Rolling in class {video}

[yovan]

A couple of us are starting to tape rolling sessions to watch our mistakes. We figured we would throw them up for online critique as well.

So have at it - I'm the one who pulls guard at the start

 

[Armwrap]

Nice relaxed roll.

Why do you start from the knees? There is a lot of mat space and both of you seem to like standing passes.

 

[cms9690]

Very relaxed, hope it was as an enjoyable to participate as it was to watch.

 

[Grapplingwizard**]

Yeah why start from the knees when there is so much mat space? That is my biggest gripe about bjj, starting from the knees. It's like midget wrestling, lol

 

[yovan]

Why do you start from the knees? There is a lot of mat space and both of you seem to like standing passes.

i'm coming back from a foot injury and it's still tender, so I'm being a bit cautious and trying to keep my stand-up battles to a minimum.

 

[Armwrap]

Why dont you pull guard from standing? When you go 3:30 standing, you knee slide your opponent immediately after he tries to pull with bad grips. Maybe that is something you could work on?

Around 4:25 you had a good wraparound gi grip but your opponent was able to recompose guard. Why abandon a good grip? He is totally flat, you have his head controlled and a chance to put pressure on him.

You switch hips and take a pant grip giving him underhook, and when you decide to go for the head again, he has a clear path to your back. I would suggest trying to pummel the underhook back.

 

[RJ Green]

you don't really control the head much from your guard. you've got lapel grips, but he retains posture and mobility the whole time. it's hard to have offense from your back if you aren't controlling their posture, and if you're not controlling their posture you're playing defense.

 

[yovan]

you don't really control the head much from your guard. you've got lapel grips, but he retains posture and mobility the whole time. it's hard to have offense from your back if you aren't controlling their posture, and if you're not controlling their posture you're playing defense.

Interesting observation. Sometimes I feel like my guard is too defensive and I'm not generating enough offense. Any particular suggestions to help break down posture beyond yanking the lapel?

 

[beeran1]

Interesting observation. Sometimes I feel like my guard is too defensive and I'm not generating enough offense. Any particular suggestions to help break down posture beyond yanking the lapel?

Close your guard and use your legs + head, head/arm, two-on-one, etc. control to break their posture and bring them in to you (not directly on top of you though; you should be on one hip, off to the side of your opponent).

EDIT: On another note, now that I've watched more of the video, your partner should work on bridging. It looked like he had a couple of great opportunities to bridge you over and get out of bad positions (or at least create a scramble), but he didn't take them. Overall, good roll and thanks for posting.