The new routine for Monday nights - with the Bellevue school opening officially tonight- is for Lindsey to teach a beginner class from 5 - 6 pm. Then a little sparring for about 30 minutes, then an open mat.
It's a nice way to ease into the training week - though Lindsey's warm-up was plenty rigorous and the sparring (first specific guard work, then the open mat) certainly got the blood flowing (and the pounds dropping, I was 160.4 after training, an excellent Monday number given that Super Bowl Sunday was a little over 24 hours in the rearview).
We started off working armlocks from the guard. Get the grip in deep, control the sleeve, foot in the hip on the target arm side, twist, lift and lock.
From there, Lindsey had us work on a sweep from the armlock if the guy defends by grabbing his arm. Here you reach under his near leg with your formerly-choking hand and underhook the near leg. Pull that leg in close to your head, and use your twist leg to help unbalance and topple the guy over into the sweep.
We also worked on some standup. Lindsey always talks about what works for him, which gives an added realness since students - especially white belts - will get to see him compete using many of the same techniques. The standup was the knee pick off the clinch.
Some of the little details included using your head as a wedge between the guy's head, neck and shoulder. This additionally helps maintain space and keep you from getting too winded in the clinch. It also helps lower your upper body, making it easier to get the knee pick.
Taking the guy to the ground off the pick, the idea is to step in and sweep the standing leg our from under him. As you take the guy to the ground, make sure to drop your leg over his near leg in a knee pin - and sit on it to keep it heavy.
From here Lindsey took us right into the guard pass. With the knee pin planted, bring up your other leg so that you are trapping his hips (legs up). With the arm on the opposite side of the pin, underhook the leg and dive your head down to his abdomen. This will help keep your weight down.
It might even help to tip your head farther over the guy's body, as if to put your face on the mat, if it makes it easier to keep your weight down. This is one of the main areas of difficulty I had in this pass, keeping my weight down. For somebody with a tight, smothering game, this is definitely something to work on.
Reach up with your other arm and hook the head. You are going to make the guy do the splits as you pull him tighter and then backstep, adjusting your knee pin accordingly so you can rotate into the backstep, and into passing the guard.
A very nice set of techniques and very similar to the way Rodrigo builds up a lesson for the day. Lindsey's Monday classes should be fun.
I missed last weekend's Straight Outta Tatame. In the event I fall short again this week, I'll just note that one nice thing about Mondays will be that I will get to roll with a lot of white belts and should be able to really hone my technique. I felt a little awkward Monday night and hence retreated to half guard during the guard specific instead of exploring moth guard or Rap Star. Like I said before, at least through the March tournament, I'm just not going to beat myself up over resorting to the half guard so much. That is the guard that will make or break things for me in March, so tightening it up in the 4-5 weeks before taking it "live" is hardly something to be ashamed about.
I did hear last week that the tournament will be in Bonney Lake, which likely means a day-in weigh-in for most of us who don't live way out. Not being able to eat on Friday, and then having to drive to Bonney Lake Saturday morning on an empty stomach does not thrill me in the slightest. It makes it all the more important to keep my weight down at or below 160 so that the dive to 154 during Week Eight will be as painless as possible.
