Lindsey led the warm-up tonight, but Rodrigo was there to lead the class. The instructional was more work out of sitting guard, particularly for the guy on the bottom. Rodrigo had the top guy work on controlling the pants at the knees and, in stepping around to the side, changing levels to lower the shoulder into the guy and putting his back on the mat. To avoid the pass, Rodrigo has the guy on the bottom stiff-arm the forward arm - the arm that is most forward on the side the guy is trying to pass on - and then move the hips back and away. Use your free hand and arm as a post to help you move.
I worked with both Jason/Garcia and Lindsey, particularly with the second move, which was a counter to the guy closing his knees around your legs if you are in a sitting or butterfly guard. The trick here was to get double sleeve control, then quickly pull your left leg out. Put your left foot on the hip and use that as a lever to get your other leg free.
From here, Rodrigo had us attack with the same armlock that we used last week on Thursday. Dive in and underhook the guy's left arm with your head very close so that you get a good trap. Only after you have the trap set should you slide back and turn your body in toward the guy, bringing your outside knee up, over and tight under his armpit to keep the armlock tight as you lean back and your head slides back along his arm to his wrist.
A pretty good night of sparring on Monday. I got to work with some smaller folks, which allowed me to really open up as I have been needing to for weeks if not months. With August fading, I'm starting to get a little of that "summer's almost gone" angst about my areas of improvement. But my thinking is that I'm already competitive at my current level and, with some extra work and focus on my weak spots like passing the guard, there's every reason to think that that competitiveness might eventually work its way toward putting me on the podium with some hardware and points for the school.
