June 30th 2015 - Gi Beginner

Theme & Techniques: Koshi Guruma, Standing Guard Break, Torreando Pass
Students: Ben, Robert, Shane

Small class today, people must be on vacation.  I added a couple things to the warm-up like the sit out, the armbar from guard drill, and a side control pressure drill. 

The teaching portion was a blur.  I imagined teaching stuff much better in my head but I pretty much got to the point and went over each technique a couple times.  The couple things to note:

• During the throw pull their head forward don't push their hips away by pushing on their shoulder with you elbow
• For me the fight for the standing guard break is mostly in getting the initial grip, once that is done I have practiced the technique enough that it's automatic
• Once you've broken the guard your elbow placement is very important.  I like to place them down by the opponents calf or under their shin bone to keep the legs from getting into omoplata position or spider guard
• Don't be concerned if you have to try the torreando pass several times going back and forth

Rolling: Guard Position (4 x 2 min), Free Rolling (4 min)
Rolled With: Ben, Shane, Robert

I did my best from the top to do the guard break and pass that we worked on.  I pulled it off a couple times but ended up knee sliding instead of torreando.  From the bottom I helped Shane through some things like letting him know he didn't want to lift his leg on my free arm side first.  In the end I talked him through the complete guard break and pass with a little more resistance than drilling.

Office Hours Partner: Robert

After class we went over setting up the hip bump a little bit because both Ben and Shane had attempted it.  I showed them that there was a back take there for the person on top if the timing wasn't right.

When going with Robert I felt pretty sluggish.  I'm still not 100% so I played pretty passive and I'm just not good enough to do that with him.  His pressure was able to break through some of the frames that I made and then I couldn't regain any space.  I did a couple good things using deep half but still was never able to fully sweep.  There was one point when he was going for a head and arm choke from half guard and I regained full guard to escape it.  I kind of felt like I was beat mentally before we started which is never good, but it was good to get a roll in with a fellow advanced person.  Hopefully my body feels 100% again soon.