Some very good training to finish out the week. The self-defense moves were counters to the standing guillotine, which we have worked on in the past, and the fundamental was based largely around rear mount.
The transition from turtle top to rear mount in particular was something that really stuck with me. The idea, which Rodrigo introduced earlier in the week, was the idea of dropping the one knee to the mat and then using that knee as pivot to spin around into a sitting position for the rear mount. This is better than the more common "rolling" approach, which too often leaves you with less control over the back as the potential momentum of the roll creates issues of its own.
Rodrigo emphasized a couple of key back control issues, the idea of attacking the neck to get the guy distracted when you want to put in the hooks, the three-choke variation from the back plus the "flat-out" move to the side control choke from the back, the idea of staying low on the hips when attacking the turtle ... all of this will be helpful in putting together an improved take the back game.
I remember freezing during my first match at the last tournament when I took the guy down and he went to turtle. In sparring on Friday, I looked for opportunities to let the guy roll to all-fours or the turtle position so I could work the positional attack. It's something that I'm really liking, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be the answer to my current dominant position-to-submission logjam.
I'll still continue to work on my Roger Gracie game from mount. But given my growing preference for chokes when it comes to submissions ...
