9/11 - Downtown
It's ridiculous how much I struggle with X guard. It looks relatively simple, but the initial transition doesn't click for me. Get them off balance on one leg while you position yourself under the other leg. No problem, except that it feels crazy awkward every time I do it. I was working with Sarah, so it's not that I was struggling with elevating a bigger person. Once I get into the position I do ok. We did the stand-in-base sweep and the dump them on their butts sweep. I struggled in transition to the double-under on the latter as well.
Rolled with Sarah twice, Blaine, and Jimmy. Sarah and I kept ending up in some nutty 50/50 variant, and at one point I swear we were both on our backs and doing our best to elevate each other's legs to prevent a pass. I felt like we were a pair of bugs that have been put on their backs and are flailing about in vain trying to right themselves. Blaine rolled tough and snagged an arm-bar early. I kept trying to arm-bars and triangles from guard to no avail. At one point he tried to do some neck crank thing, but I was able to forward roll out of it and come up on top into side-control. Jimmy was a tough roll. My plan was the same...arm-bars and triangles. He was trying out the X guard we had just worked on, so I did my best to stay tight and not get extended out.
James came over mid roll at one point and showed me exactly where I was collapsing my legs from open guard. Often when I try to the tripod sweep and it fails, I don't square back up on my opponent and commit the cardinal sin of not keeping my hips in line with theirs. Same thing with failed DLR sweeps. I stay on my side and it's easy for opponents to pressure pass over the top of my legs or knee slice through them. Lots and lots to work on with the guard retention.
2 comments:
I struggle with that too, but what keeps me trying is that I have a couple of teammates (one in particular) who are EXCELLENT at it, and continually show me how effective it is. The one guy X-guards me, hoists me into the air and stretches me helplessly into the Chinese splits within the first 30 seconds every damn time I roll with him. I know he's going to do it, and I tell myself, "If you accomplish anything this roll, don't let him lift you up into X guard" and then he does it anyway. So I know it's a skill worth working for.
It looks effortless when done correctly, and when you're on top all you can think about is not toppling over. My coach and I have similar builds, so I can't use the "my legs are too long" excuse. :)
Post a Comment