Huge class Monday - maybe 30 folks or more, with half of them very, very new. Lindsey led the warmups, but Rodrigo was there to teach the class.
After some stand-up (the Machida) for about 10 minutes we went into the instructional, which was more work out of and against the sitting/butterfly guard. We continued working on passing the sitting guard by grabbing the knees and leaning in with the shoulder, the "stiff-arm toreano" so to speak. The guy on the bottom's job was to rotate, with one hand planted behind him, keeping the guy from getting to your side.
We also worked on an armlock from the sitting guard when the guard passer sits down and traps your legs. The trick is to get one leg out at a time, then to underhook the guy's arm with a yoke grip, pulling on that arm and strteching him out with a foot in the hip. Slide your head along the length of the arm to keep the pressure tight. Rotate toward face down to put on the pressure for the straight armlock.
Tatame was interesting to say the least. Rodrigo got more than a little concerned about the some of the sparring by the blue and even purple belts in the first group. Without naming names, Rodrigo was mostly worried about the example being set for all the new folks - like I said, I can't remember the last time I saw so many new students at one class. "If somebody didn't know better, they would think you guys were really fighting," he said.
Yikes. Fortunately, I was in the second group, matched up with Connor. I decided it was an excellent opportunity to continue working on the kind of "deep practice" I've been reading about in Daniel Coyle's book, The Talent Code. I focused exclusively on standing to pass the guard and, rather than commit to passing, I committed to trying to avoid being swept and maintain at least a minimum pressure for the entire time without pause.
The idea is to habituate myself to standing against the guard: discover where the hooks go and how to defeat them, learn where and how my balance is most likely to be tested, explore how different avenue for passing actually open up (instead of me forcing them). I should be able to make the guy on the bottom work hard - too hard - to deal with my passing pressure. My jiu jitsu is largely an attrition game, where the goal is to induce a sense of despair and inevitability as I go for the sweep or the pass or the finish. And in the long run, I think I'm going to have more success in passing the guard and creating this pressure if I attack from standing. So I might as well get used to it.
