[Aesopian]

Small class on Friday. Only four people showed including myself. The rest were at a local MMA show. Still had a chance to drill and experiment with the half guard some. First time putting it to work no-gi too.

Started the night by having Trog show me how he's been working on this game so far already. He doesn't put his knee in the hip since it's still recovering from surgery, so he just holds their thigh between his. He ducks in with his top arm grabbing their hip and using it to hide his face and push their ribs.

He showed his main sweep. It's like Jeff's first one. He keeps scooting under and framing them off until they put up their trapped leg, then he underhooks it and rocks his legs down to sweep them backwards. The main point he stressed was how the bottom leg swings up then down to generate momentum. He took the idea from watching Marcelo do a sweep like this and knowing how Marcelo swings his legs to rock up to the back without posting his hands.

Trog and I did the two drills I described above, with the two main hip movements to rock under them. I explained to Trog how I wanted to develop each movement separately though I felt they'd blend together in action. He thought so too.

From a static start, it's can be hard to get them going, especially the backroll entry. I found the side-to-side rock is better for getting deep on a single leg, while the back roll put me further up (so I'm underhooking the other knee). Viewing the motions without a partner, I saw one scoots me down the mat (towards my feet) and the other moves me up (towards my head).

Trog had me do each type on him so he could see how he had to post to defend so we could better understand how the top man's weight and posture are effected. The backroll puts weight on their far hand (opposite of the trapped leg) and lift them higher while rocking under makes them walk forward on both hands equally.

We tried out the different arm positions from each position. Still having trouble getting low enough on the single leg to hug it with my head in the right spot. Tried the two other sweeps Jeff shows and saw how they play off of the side-to-side swinging of the legs and hips.

Sparred for a couple rounds with another purple belt who's around my weight but much stronger. Got to play this game a little.

Worked from long distance half guard, feeling out the position and stopping him from getting the underhook or crossface or flattening me out. Tried to pay attention to how he moved around, where he placed his weight, how he changed his base and posture and how this affected his balance. Just focus on keeping good position and grips and preventing him from starting passes.

I got the same sweep twice in the match. Threatening the kimura got him to posture up, giving me space to dive in and underhook his leg, gable gripping my hands. Hid my face against his thigh and covered my head with my left arm. Used my elbow and forearm in his ribs to keep his weight off. Use a combination of the backroll and swinging hip movements to get under him, like I thought I would need to. Switching back and forth between them each time he based against one. He tried sitting on me but felt me coming out the backdoor so he gave me an easy sweep by letting himself fall over. Came up directly into a half guard pass with my arm still under his leg, now stacking it.

Next I sparred for a while with a white belt. A little bigger than me and fairly strong.

He was much more aggressive about wrapping my neck and trying to guillotine me when I was underneath and trying to go deep. Still got sweeps with my head wrapped up and wasn't in danger of choking since I never let him get it tight and I'd grab his wrists, but it was annoying.

So I started acting faster and using a different kind of energy. "Jolted" the backroll, jamming my knee up into his chest and shoved hard in the armpit. Bounced him up for a quick second and brought my bottom knee in. Played something like reverse DLR, getting the ankle grab sweep. The times he did defend the sweep and start grabbing my head, I'd swivel back out to long distance half guard and protect my face and grips.

Hope to work on this more on the weekend.