Tonight's training was a beginner version of Monday's night's training. We worked the same open guard set-ups and sweeps. But instead of pulling guard, we just worked them as open guard attacks on a standing opponent.
I worked with DG, a welterweight sized blue belt I remember from some time in the past. A very good guy to train with. We developed a nice three-count for all the set-ups that made it a lot easier for me to remember the steps. One of the things that I still have a hard time with is remembering the basic 1-2-3 of different moves. Having a three-count, even if you need an extra "four", is one way to keep things in mind.
For example, "one", the open guard with the hook was:
Starting from double sleeve control and feet on hips.
1. Switch to cross sleeve grip
2. Kick off with the sleeve side foot in hip, opening up guard wide and cup the sleeve side ankle
3. Insert hook behind far side knee or ankle
To switch to the balloon sweep from here:
1. Remove cup and take sleeve side grip
2. Grab far side collar, remove hook and put far side foot on hip
3. Pull on sleeve and collar and bend legs to load, lift to sweep
And to switch to "three":
1. Switch to cross sleeve grip
2. Cup ankle, push off hip with legs to "sit" on his sleeve side foot
3. De la Riva hook with your sleeve side leg while pushing on the hip with your far side leg
We worked on these for awhile, back and forth, at faster and faster speeds. I never use these kind of leggy open guards. But they really seemed to feel not-so-bad tonight. The trick, of course, will be working them in to my training - which I've not ever really done consistently.
Some good tatame tonight. Rolled with "Garcia" for the first time in months, if ever. It will be nice to have him back training regularly. I also rolled with a newer white belt I didn't recognize and tried to work some moth guard and long half. It was a little sloppy. I really need to review my moth guard sweeps.
Feeling pretty good. My shoulder has a few aches, but probably feels better now than it did earlier in the day. I did do some resistance work, all pulling motions, and I think I benefitted from not supersetting the bent-over overhand rows and the bent-over underhand rows and the alt curls and hammer curls. I really think it was the hammer curls that did it this time.
The plan is to train Thursday night and Saturday morning. I weighed in at 163.4 after training, which is heavy, obviously. But I think I'm not going to worry about my weight during this "End of Year" 8-week training stretch. Nothing over 165 will be acceptable. But aside from that, I want to train, build up my shoulders a bit, eat normally and maybe mix in a little cardio once a week (when I'm not doing jiu jitsu four times a week).
