5:40-5:55p: Pass the guard. Passed Big Steve's guard by pinning one of his legs to half butterfly guard, reached under and pulled/pushed knee aside to complete pass. Later, Steve passed my guard without too much trouble. Tried to pass a Blue belt's guard and he ended up escaping to take down. He's pretty solid. I've never seen him in class before. Last guard pass (that I recall) was with a new white belt with a bit of Judo and wrestling background. He was really aggressive and tried to muscle his way out of my guard. He gassed and I caught him in front gi choke. Not really fair because he had no idea that using 3x as much energy as me to break my guard alone wasn't a very good long-term strategy. But he didn't have much of a choice since he didn't know any technique. Fortunately for him (and the other few new guys that showed tonight), we went over basic guard break technique later in the class.
5:55-6:05p: Self-dense technique. Aggressor took a conventional street fight stance. Defender kept distance and circled slightly to improve angle on opponents jabbing arm, then quickly went for a hip take down to side control. Partnered up with Chad.
6:05-6:10p: Worked posture recovery and guard break. Opponent has you in guard and forces your hands to the mat while holding head to chest. Swim hands under opponents arms and grab lapels. Move one hip back slightly, push against lapels and raise arms to create some space, then escape the head. Re-establish proper posture and proceed to break guard via standard technique (strong arm below sternum, control hip, move knee to butt-crack, shift hip back and break guard).
6:10-6:25p: Added simple stack pass to the mix. Worked full combo from broken posture to posture recovery to guard break to stack pass.
6:20-6:30p: Added the initial self defense take down, but had to pretend that a street fighter who left him/herself open to the hip take down could somehow recover guard from side control and break posture. Still...it was good to work a sequence from stand up, take down, posture recovery, guard break, and stack pass to side control.
6:30-7p: Rolls. First roll was with Big Steve. I'll refer to him as Big Steve for journaling purposes because we have another Steve (I'll call him Dr. Steve 'cause he's working on his PhD in Neuroscience at Tulane). Big Steve is...you guessed it...a fairly large, barrel chested guy. Might be an inch or two shorter than me, but he's probably my weight or heavier. We had a very good roll. Nice and easy. Not much force. I attempted one submission from knee on belly, but even though I had trapped his left arm after he tried to push my knee off and left space, I made a some undiagnosed mistake when transitioning around his head and lost the upper hand. I bailed on the attempt and he escaped to side control. His weight was crushing. I attempted two bridge to elbow escapes without gaining any ground. Spent a minute or so contemplating a tap to the "Big Country" submission because I was so miserable and had trouble breathing. Finally Steve attempted an advance to mount and I timed a hip escape to recover half guard. I think he escaped back to side control and somehow I managed to end up back in his guard for some time. Time called. Enjoyed this roll.
Second roll was with a new white belt named Matt (not my friend Matt who made his second class tonight). I'd never seen this Matt before, but he clearly knew some technique. Maybe he has grappling experience. Maybe BJJ from another school. Not sure. He could have been my height, but much slimmer. Started with him in my guard and the guy tried to muscle everything. I defended against the forceful onslaught, but eventually he passed my guard. I managed to recover guard. We went from guard to pass to guard recovery a few times. I had a couple successful sweeps. Once I established side control, but he managed to wiggle out. He also recovered guard from one of my mounts. I probably have 40-50lbs on him. Clearly I need to distribute my weight better and close the spaces. He shouldn't be able to escape side control and recover guard from mount that easily. I missed a great sweep opportunity during the roll. Even Professor Matthias saw it and shouted, "the arm, the arm." I saw the opportunity just as he was pointing it out, but Matt took a different tact and I lost my chance. Glad I saw it though...just need to learn to react quicker. All in good time.
Last roll was with B...something (Braxton?). He's the young football player I wrote about in my June 12th entry (approx. 18 and my height/size). Today was his second class. He started in my guard. "B" still relied on too much force, although his improvement from the first class was obvious. At one point I broke his posture, secured his head to my chest, and coached him through the escape (remember technique from earlier in the class - swim under and grip lapels, etc.). He didn't catch on. Probably couldn't remember what we did earlier. I know it took a long time before the stuff I learned during the technique portion of the class "stuck" in my brain. Remembering a technique and then executing it during a live roll is even more difficult. Eventually he muscled his head out and re-established posture. I kept my hips and guard high. He couldn't break guard, but tried very hard. Again, more muscle, but this time he at least remembered to position his knee to my butt crack. But with my hips high on his thigh, he didn't have the leverage. I reminded him to focus on controlling my hips before trying to go for the break. He caught on to that. Once he broke my guard, I positioned for the only scissor sweep variation that I know how to execute with any regular success. Sweep was successful and I landed in mount. He chuckled and I could tell he knew he was in trouble. But...I made a mistake and lost my balance during the sweep. I posted both arms over his shoulder. He had the perfect upa mount escape opportunity but had no clue. I stopped the roll at that point and showed him the upa. Simple enough. He struggled a bit with the sequence/timing, but once "B" got the basic idea I could tell he understood how valuable the simple technique can be when in a jam. We worked on the the sequence starting with my sweep to mount and his upa reversal. Time ran out.
Good class tonight. I feel really good. A bit sore, but it's a good sore. Not the "my joints are going to explode" sore.
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