Saturday, January 23, 2010

Dealing With Wrestlers

So I got paired up with Johnny and Christian tonight which meant I was rolling with two of the best wrestlers we have at class, quite possibly the two best wrestlers period. Christian outweighs me by about 25lbs, maybe 35. Johnny is running around about 50lbs heavier than I am.
I spent the entire time working on keeping them from passing my guard while trying to stay aggressivee. Threw a triangle at Christian, threw a Kimura at Johnny, wasn't able to finish either. Managed to sweep Christian once, wasn't really able to disrupt Jonny's base. Got kimuraed by both guys.
However both of them had to work like MAD to get past my guard, which is all I was really looking to do.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

First Post of 2010

Ok, so I'm a little late getting some posts up for 2010. I've been hitting class pretty regularly and continuing to get better each time. I've had continued success with the Saddle and with my Shinbar thing and my transitions, passes, and sweeps are all improving apace.
My latest favorite toy is a Braulio Estima position called Leg Hook Guard or Hook Guard which includes an option for a very slick Omoplata and a great sweep. I just started using it last week and have been going nuts with it. The fun part about it is that if you can get the sleeve grip and hook your leg over the arm and shove it down there's pretty much nothing your opponent can do to stop you from either hitting the sweep or the omo attempt.
I still have trouble finishing the sweep and ending up on top every time, but that was much improved last night over my previous attempts with it. I think part of my problem is that I need to get a big fist full of Gi to help me keep my opponent on the ground while I transition. I'll be using it more tomorrow and see how things go.

Aside from my gimmicky hilarity last night we worked on sweeps against standing opponents using a sickle sweep and a hook sweep.
With your opponent standing and your feet on their hips you need to end up with a sleeve grip and an ankle grip. It can be same side or cross side sleeve grip, doesn't matter.
From there you put one foot in your opponents stomach and then depending on which way they are moving you grab one of their ankles. With this grip you need to really be pulling their sleeve and pushing out with your foot that is in their stomach to stretch them out and make it hard for them to pass. Once you get the sleeve and the ankle grip you user your bottom leg (the one that is not pushing on your opponents stomach) and sweep your opponents free leg either by hooking with the top of your foot or by blocking it with your calf. A quick shove in the stomach while you pull the ankle and block the other leg and your opponent goes over backwards. Keep your sleeve grip and use their momentum to bring you up into at least halfguard, preferably side control.

Or use it like I do as an opportunity to transition to the Saddle.

Weightlifting has been swapped around a little again. Switched off of the 5x5 to do a pyramid. Tonight I'll be hitting 123.5x6, 127.5x4, 133.5x2, 137.5x1, and then 123.5x6 again. If that works out well for me I'll be going for 127.5x6, 133.5x4, 137.5x2, 143.5 x1, and then 127.5x6 again. That would mark the first time I've been over my bodyweight on the bench press in almost a decade.

Looking forward to it.