I managed to get on the mat Monday and Tuesday nights this week. It's been an off week in some respects, with my ankle still giving me problems and a few sore knuckles on the hand on the same side that have made it difficult to write and type. I'd hoped to train Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday since I was going to be busy Thursday night. But I felt a little too beat up Wednesday night to roll in and, as a result, ended up with only two days of training this past week.
Monday night was some good work, starting from standing. My footing was a little ginger, I worked mostly uchi matas to avoid having to change levels dramatically. Uchi matas, arm drags and a few feeble duck unders. From there we did some open guard rolling, movement and position stuff for the most part, and I focused pretty much on Rodrigo's heel 'n' hook open guard.
During some specific work, I felt a little bit off my game. Specifically, my good side half guard was coming up short. I was having a hard time getting control of both the legs after getting in deep. Now I figure that the problem was that I was still too much on my back and not enough on my side, which would have allowed me to reach farther around with my underhook/outside arm to better secure the lower legs.
Tuesday night we worked some techniques from closed guard: triangle to omoplatas mostly off the Rap Star. The specific lockflow was, from Rap Star, choke, triangle when he defends with the opposite hand, then omoplata when he tries to pass by coming around the side. Rodrigo emphasized escaping your hips to the outside after you secure the arm in the omoplata. That way you put more pressure on the shoulder and inhibit the roll/jump over escape.
Some good training. I rolled forever with Steve Monday night and Mike Tuesday night. My stuff sweep out of half guard is definitely something I want to keep working on since I'm having some success there. And I need to make sure that I'm bringing my right side half guard up to speed on the basics. Another half guard note is to make sure that I turn on my side even - if not especially - when I'm deep in half guard. That is what will allow me to get the leg lock I need to work the Old School/Twist Back double attack.
