Another good night on the mats. Rodrigo had us working on triangle chokes again, both the hip openers as well as the triangle solo drill.
I think I might have had another breakthrough, or at least half-breakthrough, on my triangle choke problems. I've solved one problem by making a habit out of catching my shin with my hand first, before adjusting the angle and throwing on the other leg to lock the choke in. I think it's a crucial move for folks like myself with relatively short legs.
The half-breakthrough was the importance of stepping on the hip and really rotating to a near perpendicular angle to attack with the leg. My closed guard is really very weak, and one of the reasons why is because I never adjust the angle of my hips. I have a terrible habit of remaining straight up, which makes my guard a lot less dangerous.
Stepping on the hip makes it very easy to get an angle. And stepping on the hip and using that momentum to both get your hips up and spin into the attack is a great, great way to get that angle. It's really something I ought to work on more consistently when sparring.
It helped most to think about getting my head over to the side, instead of thinking about swinging or pivoting my body, per se. They say where the head goes the body will follow. If it helps me develop a halfway decent closed guard, then I'll take it.
And as if Rodrigo were reading my mind, the second technique was the knee-through guard pass. I couldn't be more grateful.
The key elements Rodrigo focused on where:
1. the penetration step, a step with the same leg that will do the knee-through
2. getting the underhook on the side opposite the one you are passing
3. getting the overhook on the side that you are passing, cupping the elbow and lifting
4. using your inside shoulder to apply the main downward pressure
5. kicking through with the inside/knee-through leg and pulling up on your under/overhooks
We worked this pass both against the open guard and the closed guard when the guy sits up from a wedge guard break, for example.
The key is the penetration step and getting the inside shoulder, almost like you are a defensive end trying to outmaneuver a hulking offensive tackle (full disclosure: I'm watching the first quarter of the FedEx BCS Championship between Florida and Oklahoma on DVR, 0-0, life is good).
I found it helpful to focus on the underhook, but I think the danger there is that is might encourage you to be squared up against the guy instead of turning a bit so that your inside shoulder hits his chest before your chest ever does.
Sparring was good. I rolled with Clint and Benny, the blue belt from San Diego. More on that in "Straight Outta Tatame" sometime later this week. For now, suffice to say that I feel like my top game is very close to being back where it was when I was training regularly this fall. I've added some half guard elements that are also working. Not as much progress on moth guard or Rap Star. I'll have to keep looking for opportunities to work those guards. There was some surprising success with the sitting guard. Again, more on that in the weekly wrap up.
