A month of half-guard

Took the week off last week, as I (and all of my roommates) felt slightly under the weather. (One of them ended up with strep throat.)

A few of our guys went to The Best of the Best Pro Ams in Omaha on Saturday and did pretty well. Jon and Wes got second in their gi divisions and Steven got third. I don’t think Sheldon placed but Wes said he had a huge division.

The guys also mentioned that there were quite a few more girls than what the website had said—I think six in total. Heard someone say that the blue belt from Nova Uniao (the one who choked me out because I waited too long to tap) won most of her matches. I wish I’d been able to afford to go to the tournament; it would’ve been fun. But according to the website the Omaha Pro Ams are held four times a year, so I’ll have other opportunities.

Class

Tonight was pretty low-key. We worked on several half-guard techniques. I feel like we’ve done a few of these before—we probably learned some of them from Jason Bircher when he did a half-guard seminar a few months ago. During September we’ll be focusing on half-guard, so expect a lot of posts on this.

Rolls

Rolled with Cody twice, Chris twice, and Rusty once.

My first roll with Cody, I took it easy, trying to remember to breathe and not scramble for things. He got to side control on me and I was excited about working an escape—and then the buzzer sounded. Second roll wasn’t too good for me; he got me in a triangle choke and I couldn’t stack him. I fought it for probably a minute. Could hear someone hollering at me to posture up and push his hips down. Tried, but every time he’d grab an arm for the armbar and I’d have to fight to get it back. I was having unpleasant flashbacks to fighting that blue belt and did not particularly want to black out again, but didn’t want to tap yet. The buzzer sounded again and I focused on breathing for a few seconds.

First roll with Chris, I pulled spider guard. Tried to do the one pass I could remember. He walked me through it and I landed in knee-on-belly, but we had to stop and move over to a less crowded portion of the mats. I think I landed that sweep on more time. Second roll, he let me get to mount. I tried for a keylock and didn’t know what else to do, because I hardly ever get to mount. He let me work through an armbar. After we restarted, he let me take his back, but I didn’t execute the RNC correctly. I usually forget to squeeze my elbows tightly enough, so I was focusing too much on that and not on my hand placement. I think my free hand was on the top of his head, not behind it. D’oh!

Rusty asked me to roll next. He had some great tips for me: “Take advantage of your speed and flexibility. You’ll never be able to muscle these guys. When you start out, go for an armbar right away.” He showed me what amounted to a flying armbar from the ground and showed me how to transition into a triangle if the armbar failed, and back into an armbar if the triangle failed. He also showed me this sort of lying-on-side armbar, where you cup your hands over uke’s elbow, hip out so they’re lying on the ground, and armbar them.

When Rusty was walking me through these techniques, I felt sort of dumb. These things made perfect sense, much better than pulling guard and then getting squashed under mount and side control. But I also felt hopeful. I could glimpse a time far in the future in which I can readily access a good base of knowledge, see and create openings, and be physically and mentally fluid. That’s the kind of game I want to have: thoughtful, agile, and slippery.

Techniques below the cut.