Seminar

12/29 - Downtown

Went to the normal Saturday class for 1.5hrs and then a 2hr seminar. I think I'm coming down with a cold, or my body is just tired from the past week. In any case, I'm glad there aren't any classes for the next couple of days b/c my body needs a break. I don't have cold symptoms, just tired. Hopefully a good night's rest will fix me up.

1st Session - Rolling
The regular noon class started off with pummeling and then we rolled the rest of the time. I'm not sure of the exact count, but I think I rolled with James twice, Antone twice or three times, Todd twice, Zack twice and one roll and one spider guard practice round with 'Nando. I had that feeling again that I'm not making any progress and in fact got so bent out of shape over it that I considered ditching the idea of competing altogether. The rolls went as they usually do, although I think what set me over the edge is that I felt like I was making dumb mistakes when rolling with Antone and 'Nando kept getting ezekiels that he'd put on fairly quickly. I hate feeling like a n00b. I told James after class that I felt like I wasn't progressing but he was kind and reassured me that I was doing fine. Not feeling very confident about competing just now.

'Nando showed me some tips on spider guard, how to get into it (with both sleeve grips, punch both hands up to make space for legs to come through; or straighten legs, turn to one side, keep tight pressure against their body with both of your legs as you pull one through, spread their arm out with your knee, hip to other side, bring other leg through). He also talked about control with the legs...i.e. focusing more on managing their distance by using your legs instead of your hands.

2nd Session - Seminar
By this time, I was desiring strongly for a nap. Very difficult to get the energy up to go to a 2hr seminar, even though I was excited about the topics. Inverted guard, spider guard and applying pressure.

Inverted guard turned out to be much more difficult for me to get into than I thought it would be. Once I was there I was fine, but it seemed like I had to put a great deal of pressure on my opponent to complete the rotation. In so doing, it felt like I was efforting far more than I should have been. I also tended to want to roll the wrong way. Only two options, and I often chose the wrong one. Meh.

Getting into the inverted guard: With sleeve control from guard, bring your R leg into their R arm-pit and pivot into inverted guard. This is the point where I was having trouble, and I'm not sure if it was due to distance, pressure, or incorrect place of the foot. End up with sleeve control and feet in the elbow crease of opponent.

Inverted guard to triangle: Bring one leg off of their elbow and shoot it to the other side. Roll toward the opponent's center mass. For example, if you have both of your legs on their R side, you want to roll to your R. This is also where I had some difficulty on choosing the correct side to roll.

Inverted guard to arm-bar: Same as above, but instead of shooting leg through, replace one foot with the other and rotate around into an arm-bar Also same as above, I had difficulty in picking the right direction to roll.

Z-guard: I remember the position but no idea what we did with it.

Spider guard to sweep (pushing into leg): From spider guard, drop both legs down to the ground, your L on the outside of the R leg and your R leg between their two legs. Legs should be bent, similar to coming up for a sit-up sweep. Grab their thigh with your R arm, tuck head tight to the outside of their leg and push into them. Your feet are blocking their feet (should not be pulling, but just stopping them from moving as you push back into them.

Spider guard to sweep (rolling into them): Similar set-up as above, but instead of pushing into their leg, you replace the grip on their R sleeve with your R hand, feed your L hand behind their knee and then feed their R arm sleeve to your L hand. Roll into them, gain side control.

Pendulum sweep: This was far and away my favorite. Because I understood it. From closed guard, take L hand and sleeve grip their L hand. Take R hand and put it above their elbow. Shove their arm across their body and try to lock out your triceps. Hip out a bit to the R (so you're facing L), let go of the tricep with your R hand and reach over their back and grab their R lat. Pull them down onto you. Use your L hand to grip the inside of their R knee, and pendulum your R leg around. You should pull them over your body to the R.

Side control pressure: Arm under the opponent, shoulder to the carotid.

James talked quite a bit about scooping up onto an opponent when getting into side control. Instead of getting side-control and coming over the top to flatten them, get you hips low and scoop them from low to high while moving across their body.