Rodrigo has been emphasizing ways to take the back in the past few classes. As I've said, this has been an area I've tended to avoid, even though I've probably got better choke circuitry from the back than I do from the mount.
The technique was the switch, which he showed to us as a nice combination move or follow-up during a kimura attack from the closed/full guard. I should really add the switch to my King Crimson series (guillotine, omoplata, kimura, crossover sweep), a guard series I've almost completely abandoned over the past year or so.
There were a few little details that I picked up - almost more about the closed guard in general than about the switch in specific. Rodrigo talked about putting both hands on the shoulders as a prep before hipscaping out to create space to set up the switch. I want to remember that general idea of getting space before making my hipscape instead of hipscaping while I'm still too close - which is why I think my armlocks from the guard have been so ineffective.
Back to the switch: From here, you reach over as if attacking with a crossover sweep but instead of hooking behind the arm, reach between the legs and get a good grip on the inside thigh - the deeper the better.
Next, you want to shift your hips. I was doing an okay job with this - and making sure to plant my free arm to help get my hips out of the way to move to the back.
Definitely got better with this move over the course of training. The stand up training we did post-warmup was very nice and different - both with one behind the back grip on the belt - and a position I generally like. But after awhile it was murder on my right shoulder and at one point I got another stinger - something that's happening just about every other training for the past few weeks. It goes away after a minute or two. But it has definitely overtaken my eye as the injury I'm most preoccupied with.
At the same time, I'm training at a good clip and most of the problem areas like my thumb and my shoulder and my eye can be dealt with largely by prevention and precaution.
157 and change on the scale. A little heavy for the end of the week, but given Thursday night's post-training 162 number, I'll take it. In the gi, I was just under the IBJJF lightweight limit of 167.5 before training on Friday.
Got in two good sessions for ten minutes each with Rueben and Lance. I'm still working a little bit more out of the Flat Pass than I probably should at this point. I'm confident enough with it that I should either move on to some other passes or start working the Flat Pass more as a set-up for other opportunities. Not sure what those opportunities will be. But I will say that I haven't given up on the Saulo pass, with both the underhook and Fowler options.
I also need to work on my butterfly guard passes - particularly which side I want to underhook relative to the direction I want to pass. I have a tendency to want the left arm underhook when passing the butterfly guard. But as with the Flat Pass, it is the right side underhook that I'm more comfortable with. The problem is that my footwork still prefers going right (left underhook = pass to the right / right underhook = pass to the left). It's a small malfunction in the circuitry that is very fixable, hopefully, over the next few weeks.
I wouldn't have minded another ten minute sparring, but the clock was ticking so I had to get on my horse, as my Dad used to say. Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry that I drove off with my fully-loaded protein-Gatorade jug on the roof of the car. I heard a pair of loud bangs about 300 meters and 40 mph later.
