Managed to make it to training today after taking Thursday off. I figure that my regular schedule will be MTRF, with TWFS being the occasional alternative (like this week). The idea is to train two days in a row twice a week, with a one-day off and a two-day off period separating them. I'm not entirely sure how the off-mat conditioning will fit around all of this. But insofar as the point of any off-mat conditioning is to support my on-mat training, I'm not too worried.
Today after the warmup we began again with the same standup training we've been doing this week, emphasizing on sprawling and knee/ankle picks. I'm focusing on closing the distance and blocking the shot. I figure this will make it easier to get the grips I want - something I failed to do at the tournament. I'm also trying to get practice in changing levels, which is key to both blocking and attacking.
Most of the instructional was on taking the back and avoiding the back take. We actually spent quite a bit of time working on this, which was nice. We went from just trying to take the back (or end up in side control if the person refused to give you his back) to taking the back and attacking with the choke. I had far more success with a clock choke than I would have liked - call me (Wallid) Ishmael - but the training was good - especially for someone like me who tends to avoid taking the back in favor of side control or mount.
Tatame was good. It was pretty impossible to repeat my guard performance from Wednesday, but it was good to get a chance to attack a little with the cross guard. I need to remember to drop the hip leg to the floor and underhook that same leg, turning over more on my side in that direction and putting my off leg in the armpit when the guy goes to move toward the strong grip side.
Another thing I need to remember is from the guard passing end of things. I'm doing an incrementally better job at standing in the guard, dropping to the combat squat, then standing and opening the guard. From here, I'm trying to work the one-on-one and then the Saulo. But it is very slow going. One thing is that if I can't get the leg down easily, there is always the underhook pass that Rodrigo was drilling us on for weeks a little while ago. It's the perfect compliment so I need to be on the lookout for it.
I also don't want to get too far away from the butterfly guard work that Rodrigo had us drilling earlier in the week. My Marcelo sweep - retitled the Simone sweep - is based on breaking guy's posture. If guy's start to react to that by posturing extra tall, then switching to the butterfly guard/sitting guard is a great counter. Surprise and aggression are important in making the transition - there's nothing mysterious about a hook sweep from the butterfly guard. So I need to practice taking the initiative when the opportunity for the transition appears.
