Today we worked again on a half guard replacement from the turtle position. This was the one where you stiff arm one leg at the knee, straighten your leg on the same side (shoot it straight back) and then sit out as if you were doing a wrestler's switch, using the grip at the knee for leverage.
We also did a guard replacement after side control escape. The side control escape was the same one that Rodrigo showed us a few days ago: legs bent and together, swing into the guy for momentum then swing your legs away, plant your feet and bridge from a 45 degree angle or so ...
Rather than do the drop step move to the knees, Rodrigo had us do this guard replacement. What you did was swing your farthest away leg up and over the guy's head so that it lands on the far shoulder, with the crook of your knee on his shoulder. With your inside leg, you want to tuck it in between your body and his, hooking your foot on his side with your knee pointing out (sort of a reverse knee block, a shin hook ...).
Your grips from this position are to grab the pants at the knee on the same side that your knee is pointing out and to grab the sleeve at the elbow on the other side (the side with the slung knee).
It wasn't the easiest guard for me to get into. But there is a lot of control from this position and a ton of sweeps. One that Rodrigo showed Stephen and I that was especially nice had you do a cross grip (release the elbow and get the sleeve at the wrist on the knee side) and bow out, kicking with your shin hook and pulling with your grips. You have to go almost face down to get the sweep. But if you keep your grips and just walk your body backwards after the sweep, you're likely to get a nice top position.
Some good stuff. Tatame had two features that really stood out. One was the lapel rope counter to the knee cross pass against my half guard. I did this three or so times in one spar late in the session and managed to avoid the pass every time. I think I even got a sweep in an instance or two. The lapel rope counter is something that I saw in Saulo's book - only Saulo was showing how to avoid it. Reverse engineering that example, I think I've found a major keeper for my half guard.
I've been working on the far side with the half guard, trying to get chokes, maintain a nice frame with the high half to keep the guy's weight off of me. It's a real work in progress. But one thing that worked very well today was to pass that far arm (sort of the Aesopian kung fu move toward the outside leg) and then reach over with my inside arm and get a good grip around his back at the waist. From here, I can essentially do a sort of crossover sweep, pulling with the grip and rotating my hips. I ended up in a watchdog half guard position on top. Another major keeper.
I'm also starting to see some success with the Flat pass, and doing better about avoiding getting caught in half guard. That said, I'm trying to make sure I take opportunities to stand against the guard and work on my balance and pass "approach."
Back back on the cardio bandwagon today before training. We'll see how it works out, but I'm going to commit to getting back on the treadmill at least twice a week. I'm doing 30 and 45 minute sessions with my heart rate in the 120s - which is exactly what my resting heart rate was at the end of training today. It was foolish to abandon it last fall. Hopefully I'll stick to it this time.
158.0 on the scale after class. Much more like it.
