Stephen led Wednesday's class, with Rodrigo on vacation. He had me do the warm-ups, and I took the opportunity to take us once around the track lightly, as it were. One of these days, I'll have my own jiu jitsu conditioning class and I'll get to do some of the routines I'm working on for myself. In the meanwhile, it's all about the squats, pushups and crunches.
Steve's instructional was simple but something I'm definitely going to be looking for when it comes to guard passing. Essentially it's a push-stuff move where you've got both grips on the knees and you want to drive one leg/knee back toward the guy's face (the push), while pushing the other knee laterally across (the stuff).
The push is the critical part. That's what get the guy back on the small of his back and more vulnerable to being moved. After all, that's where he wants to be when he's attacking from the guard, for example. But when used against the guy, it gives us the opportunity to spin him around.
So, push with the one knee grip and then "stuff" the other knee underneath, across your body. As you do this, you want to twist your body, toreano-style, lowering your shoulder into the guy's hip as you pass the guard.
It's a real basic "concept" kind of pass, the kind that you can leverage into a lot of different situations. It's not as acrobatic as the Leite passes I've been working on, which is a plus.
Tatame was brief but intense. I rolled with Nate for about 20-25 minutes or so. It was pure survival mode, as I fought off a barrage of chokes for nearly the whole time. I would have liked to have been more effective with guard replacement, or even half guard replacement. The roll reminded me of my last roll with Lindsey in some ways. I wasn't "successful" in any conventional sense. But I negotiated the "survival" and (to a lesser degree) "escape" modes fairly well. The next step is to have a guard that keeps me from being so often in survival and escape modes against bigger and better guys.
Probably should have stuck around for another roll after taking a breather. But I'd done some LSD work earlier in the day (4.26 miles) and was starting to feel it after rolling with Nate. That and the fact that after a brutal northwest winter, the long days and sun are calling to me like the days of old back in Tucson. If it keeps this up, I'll be lucky to make it on the mat before the full 3-day weekend euphoria kicks in.
