Walked in to beloved gym, and there were a bunch of guys I didn't know warming up. Earlier in my training I might have felt a tad territorial to new comers, especially talented ones. Let me tell you, that sentiment is totally gone, and has been replaced by joy that I get to roll with new people and rip off the bits of their game that I like. One of the guys was a GB guy I've rolled with before, a guy named Kevin who's training for an mma fight in July. He's as tall as I am, and will be fighting at 170. He should have huge reach against whoever he faces. Nice guy, wish he trained with us more.
Anyways, we drilled as normal, then Collin began teaching. Technique was how to give the guy a bad single leg from butterfly, or open guard, and then a series of subs off that. The part i felt most comfortable with, and will ultimately be of most use, is what to to when the guy is in turtle but has a leg. My fav two that he showed were the japanese necktie and a one handed guillotine. To get the neck tie, you put darce grips in as deep as you can, then gable grip and sort of crank his head down, almost as you would to turn him over for an normal darce. Begin sliding around to his side, then use your far foot to catch the foot closest to to you. Put right shoulder on his head then roll over it. Tap should be instantaneous.
For the one handed guillotine, cup the underside of his chin with your hand, bring your armpit down on top of his head tightly, and pinch your elbow in tight to the side of his head. throw right leg underneath and away, and fall to right shoulder. Left leg comes over the top to prevent the roll. Drive elbow towards knee. Both of these felt a little out of my grasp, but functional. I could forseeably add either of these to the arsenal with a bit of practice and drilling.
Rolls: Got Vaughn first. He was damn close to tapping me with a triangle that he scored off a botched double underhook pass from me, but I struggled my way out. I got some criticism from Big Mike (blue belt) after this roll that i never seriously attempted to pass his guard. I'm tempted to say that I agree. Partly though, I'm just way out of practice passing guard nogi, and have forgotten what works. Both Vaughn and Mike refreshed my memory. This roll underscored for me how dangerous a well-played open guard can be, even without the gi to grab. I passed Vaughn's guard for like two seconds, but without the gi to grab, i couldn't maintain it. Another part of my game which needs work.
Next was Kevin (blue). I think this guy just wanted to see what i had, because it didn't seem like he was trying too hard. I caught him with a guillotine and a triangle where i put my foot underneath and kicked out. I saw this guy at the last tournament, and he looked like hell on wheels, getting kimuras from everywhere, so either he was being really nice or the fact that i have 40 pounds on him may actually count for something. I need to remember to go check his fight out if I can.
Last was Steve (purple) aka the artist formerly known as old man Steve. Tonight was a huge milestone, probably never to be repeated, involving me outwrestling Steve. We started from knees, he came in hard, and i somehow reversed him and went right to side AAAAHH! It was awesome. He immediately went to turtle and, having watched a bunch of stuff on the interweb today about darces and anacondas, I made an executive decision to not worry about any of the stuff Collin showed tonight and to try to get the darce or anaconda. Steve's so good at playing turtle tho, and he frequently gets all the way out or even reverses me from there. But tonight I kept a lot of pressure on his head and this seemed to help a bit. More satisfied with my attacks on turtle than i ever have been, even tho nothing landed. At least i was able to neutralize him for a bit there. Somehow or another, he got out from under, and went to half and then side on me. Started raining down guillotine attempts (One handed, no less. Applying what we learned in class? Isn't that sort of like... cheating?) Anyways, sure enough, one of them went deep, and he flopped back to fully commit to the choke. I don't know why, but I freaking hate tapping to one handed guillotines, so I resisted pretty much as hard as i could, and sure enough, I somehow got the hell out of there and got him back in half guard. We had one of those awesome jiujitsu moments then where we wordlessly acknowledged each other's performance, then right back into it.
And this is where i did the one other genius, milestone thing of the night. I somehow found myself setting up brown belt Andy's trademark butterfly halfguard, and using it to get back to full. I don't know why, but I somehow understood how to use it tonight, and even tho I'll probably never use it correctly ever again, it still feels pretty cool. Anyhow, right as i put him back to full , he kind of dove forward as if to pass, I threw up a normal guillotine and caught him. He's another of those guys who it feels like if you caught them, you must be having a really good day, because they don't make too many mistakes.
Overall, a pretty damn good night. Only complaint, as always, is that it seems to short, and that i didn't get to roll enough. Could have stood for a roll with Collin and Big Mike, as well as several of the visiting guys, but i guess all in all I can't really complain. Got to roll with several awesome jiujitsu players, and if that's not a good Friday night, I don't know what is.
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