Thursday night is turning into take-down/stand-up night, which is fine with me. Rodrigo had us do a counter to the collar grab that transitioned into a shoot and either a leg trip, a single leg or a double leg takedown.
The idea is that when he grabs your lapel - and we're assuming he grabs the right collar and doesn't make the mistake of reaching across his body - you want bring your elbow up in and tight and, while twisting inward, bring your elbow down sharply (and tightly) to break the grip.
As you come down with the elbow, you want to step deep to the outside of his leg with your outside leg and go to your inside knee, reaching up and wrapping the leg with your inside arm.
From there you can do a couple of takedowns. One in particular that Rodrigo had us do involved wrapping your outside leg around the leg you were attacking with your inside arm. Lean into the guy and bring that wrapped leg in tight for the takedown.
When Rodrigo was showing us the variations with Shawn, the brown belt from Alaska, he actually did a nice throw that I can't quite remember and will have to ask him to show again.
The sparring wasn't bad. I rolled with two white belts, both of whom had a little size. It's good to start working more with the bigger guys, especially if I'm going to compete at 155-169.9 in March. I had a good tough roll with Clint and was pretty much worn out for the night after that.
The north-south choke attack off the kimura from side control is starting to really feel natural. I definitely like moving to north-south to get away from those leggy guards. It really fits into the basic set of what I feel comfortable with from the top position, which probably explains why I'm having a good time integrating it into the mix.
On the downside, I had some great opportunities to work butterfly guard tonight and just forgot. This is the perfect time to develop my butterfly guard came, with the next tournament more than three months away (though there will be a Friendly in January and again in February). So I've got to do a bit better with that. The basic rocking sweep set-up that Rodrigo showed us Tuesday night is a good place to start.
