December 28th 2014 - Weekly Review

Focus of the Week: Half Guard Sweeps, Triangle and Deep Half Hunting


Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Standing RNC Defense - O-Soto Gari, Back Mount Escape, RNC from Back Mount

Smallest class that I've seen in a while for a Tuesday noon and it seemed to go by in a blur.  Maybe with fewer people Greg can keep a better eye on when we've had enough reps.

Technique wise a few things came up.  Greg emphasized using the head to get to the other side to start the back escape.  Then for the RNC after controlling the underhooked hand then the choking arm pulls back fast and then grabs the hand on its side.  I think he taught this last time as well but it didn't stick with me.  I felt better about inch worming my arm to the choke.  I helped Ben with the squeeze as he was doing more pulling than squeezing.  We also discussed doing the RNC on your knee after class like Eddie Bravo shows in this video: Eddie Bravo On: The power of the Sqeeze.  I used to do this while watching TV or hanging out at home and it helped my RNC quite a bit I think.

Had some good rolls with Ben, Sam, and Greg.  Greg rolled with me after class and pretty much destroyed me.  I did some good things but they were few and far between and never made much of an improvement on my position.  Here is a video that Bhuvana took for me, let me know if it doesn't work: Greg & Josh roll


Open Mat

Had a great open mat session and got to roll with some people that I haven't seen in a while like Moe and Brian (Sweany Todd).  Also got to roll with Gina and helped Bhuvana with some guard passing.  Jerad and Bauer were my toughest rolls of the day.  I am trying to take on the persona of keeping it playful and not caring whether I win or lose.  It seemed to do me well and I think it kept things more exciting and less inhibiting for me. 

Drilling: Greg asked me if I wanted to drill some techniques with him and I'm happy that this is becoming a regular thing during open mat.  Due to my recent bouts with big guys from half guard I've decided to focus on some of the sweeps from bad half guard positions.  I started with the twist sweep and was having a little trouble with it.  Eventually with some help from Mike I saw that I was not coordinating my movements very well at all.  I need to bridge just a little and then push on their knee and squeeze.  It was really burning my thighs working on this and Greg was a little surprised by that.  In the end I think I got it, but I'm going to drill this a lot more.