By all accounts, Tuesday was one of the best training sessions I've had in awhile, better even than the Friday training before the July Revolution. My energy was good, my focus through the drilling was on target and, most importantly, I used standing guard passes every single time during sparring.
All told, that amounted to about 8 minutes of trying to pass the guard from standing. The cheat-sequence I'd worked on the night before the tournament (stand-squat-WAIT-grip-step-BREAK) was the one I used most of the time, and it worked like a charm. The trick for me is getting comfortable in a standing base (the "WAIT") before going through with the guard opening attack. So far so good on that.
Rodrigo had us working on three different reversals from the sitting guard - or a guard against the guy with the knee in the middle.
Number 1
From double sleeve control in the closed guard. Your guard opens and he puts the knee in the middle.
1. Wrap your left leg around his upleg in a sitting guard fashion. Put your right foot in the hip to keep him at a distance.
2. Grab his left sleeve with your right hand and pass it under his upleg to your other hand.
3. After you switch the grip, grab the collar and change from foot on hip to foot on knee.
4. Pull on the collar and push on the knee. As you come to the top, make sure that you come down on the guy's near leg as he falls over. You might have to rise up a little bit to make sure that you come DOWN on the leg.
Number 2
From double sleeve control in the closed guard. Your guard opens and he puts the knee in the middle.
1. You try the first sweep but he sits down on his down leg, making him hard to move.
2. Do a hip split switch, swinging your left leg out and swinging your right leg in behind the up leg.
3. Switch your hips back to the outside, trapping and extending the guy's leg as you move into side control.
Number 3
From double sleeve control in the closed guard. Your guard opens and he puts the knee in the middle.
1. Here, you can't get control of the grip to pass under the up leg.
2. Reach down and grab the pants by the ankle with your left hand.
3. Still holding the grip, you want to dive down behind his upleg (between his leg and the rest of his body), pulling hard on the sleeve as you roll.
This one was pretty tricky for me. I think the idea is to get a very deep roll off the bat. There are a couple of different ways to finish it. One is to roll back into the guy after you've rolled him onto his back. A second finish is to backroll over him after you've rolled him to his back.
Rodrigo's attitude was that what was most important was to stretch your ankle grip and your sleeve grip as you dive and roll, regardless of which side you take. That stretched grip is what gives you control and enables you to take a couple of different directions to get a dominant position.
Rodrigo also announced that there is a special class on Saturday at the Bellevue location. GB Wasington (the combined GB team) won both the gi and overall titles at the Revolution and Jeff will bring the trophy to the school on Saturday around noon. Rodrigo is also giving out belts and stripes, and there will probably also be a big picture.
I'd kinda looked forward to low-key weekend around the house. But given the way things worked out at the Revolution, a part of me feels that going on Saturday - and it entails a ride out to Bellevue rather than rolling around the corner to SoDo - is what they call a form of "closure." So let's close the door and get going.
