30 Nov 09

Workout: Strength Training, Core workout

Cardio: 9 mile speed ride on the bike

BJJ: Tonight we worked on reversing someone when they are in the "knee up" passing position inside your guard. The basic techniques was to sit up when your opponent goes "knee up" and looks like he's going to do the pass of '09. Then you hook your same side arm around the leg that is up and grab your own lapel with that hand. Next you perform a "modified" technical stand where you only go to your knee and not all the way up. Then you drive forward and push your opponent down to the mat, making sure that you put your head inside the landing pad by their shoulder. All thats left after that is to pass their legs and take side control. Next he covered a variation that involves your opponent grabbing your knee so that you cannot pull back into the technical stand. For this one you are going to grab that same wrist with your leg hook arm, use your free hand to grab the lapel, and then pull/push them over the shoulder on the side that they grabbed your leg. Lastly we worked on two variations of the reversal that covered your opponent standing instead of staying in the knee up position. The principle was still the same but instead of going to a modified technical stand you stood all the way up.

Rolling was really good. First I rolled with Rachelle and worked her offensive game. Next I rolled with Billy S. (white belt) and tried my back control defense stuff. After that I rolled with Dev K. (blue belt) and we worked him getting to side control top and me getting to half guard. Basically we scrambled until one of use reached our desired position and then we reset and went at it again. BUT, by the end we started just going for it like usually and I tried to resort to my back control game which I am very comfortable with. First time I went to all fours to work my defensive game and he pressure back on me, grabbed my leg and sleeve and rolled me with something that I had never seen before. It was another "Aha" moment for me....which I seem to have a lot of with Dev :) Great night over all though.

So, my evaluation of the "month of the half guard" is simply this...I still have no idea what I'm doing...but I do finally understand a lot of what I'm doing wrong. I was trying hard to force myself into half guard from positions that I had solid control already at instead of sliding into half guard when it was most advantageous for me. Sooooooo, I plan to extend the month into December and use my new outlook to try again!