[Aesopian]

First real night of sparring. I'll breakdown how it went for each match. Played this half guard on:

- A tough but relatively new blue belt. Short, squat, strong base. Slightly heavier than me.
- A strong purple belt. Bigger and heavier than me with good base.
- A female purple belt around my weight. Very technical with good balance.
- A female blue belt who's much lighter than me. Very fast with pretty good balance.

We did several rounds of passing the guard with set partners. Bottom man starts in closed guard and tries to sweep or submit; top man works to pass.

I cheated and armbarred the first blue belt once from closed guard, but then decided to stick to my resolution. I wanted to find a way to safely switch from closed to half guard while maintaining space and good grips. I started by getting a framing grip (left forearm across throat, grabbing shoulder or collar and right hand holding the wrist). Scooted my hips out to the left turned on my side. Stepped on his hip with my right foot to create space, then shot the foot between his legs to take half guard.

From half guard, I put my knee in his hip and crossed my feet, like Andreh shows, and kept him stretched away. I felt out the position a bit. He couldn't get an underhook or crossface as long as I stayed in framing posture. He couldn't drive in or sprawl on my leg as long as I kept it shallow on his hip and pointed in hard into him (as opposed to driving my shin across his belly like a scissors sweep). He couldn't back out or properly sprawl because I had his leg hooked with my feet crossed so I could pull him in.

Once I felt I had control of the space and wasn't worried about being crossfaced, I ducked my head in and got the underhook. I balled up to hide my head down by his hips. He leaned back and pummelled back in, but I quickly repummelled and went even deeper. The next time he reached back to pummel, he didn't have the angle to get it. But this made him lean back too far so I was able to get an easy sweep by simply bridging into him and coming to my knees.

We restarted and I got to half guard from closed guard the same way. Felt him out again. This time I tried to get under his free leg, using the Leo Kirby method from earlier, but setting it up with a kimura attempt. I switched between traffic copping his armpit (to turn him away and shift his weight) and gable gripping my hands (to pull his leg on my shoulder and ratchet under). I also found myself protecting my face by covering my head with my left arm, putting it in the same position some people teach to defend the RNC from the back. I'd block their arm, then paw grip it and throw it away from my head so I could traffic cop or gable grip again. I could also protect my face this way while maintaining the gable grip around the leg.

I wasn't able to rock him forward and get underneath him and go out the backdoor because he sunk his weight back and sat on his haunches to close the space. But in doing so, he gave me room and freedom of movement to shoot my underhook in and start working the traditional game. I got another sweep from him somehow by climbing towards his back and bridging and driving into him.

We switched partners and I got the big purple belt. Switched from closed to half the same way. Got in the long distance half guard and controlled him with different grips, switching between framing posture, a hand on each biceps (like Andreh shows), double paw, sliding my right hand up and down his arm (from paw on the biceps down to holding the wrist).

He was trying to setup sprawling passes but I can't my knee up (so he couldn't smash it) and pulled him in with my crossed ankles. He got frustrated and tried to collar choke me. Which crossed his own arm. I simply cross gripped his sleeve and scooted around and climbed on his back.

I clued him in so he didn't do that dumb mistake again. The next time he simply stayed frustrated trying to find an underhook or a crossface or put his weight down or something but I kept my proper positioning.

This time I dove for his free leg and tried to scoot under it. He kept his weight back and wouldn't let me get him rocking forward. But again, his posture gave a chance to switch to the traditional game and work my underhook deep, since I'm already down by his hips. Didn't get a sweep but was able to maintain the half guard position without losing the underhook or getting crossfaced or smashed, which is an achievement in itself.

Later I sparred with a female purple belt. I knew should wouldn't out muscle me but she'd come up with intelligent counters. I was able to pull long distance half guard from the get-go. Gave her more of a chance to start setting up passes to feel how to counter them. She's great at hugging and weaving the legs together and passing over them so I wanted to feed her that a bit and see how to get out. Was able to stop this by keeping my knee hard into her hip, angled up, and keeping my ankles crossed, then hand fighting and getting grips.

Dove deep under her leg as I crunched her on top of me like I wanted to do a backwards roll. If she leaned back to defend, I'd take my knee off the hip and pendulum it out to get a rocking motion going. Swept her by trying to come out the backdoor and having her turn to her back to face me. Let her sweep me from half guard several times so I could return to my game and set it all up again. Did this several times, got several sweeps, including one where I really did do a full backwards roll.

She eventually found a better sense of timing and balance to stop me from diving under her. So I switched to the traditional underhooking game. She started going for a brabo with the gi so I took out my underhook. She got the underhook and sprawled so I wasn't able to bring my knee in. I wanted to (and could have) put my butterfly hook in like I normally would but the ankle injury made that futile. She was able to pass to side control and then take mount. I escaped to half guard and played my half guard some more then we finished up.

The last match was against a light female blue belt. Kept pulling half guard on her and she'd try to immediately hop into a cross knee pass. The knee in her hip blocked her along with the framing posture. I'd move my hips and thighs until they were positioned to block her knee. Worked on the Baret Yoshida sweep from earlier. Kept rocking her up on my main knee, bringing my bottom knee in then playing a reverse DLR style guard. Stretched her base out and did the technical stand-up for the sweep.

Let's see if I can't summarize a few points:

- I did well as long as I entered long distance half guard from a relatively good position. I had trouble getting to it once they'd started getting good grips and pressure from the top. That'll be something to work on.

- My hands can move all over the place to push and hold and shove them them as needed. Either biceps, across the neck, grabbing the collar, grabbing the shoulder, single paw anywhere on their arm, double paw, two hands on a wrist or sleeve, even reaching in and pushing on their hips and knees.

- It seems I can go to the traditional game when the deep one fails, and vice versa, with shades of the two blending as they share grips and positions and sweeps.

- As expected, I need to continue to figure out the timing for when to dive deep and how to get them rocking so I can play with their weight and get into position.

- Keep on keepin' on.