April 28th 2015 - Gi Beginner

Theme & Techniques: Guillotine from Guard Defense, Straight Footlock and Escape
Partner: Bhuvana

This is one of the weeks that I want to put the most attention to.  Footlocks have been very low percentage for me and I don't remember the last time I finished one during rolling.  There were a few details that I made note of today.

• Greg didn't necessarily connect his hands
• The toes need to be seated in the armpit
• Tuck the attacking arm's elbow under yourself
• Put your forehead on the floor while arching back

For the defense I need to work on the kick and transitioning into the mount.  The end is very similar to coming up to mount for the double ankle sweep.  The other thing that was very surprising was how strong Greg's leg was when he showed the beginning of the defense by straightening his leg.  He made the analogy to think of it like putting on a boot.

Rolling: Closed Guard (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Bhuvana, Zack, Anthony, Mike (Lawyer), 

Bhuvana had to leave early so we did a couple rounds of up/down/out until she did.  I was a little more aggressive at maintaining guard today.  Whenever Zack or Mike pulled their hips away I followed them up and went shin to shin.  I did a couple deep half sweeps.  Anthony did great at attacking from closed guard.  I'm a little concerned with his future guard.  I attacked Mike from the back for a long time but was unable to complete a submission.  He eventually escaped into my guard.  I had a huge forearm burn at the end.

Office Hours Partner: Zack

Zack wanted to do the defense from bad positions drill with 3 minute rounds.  I was pretty happy with my attacks from the back.  Almost getting bow and arrow led to trapping his arm and moving to crucifix.  I went for a collar choke but he defended that well, finally I was able to isolate his arm for a kimura.  He gave me some trouble from mount and side mount.  Zack is pretty good at stiff arming hips and regaining the guard with it.  A couple times in mount I went to a triangle but he was able to keep his shoulders wide enough that I couldn't finish it.  We finished with top half guard which was pretty even for both of us.