August 5th 2014 - Gi

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Standing Guard Break & Toreando Pass
Partner: Bhuvana

Bhuvana seemed a little more nervous about being thrown today than usual.  Eventually she relaxed when she realized I wasn't going to drop her on her head.  She also got better at throwing with a couple of changes to keeping her feet closer, bending her knees and pushing her hip out.

The standing guard break is one of the most important things the beginner can learn.  It is so powerful when you are unable to open someone's guard the normal way.  Plus passing while standing is very strong.  Again there were only a couple things that I had to correct while Bhuvana was practicing it: Secure their hand against their chest, keep good posture at all times, and connect the elbows to the knees.  My major take away was that I kept stepping with the wrong foot first doing the toreando pass from the left side.  I'll have to work on this.

Rolling: Up/Down/Out Guard Position, Shark Tank for Greg, Post Class Rolling
Rolled With: Greg, Brian (Firefighter), Tim

Greg had myself and Robert take turns rolling with him.  Greg is planning on competing this Saturday and an IBJJF tournament in Chicago.  While Robert rolled with him first I jumped in on a couple of up/down/out rounds.  Tim did a pretty good job of preventing my passing followed by Brian doing a good job of preventing my sweep attempts.  With both of them I had to pull several techniques out of my toolbox in order to stay ahead of them. 

I turned up the aggression with Greg and tried to move as fast as I could.  My stand-up was okay, we struggled with trying to throw each other a few times but I both of us ended up pulling guard when we could.  He pulled off an awesome butterfly sweep where it seemed like I was far enough away to regain balance, but he was able to gain more ground by front shrimping or scooting.  Most of the time I spent on the bottom of knee on belly as he setup brabo grips and went for chokes.  I saw him do the same butterfly sweep motion to Robert, which was cool to watch, but I still don't feel like I know how he does it. 

I led the class through stretching as Robert and Greg finished one more round.  After class I rolled with Tim a couple times.  I'm finding more and more success with the bicep stiff arm and after regaining full guard against Tim, I showed it to him and it seemed like he picked it up and liked it.  We also discussed some half guard cross facing.