As is becoming the norm, the Wednesday class was pretty packed. What is really cool about Wednesdays now is that we are getting more of a mix between the newer students and the more experienced ones. I'm kind of in the middle now as one of the more experienced white belts, but not yet among the ranks of the blues and purples. As is also becoming the norm, we had a few new guys doing their thing. I can remember my first day, wondering what exactly I had gotten myself into.
We drilled a butterfly sweep and then went right into sparring. I felt really good yesterday. I tried to roll with a little more aggression, without losing control, and managed to surprise Matt by passing into half guard. Matt is a big guy, taller than me by about 3 or 4 inches, with strong, flexible legs. So, passing his guard isn't something I can often do. Usually, I'm happy with a stalemate, where I don't get swept. So, yesterday I worked on controlling his legs at the knee, trying to transition from moving to pass around the outside with a smash pass, or inside from a combat base. At one point, I was able to pin his leg and step over into half guard.
Now, from here, I have a VERY bad habit that I'm trying to break. I tend to leave too much room with my outside leg, so that I reach back to push that leg through. This sets me up for a Kimura, which I'm pretty good at defending. Defending that Kimura, however, inevitably leads to a sweep, which I'm not all that good at defending. I
mentioned last week that Bill, after catching me in this same Kimura set up, helped me identify what I'm doing wrong and how to correct it. Essentially, concentrating on really pinning my knee to the hip to eliminate the space, and to either get a strong grip on top of my opponent's neck, or underneath to control his head.
So, in my match with Matt, as I passed into side control I was mindful of my knee, as well as of controlling his head. As a result, I flattened Matt out and eventually walked my foot up to free up my knee, drove it to the mat and worked into mount. At this point, Matt's long legs helped me out, as it was more difficult for him to lock my leg down, making it easier to get my knee through.
Once in mount, Matt immediately bridged up to roll. I tried to loosen up and move to his back, but ended up toward one side, enabling him to turn into my guard just as time was called. I consider this a small victory and felt really good about it.
Rolling with Rick, another 270 lbs grizzly bear, I pulled guard. He stuck his arms out, so I went for the armbar from guard which didn't work. The technique failed for a couple of reasons. First, I was too loose. Second, he was expecting it and used his strength and leverage to shuck my legs over. Of course, being a grizzly bear, he has excellent shoulder pressure. He immediately stacked me up and passed into side control. At this point, I tried to create some space and was doing okay until he moved to knee on belly. That's when I realized I needed to do something FAST. I pushed his knee off, shrimped out and managed to get my right leg back inside. He was so intent on driving me flat that he left his hips up just high enough that I was able to bring my leg all the way through and regain guard. As with my match with Matt, I feel pretty good about this. Often, when Rick gets into side control, his weight, strength and technique lead to an eventual choke. Avoiding his baseball bat choke, getting out from under his knee on belly, and then being able to get back to full guard makes me feel pretty darned good.
I had a few other matches that also went well, but these two in particular really felt awesome. Anyone who trains in BJJ knows that sparring isn't about winning or losing. Tapping an opponent or tapping to an opponent doesn't mean that you've won anything or lost anything. In class, being able to see some tangible improvement is a win. Helping someone else improve is also a win, even if it means getting caught in a submission. So, when I speak of victories in class, I'm referring to benchmarks set by myself and for myself only.
We drilled a butterfly sweep and then went right into sparring. I felt really good yesterday. I tried to roll with a little more aggression, without losing control, and managed to surprise Matt by passing into half guard. Matt is a big guy, taller than me by about 3 or 4 inches, with strong, flexible legs. So, passing his guard isn't something I can often do. Usually, I'm happy with a stalemate, where I don't get swept. So, yesterday I worked on controlling his legs at the knee, trying to transition from moving to pass around the outside with a smash pass, or inside from a combat base. At one point, I was able to pin his leg and step over into half guard.
Now, from here, I have a VERY bad habit that I'm trying to break. I tend to leave too much room with my outside leg, so that I reach back to push that leg through. This sets me up for a Kimura, which I'm pretty good at defending. Defending that Kimura, however, inevitably leads to a sweep, which I'm not all that good at defending. I mentioned last week that Bill, after catching me in this same Kimura set up, helped me identify what I'm doing wrong and how to correct it. Essentially, concentrating on really pinning my knee to the hip to eliminate the space, and to either get a strong grip on top of my opponent's neck, or underneath to control his head.
So, in my match with Matt, as I passed into side control I was mindful of my knee, as well as of controlling his head. As a result, I flattened Matt out and eventually walked my foot up to free up my knee, drove it to the mat and worked into mount. At this point, Matt's long legs helped me out, as it was more difficult for him to lock my leg down, making it easier to get my knee through.
Once in mount, Matt immediately bridged up to roll. I tried to loosen up and move to his back, but ended up toward one side, enabling him to turn into my guard just as time was called. I consider this a small victory and felt really good about it.
Rolling with Rick, another 270 lbs grizzly bear, I pulled guard. He stuck his arms out, so I went for the armbar from guard which didn't work. The technique failed for a couple of reasons. First, I was too loose. Second, he was expecting it and used his strength and leverage to shuck my legs over. Of course, being a grizzly bear, he has excellent shoulder pressure. He immediately stacked me up and passed into side control. At this point, I tried to create some space and was doing okay until he moved to knee on belly. That's when I realized I needed to do something FAST. I pushed his knee off, shrimped out and managed to get my right leg back inside. He was so intent on driving me flat that he left his hips up just high enough that I was able to bring my leg all the way through and regain guard. As with my match with Matt, I feel pretty good about this. Often, when Rick gets into side control, his weight, strength and technique lead to an eventual choke. Avoiding his baseball bat choke, getting out from under his knee on belly, and then being able to get back to full guard makes me feel pretty darned good.
I had a few other matches that also went well, but these two in particular really felt awesome. Anyone who trains in BJJ knows that sparring isn't about winning or losing. Tapping an opponent or tapping to an opponent doesn't mean that you've won anything or lost anything. In class, being able to see some tangible improvement is a win. Helping someone else improve is also a win, even if it means getting caught in a submission. So, when I speak of victories in class, I'm referring to benchmarks set by myself and for myself only.