Sunday BJJ Class 10/14/2007 – It’s Go Time!

Sunday’s class was pretty rough! Bill ran the class as Coach was still getting settled after the trip to Oregon. What’s really good about Bill is that you would have to really work hard to not get caught up in his enthusiasm.

The phrase that pays for yesterday was, “It’s go time.” When you’re in someone’s half-guard, you do X, Y, and Z and then it’s go time! And if your opponent has the temerity to try and defend… well, that’s his mistake.

We worked on a few techniques from within someone’s half guard. Maybe we tried to pass and got a leg caught. The beauty of these two techniques is that they are both an effective way to pass guard and also set up submissions.

The first technique is for when I can avoid the underhook. I’m on top of my opponent. He’s got good technique with my leg locked up and is looking for space to hip out and re-establish guard. My goal is to put some pressure down on his arm so that he pushes back. I’ll use this to shoot his hand underneath my body and drive my hip to the ground. So, now I’ve actually got my back to my opponent’s arms and head. I’m keeping a solid base and lots of pressure back on his armpit so that he feels pretty well locked down. Now, to clear my leg and get mount, I simply walk my foot up until my knee pops out, then drive that knee to the mat. I’ll then “violently” bring my arm around to what is essentially a mount position. I’ll pull my foot out, using my other foot to help if necessary. As bill says, this is an untenable position on the part of my opponent. Sometimes, they’ll worry about locking in that foot, and if they do, it’s go time. If they’re worried about my foot, they are probably leaving their neck open, or he mentioned that we could even swing around for an armbar and just go for that. The only detail to remember is that if my foot is still caught up, I can finish the armbar, but I have to be really cognizant of keeping my knees tight together.

The second technique was similar to the first. The main difference is that my opponent is fishing for an underhook from half-guard. Bill says that this really irritates him. Someone underhooks me from half-guard, it’s go time. I’m going to bring my left arm around his head and drive my left hip to the mat just as before. This time, however, I’m going to hook his left arm with my own, snaking it through and, if I’m wearing a gi, grabbing my lapel. No gi, I have to keep my elbow in tight. Next, I’ll bait my opponent by continuing to work on the pass. When he brings that arm down to block my leg, I’ll simply take it around into a straight armbar or a kimura. Or, I can always finish the pass and establish mount.

Keys to this position are keeping lots of pressure on his shoulders, keeping his flat on his back and minding my base. If my hip isn’t on the mat, my base is somewhat compromised. On bigger guys, this may be the case. These techniques still work, I just have to be more careful with my base.

Sparring was crazy. Basically, the upper belts all took the mat, and the lower belts cycled through. Two minute matches with not very long to rest in between. The first several matches, the upper belts started from the bottom, and then later, lower belts started from the bottom.
I rolled with Josh first. Josh is very flexible, and has long legs. I got around into his half guard a few times, but would end up back in his guard before long. Against guys like Josh who are constantly fishing for a triangle, I tend to try and pin one leg to the ground and passing over that leg. The other pass that I tend to use involves hugging both legs together at the knee and passing around that way.

My second match was with Bill. I did my best and just tried to keep good posture, good base and pass if possible (it wasn’t). I tapped to a triangle and got swept twice, but it was good. I was officially gassed after this round. Then two minutes with Big Rick. I passed Rick once. I can’t remember for sure, but I think he let me pin his legs together and I moved into side control from there. Now I’m REALLY tired. Next match was Matt. I had a good match against Matt, getting through a few times. Matt’s a really big guy, about 270 or so lbs. But he’s flexible and actually moves a lot like Josh. A few times, I ended up trying to pass under Matt’s legs, where you sort of shuck one leg over. Unfortunately, he just sort of chuckled and reminded me that he was too big for that to work. While I didn’t get past him that way, I did move him and got around his guard a few times.

By this time, I was wiped, so I took 2 minutes to rest and then started working from the bottom, finishing out against Todd, Cory and Josh.

After class, I was pretty overheated, and this morning I felt like I had a hangover from dehydration, even though I drank a bunch of water yesterday before and after class. In spite of that, I feel really good. It’s been a long time since I’ve been healthy enough to really go 100%.