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.