Day 33: Half Empty or Half Full

With all of the holiday craziness beginning to take hold, I was very grateful to be able to make it to a training session today. The lesson plan was a cohesive one, beginning from the knee-slide open guard pass.

From the standing position, get inside grips on the knees of your uke. If you are heading to your left, step out with your left foot, and bring your right foot between uke's legs and nearly under his right cheek. Get a sleeve control with your left hand on his right, and then drive your knee to the mat as you drive your head into uke's chest to keep him pinned. It's important to keep your hips in line with your knee as you slide through. Unhook your foot from his leg, then shift your base into side control. Typically you;ll want your right hand posted on the opposite side of uke's body from the leg you're passing through, which transitions to the underhook if he catches you in half guard as you are sliding across.

It was just this scenario we practiced next. If you get the knee down but your ankle is trapped, you have several options. You can simply try and free it by continuing your knee slide action, remembering to keep your hips in line with your knee. However, I found this unsatisfactory as it allows uke to come up very far on his side and it made me feel vulnerable to having my back taken. Alternately, you can work transitions from within his half guard. You can move your knee from his right side to his left, and then with the right underhook in place you can use your free leg to strip his locked legs and go directly to mount. Or perhaps you would prefer to swing your left (free) leg over uke's body, and then control his knee with your hand, subsequently stripping his legs from your ankle with a combination of your hand and free leg. If this transition doesn't work straight away, you can flip back across and try to pop the leg free, again into the mount.

After dead-pattern drilling and some live positional sparring, I rolled with Jack a few times. As always, he had some helpful nuggets for me, wrapped in glistening cauls of pain. Most importantly, he showed me an escape from omoplata when your opponent has not controlled your belt or opposite shoulder. It's easy to just roll on the trapped shoulder and poof! you're out of trouble. Be quick though, as soon as you are rolled down into the omoplata, or your opponent will immobilize you and kill your roll.

My penance is done in advance...gluttony awaits.