New School Day 2

First things first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mo1VlnIg2o&feature=player_embedded

Epic.

Second, more training at my new school. I'm liking it so far. The sparring is significantly harder than it was at my old place, which is both good and bad. On the one hand, I'll get better. On the other hand, I'm not trying to get hurt.

Today we covered throws and then sparred. A lot. My first round was with a pretty solid whitebelt. He was super proactive at breaking my posture in his guard, however, it was an encouraging moment because it showed me that my posture and position is good, as he never came close to sweeping or submitting. Eventually I passed to sidemount with relative ease. He reversed me off knee on belly and I worked my flower sweep series. I crossed his arm just fine and was starting to set up my sweep/backtake when time was called. It's a slow burn, that move.

Next, I rolled with a purple belt who wrecked my shit. He blew past my guard with a super solid knee slide pass, which I must learn to counter (duh). Not much else to say there. He destroyed me and it was all a little over my head. As far as I could tell my posture was alright and my limbs weren't in the wrong place. He was simply better.

Next, I rolled with a female white belt who, I swear to god, was stronger than me. I mean she was solid muscle. It was like grabbing a wooden dummy. I worked my de la riva against her combat base and pulled the Basic Sweep. She got a knee up but I smooshed it and passed to side. I went for twister side control and she underhooked me (muahaha) which gave me the opportunity to snag the kimura, transition to the other side, get my penn state and take the back. From there I alternated between mount and her back, switching between collar chokes, armbars and moving back and forth between the positions.

My final roll was with another whitebelt. More or less the same as the first roll. She tried to pass my guard with a kneeslide, but I had the underhook so as soon as her hips were on the ground I shucked her off my head and took the back.

Back in Action

So now my move is complete, my fridge has food in it, and I've switched to a school that's much closer to my new place. Let's see what kinds of magic I can make now.

Earlier I hit an open mat with Tony to work my passing. I've been continuing to practice pinning a knee and smashing the legs with the leg rope to pass, which has generally been met with a decent amount of success. The next step is going to be integrating some options if they prevent me from a) putting my knee down and b) flare their top leg so I can't leg rope.

At this point, I've been playing with three options:
1) if they stiff arm my knee, switch and knee slide out
2) OR Capoeira pass
3) Stand up and X-pass

I drilled this scenario with Tony, and I'm starting to get more comfortable with it. I'm getting better at seeing the best option, so now I think I just need to practice and drill to bring the amount of time I have to spend thinking about it down as well as ingraining the details in my muscle memory. Good times.

I also think I'm going to start looking at Eddie Bravo's stuff on twister side control. My passing game often lands me in that position anyway, so I feel at home with a lot of the things he brings up anyway.

Sigh

I always feel useless when I don't go to class, but I think I need to take a break and get my life in order. I can't help but notice that my fridge has been devoid of groceries for 5 days now...

Projections...

I went to the advanced class on tuesday, and while I'm having trouble remembering a ton of specific details, I did feel as though I had a pretty good night. One of my main goals right now is to really work on having good posture, especially in guard e.g. getting my hips off the ground in closed guard, not being flat on my back in open guard, not looking down when passing etc.

I have also been working especially hard on grip breaking and denying my opponent the grips they want. During several of the rolls I focused almost entirely on stripping grips in closed guard, and I was pleased to see that I was met with great success.

My other main focus is on developing my pressure from the top, especially in terms of guard passing. Since I want to get better at the leg rope pass, I've been working especially on pinning one knee and then smashing the legs together. It just occurred to me that I need to control the hips better. I'm going to experiment with one grip on the knee and using the other hand to grab the back of the pants to control the hips.

I also picked up an important detail on the leg rope pass. I've been stepping out with the wrong leg. Rather than extending my left leg (assuming I'm passing to the left) I should extend my right leg and use the hand that is threaded through the legs to extend them and sprawl away from their hooks. I also figured out how exactly to pivot on that knee in order to free my leg from their hooks. Good stuff.