I’ve been meaning to take advantage of the other private lesson my wife bought for me back in Feburary…just never had the time until now.

I arrived early enough to squeeze in my 531 squats and presses. The gym was predictably empty on a Friday night. Since we’re getting down to the end of the year, I really should do another CFT test. Maybe in early January.

The lesson was a continuation of the last private. Instead of focusing on regaining full guard from half guard, this lesson was all about sweeping from half guard, and getting on top.

We started with a sweep for when I have the underhook. You start with creating some space with your other elbow, escape your hips out from underneath the top guy, push into him, he pushes back, and then you switch directions and roll. Pin his knee, grab his collar, and pass to side control.

Now, you’re not always lucky enough to have an underhook, so we added another technique for when the top guy has the underhook. Similar, space, escape, push, push back, and then you trap his under hooking arm and roll.

The third variation chained off of the second. If he feels unstable and posts his hand out to prevent you from rolling him, then you can reweave the underhook and switch back to the first, or you can post up yourself and take his back. We also covered how to defeat the wizzer defense to taking his back.

We rounded things out with two attacks from side control. The first is a pretty standard armlock, but with an interesting setup to do while transitioning from side control to north-south. The second is a nearside armlock that I found to be pretty awkward.

All in all some pretty good stuff. Now, just to put it into practice!