October 19th 2013 - Open Mat (Don't Settle)

Attendees: Fuji, Jerad, Greg, Bauer

I felt really good about my guard passing today and lately.  I feel like I have a lot of options and can easily transition from one pass to another.  I find I'm having to deal with the knee shield more and looping my arm around their top leg and grabbing the pants of their bottom leg is working well.


Greg showed Bauer and I an awesome butterfly guard setup that I had no idea about.  It was simply awesome.  From closed guard we would get an armdrag arm position and then work our way to butterfly guard.  From there their arm is locked up for either a back take, a sweep, or a stiff arm.  I'm going to be practicing this more.

Rolling Highlights: 

Greg had warned me at one point not to let Fuji settle into side control after he had swept me.  This is probably the most important takeaway for the day.  While it may expend more energy up front, if I can avoid a sunk in bad position I won't have to work completely uphill. 

Bauer and I had one of our epic battles.  I played guard for quite a while and was able eventually sweep him with one of the recent techniques I got from a Cyborg video.  I felt like I was pretty chill during the entire roll, but he made the comment that I felt tense when he was in my guard.  So, I'm not sure which it is, I was monitoring myself as best I could to make sure I wasn't going to gas out.  While I might have had the better of him today, we're evenly matched either one of us could submit the other on any given day.

I was able to pass Jerad's guard. But my top game didn't last long.  He was very tricky from mount and setup an armbar with the potential for a lot of other subs.

Greg gave me another session on how easy it is for him to take my back.  I'm so miserable from that position but he did compliment me on my defense.

WHOYA: October 19th 2013 - Open Mat

Back at the old dojo, I had to sneak out of work a little early on Fridays to try to get some open mat time in.  I was still getting there late and people had taken off or already had gotten several rolls in before I got there.  On this particular day I rolled with Jerad and make mention of him passing my half guard over and over again.  Some things never change.