March 13th 2014 - No Gi

Theme & Techniques: Half Guard Gordo Sweep, Roll Back, Butterfly hook recovery

Small class today, but enjoyable as usual.  I worked with Mike on the drilling portion which is a rare occurrence now that we generally pair up by size.  Adam worked with Harvey.  I learned a few tidbits today.  When completing the sweep I need to bring my head up higher on their chest, Mike annoyed me with a guillotene attempt a few times, and bringing my head up higher prevented that and helped pin him down.

Next we talked about using a body lock when I'm not able to suck their knee in to complete the sweep.  The body lock has a lot more too it than I previously thought.  It wasn't complicated just something that hasn't been explained to me.  I equate it to a body triangle with your arms with the addition of head pressure.  I'm not sure I have it totally figured out yet but it has opened a new door. 

Rolling: Half Guard Position (4 x 5 min), Free Rolling (5 min)

With Mike, I felt a lot better about my bottom half guard than my top game.  I'm not able to take up all of the space that he needs to escape and improve his position.  On the bottom I can move a little more and use the floor to my advantage.  He still got the better of me in both positions.

I might have been a tad bit rude to Harvey, he was asking specifics about what he should do or what was the best way to hold me in half guard and I kind of told him to just start and he'll figure it out as we train.  Probably what someone should expect if they participate in the advanced class.  He did figure some stuff out and after I recovered guard a few times he started to catch on.  I worked on the butterfly hook recapture the most because I need to get better at it. 

Adam passed my guard early in free rolling and I wasn't able to escape his dominant positions after that.  I didn't get submitted but there was quite a bit of crossfacing and some head pressure trying to pull my arms away from my body.  When I tried to escape side control he has a go to move where he holds my wrist and then switches to the other side preventing me from turning into him.  I have no idea of how to deal with it. 

After class we discussed the body triangle some more and I worked on my deep half guard.  One thing that Mike has been trying to push on me for a while is to just come up from there if they have a good base and I can't off balance them.  I was so focused on wanting to do the Homer Simpson sweep that I didn't realize what he was talking about.

Which brings me to another topic that I've been thinking about lately.  There are concepts and techniques that I am learning now that I wasn't ready for previously.  Things that I'm picking up on now that I know I was taught before or I saw someone else doing and I just couldn't integrate it into my Jiu-Jitsu.  An example is the low knee cut pass and pushing their legs to the opposite side that I discussed a month or two ago.  Yeah, I was taught it at one point but wasn't ready to use it.  Or, the head position thing from back mount that I picked up on a few weeks ago.  Similarly today with the deep half guard I've been so focused on wanting to do it a certain way that I wasn't ready to accept new information and now I think I am in this case.  I wonder if this is a common phase in the learning process for others?