Classes 276 & 277…

A couple of morning classes. The first was on using a variation of the De La Riva guard to off-balance and sweep an opponent. This was then followed by defending and sweeping from the open guard and moving in to a variation of the De La Riva guard. The takehome from this was to use feet to always stay connected to your opponent. 

The second class involved the bottom man sweeping a standing opponent using a hook inside the opponent’s right leg, with your left arm securing the opponent’s right foot in place. The variations went some thing like this:

Sweep variation 1: You are on your back with the opponent standing up; you have right leg hooking the inside of the opponent’s right leg, with your left arm securing the opponent’s right foot in place; reach your right hand to secure his other leg; then climb up onto your right hip and use you left leg on his hip to kick him over and follow him up into surfer stance. Then pass.

Sweep variation 2: Inside hooking with other leg

Sweep variation 3: Scissor variation like Tomahawk sweep.

Sweep variation 4: Drive up onto hip and switch hands.

Specific sparring was not as awful as usual and I did OK. Damaged knees aside, I am generally doing OK.

In normal sparring, though, I am sticking to my simple old school principles and the leg hug pass is also starting to pay dividends. 

Things to remember: Stay connected when sweeping and drop weight and drop into surfer stance when defending.