Morning
Theme & Techniques: Half Guard: Escape to Back Mount, Recover Guard
Since it's spring break, My beautiful wife and kids came by to watch class. At first they enjoyed seeing us do some different warm-ups than them up and down the floor. Ultimately, I think they got a little bored.
I ended up working with Harvey for the majority of the class. He did some training at Roseberry's previously and just started with us again recently. He very graciously accepted any pointers I gave him and was good about talking the techniques out as he was learning them. It was a little slow going but it's worth it if he got something out of it.
Rolling: Half Guard Position (2 x 2 min rnds), Free Rolling
Harvey was my partner for position sparring as well. From bottom I only attempted to work on what we did in class. Eventually I helped him a bit with some ideas from the top as he was pretty lost there. From top I just kept a good base and tried to use as little effort as possible to keep him from recovering guard. Close to the end I helped him recover guard with a little more resistance than we used during drilling.
I attempted to show off for my wife while rolling with Tim and Jordan. Although, I don't think she was impressed and most likely doesn't know how cool my moves were. I worked the loop choke a little bit that I went over with Mike last week. I'm still having trouble breaking posture. I've had a couple people comment on how good my guard retention has been lately. I feel more relaxed and more willing to throw my legs up or invert or stiff arm a sleeve if it comes to it.
Evening
Theme & Techniques: Half Guard Tripod Pass
Jerad taught this evening and I worked with Austin for this portion of the class. I had to do quite a bit of teaching as it didn't seem like he was that familiar with half guard. It was some minor things that make a big difference like keeping a hold of my leg the whole time and making it more difficult to pass or shoulder pressure and lifting his butt up high during the pass. It may just be that he's not sure how much to resist during drilling. Somewhere in between sparring level and dead fish. Being a dead fish while drilling doesn't really help the person performing the techniques, but there is a point where too much resistance can also be unproductive. By the end I felt that he had improved a lot.
Rolling: Half Guard Position Up/Down/Out, Free rolling (4 x 5 Min Rnds)
We made it very difficult for the person on the bottom by starting with the underhook. I'm assuming most of the time the passer was able to pass. In the middle Jerad switched it to the diamond position to make it a little more fair. I think I may have to refocus my efforts on the half guard position as I don't feel as confident with it as I once did. Most of the time I just regained full guard rather than sweeping from half guard. I don't have too much trouble passing from half except for a few people that are awesome at retention.
To everyone's dismay, Jerad got confused and tried to cut class a half hour short. I think he had already been there 2 1/2 hours so it's understandable. Once everyone let him know he had us free roll for the rest of the class. I rolled with Jerad, Conan, Ross, and Nick. Jerad and I had a good roll which he got the better of. His leg drag pass has been getting the better of me and I think I may explore that next.
With Conan I decided to just play my game. Often even when I get in a good position, I feel so frantic and jumpy because I want to prevent him from doing what he wants to do. Consequently I end up not doing much of anything and he sweeps me. This time I said screw it, I'll just throw all of my attacks at him and if he sweeps me or reverses me, so what. It seemed to go a lot better. We got stuck in the over/under pass position as I attempted to pass. I almost would and then he'd push my head or hip out and then we'd start over. I even came close to completing a far side armbar. Hopefully this is a turning point that I can build upon.
No comments:
Post a Comment