For the beginner class, we worked on a lot of the same material from Tuesday's training: mount to S-mount transition, armlock from S-mount, and the "jump" triangle from the closed guard.
I worked with Dominic, a blue belt I hadn't worked with before. He was a good new trading partner. One thing I had wanted to work on tonight was that sort of momentary "open guard" set up before launching into the triangle: collar and sleeve, pushing off the hip with the sleeve side or inside leg and, as you roll onto your sleeve side (inside hip), cocking your off or far leg back.
I don't know why I never recognized this movement for what it was. It is essentially what frees your hip to make a real, rolling, full leg attack on the guy's neck. I've still got to drill it - and even then I don't anticipate ever becoming a triangle machine. But having a halfway decent triangle is a must - and starting to really train that collar/sleeve/hip open guard position will go a long way in that direction, as well as a few others, I'm sure.
Tatame okay. About a C. I struggled to pass the guard during the specific training (then again I went up against Casey twice, Dominic and Jason/Garcia), but at least in the beginning I was doing some level changing. I think fatigue played a huge part, especially late when the sparring part of training was winding down. My cardio is still not back up to speed after missing two weeks; hopefully just another week will take care of that.
