November 17th 2015 - No Gi All Levels

Theme & Techniques: Hip Bump Sweep, Double Under Pass
Partner: Derek

Derek came back and says that he will possibly join and is looking for a gi.  Always good to get some more big guys to roll with.  We trained together again as I was the closest to his size. 

Greg showed us the guard break that Tinguinha showed us at the first seminar that he put on at our school a few years ago.  Instead of trying to control their hips you turn to the side and then put both hands under their legs.  From there you break to double under position.

For the double under pass, Greg gave us the option of using the sit through instead of smashing.  I liked it but we had some trouble with finishing by putting the elbow on the far side of their body.  I'll have to look into that version more.

Some tips on this weeks techniques:

• Hip bump sweep, make sure you grab or control low on the wrist.  If you go above the elbow they may still be able to base
• Guard break, get under their ribs and hide your elbows.  You won't get much time because it's easy to prevent this in no gi
• Double under pass, I say this everytime but pull them back into you instead of trying to move forward into them.

Rolling: Guard (4 x 2 min), Shark Tank from Bad Positions
Rolled With: Derek, Mike, Jordan, Robert, Morgan

Derek was pretty good at keeping me from doing what I wanted to do.  I kept guard and just barely swept and passed right before the time was up.  Mike and I had a good roll from guard.  I was trying to setup the barato plata but he used posture to prevent it.  He ended up catching me with a heel hook.  From the top I ended up getting to the double under pass to which Mike scrambled and ended up in half and then deep half to which I slowed down with a cross face.

Greg had Jordan, Robert, and Morgan shark tank us from bad positions until the end of class.  I've been a little under the weather the last couple of the days so I'm not sure how much being tired or dealing with that affected my performance.  I was able to keep from getting submitted but didn't do too much from the top.  I felt like my guard was passed a little too easy a couple times and discovered that I'm not used to no gi anymore. 

I'm considering not competing in no gi this time.  I think with the longer time limits and my conditioning isn't the best right now maybe I should just focus on one.  Then I'll focus a little more on no gi and try to get more in shape for the next tournament.