Classes 288, 289 & 290...

Three classes and some good stuff in all three.

First up was a seminar with Sidney Silva, who taught a basic butterfly sweep that then transitioned into a bridge and roll escape for the swept man, which then ended in a foot lock.

In the second and third classes, we continued to work on sweeps from the bottom in half guard with a high frame. 

My favourite one of these involved the opponent collapsing the frame of the man on the bottom, then the bottom man attacking for an omoplata. Failing that the right arm and leg of the opponent becomes trapped and your right foot hooks on the inside thigh of the opponent's left leg, then you drop back and use the hook to lift him up and sweep him to the side he has no base.

I am starting to experiment with butterfly guard a lot, but I often get lazy and forget to keep the hooks active. I cannot afford to do this. 

I did OK in sparring but I went far too hard for too long and exhausted myself. I need to get better at retaining my frame to fend off the opponent and helping to conserve my energy. 

Things to remember: Keep butterfly hooks active; focus on frame retention.

Private Class No.18...

Today something new as I'm toying with the idea of adding a few no-gi classes into my BJJ studies next year. So we started with some basic positional stuff.

Pummelling: In an ideal world, you are looking for double underhooks on a standing opponent. But this rarely happens, so you generally want head control and bicep control with the opponent's head sandwiched between your head and arm. In terms of movement, this means you can drive the opponent to the side and expose a leg for the single leg takedown. You are also looking to deny the opponent inside space.

Attacks: collar chokes are out but armbars, triangles and omoplatas are good to use. Leg locks and wristlocks are also a decent option if you can catch them quickly enough.

Butterfly guard: is a good option for no-gi because it transfers quite easily from gi to no-gi. You can use most of the same attacks from butterfly and also use the overhook guard. You must keep hooks active, though.

Things to remember: Deny opponent inside space when pummelling; keep hooks active in butterfly guard.

Classes 285, 286 & 287...

Three morning classes in quick succession, which all focused on attacking from, escaping from and sweeping from half guard.

The half guard escape involved the man on the top grabbing collar and pant control at the bottom knee, then hopping to his feet and knee slicing.

The sweep involved the man on the bottom grabbing the knee control hand and sweeping the opponent onto the side he can't base. 

The takehomes from this were:
Retain a strong frame and stay on one hip if you are on the bottom defending the position. 
Break down the opponent frame and get him on his back if you are trying to break guard and pass.

Sparring was OK and I'm pretty much doing what I should be doing.

Private Class No.17...

We worked on the following:

i) Wrist lock from standing collar grab.

ii) Butterfly sweep with emphasis on driving off base leg and kicking hook foot. Variation when they defend by tapping the knee.

iii) Butterfly arm drag with emphasis on attacking back and pulling opponent into you.

Another excellent class. I am adding some more basics to my game.