Teaching Basics Starting in April!

First of all, a big DAMN YOU, DUKE for losing on their first day in the tournament. I didn't do a bracket this year, but it cuts me to the quick when Duke goes out in the couple of rounds.

Opening the guard from standing (both feet forward), preventing the arm-bar if you get dumped, and opening the guard using the surfer stance. Drilled with Sarah and got lots of good reps in.

Rolled with Sarah, Jordan, Savannah and Nate. Sarah tried to get to 50/50, I was able to hold her off and get a triangle. We had an even match, a lot of passing and sweeping between the two of us. I think I got a triangle and a guillotine type choke from top half guard.

I did a much better job of keeping Savannah at bay. I used one of the techniques that we drilled earlier in the week to regain guard in the midst of a knee slice. It worked amazingly well. I tried a couple of the other techniques that we had drilled but either couldn't get the position or was timing them badly. Had her in a triangle but couldn't quite finish. Overall I controlled much better than I have been of late.

Jordan was working a far amount in my guard. I submitted him a couple of times and then did catch and release. He would get a death grip on my lapel from inside my guard and that led to problems for him. I gave him some advice after the roll of not committing so much to that grip.

I did fairly well with Nate, but I still got down on myself after the roll b/c he was able to pass my guard. I passed his a couple of times and I may or may not have gotten a sweep. I was really frustrated with myself at one point b/c he was in top half guard facing away from me, and I knew exactly what to do but I could NOT move him. So I must have been doing it wrong, but I'm not sure how. Now that I think about it...maybe I wasn't using the right technique for the situation....damn.

After class Sarah and I rolled for awhile. Lots of sweeps and passes, no submissions.

We had talked about it briefly earlier in the week, but James announced to the class today that I'm going to be teaching a basics class on Saturday mornings, starting in April. I'm both excited and really nervous that I'm going to screw it up.