Beginner's class tonight with Rodrigo - and my last before I take another week off to spend with Rebecca's parent who are in town for a few days (a tradition we've kept since moving here from Tucson). Course work focused on the ankle pick - another key, key piece of what needs to be a part of my takedown game. I really like the ankle pick. For some reason, it seems to fit me better than the wrestler's shoot, which I've been trying to incorporate to no avail. The ankle pick assumes the lapel grips, which are what stymie my shoots typically. And I suspecct by attacking with that lapel grip early and keeping my opponent dancing on the end of it, I'll have the advantage of a deliberate takedown game, the ability to take the initiative or play defense against an especially aggressive competitor.
I think it was Grappler's Guide creator Jayschuls who said that he used his jiu jitsu training log to focus on answering specific questions that arise out of training. Right now, I want to think of what I learn as potential building blocks for my game: the 101 Tuesday night, the ankle pick tonight ... I've got index cards with these takedowns on them, 1-2-3-4 step flash cards that break down each move into easy to remember, one-word commands. I need to make sure I spend some quality time with them between now and July.
Another aspect of training tonight was working against the open guard and defending the pass from the sitting guard. We worked at less than 50%, and it was really good training to be able to slow down and focus on the technical aspect of what you are doing. The open guard pass that really seemed to work well for me was the one I used to call the Butler, though I had some good success with the step around, knee to belly toreano, as well. Again, I need to make these moves a mainstay of practice.
Tatame was good. I'm trying to refine the Ezekiel to make it as clean as possible. A clean Ezekiel is one of those most beautiful chokes in jiu jitsu. A dirty one is worse than getting one at all - at least in training. I was doing a bit better job of switching from mount to S-mount, but I'm not establishing the choke grip in the collar until after I make the S-mount transition, and that's too late because I tend to miss getting under the arm.
A good class. I ended up buying an official GB gi tonight after frustration with my ripped patches at reached its limit. Rodrigo was able to give me a great price in part because he had bought a few gis awhile back and had one left. I'd been nervous about getting a non-HCK gi, since I was so sensitive about sleeve length. But this A2 is just a tiny bit big, which means that a little laundering might make it close to perfect.
