Half Guard Sweeps

4/29 - Downtown

I've been rolling as much as usual, but have apparently found it difficult to keep up my blog. Haven't missed anything exceptional though, so no worries. Primarily side-control transitions to KOB, which I might write up later.

Today was half guard sweeps. We haven't worked these in awhile, so it was good to touch on it again.

Note to myself: The only technique that I feel is accurate in the details is #1. Everything else fuzzy, so take it with a grain of salt.

Technique

I've been noticing over the past month or so that techniques have slowed down a bit for me. For me, that means that when shown a technique, I feel like I can zero in on the details better. It doesn't mean that I execute the details, but I'm at least seeing more of the technique that is being shown, if that makes sense. I can process more of what is being presented. I'm very lucky in that I have instructors that know and can describe the details in a way that makes sense. I like to know the "why" behind details, b/c I'm pretty cerebral and I need the rationale to help make it stick in my brain. James does an especially good job of explaining why a particular small detail makes a difference in the movement.

Note: Outside leg refers to leg that is not in between opponent's legs.

1. Drive the Bus: Opponent is not based out with their outside leg, but crowding you and fairly parallel. Your outside arm shoots under their armpit and the inside arm traps their inside leg. You can also somewhat trap their inside arm with your head by tilting your head toward the side that you are trying to sweep them.

2. Twister (Not sure if the name is correct): This is a follow-up to drive the bus. You try to take them one direction and they base out enough somehow to prevent the sweep. Take them the other way, but bring your outside foot to the front of their inside knee and make sure that the shin/calf of your inside leg is in the bend of their inside leg. You end up trapping/pinching their inside leg between your outside foot and inside shin. Again, remember to trap their arm to your body to prevent them from basing out. I might be missing some details on this. Sad.

3. Regain Guard (Opponent has outside leg sprawled): Opponent is based on outside leg, probably as a defense to drive the bus. Slide R foot down their R calf and over the top of their ankle. Bring L leg over and trap their R leg. Push on their L leg with your R forearm and bring R leg through for guard or sweep.

4. Gi to Flip: Opponent has a tight cross-face and heavy pressure on your R side. Drive the bus and twister are not working. Pull out the bottom hem of their gi from their R side with your L hand. Pull it taunt to their inside arm-pit with your thumb down. Bump your R hand under them so that it is against their R hip. Hook your L foot on the inside of their R thigh. Kick up with your L leg and up with your arms. Somehow you get into an almost N/S and as you come up to your knees and drive forward, it flips them over. I swear this works, even though I'm not describing it well. I can't entirely remember which side you have your arms when you start fussing with the gi.

Rolls

Rolled with Sarah x 2, Jason (B), Antone and Julio. Had competitive rolls with Sarah. She is really good at preventing DLR sweeps, so at one point I just sat up and bull rushed her b/c her weight was pretty far back. I had some success with passing, although I had to be very patient about it.

I thought I'd do better against Jason, but he got me in something that ended up cranking my neck a bit b/c I was refusing to tap (like an idiot). Not his fault, as it wasn't really a neck crank, but I was being stubborn and that's what it kindof turned into.

Relatively early on in my roll with Antone he dumped me pretty hard to one side with a sweep. Wasn't intentional, but I was already kindof having a day, so it didn't help. He got me a couple of times with I'm not quite sure what, and then I could tell he started to take it easy on me, which almost made it worse.

Julio...same old, same old. Smash and pass, although at one point I had a high guard and while I was looking to maneuver for an arm-bar, I ended up with a pseudo triangle / cross-choke thing.

Overall not pleased with my rolls the past couple of days. I know it's just part of the ebb and flow though, so just taking it one class at a time.