Record breaking heat today, 95 and humid. Just sticky. I knew that it was going to be a sweaty night tonight. I made sure to drink plenty of water before heading out. We warmed up, and thankfully Damian had one of the big fans going to get some air moving. Jess and I did some 50% rolling to finish the warm up, just taking it easy. He did get me in an armlock at the end, which I defended improperly. Damian made sure to point out my error.
Jiu jitsu is a living art. Not so much in the techniques, most of those are the same as 10, 20, or 50 years ago. But in the approach to using them. For example, “back in the day,” if you were stuck in side control, you played defense until the top guy made a mistake that allowed you to escape. Now, you’re likely to be stuck there forever, or submitted if you just hang out. MMA has also changed the attitude towards the guard. It used to be thought that it was an equal position. The top guy can pass or strike, but the bottom guy can sweep or submit. But MMA, and sport BJJ has shown that it’s not as even as once thought. The top guy has an edge. So, the new philosophy is to to either standup, sweep, or submit, in order of preference.
The lesson tonight was standing up from closed guard. We started with a quick review of the simple sweep. Standing up using most of the same motions. Get sleeve and lapel control, put a foot on his hip, rock up for the sweep, but instead post out with the sleeve hand. Push on his head, and stand up from base, keep pushing on the head and you’re up. It’s inevitable that he’s going to grab your leg and go for a single, so we covered two sprawl techniques. And then we added in a taking the back to bow and arrow choke sequence.
After class, I rolled a little bit with Mongoose. I was in the mood to be aggressive and be on top tonight, so I went after him. I swept him and started working the Camarrillo back taking, which Mike didn’t take the bait on. So I switched to mount and knee pillow. His defense was pretty good, and he eventually escaped and then armlocked me. I screwed up the defense (again), rolling the wrong way, which allowed Mike to tighten it even more. So I tweaked my elbow pretty good. Damian saw it, and made sure to point out my error again.
Some water, and I switched to Steve, a purple belt. We worked on open guard defense and passing, switching up every couple of times. Even with him going at 20%, it was tough. Always room for improvement I guess.
Last up for the night was Ron. He pushed in to start with, and started to pass, but somehow I got an underhook deep enough to almost get around on his back. He started to defend, so I switched to mount. Tried to cross choke, he got up on his side, I took knee pillow, and went for a wing choke/armlock/americana in a couple of different ways, but he kept his elbows in tight enough that I didn’t have anything to attack.