Managed to get on the mat for some pre-tournament training on Friday.
I like the way that Rodrigo has been running classes in the month or so leading up to the Revolution. We warm-up with squats, pushups, jumping jacks, chokes and oblique situps, but the conditioning has switched to 8 minutes of stand-up work focusing on grips and foot sweeps. I think this will really pay off in July, especially for the white and blue belts. I'm looking forward to seeing if this will be a big edge.
The instructional was the same thing we've been working on this week: passing the spider guard. Rodrigo showed us two alternate tactics: scooping both hands under the calves and rolling the guy over his shoulder, and scooping both hands on top of the legs and, after a quick lift, driving them down to the mat and leaning in with the inside shoulder (the pass I used to call "The Butler", but is probably more accurately the Watchdog pass since Watchdog is the end position.
One thing I was especially proud of in training with J.M. was that when we did specific sparring, I made sure to use the same spider guard that we had been working on earlier in class. It's another one of those basic, basic things that can make a world of difference over a few months, both in terms of practicing new techniques live to see how they might fit in your game, as well as helping others train against techniques they may seen elsewhere in training or competition.
I also got to roll with Bryan, who was one of my key sparring partners a year ago when I was training more regularly on Fridays. He's a really good person for me to work with also - very close in size and skill. It's another reason to try and make Friday training a regular part of the schedule. Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday training would be a pretty good way to make it through the week. And I may have just made the necessary adjustments to make it so.
