Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Classes 52 & 53...

The first class was another session with Rodrigo Cavaca and continued the guard-passing ideas of his previous class, but this time using similar set-ups to get sweeps. A lot of the finer details were lost on me but the two sweeps I remembered went something like this:

Ankle grab sweep: You are on the floor with your opponent standing over you; use your left leg to trap his standing right leg by hooking it on the outside; then using your left arm, secure his trapped leg by grabbing the gi pants at the ankle with your hand placed inbetween your legs; using your right leg stretch his left leg by pushing at the knee; then switch you hands so your right hand secures his trapped left leg and your left hand secures the gi sleeve on his left arm; then extend your right leg and drag his right arm down so he collapses and you go into side control.

Ankle grab kick up the arse sweep: there was also a version of this sweep that used a similar set-up and grips where you elevate the opponent by getting your right leg under his groin. The main point of both sweeps, however, was to trap and take your opponent’s posts out so he couldn’t rebalance himself when you got him moving.

We also did a sparring drill where the bottom person had to score points or submit the standing person and I did OK in this and survived a while with a few more senior belts and even passed a purple belt. This was clearly down to his fatigue more than any skill on my part, though.

I also had a brief roll with one of the visiting brown belts and he encouraged me to try and pass the guard at the start rather than let myself be trapped in it and have to fight my way out. I realised that rather stupidly this was a simple tactic I'd been neglecting as I've been intentionally putting myself in bad positions to experiment with guard breaks and escapes and the like.

The second class was run by the visiting brown belt and he demonstrated a way to avoid getting trapped in your seated opponent’s guard and pass into side control when you are standing. This went something like this:

Knee crunch guard pass: Your opponent is on his back with his feet on your hips and his hands on your gi sleeves as you stand; keep your feet back to avoid getting them trapped and keep your posture up; move your hands so your hands are on the inside of your opponent’s thighs with your elbows pinching the opponent’s legs together; step backwards until the tension from you opponent’s legs goes; then collapse your opponent’s knees to one side and keep a grip of the opponent’s gi pants; then drop into side control and secure the position.

Knee split guard pass to back: Your opponent is on his back with his feet on your hips and his hands on your gi sleeves as you stand; keep your feet back to avoid getting them trapped and keep your posture up; move your hands so your hands are on the inside of your opponent’s thighs with your elbows pinching the opponent’s legs together; step backwards until the tension from you opponent’s legs goes; then collapse one of your opponent’s knees to one side and keep a grip of the opponent’s gi pants; secure the dropped knee by bringing you knee through; then drop into back control and secure the position.

Knee split guard pass to side: Your opponent is on his back with his feet on your hips and his hands on your gi sleeves as you stand; keep your feet back to avoid getting them trapped and keep your posture up; move your hands so your hands are on the inside of your opponent’s thighs with your elbows pinching the opponent’s legs together; step backwards until the tension from you opponent’s legs goes; then collapse one of your opponent’s knees to one side and keep a grip of the opponent’s gi pants; secure the dropped knee by bringing you knee through; then drop through into side control and secure the position.

We then sparred for a while and this was tough. I held my own for a while and escaped some bad positions but I was too fatigued in the final round and just got tapped all over the place. A fab class, though.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Never surrender and just accept the opponent's guard as a starting point; always try to pass on the outside.

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