This post will cover two day's worth of sparring since I was lazy on Wednesday and didn't do it then.
On wednesday afternoon I went for some sparring with Tony and Robin. My first roll was with Tony, and the first thing of note is that he has gotten a ton better at stopping my flower sweep. I switched between the flower, taking the back, and the hook sweep, but none of them worked! It's awesome to see that I have a training partner against whom I can really sharpen my flowersweep series. The better Tony gets, the better I will have to get. As our roll continued, I worked some butterfly and managed to set up a bunch of sweeps that I didn't quite manage to finish. He also did a good job of stuffing my hooks and working the wallid ismael pass; it was only by virtue of a lot of head stuffing that I was able to hip escape out and retain my guard. Eventually I hit an over/under sweep and took mount. From there, I scooted for triple attack and worked the penn state grip to the back. For a long time I only had one hook, but I managed to prevent ending up in halfguard top or bottom. The round finished right as I pulled off a nice bow and arrow choke.
Next, I had a roll with Robin. I spent most of this session lazily working half-assed open guard. I managed to secure a few almost-sweeps in the sense that he was sitting on his ass, but I did not put in the effort to come up on top. Oddly enough, most of the roll consisted of Robin shooting for footlocks and me countering them. To this date my record for defending footlocks remains perfect with one exception. I wonder how long I can keep that up? At times he almost passed, but I retained guard decently well. He did pass completely on one occasion, but I managed to maintain my composure and work for a belly down escape to sitting through to guard. He did attempt a 10 finger guillotine, but I had my butterfly hooks and double unders, so I shucked it off without too much trouble. I swept and time ran out.
Next I rolled with Tony again, and this time I managed to take his back using my standard method, where we spent most of the round. Same ending as last time.
I had one final roll with Robin again, this time being far more aggressive than the one before. I was much more proactive with my open guard and rode the momentum to the top instead of just sweeping and sitting.
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Today, I went to class as well.
My first round was with Big Tony; he's an enormous purple belt who lets me use him like a jungle jim. He lets me run around like a little monkey, and every now and again will catch me in a bicep slicer...always bicep slicers, never anything else. Despite his sandbagging for my benefit, I felt pretty good about the roll. I made a point of using my pressure pass against his butterfly, and although that was not successful in and of itself, it did allow me to leg rope and smash pass. Once in side mount I made a big production of trying to take the back. I figure trying to hit subs is just pointless, and so is just laying there, so I might as well work on positioning. I managed to secure my penn state grip three times, but the crux seems to be sinking my hooks. I found that I can typically find myself on his back in the most literal sense possible, however, the hooks are generally what's lacking. After some hemming and hawing on my part, Tony would roll, but thanks to my grips I would generally be able to follow back to sidemount with a kimura grip rather than getting reversed. At one point, I had him turtled and decided that, why the hell not, I would shoot for the triangle from the back a la ryan hall. What comes next should surprise no one: it didn't work and he started to stack pass. Thankfully, Jeremy was watching and I felt extra motivated, so I hit a, in my eyes at least, slick sweep that Kevin showed me. I ended up in his half guard which I passed to side mount where the round ended.
Next, I rolled with George, another purple. I pulled guard and immediately started working for my flower sweep series. I pulled the flower sweep, although it was not as smooth as I would have liked. I scooted for triple attack and set up my penn state to take the back, once again. I managed to sink my hooks this time, but George has the "defend and wait until they get impatient -->submit them" strategy down to an art. There isn't a damn thing I can do to get at his collars or his arms without being a huge dick. He's 68. There's no way I could ever justify trying to out-athlete him and feel good about it. As such, the roll was slow as molasses from that point on. Eventually, true to my earlier statement, I went for an armbar from the back. It was promptly countered and I was thereby collarchoked. Fortunately, I was able to identify the sticking point this time: I did not have sufficient head control with my leg. Good to know.
My final roll was with Robin. I decided to give my dariush guard a try (thanks, youtube!) and put one foot on his hip, the other foot on his bicep/shoulder, gripped cuff and elbow on the hip side and streeetched. Much to my surprise, this worked exactly as I was told it would and I hit a triangle almost right off the bat. More than that, it was the first triangle I've finished all summer. Go Dariush! Next, I stood up to pass his guard, and he did something so stupid I didn't commit it to memory, but I do remember that it led me straight to mount. After some general dicking around in mount and sidemount, I set up a far side armbar and was working to finish it as time ran out.
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