August 6th 2014 - Gi (Playing it Safe?)

Theme & Techniques: Standing Guard Break to Knee Slide Pass and X-Pass
Partner: Bauer, Jerad

Greg started explaining the standing guard break but then stopped and said "you guys all know this" and hurried along to the passing part.  Jerad mentioned that I need to work on getting my hip to the floor a little more and I think I was planting my knee too soon instead of sliding down their leg a little more. 

I was not too familiar with the x-pass, so it was great to work on something new.  The setup is very similar to the smash pass as in the grips are the same by grabbing the outside of the knee and grabbing the lapel.  So I can see how these 2 passes can work in tandem.  I've seen Jerad and Mike work this pass from time to time and never really knew the specifics of it. 

The steps are: 1. Standing guard break; 2. Grab lapel and connect elbow to knee; 3. push their foot between your legs; 4. Grab the pants at the knee; 5. Do like a swinging back kick while pushing their knee down; 6. Move to knee on belly.

Rolling: Tournament Style Matches
Rolled With: Bauer, Jerad, Fuji, Gina

I went with Bauer first and after some takedown attempts from both of us I pulled guard attempting to move to cross guard.  He did a good job defending and from there I hung out in closed guard for the rest of the match.  I attempted cross guard a few more times but he pulled his leg away each time, I think I need a go to answer for this.  For a while I had a pistol grip on his sleeve and had it across his body but I was still unable to do anything with it.  My main concern was running out of gas, so I attempted to take everything in stride and try using technique as much as I can.  His strength was difficult to deal with and I didn't want to make any mistakes so I played it really safe and didn't go for some things I probably should have.  I was eventually able to setup an omoplata and had it locked up but he did a great job of defending, I think I could have probably swept at one point but just held the submission instead, but we ended up back in the guard and I was given an advantage.  So playing safe worked out in in this situation, but this is training and not a tournament, I probably should have went for more techniques and took some risks instead.

Jerad dominated me pretty well.  I attempted my guard pull to cross guard on him but he defended it by standing and using good posture.  From there he spent a lot of time in top half guard and quarter guard either attempting to pass or switching and going for mount.  It's pretty frustrating to be in the same place with him every time we roll.  He eventually arm barred me after I fended off his mounted triangle attempt.  Our second roll was mostly the same, except he set up an awesome ankle pick to take me down. 

With Fuji we started from knees and he pulled guard first.  There was a point where he was putting me into side control and I was able to use the stiff arm escape and regain guard.  However, I have a very hard time of doing any type of guard against him.  I went for cross guard and he stacked my leg and then eventually made me invert and I panicked a bit when I felt stuck and gave up side control.  I attempted an underhook to try to get to guard and then he started playing his brabo grips and worked his way to a choke.  I got really frustrated here and a little angry because I didn't feel like I could do anything.  Even though Fuji didn't know it I apologized to him after class for being so mad at him. 

I had to dig deep for some energy to roll with Gina.  We both played a little guard and I worked my way into the setup for the x-pass and attempted it.  I attempted a north/south choke but I don't think I was actually choking her small neck, but she tapped because we weren't really going anywhere.  She jumped on side control while I was lying there and I had to defend from there.  I worked for the stiff arm escape and maybe used a little bit of my size to put her all the way over into my side control.  I then worked my way into back control and had quite a fight to get my hooks in and then the timer went off.