We have a special guest instructor for the next week or so, Lucas Lepri. Alliance black belt under Fabio Gurgel and World Champion in both gi and no gi. Should prove to be some good classes!

The Crossfit side of the gym is still completely nutso, but I still managed to squeeze in pressing. This was the heavy week of the 531 cycle, and again failed at the minimum number. Since the cycle restarts after this, I’ll dial things back a bit on that one. I would have liked to deadlift too, but there wasn’t time, space, or barbells available.

Lucas led us through a solid warm up, and then started teaching. The technique of the day started off with a ‘deep’ half guard sweep. Deep half guard is a relatively new style that has become popular in sport jiu jitsu. Starting in regular half guard, you can re-grip and then bait your opponent by lowering your outside leg. He moves to smash and pass, you use that momentum to shove him to the side. Now you’re basically perpendicular to him…underhook his leg and you’re in deep half guard. From here we did two different sweeps. The first you sit up, and lead into him with your hips and sweep. The other, you stand up in base, circle around, ankle pick, and end up standing over him. Mongoose Mike and I paired up for the first time in a while for drilling.

The third variation we did was a way to take the back instead. Rather than underhook the leg, you can sit up, break his posture with your arm across his back, escape your hip and one leg out, seat belt grip his neck and arm, and then roll backwards to completely take his back. Both Mike and I liked this one, it suits both of our styles.

We closed out class with a few rounds of sparring, starting in half guard. Mike and I went first at a brisk pace. He swept me, and ended up taking my back when I attempted to turtle. Trapped my arm BJ Penn style and then got the choke. Both of the next two rounds were with JP. He choked me twice, but I did slip out of one and took his back for a while. Later he attempted to americana me (Like Officer Tim did last week), and I swept him as he tried (applying what I learned vs Office Tim!)