August 15th 2014 - Gi

Theme & Techniques: Standing Guillotine Defense, Half Guard: Clothesline Sweep, Defend Crossface, Regain Underhook Escape to Back Mount, Recover Guard 
Partner: Ross, Austin

Greg switched it up from Tuesday and had the top person start with the underhook and crossface.  From there we did the clothesline sweep.  He also mentioned later on that he was going to add this technique to the curriculum.  The piece of the technique that gave me the most trouble was squeezing with the knees at the beginning of the technique.  I didn't get it at first and Greg had to remind myself and others to do it several times.  By the end of the class it felt better.  I also had a few problems with the hand position to protect from the crossface, mostly because I wanted to grab the gi.


Rolling: Up/Down/Out Half Guard
Rolled With: Ross, Austin, Darijo, Dave

I don't have much to complain about from rolling this morning.  I did attempt a few shaolin sweeps that were denied, can't seem to figure the timing out on that one.  I think it has something to do with how I attempt to pull their arm across to the other side that's giving away the technique too soon.  I went to deep half a couple of times and it's feeling more natural to attempt to sweep right away rather than hang out there.  I tried not to use the hip switch pass too much from the top, I rely on that one too much.  One piece of advice I would give to my fellow teammates new to half guard is when we start with the diamond position to frame well with that top arm so it doesn't get smashed to your body right away and you get put flat on your back.  I felt like I was able to do that to everyone this morning.