Choose Strong
For Tim.
Dec 1. Warming up on our own starting half-guard, Lina and I traded moves. Well,
it was mostly I tried what I watched this morning and her performing magic. From
the bottom, she got a hook in, transitioned to x-guard (or maybe it was reverse
x), grabbed my ankle, and bear-trapped me. It was too complicated for me.
I assumed Henry's HG top and hugged her thigh with my right arm once she
inserted the hook. But she followed when I tried to kick my right leg out and
swept me. I came back to re-watch Henry and picked up what I missed: "I'm gonna
stretch my arm and kick my leg back," a tiny detail that my right arm should
stretch to stop her from following!
Lina showed me how to sit out even when the arm is in front of my shoulder. The
key was to keep my butts off the mat and put pressure on my partner. She also
helped me try out Henry's anaconda counter.
Andreas got each of us a gi patch that says "noon crew: rolls before balls"
Machine showed the quarter guard sweep and let us start positional training from
there. Lina countered my sweep by straightening her leg so that I lose the
leverage. After the class, Machine showed me what he would do: give up the guard
and insert the hook, stretch the hook down to collapse their posture, give up
the hook behind the knee, get up on that elbow, take off their base by
overhooking or grabbing their arm and flip them.
Dec 2. Darren showed half-guard bottom techniques.
1. If the top guy puts pressure on the kneeshield and his far-side arm's
available, c-grip the wrist, kick the kneeshield leg thru, come up to meet him,
and secure the kimura grip. Shift hips at the bottom toward his knees, clamp the
armpit, and finish the kimura.
2. I can move the kneeshield up till the knee is at the front of his elbow. I
grab the tricep from underneath with my right hand and over the arm with my left
hand, I kick my kneeshield leg and do an arm drag to get to his back.
3. I dive for two underhooks, one under his near arm, the other behind his
far-side knee. My left leg trap his right leg, my right leg scrapes the mat
to go under his knee to the other side to the dog-fight position. I could take
the back, block his far-side knee for takedown, or when he has a whizzer dive
under to sweep him.
Dec 3. I rolled with Brian and got choked from the back. One problem was my
confidence in my defense and letting things go too far. It started with me at
the bottom facing away from him and gave up the collar. The first time, he
inserted the bottom hook as I turtled up and, once on my back, did a really good
job trapping my arm on his choking side. As he extended to finish the
bow-and-arrow, I couldn't push under his choking hand and duck as my only arm
was above his non-choking arm couldn't do anything. The second time, he was
already in side-mount and did a giftwrap. I was hesitating in escaping (Henry's
escape was excellent, by the way. I should practice it and especially not let
the hooks in) and he took my back.
Brian and I drilled afterwards and discussed a lot of positions. He urged me
again to attack the far-side arm from cross-side and showed many scenarios and
possibilities once one had the north-south kimura grip.
Dec 4. Darren showed the octpus guard options. Sprawling might make it hard
though.
Dec 5. A JJM's half-guard top video showed I can do arm-in guillotine when my
opponent tries to underhook and get up on his elbow.
I didn't get a chance to do it today but I was able to put on the Von Flue choke
on Eversly twice. He said it was clean. I'd been trying this for a long time as
many people liked to grab my head and wouldn't let go once I passed their legs.
Even in position, I could rarely finish it and sometimes strong guys threw me
across. This time, I squeezed not just my shoulder, which was under his chin, but
also his shoudler with my head under his armpit.
My joy was short-lived, however. The last roll of the day was with Jon, a
thickset brownbelt and in fact of the same body type as Eversly. He tried to get
my head and the same thing happened. I passed his leg and trapped his arm. But
in the end, he didn't tap and I gave up.
Eversly showed me his trick for the half-guard bottom knee-torque sweep: instead
of hooking the far-side leg, grab the toes of the foot so that he couldn't
extend his leg to hurt my arm.
Dec 7. I saw a back-take technique on turtle from RJ Navarette: one grip on the
belt, one (right hand) on the collar, sprawl, raise my head&chest to create
space, throw my head toward his right to invert, roll over, pull him toward me,
and take the back. Some asked what if the guy outweigh you by 50 lbs and another
asked if it'd hurt my partner's neck. I think if the guy's too big and wouldn't
budge, I'll still end up on top of him. Meanwhile,
Dec 8. Machine taught half-guard top moves with the knee-shield. Assume the
bottom guy's on his right.
1. Move my left knee to the center above his right knee, straighten my right
leg, move to the right to clear his knee-shield. Cross-face with my left arm, my
left hand grab from under his neck his left armpit, and drag his upper body
toward my left. Get my right knee up to quater-mount. (the rest I forgot)
2. Secure a left-hand grip on his lapel to prevent him from streaching away.
My right hand weaves to grab his pant leg at the knee. My head pressures in
under his chin and I tripod up. I do a knee-cut at below his bottom knee so that
his bottom leg cannot follow.
3. Also I can smash the knees.
Eversly knee-levered me when I tried to knee-cut starting with Henry's
half-guard top position. I got the top underhook but Jose pointed out I didn't
control the bottom arm.
I learned from Jon the way to break the pocket grip on my sleeves. So simple and
yet it had baffled me for so long.
Jose received his brownbelt after almost 20 years! He started at 19. It reminded
me of an answer attributed to Buddha to the question "What have you gained from
meditation?" "Nothing," he replied. "but let me tell you what I lost: anger,
anxiety, depression, insecurity, fear of old, age and death."
Dec 10. One of a few moves Jose showed me was from the back of the turtle: we
are both on our knees, I am behind him, my say left leg is between his legs and
his right knee on the mat is behind my left elbow. I should windshield-wipe my
left leg to knee-torque his right leg and my left elbow should press his right
hip to make him fall back.
Machine showed a nice half-guard pass. Say my right leg is trapped. My right
hand presses into his left hip, my right hand lift his bottom knee to make him
flat. I wouldn't stop there but push his legs all the way to his left. I insert
my left knee between his two legs and back-step to get my right leg out.
Dec 11. Darren showed a few octopus guard counters. I saw on a video where a guy
did what he taught last week. The guy on top was sprawling, but the bottom guy
did a knee-torque on his right lower leg, his right leg moved to block the top
guy's right knee, his hand holding the top guy's back dove to grab the guy's
right ankle and swept him.
Dec 12. Machine showed a guilotine from half-guard top when the bottom guy tries
to get up on his elbow and get an underhook. Suppose he traps my right leg.
1. My left arm wrap the guilotine around his neck, I sprawl to flatten him out
with my right hand for base.
2. I assume Henry's half-guard pass position, put my weight on his chest, and
tries to free my right knee and get a quarter mount on him.
3. I move my torso to be parallel to his. I hip in to finish the guilotine.
This was not exactly a guilotine as the finish is more a neck crank. I drilled
with Arjun, a young short Indian guy. He could be a blue or high-level white
belt.
Machine showed a way of attacking the far-side arm that has an underhook.
1. Assume Henry's half-guard top position with my left elbow and my hip pinching
his tricep and torso.
2. My left hand should go in first under his left elbow (Machine pointed this
out specifically to me) before my right hand grab his wrist to form a kimura
grip. Kimura and straight armbar are available.
To my question what to do if the bottom guy bridges with his underhook, Machine
pointed out my bottom leg should be on my toes and, more importantly, my trapped
foot should walk close to his butt so that when he bridges, it's easy for me to
backstep with the trapped leg and get out of the halfguard.
I rolled with Ayoup who caught me again in the anaconda. I felt frustrated but
did notice when I moved my head toward his choking hand, he had to adjust. I
looked up online and found some great defense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghvLm-wHxx0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Ri47JCbpk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsWjSZS2y70
This is not just an escape. The arm-drag is a powerful counter and betters
Henry's. This is exactly what I need! I have to do this!!
Dec 15. Machine showed a few half-guard bottom sweeps. The setup was the same:
block the far-side arm by stuffing it with my right hand, the kimura trap, or
something else (I can't remember), load him over me and take him to my upper
left, follow him using the momentum to end up on top. He also showed moves
against my version of half-guard top without the free leg being based out far
and high. One is to grab his free pant leg at the knee, get in the hook and try
to sweep, and have my bottom knee come under his free leg to take his back.
I drilled the turtle arm-drag with Eversly and Jeff.
Dec 16. Review week. Darren didn't have a plan. So Andreas and I took turns to
ask him questions (Eric had to go early to his sick kid and Alecia came
mid-class). I filmed his highly-effective half-guard bottom hook-sweep: left arm
high on his neck, right hand cup the knee or grip the gi-pant there, get the
hook in, right foot stump to nudge him to the left and elevate, extend the hook,
shove his left leg between my legs to take his back or simply to sweep and
mount.
Andreas asked about the triangle defense. One Darren used most (suppose the
right arm was trapped): right hand make a fist to post on the right side of the
bottom guy, left hand cup his right knee, and the right knee goes
knee-on-the-belly. These generate enough torque to break his triangle.
Dec 19. Darren showed from reverse de la riva:
1. a simple tri-pod sweep by hooking the bottom leg on the top guy's far-side leg,
2. pendulum my far-side leg to wrestle up for single-leg,
3. pendulum my far-side leg to sit up, windshield-wipe both of my legs, one arm
pushes and one leg swipes his ankle to sweep him, and
4. hip up, extend the near leg under his farside hip, pendulum to sweep him.
When entering the RDLR from DLR as he tries to knee-cut, I remembered a move Machine
taught to lockdown on his ankle and move his leg back to half-guard.
I was still dominated by Ayoup. He was bigger, but more importantly, he had good
base, attacked non-stop, and left me no window to attack. I was ready for his
anaconda but at one time, he finished me with a darce. I defended well in our
free sparring.
I need to watch coach Brian more on that subject. (Roy Dean, as Eric suggested,
was eye-opening but felt not my current focus.)
I tried and failed at the drag-out: I was on my elbows instead of hands. I
watched a video on the Granby roll and maybe that's the answer for a body-lock
from behind in turtle position.
I rolled with Capt. Mike and finished him with a Von Flue choke and put him in a
kesa. He gave me a non-gi Ezekiel, an head-and-arm with my leg trapped, and
something else.
My neck and left shoulder and arm were sore but otherwise felt okay.
I took the next two weeks off and resting seemed to heal my neck and back pains.
My left knee had been hurting after hard rolls for years. It felt normal
otherwise. Recently, however, stretching for a side-split has exposed the
asymmetry as the left knee always hurt when I tried to push in the last 10
minutes of the 40-minute session. It again felt fine after stretching.
