Class 137...

An intermediate class to kick things off and the focus was on guard passing, with the man on bottom on his back defending against a standing man trying to pass.

Pass one: standing man grabs opponent’s legs at ankles and, with his left hand, pulls opponent’s right leg into his own left hip. The standing man squats down, then his left hand secures a collar grip on the opponent’s right collar and the pressure between the hip and the collar grip secures the opponent’ left leg. He then steps his left leg to his opponent’s right with his left leg. The right hand pushes the opponent’s left knee flat and your left knee slides over his left leg. The right leg then comes over and you move into side control.

Pass two was similar to the above pass but it involved baiting the opponent into a triangle and crossing the hand gripping the pinned leg to secure the other leg attempting the triangle. There was also a detail about stretching the other leg past its comfort zone so it pings back and makes the pass easier.

We then did some work on passing the De La Riva guard from a standing position.

Pass one involved moving the grabbed hand to secure the trousers and using the inside of the arm as a frame to prevent the leg re-guarding, then stretching the leg on the unhooked side and sliding the hand inside the leg so one is controlling the opponent’s hooking leg and pinning it to the floor at the knee and the other hand is passing the other leg over the head to allow the pass.

The basic principles of all three passes were to secure the grips, move the limbs to unfavourable positions, then pressure and collapse the limbs and move to side control.

In sparring, I focused on slowing down and trying to work out my paths and I did OK. A senior bet also showed me a good escape from on top in half-guard, which involved pressuring the opponent’s neck to secure position and the opponent, then arching up to create space to help free the trapped leg.

Things to remember in BJJ: posture, pressure possibilities on guard passing and keep everything tight to restrict the opponent’s movement. The half guard escape.