Sunday Class 02/24/08

Sundays are always great classes. We had lots of new guys in class today, which is always fun to see, and we reviewed the techniques from the week. As usual, lots of time to spar, both in class and after in open mat.

I was really glad to see Keoni back in class today. What a sight for sore eyes. He's a crazy dude and I'm glad to see that he's recovering very well from his knee surgery!

Instead of rehashing the techniques I outlined previously, I thought I'd go over the two techniques that the new guys were drilling in open mat: guard pass #1 and the basic scissor sweep.

Coach calls the following Guard Pass #1. It's a very basic knee slide guard pass, outlined below passing to my right side.

1. Open Guard.
   
2. Bring right knee up and establish position, good base.
   
3. Control opponent's left leg.
   
4. Drive right knee over opponent's thigh, keeping hook.
5. Stay low and control opponent's head with my right arm.
   
6. Step out with my left leg, turning hips so that my left leg plants firmly on the mat.
   
7. Move to side control.

1: Open guard. There are lots of ways to do this. We're taught first, if I'm passing to right, to move my right knee out (widening my base to that side). Then, bring my left knee in line with my opponent's tailbone, widening out my right knee a touch more. My elbows are in tight, and my hands are on the shelf of my opponent's ribcage, or if gi, I can grab my opponent's belt. From here, I can round out my back to break the guard. If this doesn't work, I can move my right hand back a bit to help control my opponent's hips, scoot back just a few inches and once again round out my back to break open the guard.
2: Once the guard is open, I'm going to bring my knee up inside my opponent's legs. This keeps him from closing his guard. I should have a good base from here... pretty neutral position, from which I need to 3: control one of my opponent's right leg. I need to do this so that he doesn't simply hook my leg to keep me from stepping out to pass. I can do this by underhooking that leg, or if I'm worried about the triangle choke (and it's gi), I can grab some fabric inside the knee and control the leg that way.
4: Once I've got good control of my opponent's right leg, I'm going to drive my right knee to the mat over my opponent's left thigh. I HAVE to keep the hook, or I'll end up caught in half guard, so I'll use the contour of my shin to keep pressure on that leg, and at the same time, 5: stay low and control my opponent's head.
6: Step out with my left leg, and then 7: Move to side control. There are a lot of ways to safely get to side control from here. One way is to release my opponent's left leg and use that hand to block the hip. Then bring my left leg to my opponent's knee and get good control. I prefer to maintain control of my opponent's left leg, and just focus on keeping my left knee in tight to my opponent's hip while I move into a good side mount.

And that's it. Guard Pass #1.

The other technique the new guys all drilled was a Basic Scissor Sweep, where I've got my opponent in my closed guard and I'm going to roll him to my right side.

1. Get a good cross lapel grip with my left hand.
2. Control opponent's left arm with my right (behind elbow, wrist control... doesn't matter).
3. Open guard, bringing my left knee inside and contouring my opponent's waist/ribs with my shin.
4. My right leg is up off the mat to keep my opponent from stepping over to pass. I tend to either plant my foot on my opponent's hip or keeping my heel behind his knee.
5. As I pull with my right arm and push with my left arm, I'm going to scissor my legs, driving my left knee across and kicking my right leg under.
6. Ride the train, next stop: Mount.

Both of these techniques are very fundamental, but good to have in the tool box. I use the scissor sweep all the time, as a way to set up other techniques even when the sweep doesn't work.

Sparring and open mat were really fun. I spent a few minutes working to pass Josh's guard. While I wasn't entirely successful, I managed to avoid being swept or submitted. I also rolled with Bing, who got me into some weird positions. In that match, as is usual when I roll with Bing, I am constantly defending. Tonight, I was working to pass guard, and ended up over-committing to the pass. I defended an armbar, tried to reset and when I did, ended up off to the side and trying to keep him off my back. Then I was defending the RNC... and then the armbar. It wasn't good, but I managed to hold out.

All in all, a good class. The only down side is that I have a pretty bad gi burn on my right eye. That's going to be fun at work tomorrow.