Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Mount Attacks and Open Guard

Warmed up, then straight in to Guard pass drills.  I sat down as one of the four initial guys, which i hate doing but don't know why.  First up was Henry (white belt), who i swept with open guard.   Truth be told he kind of gave it to me, i didn't feel like i nailed the sweep.  He'll be a good guy to train open with, because its really hard for me to break his posture.  Then I got Big Steve (new blue belt), who i got with another open guard sweep, i think.   Next up was a purple belt whose name i don't know.  Broke him down ok, but he kept good posture, so I switched to open.  Then i chickened out and  and tried to hip bump, which he kind of just stepped over.  Its ok, tho, because I tried it from a position I don't normally go for it from.  I definitely need to open up and try different moves during guard drills, that's something I'll try to work on. 


Technique was more working from mount.  Worked on setting up technical mount.  When the guy tries to go to his side, bring your foot tight to his chest and sit on his side, facing the same direction he is.  It also looked like Marco was flaring his knee out towards the guy's hips to trap them in place as well.  Could be some deep black belt technique, or i could be totally overthinking it.  Next was a bow and arrow choke from technical mount.  Had a bit of trouble with this one: it involves getting a grip for an armbar, then feeding the collar on that side to the opposite hand,, which goes BEHIND THE GUYS HEAD (the part i screwed up).  Then you bring your legs up over his grip, and give up the armbar grip to get a good grip on his pants at the knee, and lean back, pulling on the knee.  Pretty freaking cool, will have to remember to try it.  Then we reviewed armbar from technical mount, which i basically understand, i think. 


First roll was with Vaughn, a four stripe blue belt from another school.  Got him with the good old triangle/armbar from guard, then again with a guillotine from a scramble. Third time we went from his guard, and I'm so glad we did.  His style is so different, he traps the arm differently, puts his knees different places, just totally had a unique style.  He nailed me with a beautiful sweep, but i scrambled back to neutral.  Very eager to try to pick up some of his guard game.


 Next was a huge white belt who i think was also named Steve.  Being a Steve, he quite naturally had a very strong game and new how to move and use his weight.  I subbed him once, I forget with what, and then decided to take a break.  Bad move.  I threw up a lazy sub and he got the pass.  I then wound up in my personal hell: Side mount from a big guy when I'm tired.  I resigned myself to possibly puking, and then committed myself to trying to get the heck out of there.  Mixed results.  He got to mount, then I got a  knee in a tried to work some half guard.  Not so great honestly, still have a lot to learn from this position.  Some how swept him and passed his guard, had knee on belly when time was called.  SUCKED.  Stuff that this roll reinforced:  Figuring out escapes from side needs to be a huge priority in the coming weeks, and getting a solid half guard just as much, if not more so. 


Last roll was with my sadistic mentor Charlie (purple).  I was pretty gassed, so i threw up a desperate sub basically the minute i had okay grips, and caught him.  Weird.  I basically had my standard cross-collar and left sleeve grip.  He started standing with his right leg, then i switched grips to right sleeve, pulled like hell, and threw my legs over for the armbar, which somehow landed.  Its funny, Charlie's always telling me to pull the trigger on subs, to really commit to them, especially against good guys.  I guess if you expect it to fail, it probably will.  Maybe he's finally getting through to me.  Anyway, we reset with me in his guard, and he swept me from a position that i thought i was secure from.  He has an amazing knack for doing that, and its yet another thing i want to steal from his game.  He finished me with a variant of the move Ed finished me with on Monday, but it was more armbar and less choke.   Awesome.  Have so much to learn from this guy. 

After class, Charlie, Henry and I talked with Collin (brown) about his recent trip to Mundials.  He showed us an awesome sweep from half de la riva, half butterfly.  Its useful for when some one tries to put up a knee in your guard.  You basically get the de la riva hook with your left leg, a butterfly with your right, then break their posture down( i.e collar and hand grips) pull them over you and kick the guy over your head.  I am sooo excited to try this out.  Cant wait till guard pass drills!

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