March 18th 2014 - Gi Morning & Evening

Noon
Theme & Techniques: O-Soto Gari, Half Guard Tripod Pass, Granby Roll from Turtle

Today was a good day for Bhuvana.  She didn't have any problems with the throw, which she's been nervous about in the past.  She got the half guard pass with just a little extra instruction.  Finally she was so pleased that she figured out how to do the granby roll.  It was one of those things that all she needed was one little piece of advice and she went from insisting that she couldn't do it to completing probably 10 rolls.  She wasn't really tucking her head and shoulder and I just told her to reach for her ankle and boom level up.

Rolling: Half Guard Position (2 x 2 min), Turtle Position (2 x 2 min), Free Rolling

Bhuvana and I partnered for half guard and my main goal from bottom was to complete a shaolin sweep.  For some reason I'm not figuring out how to get the other person's weight on top of me.  I may need to revisit the setup for this sweep because I thought I was doing this a lot better at one point.  From top I did my best to work the pass from today and not resort to the hip switch that I normally play.

I was put with Fuji for turtle position and my face must have gave away that it was going to suck.  I feel very inadequate with both sides of this position against Fuji.  When I'm on top it is a very fine line where I can put my weight and try to hold him to keep him from rolling or if I go to high he can easily shrug me off.  Then from bottom, I'm a little hesitant to granby because if done incorrectly I run the risk of getting smashed.  That said I did recover guard a few times and also put him into side control once or twice, but he predominately won that exchange.

I rolled with Tim after class a few times.  He was doing a good job of defending submissions from the back.  I've been focusing more on RNC rather than defaulting to bow and arrow.  I wasn't able to get over the hand fighting and didn't complete the choke but I'll keep at it.  Later on I was using my cross guard and when I went for the omoplata he put his arm around my other leg.  Greg told me to go for the triangle at that point which I was able to transition to but not finish but it led back to the omoplata with his arm in the desired place. 

Fuji and I rolled after that and I had a little success from top at first in both of our rolls.  I tried to be active with my basing and use a cross face to keep him from turning into turtle but never really got to attacking from the top.  Once he got me into side control I was able to use the underhook to get back to turtle momentarily which is a sign of improvement as usually I feel pretty stuck once I'm on the bottom of Fuji.  After that He wanted to work just from bottom half guard a little bit which I was happy to oblige with.

Evening
Theme & Techniques: O-Soto Gari, Half Guard Tripod Pass, Granby Roll from Turtle

Partnered with Ray, which is a pretty rare occurrence.  He used a little different grip for the throw more in front of the shoulder, which I may play around with a little more as it took a lot of the looseness that you get when grabbing the collar. We both had a little trouble with the pass, mostly with maintaining the overhook grip and trying to stay low and knee slide.  To deal with it we would post our overhook hand to give the body a little more room to slide. 
   
Rolling: Up/Down/Out Half Guard & Turtle Positions (2 x 15 min)

I felt pretty good about my half guard from both top and bottom today.  Seemed like I had answers for most of what was thrown at me.  I had a pretty epic match with Mike where a few times I was just barely was holding his leg in quarter guard and he would go to inverted half.  He stood up a couple times and I feel like I'm getting better at dealing with that by going shin to shin.  Jerad and I had an epic battle as well during the turtle portion.  He kept denying my deep half guard and I felt like I spent most of the time holding on in quarter guard.  The coolest thing of the day was when Greg was attacking my turtle and I did everything to setup the granby roll and then pulled full guard. 

After class I asked Greg about not being able to lock up the triangle from cross guard from earlier in the day.  He suggested that I attack a twisting armbar if the triangle is not there for me which was awesome and another thing to add to my arsenal.  I also asked about a reoccuring problem when I sweep someone in crossguard often I end up in a position where I can't get up or reach a dominant position.  From there he suggested I go for an armbar or if they don't give up the arm punch it in for a triangle.  So it feels like the puzzle pieces for this aspect of my game are falling into place.