Passing Butterfly Guard

12/19 - Downtown

After class, I headed back to work and realized that I felt quite peaceful. I wasn't particularly agitated before class. But afterwards, I felt a sense of great calm after absorbing something in addition to the hard rolls.

This is something that I enjoy about BJJ that I don't often consciously recognize...the trifecta of physical fatigue, mental stimulus and emotional release. Having a 200+lb dude drop his weight onto the side of your 150lb frame as he passes to side control puts the rest of your life into perspective. I don't think of much external to BJJ when I'm in class, and I absolutely don't think about anything other than the inches in front me during rolls. Especially rolls with bigger, more advanced players.

Technique
Set-up: You are in opponent's butterfly guard

1. Knees together - With L hand, grip outside of their R knee and push it into their L, collapsing them together. Bring R arm under their knees to your elbow and hold them tight. If/When opponent stops flailing about, grip the outside of their upper R arm with your L hand and step your R leg out to your side. Spin them toward you by pulling on the arm with your R and pulling their legs away from you with your L. Should end up in side-control.


2. Separate knees - In this case, you may be attempting #1 but opponent is keeping their knees apart, preventing the pass. Shift your L hand to the inside of their R knee, and slide your R hand under their L knee. Pin their R knee to the mat and lean your shoulder into the side of their upper L leg. You should be on your toes and all of your weight on their leg. They will probably be posted up on their R hand/elbow, so use your L hand to sleeve grip and pull their base away. Drive your head into their L shoulder, step over to your L and pass. I kept trying to control the bottom leg with my R hand, but James said the top leg would give you better bang for the buck since they would likely be trying to regain guard.

3. Double-under - Assuming you've gone for one of those and they've hipped out, come into them, push head into their torso to rock them back as you pick up both ankles. Goal is to get their momentum going backward and give you a chance to get under their legs. Shoot for the double-under, keeping arms very low on their hips and elbows in tight (not flared out). Assuming you're kneeling, bring their butt up on your knees to make the pass more effective. Drive into them, and feed their R lapel with your L hand into your R hand. Once you've got them good and stacked, use your L hand to separate their R leg and push it down and away. Must make sure that your fingers are on the outside of their leg to prevent triangles and other nasty things. You should be sprawled out...rotate two good-sized steps to the R and turn your face away from them to leg their L leg pass.

4. Double-under and they defend - Assuming you go for the double-under and they get an underhook with their L hand and are cross-facing you with their R in an attempt to pry your R arm out. Once you feel their L leg is near the floor, hop over it with your R knee and pinch your R & L knees together. Also make sure that your knee is in front of their knee, otherwise it will be easier for them to reguard. Their knee cannot be between you and them. If you then fall to your R side and then slide up toward their chest, you should be in side-control. I might be missing something here.

Rolls
Rolled with: Antone, Russ, Jayson, Joe, James

I managed to not get submitted by Antone (tho it was a close call). He damn near got my arm a couple of times but I was very cognizant to get it back. He had a choke once or twice that was close too.

Jayson crushed me almost the entire roll, and I considered tapping due to the crush. At one point I very audibly let out some air and a groan as he stacked me and moved into side-control.

Had a good roll with Russ, and even though he was on top most of the time, I did have one escape/pass that was awesome. I'm not even sure what I did, but I distinctly remember using his momentum and balance to reverse him. I very rarely get the feeling that I'm using someone's momentum to my advantage (other than submissions from guard), so that was gratifying.

Joe is very new, and instead of letting him work, I either worked subs from guard or swept him and worked subs from mount. Got the fog choke, which I haven't done in forever but was still pretty effective. Should let him work more...just don't want to get in bottom side b/c I'm always in bottom side. Or bottom mount. Meh.

Rolled with James, don't remember much about it except that I did try harder to scramble instead of giving up bad positions. I need to do this with all of my rolling partners, but it takes quite a bit of energy and I don't think I have the cardio to do that yet. Need to get it ingrained fast though.

Overall, great class. Unrelated, I'm quite happy that I was able to remember so much close to 12hrs later. I took a few hasty notes during class, but my at least my retention appears to be improved this week from last.