We’ve spent the last couple of weeks doing some pretty complicated techniques. So now we flip the coin, do a few basic techniques and train hard.

Last night was a couple of knee on belly drills, then knee on belly escape to deep half. The drills were just switching sides. One by pivoting our hips over his head, and one by windshield wiping our legs across his belly. The escape was your pretty typical bump, shove his ankle, and then grab his other thigh.

For the hard training, we did three 4 minute rounds all with the same person, 30 second break. I had Meli to start. We pretty much stalemated. I tried working the Tozi pass with no success. She and her rubber legs prevented me from passing any kind of her open guard. Then we did 10 sprawls and onto the next set of rounds.

I had Renato next. All 3 rounds went similarly. He’d charge in, I’d defend a bit, then take his back and he’d clam up. I have GOT to figure out how to crack that nut. Then 10 more sprawls, and onto the next set.

The last set was only a single round. I had Wade. I was pretty tired, and Wade’s been improving. He passed twice, but I was able to get back to guard both times pretty quickly. On the second re-guard, I arm dragged right away to get to the back, but the buzzer rang. The 10 more sprawls.

After class, I had a long conversation with Damian. For the past six months or so, I’ve been using the same “game plan” in most rolls. And I was afraid that by using the same techniques over and over, if I’d be hindering my progress by not branching out. He said that’s exactly what I need to be doing. Find something that works, then perfect it. Then work on other things. We talked about a bunch of things, but the boiled down to: keep doing what you’re doing.