Most important: 156.8 on the scale after training. 1.9 pounds over.
If I behave myself between now and Friday evening's weigh-in, then everything should be copacetic. I'll probably fast for most of Friday - maybe a protein bar before training if I decide to take in a pre-weigh-in session. So Thursday - tomorrow - will be the critical day to avoid gaining any weight. I've avoided caffeine all week - not a Herculean effort but still. So water - regular and carbonated - will be the main fare for the next couple of days.
There was a little instructional in today's training. Rodrigo had us working some moves from open guard/half spider guard: the basic spider sweep where you let the guy come in before kicking out with the spider leg and lifting on the other leg at the pants. Probably not a sweep I'll use a lot - though it is very, very similar to what I've been wanting to do with the sling shot sweep.
We drilled that sweep for quite awhile. The second technique was against a guy who opens your guard and puts a knee up in the middle. Here, the move from the bottom is to capture both sleeves, hipscape out with a foot on the hip to create some space, then sit up immediately and wrap the knee-up leg.
From here, there were two main options. If you can control the far sleeve, then reach under his knee-up leg at the knee and capture the sleeve under his leg. Reposition your hip foot to the knee and with your free hand grab the collar (or the shoulder, which worked for me). Kick out the bottom knee and turn the guy in that direction for the sweep.
The second option was in case you couldn't capture the sleeve and pass it through. This variation I had some trouble with. What you want to do is reach under your leg (the one that is hooking the knee-up leg) and grab the pants at the cuff. With the leg on that side, you want to DLR hook that knee-up leg as well. From here, you want to rock him back and forth, using your hook and cuff grip to help guide the lift as you rock back. Again, when you've got his balance off, reposition your hip foot to the knee and turn him in that direction to get the sweep.
Tatame was short, but sweet. I had some very good success with the Flat Pass, attacking with submissions from the top in half guard and a half-decent half guard pass. I can't say that I feel "confident" about what's going to happen on Saturday. But I'm starting to feel as my performance is likely to be better than it's been in the past. And if that happens, I'll be pretty happy - if not totally satisfied.
