Yesterday was competition training at the gym, we worked positions, did some suicides, and did some rounds. 6:30 - 8:30pm. It's mostly filled with advanced belts, so this training seems pretty good for helping me find the many holes in my game.
My open guard is still terrible and needs a lot of work. Especially when people stand up and I try to play half spider/De La Riva guard, I don't know what I'm doing (well, I know what I want to do . . .) and get passed very quickly.
We did a lot of half guard during class (both passing and defending) and I'm in need of some improvement doing both. Holding half guard I've been working on two thing. The Eddie Bravo 1-2-3 combo of Lockdown-Jaws of Life-Toss them up is the first. When I get the lockdown I can usually work through the combo and at least get to my side with an underhook, but the guys in class are fighting that lockdown pretty well. I need to figure out a way to reliably catch their leg and get lockdown as soon as they start flattening me. Especially if they bring the leg I'm trying to lockdown up really high. The other half guard that I'm trying to work (with some limited success) is the one where you've got your ankles crossed and you're using that to help brace your top leg against the guy's hip. This prevents them from just reaching flattening my top leg to my bottom and coming around the side. I think that I'm letting them flatten me too much from here and then losing the frame.
Passing half guard usually has me trying to flatten the guy out, put pressure down on his face/chin, walking the caught leg up to the guy's butt and then trying to pull the leg out. I'll need to ask the instructor what I'm doing wrong, because this pass used to work for me pretty well in the past.
I had several matches yesterday. My best one was against the pudgy russian and it had nice flow to it: Engage, fight for left arm underhook, pull, step left leg in, BOOM. Tai Otoshi. Damn I love that throw. Off the Tai Otoshi I landed in side control which I locked in nicely. Worked from side control to try for scarf hold, but the pudgy russian was framing too hard against my face, and was keeping his lower arm buried. Switched back to side control, pushed his near knee to the ground and stepped over into mount. Here's where I had a little trouble. I grapevined his legs first to flatten him out, and then started working my way up to high mount. He started trying to push me back low and getting to his side to try and trap a leg. I worked for an Americana but couldn't get his arm to the mat, then tried to climb up for an armbar and he rolled me. Mental note: stop trying to rush the subs. I worked closed guard against him until the end of the match.
Banged the left knee around a bit yesterday, just below the kneecap. Hopefully it doesn't give me any problems for weightlifting today.
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