the trick was to stretch the guy out, flatten him out, to take away his leverage and make it easier to pass. Neither Jesse nor Maggie needed to do this to get past my half-guard last night. But thinking of Mamazinho’s advice gives me the idea that when somebody is twisting to get out of my lockdown, I need to bunch up (I should be trying to get small anyway …) tighter around that trapped leg and look to sweep from there.
I still need to think and train this out. But I’m thinking that they should be vulnerable to a sweep on the side of the trapped leg (i.e., a twist attack). A tackle might work on somebody smaller. But driving them toward the opposite leg seems like a waste of energy. Maybe if I can catch them with Old School that might not be the case, but I’ve had no luck catching anyone with that sweep.
Another thing I might try from here is to take-the-back. This might also set up a tackle insofar as if the guy turns away from me (inside shoulder in, outside shoulder back) to avoid the rear mount, that will make it easier for them to be swept with a tackle.
All for now. Off to class.
