Passing the butterfly guard was the theme of today's training. Struggled with the first version, pinching the knee and backstepping to side control, but did fairly well with the second version, where you allow the sweep to develop a little and then "step through/knee through" into a folding pass/leg drag like position where passing to the mount is a good option.
With the first version, the issue has to do with getting your ear on the near inside shoulder and not being too high up on the body (i.e., your chin above his head). Part of the trick has to do with the way you move the guy's body beneath you, spinning him around a bit with your grip on the belt. It's not fluid with me, at all, right now. Hopefully, I'll get to work on it some more this week.
The critical detail for the second version was that you want to drive forward to counter the sweeping direction of the hook sweep, not to the side. By stepping forward rather than to the side with your outside leg, and the driving your inside leg straight through with your knee tight against the guy's body, you have a much better chance of getting a high-quality outcome than trying to finesse a knee-cross pass once you've gotten too far away from him (i.e., lost "the connect.").
Some very good training with JM, Angus and Tom in the Live Training. I'm focusing too much on bread and butter stuff right now, which is probably a testament to the relatively modest training schedule I've put in for January (I'm on pace for a particularly low 10-11x training month, in part due to the snow closures last week). One of the things I'm looking forward to about picking up the training pace is being able to do more exploring of my favorite positions.
Part of not loathing the meia-guarda is learning how to appreciate it more by way of variations like the active deep half (not your granddaddy's deep half!), the X-guard and single X ... To the extent that I'm continuing to work on bread and butter guardwork like the gordo and Twist Back, I need to start working them from my southpaw side.
As far as the guard pass goes, right now I'm thinking that I need to play a much more deliberate range game. Tight? Force half guard and work the 3 Blind Mice. Open? Feitosa series. Middle game? Knee cross or Marcelo series. It's also going to be a major task to start working these options not just left and right, but in combination as well. I'm thinking that focusing on just these four situations: 3 Blind Mice, Feitosa series (3 passes), Knee Cross, and Marcelo series (3 passes) might make things that much easier. There will always be the Flat Pass ...
162.4 on the scale post-train. Another four pounds over the next four days would be just fine.
