Made it to the early class a little late. Actually, I was gunning for what was scheduled to be the Live Session, the final half-hour of the class. But since we are still very much in transition to the new curriculum, I ended up doing the last few drills of what was the Wednesday Fundamentals class.
No complaints. The pace was good enough to work up at least a bit of a sweat. And the two techniques: a guard pass against the closed guard and a detail for passing the half guard made it very much worth the relatively short stop.
Most importantly, though, it is looking like I might be able to take better advantage of the early classes starting next week. That would be a great development, allowing me to train more often and get more sleep, as well as a few other benefits.
Funny about the first guard pass. The last thing I was looking at in Saulo's Jiu Jitsu University before I left the house were passes that were very similar to what Rodrigo was showing. From the closed guard break (the middle knee wedge), you keep inside control of his legs with your forearms pressing down and inside to out. You slide your chest-block hand low enough to make sure that your elbow is buried on the inside of the guy's leg - an important detail.
On the pass side, you bounce up in a sprawl on your tip toes and step over the pass side leg. Press down with your elbows/forearms and sprawl out more if need be. Walk around to the side and lower your shoulder into the chest as you move to side control. Check under the hips. Check under the neck.
The half guard detail was a way of dealing with the bottom guy's free hand if you've got him in a facing seatbelt (shoulder of justice and underhook) and he blocks your hip. What you do from here is sprawl out and then dig your knee straight in (perpendicular) to his hip and then up along side his body, wedging his arm higher. This is actually a good move when dealing with a blocking arm from the bottom in side control, also.
Rodrigo had us do the pass where you bring your leg up so that you can drop your knee to the far side. From this "quarter mount" position, you kick your lower leg free. There are a couple of other ways to go about that, like using your other leg to lever the trapped lower leg free. But the point of emphasis was in dealing with the blocking, straight-arm from the bottom.
It was kind of fun to see a number of guys who hadn't been to class in a while adjusting to Gracie Barra Seattle 3.0. Just when you thought that everybody had heard Rodrigo's speech, you see half a dozen blue and white belts who didn't have any idea. I'm not entirely sure why that made me feel good - I think it may have just been in seeing others trying to adjust to the different changes that happen in jiu jitsu, in both institutions and in individuals, as I feel as I have been pretty much since I got my purple belt.
At the same time, I'm starting to see a little clarity by way of taking these Fundamentals classes, and especially in working with white belts and new blue belts. I'll have more on that later, probably. But it was good to feel a little of that glow - and a reminder of what my role in the Great Game of jiu jitsu really is.
