Reflection

Took awhile for me to slow down enough to do a write-up, but I'm going to do at least a portion tonight.

Winning at Pans was in the top 5 list of highlights of my life. It felt utterly surreal at the time, and even now I still don't think I've accepted that I reached a goal that I set for myself. The goal wasn't to necessarily win gold, but to compete as well as I was capable of competing at one of the largest BJJ tournaments in the world. The first three matches that I had were me at my competition best. Namely, being able to play the game that works most effectively for me, which is to pull guard and work submissions from there. Not only work submissions, but to get my favorite (triangle) twice.

My loss in the absolute semi-final haunts me. She was an excellent opponent with a great top game. My coach warned me of this before the match. I didn't take him lightly, but once my guard was passed it was all over. I think on a day where I was fresh I would have fared better, but at that point in time I had no escapes in me. She was definitely better than me in that match, and even fresh I'd have a devil of a time escape her top control.

I decided to do a quick chronological summary, otherwise this would probably get waaaaaaaaaaay too lengthy.

Thursday:
Nando competes first, and I'm very grateful for that. Learned a lot of things about the process that I wouldn't have even thought of, such as having your license on you at all times, wearing shoes, and how useful wearing a backpack would be. He went out and gave it his all, even with a banged up groin and foot. With very little hip mobility he managed several escapes, but couldn't mount any offense.

Thursday Night:
Most of the joint team (WA, NV, Brazil, MI) go to a school near Huntington Beach to train. I stay put in the hotel b/c I was still getting over being sick and felt fatigued. Wanted to rest and get a good night's sleep. My roommates get back sometime after 11, and then sometime after that (maybe an hour or so), Nando comes in with a couple of guys that he had just picked up from the airport that had flown in Brazil. They crashed on the floor.

Friday Morning:
I wake up and meet the Brazilian teammates, both of which are called Victor. Only much later did I find out that one had Victor for a first name and one had it for a last name. We also had a Victor on our team from MI, so I just started calling everyone I didn't know "Victor".

We get to the arena, and even with the interrupted sleep, I'm feeling ready to go. I stretched for awhile above the stands, and then headed down when my bracket was scheduled for the bullpen. I warmed up more in the bullpen, and had numerous anxious thoughts about my gi passing inspection. I'd seen quite a few of my brand/model on the floor already, so figured it would be ok, but was still sweating it.  I had another brand in my backpack, but you really don't want to mess with that anxiety when you're supposed to be focused on a match. Finally got called up, passed the gi inspection, and was ready to the hit the mat. I wasn't in the bullpen very long, maybe 20 minutes.

I was lucky enough to be on a mat where my teammates could stand just off to the side to watch instead of being up in the stands. I bowed onto the mat, shook the ref's hand, and immediately pulled guard. I think I started messing with cross collar choke that wasn't very fruitful. Not sure how I ended up isolating an arm, but eventually I did and locked in the triangle. Could not finish it from guard though. I thought I heard my coaches yelling diametrically different advice "forget the head, control the arm!" and "forget the arm, control the head!" but to be honest I couldn't hear anything clearly. I held onto that triangle for dear life, and got to the point where I started worrying about points if I couldn't finish. I was able to rotate and get the mounted triangle, after which my opponent quickly tapped. I was damned happy for the win.

I was able to talk with my coach briefly before my next match, and he advised that my next opponent was probably a judo player and big on takedowns. Don't screw around with takedowns, pull guard immediately. My guys were rubbing my arms and asking about my legs, worried that I'd blown them out on the long triangle attempt. Fortunately, my legs still felt pretty good.

Next match, I pull guard immediately and close it as soon as I can. I again start fussing with collar choke. I try to isolate an arm for a triangle, but it's not happening. And then, I fixated on her right arm and decided that I was going to get the arm-bar. She started to stand up, but I had the grip and ability to hang on, and got the freaking the arm-bar. I could not believe it when she tapped. I just won gold! I jumped to my feet and then hopped up and down like an idiot. I was stunned. The ref raised my hand and after I came off the mat I ran over to my teammates and coaches and gave them mad love over the barricade.

A little while later our bracket was called to the podium, and I received my very first Pan medal.

Friday Afternoon:
I was on cloud nine for hours. Absolutely thrilled. After awhile though, I realized that I needed to refocus on the absolute bracket that was scheduled for 5pm. Long story short, I tried to start getting in the zone around 4pm and didn't step on the mat until after 7:30pm. It was a looooooooooong wait in the bullpen. I think the lack of sleep, the euphoria from earlier, and the attempt to wind up my energy for several hours took it's toll. The bullpen was also a disaster. They were trying a new process for getting athletes to the mats and it was not working well.

I stepped onto the mat and same game plan as before...pull guard and attempt submission. This went very similar to the first match. Locked in the triangle, took a long time to finish. Started to worry about time, so I rotated around and moved it to a mounted triangle for the tap.

My last match I didn't do well at all. I pulled guard, but couldn't close it. I kept grabbing onto her collar but was petrified b/c of the way her sports bra or top seemed to be coming off while I was reaching for the collar. I was worried that I was going to pull the whole shebang off. She was very good at preventing me from closing my guard, and when I tried to work DLR she passed into side-control and stayed there for the duration of the match. I didn't feel like she was going for submissions, but she felt heavy as hell and I couldn't escape. I couldn't hear anything my coach might have been telling me. I don't think I got mounted, but I might have. Lost on points, probably at least 4-0.

I was bummed after the match, but very tired and happy to be done. I was pretty sure I had lost in the semi-finals, so was hoping I was going to get a bronze. The brackets were really weird though, and for quite awhile I figured I wasn't going to medal. After a long wait, they finally called our bracket to the podium and lucky for me, I got bronze. I was very, very happy to be able to snag two medals.

GOLD

Visitor

3/20

On our way to the beach, we stopped by the Art of Jiu Jitsu to see about training there. The facility is ridiculous...all white walls, ceiling, and mats. The Mendes brothers were there, doing some admin stuff, but stopped to shake our hands. The drop-in price was too high, but just being inside their academy was very cool.

Lucky for us, next door there was another academy under Cleber BJJ. The instructor was cool, the price was right, and we came back in the evening for a class. Drilled toreando pass, turning the corner and windshield wiper finish, and jumping over their guard. Relatively easy, but it took me awhile to get my head into it. Did a couple of DLR passes as well. Worked with James for the technique and started feeling better about those.

Rolled with James and most of the guys there. All white belts. James let me work a bit, then I had probably four or five rolls after that. I realized that the humidity made quite a difference, and was really happy to get to experience that before my matches. It was pretty warm in there though, and I don't expect the event center to be that warm.

Nando goes tomorrow, looking forward to watching him roll! :)

California

3/19

Flew in yesterday and did a short bodyweight workout in the hotel. They guys are talking about trying to find some mats to roll on but I'm not too optimistic. Overall very mellow day, including a drive to the beach later. Upper 60s the rest of the week and hopefully sunny. Will be nice to relax for a couple of days before competing. I haven't been thinking much about competing since yesterday. It may or may not start to dominate my thoughts soon.

Last Class

3/18 - Downtown

Felt better today. Not a 100%, but good enough to go to class and not worry about making my cold worse. Can almost breathe through my nose, which is good enough for me. Not going to do the evening class tonight though. That would probably be pushing it.

We did our version of "flow" rolls, which landed Matt in the Urgent Care with a broken nose. James took him in, so Antone taught DLR and reverse DLR sweeps.

Rolled with Julio, Saul and Dennis. Felt great during my roll with Dennis as I was trying very hard to keep him in my guard and work sweeps. He got one or two passes, but I was able to stay where I wanted for the most part. Was really happy with that roll. Saul let me work my top game and showed me an escape from kesa gatame. If they have KG on your R side, pull bottom L side of their jacket out, pull behind their L shoulder and feed it from your R hand to your L. Pull it straight down as you bump to your L. He also showed me how to make bottom side very painful by putting your fist on their spine just below their neck. Worked turtle guard with Julio.

Relieved to have been able to go to class before leaving tomorrow. Still don't know if I'm competing Thursday or Friday. Doesn't matter, though I would like to do it sooner rather than later. Weight is awesome, was 6lb under (including gi) this morning.

Take This Cold And...

3/17

Really, really not pleased about being sick right now. If I don't feel significantly better by tomorrow morning, I'm probably not going to get any rolls in again before I compete next week. My body doesn't feel too bad, but exerting with this cold is probably just going to prolong the illness. And no one wants to roll with a sick partner. If it stays in my head and out of my chest I'll be fine (except for the flight down...flying whilst congested is all sorts of not ok).

My biggest concern with not being able to train yesterday or tomorrow is not having a chance to work on my flow and fluidity. I'm worried that I'm going to get rusty by not rolling for a week beforehand. I hope the guys will be up for some light rolling while we're down there and that we have the space to do it.

Fret fret fret.

Ruminations the Weekend Before

3/16

No training today. Felt off yesterday and almost feverish at work after class. Am really not pleased about getting sick the weekend before Pans, but it's not under my control. I'm going to be very mellow this weekend and hope that it passes in a couple of days. I'd like to roll on Monday morning and afternoon, but will play it by ear and see how I feel. Seems to be a head cold so far, and might be in large part due to fatiguing my body this week. Oops.

I have four competitors in my bracket, so I imagine it will be a straight-forward process of two matches to decide how everyone places. Win and you compete for 1st/2nd, lose and you get 3rd. The one consolation is that I think I'm eligible for absolute regardless of what happens in my weight class since everyone will place. If I understand the process correctly, that will guarantee me two matches. That is somewhat reassuring, in case I wet the bed in my first match.

I've tried to visualize what it will be like to compete on that stage. I'm anticipating nerves on a grand scale, but am hoping to manage them well enough that I don't get an adrenaline dump or lose my sense of focus. I've gone through several mental machinations, trying to anticipate or guide how I want to feel and approach the experience. Yesterday it occurred to me that I'm trying too hard to control how I'm going to react to a future event, and I think it's a futile practice. I need to trust in my game, preparation and mental fortitude. Let the rest of the world drop away (except for the voice of my coach, if I can hear him) and do jiu-jitsu.

DLR Sweeps

3/15 - Downtown

So. Tired. Seventh class this week, and my body is starting to hate me a little bit.

Worked DLR sweeps. James used me to demo, and I was ridiculously stiff. He actually had to tell me to relax. Made me chuckle at myself...

Technique

Opponent has combat stance with their R knee up. You have sleeve grips on both sides.

1. Spider to Triangle: Assuming they are crowding you with the knee, get your L foot inside of their R shin so that it's hooking the inside of their leg. R foot on the inside of their L elbow and push it diagonal to your R and behind them to get their weight off of their R foot. Use your L foot to sweep their R leg straight out to their R, then put your L foot on their R hip. Slide your R foot up and over for the triangle.

2. DLR Sweep Forward: If you can't get your L leg under their R knee, push their L leg away from you with your R leg to open the space, then get your L leg under their R leg and all the way across to their L hip. Release the sleeve grip with your R hand and grip their L collar. Pull them to your R. As they hit the mat, keep pressure on them with your hips. Don't just have your knee on their leg, sit back on them and keep the weight on. With the continued sleeve grip with your R hand, pull their L arm into your chest to keep them from getting their elbow on the floor and slide your R shin across their shin and down until your butt hits the floor. Roll onto them a bit and scoot your butt towards their hips to flatten them out.

3. DLR Sweep Backward: Same setup as #3, but if they base back when you try to dump them to the R, hook your R foot in front of their R shin so that your foot is on the outside of their ankle, release R grip from their collar to their L sleeve and release your R sleeve grip and grip their R knee instead. Lift up with your R leg and keep their L arm up as you dump them diagonally to the L. Maintain the leg and sleeve grip so they can't reguard.

Rolls

Not pleased with the rolls today. Felt like I couldn't get anything going. First one was with Kyle who was on top pretty much the entire time. Then Julio, who let me work a bit more than usual. We went over the sweep he showed me on Wednesday again but my brain just wasn't engaging. After that it was Matt, who also had top position almost the entire time. Then Saul, who let me work from guard and mount. A shorter roll with Kenny, in which I just flailed around with my guard.

Not encouraging. I think my body is tired and I'm really starting to inch towards the diminishing returns thing.

Also found out that Rodolfo will not be at Pan Ams b/c he wants to focus on Abu Dabhi. I was really looking forward to watching him roll in person, so I'm pretty bummed about this.

Half Guard & Side Control Escapes

3/14 - Valley

I kinda love BJJ. A lot.

I woke up this morning feeling mentally and physically fatigued. Had a hard time falling asleep last night, and for some unfathomable reason I was awake a half hour before the alarm this morning. Earlier in the week I'd planned on attending two classes today, but this morning I felt like it'd be a major accomplishment to just get through the Valley class.

I get to the Valley, and my back is still sore from yesterday but not awful. After a couple of reversals it seemed like I might have lightly bruised ribs in addition to whatever I tweaked in my back last night. Or maybe just general tenderness. Anyway, the point is that I felt like I was nailing the techniques, I learned a couple of really useful nuggets, and I had a great roll.

Opponent has side-control or half guard from your R side.

1. Bridge Into Guard: Push their forehead up with your L hand if necessary to make room to get forearm under their chin and gripping their L shoulder. Punch up with elbow (turning their face to their R), position your feet as far away from them as you can before bridging into them, then pulling back in the space you've created and regaining guard. The key here is to move your feet away from their hips before bridging in. This seemed to really help.

2.Getting Double-Underhooks and Conveyor: Same start as above, but once you bridge in and back, feed your L arm as an underhook on their R side. L foot should hook on the underside of their R thigh, L leg should be over the top of their R leg to keep them from freeing it. L hand over their back and on their belt, R hand grips their gi pants. Use your leg hook to bring them forward over your body, then back down as you free their legs and regain guard. For side-control, once you get bridged to your side, get to the knee shield and go from there.

3. Smash the Face: I say this somewhat tongue-in-cheek. This worked really, really well for me. Identical to #1, except that you've prevented them from getting getting a cross-face with your R hand. Use your L hand to push their face to your R (their L), bridge up and regain guard.

4. Thumb in Arm Pit: You've prevented the cross-face and their L arm is across your body (i.e. below your arms). Push their L elbow away from you, even putting your thumb in their arm pit and then bracing off of that as you scoot your legs out.

One roll with Gary. I was very happy with how I did. Almost transitioned to the back from guard, had a bow and arrow that I couldn't finish, and controlled well from the guard.

So after that, I thought that maybe I'd do class tonight too. Will see how I feel when 6pm rolls around. I'd love to get in as many classes as possible, but I think there's a point of diminishing returns if my body gets to be too fatigued.

Standing Guard Pass & Shin Guard Sweeps

Another double-dipper...

3/13 - Downtown (Morning)

Standing guard pass and defense against arm-bar if they get the double-leg takedown. Always, always, always keep aggressive hips. Crowd them like the dickens.

Julio showed me a great sweep during one of our rolls. Kindof a butterfly setup, start an arm-drag with their R arm, shoot R leg straight through their legs and hook the inside of their R shin with your L foot. Pull them over the top of you and then...I think throw them to your L. I tried to do it again in the evening class but failed.

Rolled with James, Julio x 2, Chris.

3/13 - Downtown (Evening)

Shin guard passes.

1. Dummy Pass: Facing them, hook their ankles with your feet and push their knees back. Helps if you get a grip to pull them down toward the ground, which will make them want to pull back up, which will make pushing on their legs more effective.

2. Grip their R sleeve with your L hand, then get cross grip with your R hand. Feed under their R leg, pull their R tricep with your R hand across your body to your R. It will make them roll diagonally to your R.

3. If #2 doesn't work but you can grip their L hand, do that and push their L leg out with your R leg and dump them to the ground to your R near your legs.

4. If you can't get sleeve grips for #2 or #3, hug their R leg, wrap your L arm around their R leg and grip the bottom of their gi top, c-grip under their L knee with your R hand and shoulder roll to your R. If they post out, bring their R knee in toward your body and roll in the opposite direction.

Rolls with Sarah, Nando, Sebastian, and Manny. I think someone else but I forget. Was able to work some offense with Sarah, but was defending with everyone else. Very tired.

Half Guard Sweeps

3/12 - Valley

It occurred to me that I should be referring to these as half guard "sweeps" instead of "escapes". Clearly I'm not very comfortable in half guard since I see myself as needing to escape instead of taking the initiative and sweeping. You can tell a lot about a person's game by the language they use...

Just Gary and I and we worked exclusively on half guard sweeps with a N/S escape as a bonus. Turns out I could have lived without this particular bonus...

1. Half Guard to Mount: Assume you are in half guard on opponent's R side with a cross-grip. With your L hand, get a thumb in grip in their collar on their L side. Drive your R knee up and then down to the mat next to their L hip. To free it, lasso your L hand around the back of their head (maintaining the collar grip) and pushing their L cheek to the R. They will let your leg go free and you can proceed to mount. The lasso does NOT feel good. As bad (if not worse) than airplaning.

2. Half Guard to Cross-Body: Assume you are in half guard on opponent's R side. Switch to your L hip, nudge your R knee up. Use your R elbow to shove their L leg off if it's over your knee. Back step to cross body.

3. Half Guard to Cross-Body Holding Belt: You are in bottom half and opponent is on your R side. Hook under the outside of their R leg with your L foot. Put your R foot over their R leg so they can't pull it up and out to free it. L hand is on their R shoulder lapel. R arm goes under the inside of their L knee (between their knee and your body). Use the leg that you have trapped to conveyor them up your body so that your L arm can reach their belt just to the rear of their L hip. Once you have the belt, pull your R hand toward the ground as your L hand that's on their shoulder pushes up and your legs arc their R leg over. The trick is to pull their belt toward the ground instead of trying to initiate the movement with the legs. Gary and I had to mess with this a fair amount before we got any reps that felt good.

4. Half Guard to Half Mount Pulling Foot: You are in bottom half guard and opponent is to your R in a reverse kesa gatame and has their R foot within reach. Reach over or under their foot and hold it as you hip up and over to the R.

5. Half Guard to Half Mount Leg Straight: You are in bottom half guard and opponent is to your R and has their free leg (L) straight behind them. Put your R foot on the outside of their L leg and then pinch your legs together. This traps their outside leg from sprawling/basing out and the inside leg as well. Hip up and to the R.

So after the half guard work, we decided to tackle a fairly complex N/S escape, which is where I ran into a slight problem. The escape was create space, put your knees in their armpits, extend, get sleeve grips, then replace your knees with your feet, going into a kindof inverted spider guard. Extend them up toward the ceiling, then bring them down over you and finally extend horizontally.

This was all well and good until I neglected to tuck my chin (I think) and landed squarely on the side of my head. Don't think I was concussed, but whatever the condition is that falls just below concussed is probably what happened. Took a few to clear my head and then decided to call it a day. Time was almost up anyway, so it worked out ok. NOT a fan of this particular escape b/c the idea is to hold on to BOTH of your opponent's sleeves as you roll/toss them which gives them nothing to use for breakfalls. Not cool.

Half Guard Sweeps

3/11 - Downtown (Evening)

One of my friends from the other school came that I haven't seen in probably a year or so. Great guy, love rolling with him. Hope he's going to be back on the regular.

We worked half guard escapes

1. Drive the bus

Assuming opponent has reverse kesa gatame:

2. Escape to top half: Push their near side elbow away (toward your hips), hip into/under them, grip under their pants, preferably under thigh/knee near the floor. As you hip under them, their head and near shoulder should be getting closer to the floor. Bring them the rest of the way down and kick your legs up to roll over the top of them and end up in top half.

3. Escape to take the back: Similar to #2, but assume you can't get the roll over. Bait them with the mount. As they mount, hip up and shove the near side leg between yours. Keep the grip on their elbow so you aren't just throwing them off to the side.

Rolled with James, Manny, Keith, Michael and Zack. Didn't feel as smooth as earlier in the day, but overall can't complain.

Kimura and Head and Arm Escapes

3/11 - Downtown (Morning)

I was asked to warm up the class, which surprised the hell out of me. I don't think I've ever been asked to run warm-ups before. I had to ask for clarification two or three times to confirm that I was hearing correctly. I did the usual running plus 10 burpees at the end for good measure.

We started off with "flow" rolls, then drilled a couple of escapes, then more rolling. By "flow" rolls, I mean we started off at about 80% effort and then quickly moved to 110%.

Technique


1. Head and Arm Defense: Get off your back and roll to the side opposite them. If they are on your R side, roll to your L and try to grab under your R knee with your R hand. Can also use this to wriggle off your back and onto your L side.

2. Head/Arm to Kimura: Once you're on your side, wait for them to loosen their grip, as they may switch to an Ezekiel or something else. Keep rolling to the L and make sure their arm stays trapped to your body. Stay tight to them with the arm trapped and you should come up with your back on top of their back. Kimura from here.

3. Head/Arm to Side-Control: Instead of rolling more to your L, get a grip on their elbow and pull down to relieve pressure as you walk your legs to the L. You should come up with your back perpendicular on their chest. Shoot yourself across their body as you hold their arm to pop the grip (if they're still holding it). Face their legs and get control of their hips with your hands, then scoot your butt back to clear their arms. If you're feeling froggy, feed your L hand behind you and under their neck from L to R. Move to N/S, then over to their L side for d'arce.

4. Kimura Escape from Side-Control: You are flat in bottom side and opponent is trying to get kimura on your L arm. Spread fingers out and plant palm down on the mat. Get on your L side as much as you can and then try to get your L knee (I think) in between their grip and your arm. Once you break their grip, immediately feed your L hand as an underhook on their R side. My instinct is to start framing with it, but James' thinking is that they are going to keep going for the kimura.

5. Kimura Escape from Guard: Cup their leg if you can't get to yours. Kick your leg out to make it easier to grip your own leg, then immediately tuck it back in. Now you can start to work pass to the side.

6. Kimura Escape from Half-Guard: Grip your trapped wrist with your other wrist, keep elbows tight and lift their arm up and behind them for your own kimura.

Rolls

Had a lot of rolls. Flow rolls at the beginning were 4min each: Sarah, Julio, Antone, Nando, Eddie(?), Matt, James.

Second set of rolls: Sarah (2), Keven, Chris.

I felt really good during the rolls. For some reason, I seemed to be seeing opportunities to take the back and I was going for it. Probably subconsciously trying to make amends for not getting to the back on Saturday. :p I was determined to not let Chris get into side control and performed better than I ever have in that regard. I think he got around once, but I was able to regain guard. Overall I was really, really happy with how I rolled. Things just seemed to click today. I'm still leaving my foot out and am giving people a lot of opportunities for foot/ankle locks.




 

Revolution XXI

3/9 - Revolution Tournament

My weight class (med-heavy) was combined with the heavy weight class, so I had one other competitor. Best two out of three matches. I'd competed against her before years ago as a white belt. I think she had 60+lb on me, which is a fair amount, but it's something that I face on a semi-regular basis in class.

First match, I stand up for a bit and then pull guard. Couldn't do anything with it, she got side-control and I think I was able to regain guard but couldn't do anything else. Kept trying to triangle, which was dumb b/c she just shrugged them off and immediately passed my guard. I tried to take her back and came close a couple of times but couldn't get all the way around the corner. She won on points, I'm not sure by how much.

Second match, I tried a couple of times for a takedown but was too timid and to be honest I can't remember how we ended up on the ground. I was in side-control for the vast majority of the second match, if not the entirety. Could not escape to save my life. I was in an especially bad way when she cross-faced me, and she nearly got me with a choke that seemed to be compressing more on my mouth than my neck. I nearly tapped, but I think I escaped but ended up in another choke.

Overall not a good outing for me. Could not get my game going. Wasn't confident in any of my sweeps or submissions. Wish I would have moved around more, and really wish that when I had guard I would have at least tried to stand up or create some space and then attempt to get on top. I kinda blanked out when I was in guard b/c I didn't know what to do. I should have abandoned guard, which is a good lesson learned.

Great experience though, and very happy that I went and competed. As usual, competition really shines a light on the areas that you need to work on.

Proud of my team...guys had tough matches and competed well.

Takedowns

3/8

Started off with "light" flow rolling, which involved me getting taken down via double-leg by Julio. Mmmhmm. We worked pulling guard and a single leg takedown. Great practice for me. If you're going to pull guard, go for it. Don't be timid, don't wait until you have the perfect grips. Grip low, grip high, step with opposite leg, post the other leg and boom.

I told James that I want to work the single leg takedown in preparation for Pans. With my frame I think I could have some success with it.

Flow-rolled with Julio, Antone, Matt, James and Kyle. Rolled with same guys except Antone at the end. I keep doing something wrong when setting up triangles b/c guys are just smashing my leg down as soon as I shoot it up. I must not be controlling something correctly. Or I'm shooting at bad times. Or both.

Looking forward to competing tomorrow!

93 Guard

3/6 - Morning - Downtown

Felt kinda weird not doing BJJ at all yesterday.

Pretty good sized class, 12 or 13 peeps. Worked on 93 guard exclusively, then a good 30min of rolling at the end.

Technique

Set-up: Assuming you are framing to your R and opponent is on their knees (to start).

1. Hook R foot under their R knee. You don't want it too deep, probably just enough to have ankle through. R elbow is glued to the inside of your R knee. L leg is up across their upper chest. L elbow is glued to inside of L knee. Both hands are cupping their L arm, which they're probably using to get a cross-face. Don't extend your arms out. Keep them relatively tight.

2. If they try to stuff your L leg down, grip their shoulder with your L hand, forearm under their throat, and punch your elbow up to make room. Bring your L knee back up across their chest and glue L elbow back to knee.

3. If they try to stuff your R leg deeper between their legs or if they try to bring their L knee forward of your R knee (i.e. their L knee is closer to your chest than your R knee), use your elbow to scoop it to the side and slide your R knee back out and regain frame.

4. If they try to swim under your R arm for the cross-face, crunch everything in and bring your R elbow into your stomach.

5. If they grab your lapel with their L hand, use your R hand, cup behind their L elbow and pull their elbow out laterally from their body. Bring your L hand behind it and wrist lock them.

6. If they grip your R leg at the knee with their L hand, bring your R hand along the inside of their L arm, grip behind the elbow and pull laterally away from their body and toward your chest. This should pop their hand off and set up you for an arm-bar. Either a straight arm-bar from there, or if their wrist is against your neck, a straight arm-bar against your neck. If they bend their arm back in toward their body, kimura. Or an americana that you can use to get to mount.

Rolls

Two rolls with Sarah. One each with Chris, Julio and Joe. Sarah and were both trying to be technical. Ended up several times some sort of 50/50 guard, not quite knowing what to do with the legs we had in our arms. I was chuckling inside. Tried like hell to stay out of Chris' side-control and was as successful as I've been, though I think he was taking it kinda easy. Julio let me work a little bit but gave me a fair amount of pressure too.

Takedowns and Wrist Locks

3/4 - Downtown (Morning & Evening)

Double-dipped on classes today. Takedowns in both morning and evening, with an extra bonus of wrist-locks in the morning.

1. Single leg takedown with clinch on back of their neck

2. Standing wrist-lock

3. Standing wrist-lock used as takedown to side-control, apply wrist lock from there

4. Uchi mata attempt to something else (sit and kick out their other leg)

5. Uchi mata, they defend, throw both your arms up and shoot a double

In the morning I only rolled twice (big Kevin and Dennis). Knew I was going to do the evening class so this didn't break my heart.

Had quite a few more rolls in the evening...Sarah, Nando, Sebastion, Antone, Russ, Tien. Had to accumulate 4pts before you could attempt a submission. I did well in a couple of rolls, but in a pretty defensive posture for the latter half. Nando had me in a high mount and I had no answer for it. Fortunately he gave me some tips afterwards. Specifically, if you are high-mounted, upa like you mean it and if you can, get your hands on their hips or on the side of their chest and push up as you upa. Go, go, go.

Second point was that if someone is trying to pass half guard and they are next to you on your R and facing your hips while they try to free their leg, put your L hand on their L knee and push down as you hook under their ankle with your L foot. Once you're under the ankle, you can pull up on their knee with your L hand as you kick up with your L leg. With your hand, drive their L leg up and over to the R and get into side-control.

Defending the Combat Stance

2/28 - Valley

Reviewed several of the basics like the half-guard sweep (drive the bus). A part that I had been missing was bumping them to one side, then collapsing their outside knee. You don't have to push it back, just collapse it next to you.

A couple of rolls. One with T, which I felt good about b/c he didn't submit tho he did have dominant position.

3/1 - Downtown

We did a couple of pretty complex DLR sweeps. Trying to shoot under their near side leg with your head and then rolling them over. Meh. Don't remember much about the rolls.

3/2 - Downtown

Small class b/c there was a local tourny. I took advantage and asked James how to defend when my opponent gets the combat stance in my guard. I find myself in that position quite a bit and have no idea what to do with it. Soo...

Assuming opponent has their R knee up:

1. Push on the of their R thigh with your R foot to create space. Grip their R lapel with your L hand their R sleeve with your R hand.

2. Get DLR under their L leg. I can't remember exactly where the best foot placement is for this, but I do remember you want to be deep across their hip. Keep pushing with your R leg to get the space you need. Pull them down to your R side as you push their R leg away and (maybe) move your L leg to the R.

3. I can't remember the point that James made about clearing the leg, but I think it was get your hips down and move toward their hips instead of their head, clear the leg, get a cross-face and then move into side control. The way that he was showing to clear the leg, my tendency was to turn away from them to do it, but the idea is to face them as much as possible.

After this, we did continuous rolling with James, Sam and the three girls for most of the time. Then some circuit training for I don't know how long. Then James and I rolled once more. I was a little worried I'd be blown out from the circuits but I did well.

At the last minute we decided to compete at the Revolution tourny next week as a tune-up for Pans. Apparently the hardware is pretty pimp this go round.