04Jun13
BJJ
Private lesson with my old instructor. We went over how to attack half guard when they have a foot on your hip and a strong vertical knee shield.
Big-picture stuff:
-Clamp down and immobilize your opponent whenever possible to nullify their offensive ability. Bring your butt in close to them, bring their heel to their butt and use your elbow to block their bottom knee from coming out for triangles/arm bars etc. Different from using inside pants grips that kind of negate your ability to use your elbow as a BLOCK against their knee.
Once you have your opponent clamped down, then evaluate the situation. You don't want them to have control of the pace and to constantly be changing the "game board" by moving around, setting things up that you have no idea of. If you can shut them down and halt the action, then you're in control and can figure out how to solve the problem. It puts you on a level playing field against somebody who may know 5x as many moves as you.
-When passing the knee shield, your clamp down with a grip on their belt on the knee-shield side and with your other hand grip their sleeve. They'll probably have a grip on your sleeve too so just equalize it so you are both grabbing each others sleeves on that side. With that elbow, use it to both block their knee from coming out from under you and also leverage your weight on/against it. This effectively kills their dangerous leg. It's truly the leg that's UNDER you that is the threat, not the knee shield leg. That is just a defensive wall for the most part. You pass by sprawling, keeping your left elbow and hip weight on that bottom leg/knee to keep it immobile. Bring yourself close to his hips and with your right side grip, and his shin in your bicep bring his foot all the way to his butt. This closes the angle completely and renders that leg useless--He has no power and no space to use that leg.
Pass by bringing your REAR KNEE up and REPLACING your left elbow block. Constantly you are blocking that left side hip and by keeping pressure on that side of him he can't use his bottom leg. When you replace your elbow pressure with your rear knee, you have passed his half guard and he can't do anything.
-Generally, you should aways concentrate on passing with the rear knee. It's not the front leg that does the passing--if your rear leg has passed, then you have passed.
When doing the knee slice pass from standing half guard, yes you generally DO need the underhook. It'll be a fight often and if you're passing and he manages to steal the underhook, you don't have to back off completely. Use your right forearm like a wrestler's single tie on his head and put pressure there as you pass. Worst case scenario is he may come up to his knees and you will be on top turtle. Best case is you beat him around (by turning the corner faster than he can come up) and pass anyway.
-Always replace pressure or blocks with another pressure point or block. Never remove something without something else there to retain the pressure. Case in point, when passing the knee shield half guard your left elbow is replaced by your rear knee.
From knee on belly, I have been leaning way too far forward. Pop up to KoB and right away bring your chest up, using your hips and back as in a deadlift upright. This also keeps your lapels far away from their reach and you won't be rolled over by a big strong guy who would just grab and throw you off.
This was a lot to take in and just typing it up is reminding me of the small details we covered. It was a really thorough lesson and it's mind-blowing how many tiny details get glossed over when you're NOT getting private instruction.
Money-permitting I can see the huge value in getting a couple of private lessons per month even. Something to consider.
BJJ
Stayed for the hour and a half class after my private. LOTS of movement drills that other gyms don't do. It was very grueling for me since I haven't done stuff like this in a long while. At my home gym we'll usually just do a set of shrimps and forward/backward rolls for a warm up. This "warm up" was almost an hour long and really tough.
Then we went into basic guard passing and rolling. Went with a white belt and a few blues. Kinda struggled with being on top in side control and people using their leg flexibility to jump their hips up and "scrape" my head off of them. Usually caught in a harmless, armless triangle but it can still be dangerous if it prevents me from staying on top.
It was a great, exhausting almost 3 hours of training. I really feel like I learned a good amount in the private and got some basic movement work in during the class.
Two of the guys I started BJJ with are getting their purple belts in a few weeks. One of them I have always been 100% even with all the way through our journeys, while the other guy has always been a cut above me. They are both former wrestlers and have similar top heavy, low passing styles that focus on basic head and arm chokes, guillotines and arm bars. I have a feeling that if I stayed at this gym that I too would be getting my purple alongside these guys now.
Even though I won't get promoted for a long time I don't think it is still cool to see guys of similar skill/experience getting promoted.
I left the gym with five different mat burn blisters on my toes and on top of my feet. I don't know why, since I have been on the mat consistently for months now. Maybe the different mat material at this gym.
Closing in on 600 hours of total training. Feels like just the other day I was writing about getting to the 500 hour mark. This journey is flying by!