Managed to make it on the mat for a Friday training today. It was good to see some of the folks you never get to see during the late class like Bryan and Elliott, though there were plenty of night owls there too, like Brock, Andrew, JM ...
We worked on the same techniques that had dominated the week's instruction: the single leg and the single leg counter/escape. We didn't do the roll counter, but instead did the Leite pass, palming the upper abdomen as you take a penetration step between the legs, then stuffing the leg in between yours up and inside, while either backstepping your trapped leg out and sinking into a watchdog-type side control or backstepping out just enough to switch stances and go right to knee on belly.
The Leite pass works very well with what I've been trying to do against the open guard using that stance that Saulo talks about. I should have the option to knee cross or to drop into the hammer and backstep, along with the Leite pass. It's really something to focus on over the next few weeks.
I also noticed that I might actually be able to do the Leite pass easier going to my right than my left. This would mean attacking most guy's weaker side. Again, the proof of the jiu jitsu is in the mat time, so I need to make sure I try this out and see if it sticks.
Tatame was short but sweet. Nothing especially impressive from my end, though I am continuing to be vulnerable to guillotine attacks when I get lazy in (not-so) deep half guard. When the guy puts his hands down to choke, I need to grab on of them and use it as a yoke to get the sweep. That, and keeping my head tighter against the body, my arm lower around the leg not the waist ...
A pretty good, workman-like practice. Sort of "getting my hours in" type of training. I'm going to spend some time this weekend working on my gameplan, trying to get some of my technical focus back. My cardio is starting to improve, thankfully. But I don't feel like I'm getting the sort of technical improvement that I should given the amount of mat time I've been putting in (4x/week for the past three weeks). Then again, considering I'd been out sick for the two weeks before that, maybe I'm right where I'm supposed to be (2.6x/week for the past five weeks).
