May 1st 2015 - Gi All Levels

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

Got some more good reps in today.  Before just doing the technique I worked on just sticking Jordan's foot into my armpit correctly.  Just to make sure I could put the pressure on correctly.  Then I focused on the things from earlier in the week.  Tucking the elbow and putting my forehead on the floor being the most important.  Probably the only thing that didn't flow very much was securing the foot before falling to my side.

Rolling: Closed Guard King of the Mat
Rolled With: Greg, Zack, Jordan, Austin, Anthony, Conan

Unfortunately it never worked out for me to go with Conan, but I did do some great things with.  In fact I passed his guard...almost.  I got into double unders which led to him rolling over to turtle.  He then granby rolled and regained guard, I went for broke with my knee up and went into a knee over pass.  I smoothly went into side control and couldn't believe that I was getting the pass!  Then he did some magic and I was back in his guard again.  What's worse after all that fighting and him sweeping me, it was his 3rd time being king so I had to stay and roll with the next guy.

My guard retention didn't feel up to snuff today.  I wasn't aggressive enough with my sitting up guard and was a little lazy and let some of my opponents get their hips too far away.  I did have some success with the omoplata but I'm back to having trouble finishing it, I might switch to just going right into the sweep for a while.

I did attempt one straight ankle lock today and got it.  Jordan made a funny comment when he realized that I was going for it like "crap" or "damn."  Finishing the footlock felt better than it has ever before, I have a little confidence in it now after the pointers I picked up on this week.  I was in half guard with the underhook having Zack on top.  I thought I was golden but he did a good job of controlling my free arm and he worked himself into top kesa gatame.  This was a little disheartening, but I also felt like there was more I could have done to prevent it but I felt safe in my position with the underhook which was probably being lazy.

Office Hours Partner: Ross

Ross and I had a good couple rolls.  I feel kind of bad because he asked me if I noticed anything that he was doing wrong but I couldn't think of anything, I was kind of focusing on myself.  I showed him the side control to mounted triangle setup to armbar that Greg showed us a while ago and I was surprised how well it worked for me.  I played a little deep half and butterfly.  I tried to setup the half guard arm drag but couldn't get my foot into the right position on his hip.  I also went for a shoalin sweep but wasn't able to complete the back roll, some day will get this technique.

I got the Faria Deep Half Guard DVD in the mail yesterday and I only watched a little bit of it.  I tried one thing with Ross but it didn't go well because I didn't know the specifics.  However, I can now go back and look at the instructional and know what focus on.