A big class tonight, with lots of white belts, first-class people and, by the end of the evening, a couple of black belts, as well. Plenty in between: Pat, Jared, Nate, Nick, Angela, Jason/Garcia, Wellington, Clint, Benny ...
Rodrigo had us working on guard passing all night. I thought I heard him say that we were going to work on guard passing every day until the tournament. I couldn't be happier if that's the case.
The coursework was the passing of the spider guard. Importantly, for the guy on the bottom, the spider guard comes as a result of getting your guard opened up. In order to stay ahead, you switch to the spider guard inserting the bottom foot first. Rodrigo explained this a few days ago. By inserting the bottom foot first, you prevent the guy from doing a knee pin/Fowler pass. You might stop him if you spider with the top leg first. But using the bottom leg to spider and THEN the upper leg will immediately stop the problem of the ground pass.
It's also a nice set-up for the moth guard sweep, "low pass."
From the top, the passes were (1) stepping back, scooping under the calves and then stepping forward and rolling the guy heels over head. Here, you want to make sure you stay close, with as much body to body contact as possible, to avoid the guy rolling away from you.
There was also (2) which was the pass we switched to when the guard player switched to a DLR hook on one leg while spidering the other arm. Here, you step back with the leg on the spidered side, then as you step back forward, swing your body inward toward his, turning perpendicular. At the same time that you do that, you want to reach behind the spidering leg with your opposite hand and push the legs away from you and to the mat. Again, keep as much body to body contact as you can all the way down.
This time, Rodrigo added a sweep for the guy on the bottom. The steps of the sweep from the DLR guard are: hip, heel, collar, hook, pull, kick.
1. From spider guard, put one foot on the hip and stretch the guy out.
2. Take your other foot and insert it like a DLR hook, but behind hooking behind his heel. Your foot should be on the mat.
3. Change the grip on the guy's sleeve on your hipside to cross collar
4. Remove your hip foot and hook it inside-to-out under the thigh of the DLR'd leg.
5. From here, pull him on to you and, squeezing the leg and pulling the sleeve on the DLR side, kick with your legs and flip him to the outside.
Tatame was fair. I'd say a "gentleman's C". My half guard game feels rough, and I can't tell if I'm slipping or if guys are just getting more and more accustomed to it. If I can get to my spots, then I get to my spots. But I feel a little as if I'm really having to work harder to get to them these days.
From the top, I won't go so far as to say that I took a step backwards in my SRO policy. But I didn't follow up on Monday's workman-like performance as The Guard Passer like I should have. I've still got a bit of the vertigo and could really use a couple more sessions this week to build on what I started on Monday in terms of the SRO.
When I commit to SRO and to the Flat Pass, I have some pretty good success. I've still got balance issues in both instances. But I was impressed by what gravity can do for you when you are standing and trying to get a knee pinned to the mat. I also finally managed to open the ankles TECHNICALLY in the Flat Pass. "Chim" is right about how you can feel how the ankles are locked and then use your leg to open them. Where I struggle is in establishing a base that doesn't make me feel vulnerable to being swept backwards. May be time for another "death cycle" ...
SRO is SRO. When I want it and work for it, I get it. One thing I do need to do is move my control from the upper chest to the hips, and to step back to make the angle harder for the guard player to deal with. I'm hanging in there with what I'm doing now: grabbing the collar and squatting a bit to avoid the double leg bump sweep, for example. And like I said, it has been impressive to see it work when it works. But I'm not quite at a "go to" level of confidence with any one particular approach, at least not yet.
That's a nice goal for the week: to work on switching my grips lower to control the hips, and to step back into that "athletic pose" as Saulo calls it.
156.4 on the scale after training. I had rice and beans (and chicken) for breakfast, which was a Gracie Diet Rule Double Carb no-no. But it doesn't look like I was penalized for it. I'm not sure if I'll be able to train on Friday as planned, which means it might make sense to train tomorrow night as a precaution so I get at least three gi sessions in for the week (and I'm overdue for getting back to Cindy's no gi Thursdays ...)
DVR'd the Ms interleague game against the Padres and I'm just now seeing the local boys load the bases. No runs scored in the bottom of the first. Let's see if we can get a run or two.
