It was a good night on the mats. We had a good group, including the return of Luke. Thankfully he even cut his hair!

The lesson of the night were a couple of sweeps from the lasso guard. In the first, you bait your opponent into thinking he can pass, then pull him up on top of you, and sit up. He rolls onto his back and you end up in side control.

The next was a variation if he doesn’t take the bait and defends. You bridge up to gain some space and then either reap his knee or push it out from under him, like the simple sweep. You don’t quite end up in mount, but you can switch your grip to his triceps and kick yourself up to mount. Or if he breaks the grip you can still grab his triceps and use that motion to spin around into an omaplata. Or if you almost get to mount, you can do a shoulder lock or an armlock from that position.

The last variation we did was if he defends by posting his leg out. You can go inverted under him, triangle his arm, grab his knees and then kick to sit up and roll him over the top of you.

We finished up the night with some 6 minute rounds. I started off with Ron. We had a good battle. He was heavier than usual though. Next up was Seth. That kid is starting to be a force to be reckoned with. He passed and mounted and worked hard to Ezekiel choke me. He eventually figured out that it wasn’t going to work and transitioned nicely to an armlock. Long was next. He’s heading to Long Beach this weekend for an IBJJF tournament. We had a scramble-y start to our round. He got to half guard, and I nearly swept him, which allowed me to get to guard. I tried switching to the lasso, to try out some of the techniques of the night. In the transition, he started to pass. I locked on a kimura grip to counter, and he kept passing. I used it to sweep, and kept the grip. He straighten his arm out and I finished with a reverse armlock.

We had an odd number, so I sat out a round. Last up was Shane. Damian was sitting on the bench right next to us watching. We started a little slow. He worked to pass, and I rolled to turtle. He started to take my back and had one hook in, so I rolled to half guard. He had the underhook, so I couldn’t do a whole lot at first. I eventually bumped and tried to sweep him, he defended, which allowed me to get back to guard. I over wrapped his left arm, tightening up my grip to attack his neck. He had his chin down and shoulder shrugged enough that I couldn’t get a grip for a cross choke, or my fist in for the fist choke. Then it came to me. Gabriel taught us this choke combo, and the backup is to switch to to a triangle choke. So I did, which really surprised him! He postured up right away, and I attempted to switch to an armlock on his isolated arm. He spun out right at the buzzer.

Damian called an end to class and then came over and put me into the triangle I just lost and showed me the platform armlock and another arm lock that both would have been better options.