Went to the beginner's class tonight. The technique we covered was regular old straight footlocks. Not too much new information except the instructor talked about feeling their toes in your armpit and starting to straighten the foot before you hit the ground.
Positional sparring was from open guard. First round in I passed using my standard method and was on bottom for some time. I made good use of my new de la riva sweep, making sure to control the distance very actively. I was finally knocked out because I was complacent about getting sleeve grips and got passed. I need to really start focusing on not settling for whatever grips happen and take more of a judo mentality: the right grips are essential to playing my game.
Sparring started with another blue. He asked if I would start inside his closed guard, which I'm fairly certain was because it's his strongest position. I worked on just maintaining my posture and keeping his hips on the ground. I mostly was able to neutralize his hips and offense. He made a few half hearted attempts at collar choking me, but since he didn't have his hips with him I was able to posture out of it. He was very proactive about working for an overhook, though, which is not a game I'm very familiar with countering and it definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. Especially since I always feel way off balance when I try to free the overhooked arm. I'm also very uncomfortable pushing them down when they sit up and hug outside my arms, which is also something I must figure out how to deal with.
Second roll was with another blue who was very short and squat. I pulled him onto his ass and worked my usual passing strategy. He was all about the running man escape, but left some holes which allowed me to get my penn state and take his back. On the back I was constantly working for the clock choke. Using my legs and penn state grip to clear his hands so I could snag the collar. At one point he stripped one of my hooks and I thought about trying to go for the twister. In the end it was too much effort and an opportunity to get my hook back presented itself instead. Eventually I was able to get a desirable grip on the collar, so I underhooked the leg and went for the choke. He tucked his chin and defended, but I kept my choking elbow tight enough that he couldn't slip his head out. Eventually I went back to the back and time ran out.
My last roll was very similar to the second. I passed guard, he tried to reverse by going to the knees, but I was johnny on the spot and got a deep leg in a la wrasslin. From there I mostly worked to control and try to snag a collar, but to no avail. What I need is better control with my feet so I'm not so dependent on the penn state and can work with both hands to get the grip I want.
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