February 1st 2015 - Weekly Review

Focus of the Week: Maintaining Half Guard Frame and No Inches Given

Theme & Techniques
Beginner/All Levels: Standing Guillotine Defense, Bottom Half Guard to Back or Full Guard Recover
Partnered and Rolled With: Brian (Backdraft), Bhuvana, Harvey, Austin, Zack, Greg, Conan, Anthony

It is kind of weird to work with people that aren't familiar with the position and don't realize how important the underhook and the whizzer are.  I remember it being a huge epiphany at the time and for quite a while everything was about the underhook.

Greg was having us push them forward with our back leg once we had the seat belt grip to knock them over before getting the hooks in.  I don't recall if we did it this way last time or just pulled them to the side, but I do like this.  For the guard recovery he shared another tidbit that when switching the feet we could put them together instead of crossing them.  I was getting my feet tied up during that part so it helped.

During Rolling Greg surprised me with some tricks from bottom half guard to acquire the underhook.  He was using the twist sweep as a way to open me up to base out.  Then he was moving right into the torque sweep.  I didn't feel like I had a chance of keeping him from getting the underhook.

Brian helped me work out the torque sweep under Greg's supervision a little after class Tuesday.  I was missing a couple of things that make it immensely easier.  Grabbing the leg and stiff-arming the knee is a necessity and then doing a roll over the head like the kesa getami escape is also very helpful.

I have a note not to mention submitting Conan with a north/south choke on Friday ;). I think I'm breaking through to the point where he'll take me more seriously.  In our second roll he went more on the offensive.  I made it to x-guard but he had his knee on the ground and I couldn't do anything about it.  Greg gave me some pointers the following day.

Advanced: Alternatives to Triangle - Armbar, Twisting Armlock, Americana, Stacked Armbar
Partnered and Rolled With: Adam, Conan, Jerad, Gina, Sara, Jordan

Adam and I were pretty okay with this class since we normally don't get the triangle anyway these were options for us.  Conan received a crash course on the techniques before Greg left for the night.  I kind of wish we had gone over the barato plata but I know that wasn't on the agenda.

We did some guard king of the mat which I always enjoy.  I was really impressed with Jordan's guard.  He was relentless with his grips and his push/pull felt strong.  Hopefully he feels like he's back at 100% since his injury.  I had a couple of wars with Adam.  I came so close to passing his guard but he was able to get to his knees and double leg me.  It's good because it makes our technique better but it can also be frustrating.

I got very close to sweeping Conan.  I threw out a lot of tricks attempted scissor sweep went for omoplata, he defended and then I went for it again and I started doing the new submission setup but somehow he got free.  At one point I attempted to do the back roll escape when he stacked me but it failed.  I think I need to drill this again as it seems to be the thing that makes me fail the most.  I also think I need to be a little more rough with this submission when I attempt it on someone standing.  I go too easy and am not acting confident enough in it.