Week Three begins tomorrow. The next four weeks should be the most intense in my prep for the event in March. Training four times a week is my goal, as is adding Tuesday morning workouts.
From a gameplanning standpoint, there are a couple things I really need to focus on. My half guard sweeps, for example, have to be more automatic, more "go." Rodrigo made a comment a few weeks back when we were talking about Demian Maia's fight against Nate Quarry (which I happened to see again last night). Rodrigo was emphasizing how Maia went directly for the sweep as soon as he got half guard, instead of waiting around. Whether Rodrigo meant it or not, I thought about my problems with "hanging out" in the half guard instead of being more aggressive. That's something to fix over the next few weeks.
There are a couple of approaches to passing the guard that I'm feeling comfortable with. And a couple that I want to try, especially the switch against knee block guards. There's a good argument that my success in March will hinge around my ability to pass the guard. Actually, that's probably true about my jiu jitsu in general. So this area is an area to tighten up.
From the top, as I wrote in the last Straight Outta Tatame post, I need to get back to controlling and attacking from north south. Working on the arm triangle from mount wouldn't be a bad idea - especially if I end up doing more no gi. But for now, focus on north south armlocks and kimuras.
The real key is going to be focused training. A lot can get accomplished in a relatively short amount of time if the focus is there. Four weeks should be enough time if I spend it right.
