Drove over the academy for some weekend training today. A good crew: Lance, Clint, Lindsey, Elliott, Benny J, Andrew, Jeremiah, "Buscape" and a bunch of other folks I can't recall at the moment. I got to train with Lance, clint, Lindsey, Elliott and a good sized blue belt whose name escapes me. A good straight-to-the-point workout today - pretty much all Live Training/Competition Team training.
I went to training hoping to work out of Rap Star for the full guard, and the Slingshot for the half. Suffice to say that neither was accomplished - though I did manage to get some good work in from knee on belly, specifically the baseball choke from that position. Getting and maintaining knee on belly has been the real jewel of my jiu jitsu game here at the beginning of Training Year 6 (Aug 2010 - July 2011).
What I need to work on is pulling guard from the "sparring starting position." A lot of guys are just using basic toreano tactics to hop past me as I defend out of the sitting guard. And many of these guys are getting directly to side control - not the most fun way to start off a six or seven minute sparring session. I know that the pathetic quality of this part of my game is because I'm still learning how to use this position (even though I've been avoiding the "start on the knees" Clash of the Titans silliness since I was a blue belt). But it is still more than a little aggravating.
So out of this situation, I need to improve my guard pull from that position, as well as continuing to work on some of the solutions that Marcelo comes up with when that happens.
I also need to work on Saulo's "Bullet Time" tactic to reclaim the underhook in half guard. Coming in close second on the list of things I'm doing wrong is letting guys get that underhook against my half guard. Rap Star is my "overhook" guard option. But I'm not doing what I need to do in order to create space (i.e., foot in the hip) in order to make Rap Star work when I lose the underhook from half. So while working to gain Rap Star is a good strategy, Saulo's "Bullet Time" is probably better. Bullet Time also sets up the Slingshot, which has been on my TO DO list for longer than I care to remember.
The one thing with training with tough guys most of the time is that your "A" game is constantly challenged (good) while your "B" game typically doesn't stand much of a chance (bad) - to say nothing of moves that you are just beginning to experiment on. It's a "good" problem in most respects. But it does make self-directed development and evolution that less predictable.
157.2 on the scale post-train. I was dragging on Thursday and skipped the scheduled cardio capacity workout. I'll probably pick that up tomorrow.
