Class 300...

Hurray! I may not be a very good blue belt, but today I have made it to 300 classes at BJJ. Sadly, I hadn't trained for about two weeks because of work and I was well off the pace. 

We did some work on takedown to attack from the DLR position. The basic one we used was: 
i) From standing, grip opponent's left collar with own right hand; pull down the collar and spiral out to your left as you insert your left leg behind the right leg of the opponent; then insert DLR hook and attack from there.

The variations from this involved the standing man stepping back and dropping down into base position while ensuring there was no space under the right arm for the opponent to insert a knee shield of some description; then it's a matter of securing a grip on the opponent's collar or arm, knee slicing, and dropping into side control. The man on the bottom also has the option of trapping the stand man's knee and using this to destablisie him. 

I was pretty ropey in sparring but I had enough muscle memory to at least be compact and not leave arms poking out for massively easy submissions. I am also getting a tiny bit better at using my legs as a barrier and not letting people pass me as easily. I sort of managed to keep my hooks active today. 

It was a gruelling class, though, with lots of additional press-ups, star jumps, burpees and squats thrown in. It was good to be back, though. After 300 classes, I should probably be a lot better. But I'd be much worse if I hadn't started at all.

Things to remember: Keep hooks active; drill takedown.

Class 299...

Some exercises on passing open guard and attacking from open guard. The standing man has to bypass the legs, while the defending man has to get his hooks in or latch on to some type of guard.

I am not utterly hopeless at this because keeping hooks active is something I have been working on as part of my attempts to develop butterfly guard. 

Sparring was OK and I tried to use the arm drag to wrist lock and hit an armbar from it. On another occasion, I hit an omaplata from it. I need to play with this because even if the wrist lock fails, there are other possibilities. 

Things to remember: Keep hooks active.

Class 298...

A quick bit of pre-class homework with two escapes from knee mount:

I) Man on top has knee mount, so bridge up slightly away from opponent and circle elbow nearest his knee to the outside, then use that as a wedge and hip escape out so you face him on your side.

II) Man on top has knee mount, so sweep him by bringing knee up and using nearest leg to sweep his standing foot. 

Onto class and more DLR drilling. I really like the double unders pass for most guard escapes but I struggled to hit both that and the leg drag today. I have found a decent counter to it, though, which involves using the momentum of the pushed-aside legs as you push the upper arm of the opponent as he tries to move the legs out of the the way, then you come up onto your knees and attack from there. 

Normal Sparring was OK but I am poor at DLR. I did roll with a high purple belt today, though, and noticed his DLR priority when in that guard was to remove the hook by moving the foot and himself. I may well borrow that.

Class 296 & 297...

A few classes on the De La Riva guard...

De La Riva Guard: control opponent's near ankle and secure opponent's opposite collar; own left leg is DLR hook; hip escape and own right leg extends opponent's far leg; stretch unbalanced opponent and drive up as he goes down and secure position.

Variations on this included using unbalancing to create space to remove DLR hook and insert as a butterfly hook; then use it for a balloon sweep or as the entry into an x-guard sweep.

I am really bad at DLR but that's also because I don't really use it. I sort of like the x-guard, though, and I have long and strong legs, so I should persevere with this.

The second class continued the DLR guard, but looked at the options for the standing opponent. These included:

I) Leg drag the non-hooking leg in between your legs, then turn and knee slice with the trapped leg, then pass to either side. 

ii) Leg drag the non-hooking leg to the outside of your non-trapped leg, then drop down and attack for the double unders pass. 

iii) Leg drag the non-hooking leg to the outside of your trapped leg, then drop down and pass into side control. 

Specific sparring was ropey, but general sparring was OK. 

Things to remember: Use DLR to attack opponent's base, keep hooks active.