I've had a few weeks on holiday, then another week away from the mats because of work and other commitments. But I finally got back to rolling last week and, even though my body feels ruined, the rest of me feels great.
The opening class was an open mat and I got stuck straight into sparring. I also did some work on bufferfly guard and setting up a wristlock from an armdrag. I did a bit of no-gi, too. I intend to persevere with this, as wel.
Class No.2 focused on retaining and escaping full guard, which basically meant the man in guard retaining posture and breaking, then passing, and the man on the bottom collapsing his opponent's posture and sweeping or submitting the man in his guard.
My ability to retain full guard and attack from it is getting better and my go-to attacks of sleeve choke and wristlocks are OK. The overhook control position on one arm also works well. My guard breaking and passing is also OK, with my posture and hip pressure on the opponent improving, and the leg hug pass working a treat.
I genuinely felt like I was making progress. The third class, however, was a slightly different story.
We worked on retaining and attacking from half guard from the bottom, and escaping half guard from the top. We worked on two nifty techniques for this.
Escaping half guard from top: Pin opponent's bottom leg and secure wrist control; hop onto foot trapped in guard, then hop onto other leg; ankle slice past controlling leg; once out, drive forward and secure top position.
Sweeping from half guard on bottom: when opponent on top grabs your leg, secure wrist control on holding hand, then secure wrist control on the other wrist; when opponent comes forward, sweep him to the side he has no base.
Specific drilling was a bit ropey in this position at first because I totally forgot the techniques we'd been taught. I think it tiredness. But I hit a few good sweeps when I got going and thought things through a bit more.
And it got a bit better when we moved to normal sparring, even though I very badly fatigued at the end.
Things to remember: the sweep from half guard.
