February 29th - Morning Open

Greg drilled a reverse de la rivas sweep with me from the opponent in combat base.  You push their sleeve in between their legs and then do kind of a backwards roll into side control.  It was a pretty cool move.

There were 5 of us today so we used a timer to switch out and have one person on break.  I rolled with Erik, Robert, Ken, and Greg.  We only did 4 minute rounds so there weren't too many submissions.  I felt really slow and low on energy this morning. 

Erik seemed to jump in skill recently which is good to see.  He was able to hold me in side control a lot better and I ended up being on the bottom for most of the time with him.  It's tough to play half guard with him because he's big and long and now that he's figuring out how to put pressure on me and I'm having a hard time getting low.  I played some guard and tried a few guillotines but neither of us were able to submit the other.

With Ken it seemed like he was a little too quick for me this morning.  Maybe the combination of my back and low energy I just couldn't keep up with him.  He got me with an Americana even though I've been specifically trying to prevent that technique.

I was able to dominate Robert pretty well our first match.  Mostly because I was able to get top first and I have been getting better at keeping side control when I get it.  I had him in the north-south choke but it was really hard to tell in the gi if I had his neck in the right place.  I kept trying to get it tighter but he eventually was able to escape. 

While rolling with Greg I was doing my best to pass his guard and not allow him to get any kind of spider.  I worked my way into the over-under pass position but I soon realized that this is exactly where he wanted me to do the technique that we drilled earlier.  I may need to watch the over-under pass video again to see what I'm doing wrong or if this is a potential flaw in the pass.  He eventually got me with a bow and arrow.

Greg and I drilled a back take from side control when they turn away from you.  You take the seatbelt grip and move your knee close to their shoulder and bring the opposite knee up.  Then step over their body and fall back to your other side.  Then put the hooks in.  There were some important details like putting the hand that's under their arm over your other hand and putting your foot across both legs to prevent them from pushing it between their legs.