Make that a Tuesday, Thursday, FRIDAY, Saturday schedule. I managed to make the early class today on Friday for some good review as well as coverage of some of the material I missed in the "A" class like the guard pull to closed guard from standing.
It was nice to review the armdrag to the back move. It's not quite an armdrag as it is an "arm cross". Again, the real keeper of this move is the lift action to get your hips out of the closed guard. The lift is a jiu jitsu fundamental for a reason. I'm finding it a great way to do the Laimon sweep, which is something I've wanted to master ever since I first started training jiu jitsu and reading Grappling magazine years ago. I also think that it's a good set-up to switch to half guard. I'll probably add this guard lift to Matwork, maybe at the beginning with the full "lift to standing" at the end. The move is that fundamental.
There were some other good things, top among them a tripod sweep from cross guard, with the move to the top including the Lift and the knee block.
I've decided to start focusing on the flip sweep from deep half rather than the Homer. Jesse caught me in an triangle when I went for the Homer Thursday night, mostly because I lost control of his leg. While I want to work on that, I've liked both the Flip and the Back Take more than the Homer and should probably start working them into my competition game.
Some very good work on both PTMU and the Roger Gracie. I was pleasantly surprised how readily the Roger Gracie came back to me. It has been at least a year if not more since I've gone with it. Both PTMU and Roger Gracie will be competition keepers.
I got to do a little practice after training with Clay, who helped me work on the Cobrinha spider guard pass with the switch step and knee press. I've been doing much of the pass correctly, but I'm not stepping deep enough to get my hips in control of the one leg I need to force lower. I need to bring the legs as much back as over to the side, slide my inside knee in between and collapse on top of the pancaked legs with my outside leg and drive lower - outside to inside - with my hip.
Must do more of that after class over the next few weeks. It felt very nice to get some of that movement down.
Traded some of my tips on closed guard sweeps: pendulum, scissor and crossover and set-ups. More than a fair deal, IMO.
GB Seattle Invitational tomorrow morning. Let's see where the baseline lies.
