Today, we rolled all practice. There were only a dozen of us, so we all got to spar with each other, for 5-10 minute rounds. Practice went an hour past its usually stopping time.
I rolled with some familiar faces. People are starting to greet me when I arrive. The school is really wonderful in this regard: everyone is looking out for each other, training each other, teaching each other. There's a great attitude with everyone. It's a really efficient way to learn, as well: the best of everyone's knowledge is constantly passed around. Also, the instructor has stopped separating me from the better white belts. My newbie free pass is rapidly getting revoked.
One of the first was A, an incredibly talented blue belt who I learn tons from every time we spar. He stops a lot to give me step by step instruction. I've learned how to get out of lots of guards from him. But he wasn't so slow and instructive today. In fact, he kicked my ass. His elbow was on my neck or chin more times than I can count, and I stayed on my back, under his body weight, the entire ten minutes. This was exhausting. But I got out of a couple of his holds, and he did give me some pointers at the end.
BB was happy to see me, and we rolled for an intense 10 minutes. He sees that I've learned a few things, so he ratcheted up the intensity so that I could practice what I didn't know. We would get to a point where I didn't know what to do next, and he would show me, in his extra friendly buddy way, and we would just repeat that transition or hold until it felt really natural. I was in a mount position with him once, of my own accord (I mean, he was sparring at like 20% for him, but it felt like I escaped his guard and mounted him), but didn't know what to do when I got there. So we practiced attack from mount position. I learn so much from that guy.
Then I met G, who I'd not seen before. He was Brazilian, and very, very good. Also very intense. He's probably a blue belt. He was rolling at 60%, which means he was totally killing me. I was constantly in his mount or side guard, unable to escape, until he found the arm bar, leg bar, or choke that he would submit me with. He was especially inclined to do the guillotine choke (see above video for reference) and took me out most of the time with this choke. Guillotine from mount. Guillotine from side. Guillotine from start. Guillotine from wherever I was. My neck wasn't happy. I learned you can do guillotine everywhere, and that lots of my sparring partners were leaving themselves open to it, and I wasn't capitalizing on it. I decided to practice this hold a lot for the rest of the class.
A little later, I rolled with D. He's a white belt, but I see him getting his blue belt in a few months. He's really good, and always says hi when I get to class. I love sparring with him because he's always asking the teacher for tips, and the teacher gave us some one-on-one instruction and some big-picture coaching. D also had turned up the heat. My newbie free pass is wearing out. But D wasn't always successful, and I got out of his guard many times. Once, when we began, we paused, and I just waited, instead of attacking. I was waiting to try it. He came in low, trying to pull my leg and get me in mount right away. I let him go low and snagged a really good guillotine, and pulled tight; sometimes the best attacks begin with acceding to an opponent's advance. He had his hand in there a bit, so I wasn't able to choke him out. I got him in guard, meaning I wrapped his legs around him (see video) and I stretched his body out, removing his hand from the equation in the process. Then I squeezed. He tapped. I got my first submission today from D. It was the last time from him, he arm barred me three times in a row. My newbie free pass has been thrown away.
Last, I rolled with this small guy who is really fast. He has all these jumping moves from which to get me in some amazing hold. But I avoided them all, and once, when he landed with a thud on his back, me not in between his legs like he wanted, I used my new muscles and rolled him on his front, and got him in a rear naked choke. His hand was in there, so I couldn't complete. I instantly wrapped my legs around his midsection, locked my feet, and slid my legs down, stretching him and constricting his tummy, whilst I choked. But, we were near a wall, and he was going to hit his head, so the teacher made us stop. I was this close to submission #2.
After we were done, another really good grappler said to me "you're really improving. You're good at getting out of guard. Once you get your attacks down, you're going to smash guys." In my world, it feels like I'm flopping about, making most of it up, with a tiny bit of strategy and patience in there, brief flashes of ideas of escapes or holds that I once in a while execute successfully. But I admit, the feedback made me feel great.
Side guard? Presumably that's the same as side control/across side/100 kilos/side mount etc? Or something different?
Fascinating how many different terms there are for the same thing in BJJ. Hence why I've been trying to build up a glossary:
http://slideyfoot.blogspot.com/2007/03/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-glossary.html
Posted by: slideyfoot | 2009.01.30 at 03:55 PM