June 25th 2014 - Gi

Warm-ups and Drilling: Guard Passing Exercises (4 x 2), Guard Passing Drilling (4 min)

Before class Mike showed me a 2 on 1 sweep that I liked, where the opponent stands, I will have to practice it a bit more.  He also wanted to test a wristlock against me since I'm apparently the resident wristlock guy.  It may be time to revisit some of my wristlocks and see if I can incorporate them into my game.

I left class feeling very happy, tired and drained, but happy nonetheless.  We ended up with 8 of us which wasn't quite as many as last week.  I'm still not used to the order of the advanced warm-ups but I like the extra things like butterfly guard walk and side rolls.  However lunges are a little difficult as my ankle has been bothering me off and on for the last few days. 

I partnered up with Conan for the guard passing drills.  The exercises were: side stepping to knee on belly, hand post and circle to other side, knee slide, and handstand switch pass.  Probably not clear descriptions, but most of them were moving side to side of the other person laying in guard while keeping some type of pressure and using footwork.  These were tough on the legs and the main reason for my fatigue.  We finished this portion of class with 4 minutes of no resistance guard pass drilling of our choice.  I mostly did 2 reps of each pass starting from basic guard break with knee slide to standing guard break to bullfighter pass to passing the half guard. 

Rolling: Free Rolling (3 x 4 min)

My claim to fame today is that I didn't get put into a situation where I had to tap out.  With Conan I started up in his guard and worked my way to pass.  I used a lot of crossfacing and pressure but the way he used his farside arm to underhook did not allow me to mount too much of an offense and it was only a matter of time before he swept me.  I spent the rest of the time defending.

Sara gave me trouble in that I didn't want to smash her although I accidentally did a couple times and she also has enough skills to keep me at bay.  When I attempted to sit guard I couldn't coax her into my guard game and we played a little berimbolo.  Eventually I got tired of that and decided to go back to attempting to pass the guard until time ran out.

I rolled with Ray last and started in the up position and attempted to pass guard.  While I was attempting to pass he ended up in turtle at one point and I worked to take his back, but I made sure to watch my hooks so he couldn't foot lock me.  That ended up being my demise as he eventually shrugged me off his back and worked me over from side control and mount for most of the round.  He locked up a few kimuras that he was close to finishing but I did my best to turn my body and keep a good grip on my gi.  I'm sure if he would have used strength he could have broken my grip.  I regained half guard but he locked up another kimura that I had to defend. 

After class Conan went over the stiff arm to bicep guard defense that we went over several weeks ago.  I think the most difficult part of this for me is tripoding and turning almost belly down to then regain guard.  It makes sense how it works, it just doesn't feel safe to me yet.