April 17th 2015 - Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Basic Open Guard
Partner: Dave, Zack

My foot was bothering me a bit the last couple days, but I thought it was well enough to do class this morning.  Had a little trouble with the floor exercises and skipped one round of alligator crawls, but otherwise felt okay the rest of class. 

Dave was a little too tense with his grips at first.  Once Zack told him to relax them a bit he did a lot better with the push/pull.  I really noticed the similarities between this position and half guard.  You have to be on your side and use the top leg a lot for movement. 

Rolling: Open Guard Position (6 x 2 min), Free Rolling
Rolled With: Dave, Anthony, Greg, Zack

I felt pretty good with maintaining the position in the rolls that I was in but didn't feel the submission set-ups were there.  I was able to set up an omoplata or two but wasn't able to complete a triangle even though I tried.  From the top, I was able to use my elbow and weave in my other arm under their leg.  Instead of focusing so much on passing I allowed my partners to play with the open guard position more.

I came very close to passing Greg with a double unders.  He went to turtle and I started attacking the back.  I rolled him to the other side and he told me I shouldn't have because I put his feet back on the floor.  He ended up on top of my guard, but I'm happy with what led up to that.  From the bottom Greg passed me twice with the same half guard pass and made the comment that it may be my kryptonite.  Have to look into that.

Free rolled with Zack and setup a loop choke in the beginning while I was standing.  I tried to get back down to control him but it allowed to get his head out of the choke.  Not sure what I should have done differently.  Maybe pushed him to his back to sweep rather than trying to sit back into guard.

Office Hours Partner: Dave, Zack

Worked on the deep half back take and had a little trouble because he kept falling on his butt prematurely.  This does seem to be a problem with practicing the position.  A lot of people seem to fall over while I'm getting into the position while drilling it, where if we were rolling they wouldn't fall over that easily.  I need to practice the back take more, I had a few good reps but had a hard time putting his hips onto my chest.  Zack made a comment about my choking and said that when I get into the bow and arrow collar grab I could use my hips to put some pressure on and get the choke, but I'm so focused on doing the grip right that I've got tunnel vision for a perfect bow and arrow choke.