Day 19: Made of Jiujitium

So I missed a few training log entries. These things happen.

Saturdays are more sparsely attended at the gym, which is great, because there is some more teaching and personal attention. Roger taught class, with Kahlil, Jason and Jess at the tournament in Santa Cruz. After a good warmup, I worked the guard-sweep-armbar flow with Craig. He favors the hands-on-chest position for spinning to the armbar from mount. It pins uke to the floor, and simultaneously takes the weight off of your legs making it easy to spin to the armbar.

The goodies came when Roger heard us discussing options from a failed scissor sweep, such as when uke sees it coming and bases by splaying his knees out. You have several options here.

1. Shift your hips so that your trapping leg (the one flat on the floor) is trapping his knee in its new position. Then, scissor sweep!
2. Trap his other arm and sit up so you can get his belt. Use the leg with the knee in to sweep in the opposite direction you intended to go.
3. Transition to the stupid simple sweep. Mount with smugness.
4. Spin back for an armbar. Only works if you're good.

We then worked sweep training. I was partnered with Larry, a bull of a man, around 6'2", maybe 250. He is a great, patient teacher. So many little but important tips!

When uke has a grip on your cuff, grab his cuff and get your knee down on his wrist. He will release.

Axiom: never be flat on your back except in closed full guard. Larry uses this position for rest only.

Rod's sweep-- get double joysticks. Open guard, get feet on hips, their arms outside your knees. Walk your feet up their body and sit up. Then get one foot on the bicep, flatten and scissor the other as you bicep sweep.

For side control escapes, turn your body immediately, towards him (chest to chest)-- this makes space. Then get the knee in and recover guard.

If your right arm is in danger of being armbarred, and he already has the leg over your head, grasp your lapel with your right hand. Then work your left arm under the leg thats over your face, and bridge strong over his right (back) shoulder.

Great session. I gained confidence in not being afraid to open up my guard, improved my escapes, and learned some new sweeps while improving the ones I knew. It's nice to have fifty instructors instead of one.