There were a number of things that I didn't do well in preparation for the Friendly. Most immediately, I didn't get in a warm-up roll before competing. I've figured out that it's essential and I remember the sinking feeling I had went I got upstairs and saw Sauleh warming up. The couple of folks I asked to roll weren't interested or had already warmed up, and it helped put me off balance.
That explains I why I did so much better training after the competition. I was never a big warm-up person, especially when I was younger and felt like it was a waste of time. But grappling is a certain shock on the body, and it helps to pre-treat the body with a little light rolling before expecting it to perform at any thing near peak performance on the mat.
So if that means arriving earlier or approaching perfect strangers, I'm just going to have to do it. And not just working up a sweat, but actually rolling, exchanging position, getting the jiu jitsu motor running.
My ankle is bugging me more than it should. I wonder if the fact that I backed off the treadmill and Berardi work has caught up with me. I'm certainly putting a lot of that back into my workout during the week over the next six weeks between now and the Revolution event in November.
I also need to work on passing the guard. I got to the point where I was comfortable opening the closed guard more often than not, stumbling into half guard, and then working from there. But what I need is a concept of passing the guard, an idea of what I fundamentally want to do to get there from here.
That's how I build a half guard game that - at least on one side - I'm pretty comfortable with against anybody: Get the underhook. Defend with the paw. Get small as possible. Control the outside foot. Old School or Twist Back depending on his momentm.
I'm even feeling more and more comfortable defending my guard, especially using the moth guard with the knees - though I'm still not attacking with the sweeps like I should.
But I've allowed my guard passing game to stall. I got stuck in Bruce's closed guard for what seemed like an eternity the other night. I was completely shut down. I've got to get back to whatever my basics are going to be.
To a lesser extent, this is also true with my mount escape - which was unfortunately called into emergency service this morning at the "Friendly". If I want to get back to half guard as the end goal of my mount escape, then I need to set up the mount escape to take me in that direction.
And though it should go without saying, empty stomach training is a bad idea. Competing on an empty stomach competing is worse. I've allowed my diet to slide this week - culminating in Thursday night's grotesque 162.4 post-train weigh-in. Fortunately, I was 158.0 after training today. With six weeks to go, I'd rather spend my time on this side of 160 rather than the other side.
I think I'm going to work on toreano passes with some dedication, backing out of the guard if need be in order to work a fully standing pass. I think I'm comfortable enough with my half guard pass to let it go a little bit and focus on a new guard passing "game." And given the opposition, the toreano is the way to go.
The two passes I want to focus are the Butler and the Bogart, stretching the legs and going in with the shoulder on the one hand, and the step-through to knee on belly on the other. With the bail-out to half guard always an option. If I can get these passes working over the next few weeks, then this might be the Top Game Improvement of the Year for 2008.
