Trained with Bryan today, working on different elements from the fundamentals program: side control escape to turtle position, turtle to taking the back with an emphasis on putting in the hooks by rolling over the shoulder, and finally putting it all together and attacking with the choke.
Three rounds of Live Training: J.M., Bryan and Chaim - tough rolls all. One thing that is very clear about training from my Cobra guard position is that I need to re-emphasize the arm control that Marcelo uses from this position. I'm just allowing far too much movement and grips, and not doing enough to take advantage of the fact that I'm in a relatively unfamiliar position for most folks. That 2-on-1 grip is critical to avoid the guardpasser getting momentum and confidence about the pass by putting him initially on the defense (trying to escape your 2-on-1 control).
Also thanks to Professor Carlos for the help with the Ryan roll. I'm feeling pretty good about attacking with the roll from the backstep against the half, and from the deep half the way Ryan did at the Houston Open last weekend. But I still don't quite have the feel for the straight half guard version, where you walk the guy into exposing his back by doing a Roger Gracie half guard pass, then turn 90 degrees toward the back and execute the roll. Trying it a time or two with Bryan, I didn't get the initial move right. Fortunately, I remember Prof Rodrigo showing us this move a few weeks ago. I'll have to remember to ask him about it this week.
So I need that review, plus a little drilling with the deep to X and RDLR to back transitions and then I'll be ready to put in some serious drilling volume on all of these variations.
A very wonderful 156.5 on the scale-post-train in the gi. Maybe it was the scale, but that is almost exactly where I want to be on a training day-in, training day-out basis. Eu sou pena, after all!
