A solid warmup with sitouts added for extra measure.
The coursework was sweeps out of the X-guard as a counter to a blocked hook sweep from the Cobra guard (one knee up and one down in attacking butterfly guard mode). The prompt is when the guy steps out with his leg to avoid getting swept from a basic hook sweep.
To start the sweep, dive under the step out leg with an X-guard style underhook under the knee. At the same time, lift up with your hook. Assuming that you had your other arm around the back grabbing the belt, transfer that grip to the ankle of the leg that you are foot-hooking and hold that lock Fugitive style.
Rodrigo emphasized this point. The sweep you use depends on where the guy's weight is. If you get a good hook and underhook, then there's a chance that the guy will fall forward more than remain standing. In this case you want to help him keep moving forward.
To do this, you bring your inside knee in - sort of a double Fugitive on the leg. Bring your lower leg up and step on the leg, so that you have a stomp on one side and the hook from your top leg's foot on the other, with both feet putting pressure on the leg. Stretch the guy out by extending your legs and posturing - lifting your underhook farther away.
To finish the sweep. Put your free arm on the ground. Take your hook off and plant that foot on the mat. Bring your other leg back underneath (a sort of reverse sit out) you as you stand up on your plant foot and drive into the guy's leg with your underhook.
The other sweep was for guys with good balance or if your dive and hook doesn't move him very much (bigger guy, for example). Here, since he is likely sitting a bit to keep his balance, it will be easier to take him backwards..
From the double Fugitive position, you want take your bottom leg and hook it behind his leg at the ankle. I'll need to ask Rodrigo about the positioning of your top leg, if you just use the knee to keep pressure or remove that leg in preparation for the move to the top. Like the kimura sweep, you want to recenter your body so that you aren't on your side. This will also make it easier to transition to the top.
In any event, from here, with the guy stretched out, it should be fairly easy to kick that leg out from under him with your bottom leg. As he falls back, sweep that leg aside (to the inside) and move to the pass.
I'd like to work on it some more - a lot more. The guy I was working with had a hard time maintaining his balance, so I didn't get as much of a chance to work the second version as I'd like. That said, I like these X-guard type of sweeps a lot. They go well with sitting guards. I'll be sure to get a refresher tomorrow.
Tatame was short but sweet. I rolled with a blue belt Ben who was very tough out of the half guard, especially with his lockdown. I've really been struggling to pass the half guard lately, but I still think I'm only a week or two from getting on track with my basic pass series of the knee cross, watchdog wedge, and cross wedge. But I need to reverse engineer the lockdown, which is joining the crossface as my major nemesis (nemises?) in the world of the half guard.
Also tried to work some old school armlock from the guard. I managed to get a weird reverse crossover sweep out of it. But what was really nice was playing with the attack, getting the arm attack, the stomp on the hip ... I did a horrible job of taking an angle. But it was the most aggressive that I've ever been out of the basic closed guard. I need to keep at it. I might end up with a closed guard game after all.
167.4 in the standard gi before class. Just at the IBJJF limit for lightweights (167.5). 158.0 after training without the gi.
