I just have to laugh a little. Spent about an hour this morning with the patient help of a good friend, exploring the intersection of my open guard pass (which, thanks to Liam aka TPTG, tries to have a straight back and a staggered stance) with his De La Riva guard sweepy-take-your-back position.
I really do like the exploration side of jiu jitsu. It's so easy to flow back and forth between cooperative and scientific examination of physics and body mechanics (hmm, what happens if I do this?) and the defiance of the adversarial system (then I'll do this!) and the pleasure of success (and you'll get nowhere!/and you'll sweep me like a dusty floor!)
So that was my morning. Vidush wants to get DLR guard, and then take the back, of his standing opponent. I pretended to be his opponent (but don't often fight DLR very long, so I wasn't sure I was a quality uke.) For a while he just played with that, varying grips and pressures while I tried to surf the position, maintain my base, and advance to a better place. I wasn't terribly successful, but neither was he (at getting my back. Sweeps were working fine.)
Then, we worked through/he taught me some basics of another open guard pass, involving knee grips, foot position, and posture that made me feel like I was kneeling on his hamstring. He pointed out it's just like knee on belly, but standing in his guard. Hmm. Good stuff. Eventually we got into a semi-positional sparring mode. I learned that IF I can get my foot in the right place and IF I can get the good pressure forwards BEFORE he gets feet on my hips, I can manage. So I trotted out of the shower at the academy all fresh, squeaky clean, and perkily confident that I could handle at least a whitebelt open guard tonight.
Ahem.
Came to class around 5:45pm and the air in the academy was like... soup. Warm, thick, wet. Really not suited to bringing oxygen into the lungs. Like cake batter against the skin, only NOT smelling so good. Actually, didn't smell much, but it was like inhaling warm water. (Until Amit sat down near me. The man bleaches his gis all the time. Smells like summertime and fresh clean swimming pools and all manner of good clean fun. I love it. Men, take note. Do I need another post about why gis shouldn't smell like catbox?!)
After technique and 4 promotions (two to bluebelt! and Anthony and David got 4th and 2nd stripes on their blue and purple, respectively!) we had some positional sparring round robins. First I landed with Tommy, a serious and respectable purple. Um. What the...!?!? First I went for the knee grips. Gone! without the grips, I can't control his damn feet! They're pushing on my hips! Grabbing for the knees again... dammit stripped again! And with the foot/feet on the hips I can't get my foot in the right place, I can't pressure forwards on the hamstring, I can't control the hips, damn his paws. Damn his feet. Shit swept again. What the...!!!!
Phew, Coach calls time. Next I landed with one of the new blues, a really nice guy whose name I don't know. He's playing open guard. PERFECT!
Except, um, crap. I keep the grips this time, have the hamstring pressure. But not enough, the damn hips are moving! I'm slipping! Pond of sweat on the mat and my foot slides and I'm on my knees and I'm in half guard. OK. Not bad. I like half guard. I can put in some mean shoulder pressure. Nope. He's coming up! I'm scrood!
.... phew, time again.
After a few rotations, I'm back to Tommy. He tweaks, encourages. Good deal. Then we switch peeps and sides and I am bottom half guard now, against another tremendous purple. I have an answer (though lumbering, inefficient, slow and ugly) for passes where they face my head... but shizzle for the reverse pass. Start again. Try for one of Sean's weirder half guard passes, but I can't get the knee grip behind myself. (Don't ask.) Kept the underhook against his wizzer when I should have gone for Scott's sweep with the clamped wing. But it's progress. I'm remembering stuff. I'm recognizing stuff. Late but better than never.
5 comments:
Very analytical and technical perspective of jiu jitsu. I appreciate your awareness and drive to develop a more well-rounded game. I'm taking notes on how to better approach my weaknesses and struggles (as opposed to my occasional submissions attempts). While rolling, I typically flow naturally and forget the diverse paths for position and/or submission that I'm presented with in any given situation. Learning bjj is an art as much as bjj itself.
It takes 6 months. That's the bottom line.
Everytime you start a new strategy, it takes six months for it to be good and an integral part of your game.
You'll notice slowly that you're getting swept less often and that they have to shuffle extra hard to free their hips and that they have to peel your grips off alllll the time. You'll notice all that good stuff soon enough, but for it to become a solid part of your game, new strategies take time. 6 months to be exact :)
Having said that, it's such an awesome platform to launch the toreada, knee thru, X-pass, double under and a whole lot of passes.
I think I wasted the first year of grappling just "flowing" and not thinking about what I was doing and where it all fit in. (Although I thought I was thinking all the time.)
ha! I spent the 1.5-2 years just "flowing" and not thinking about what I was doing and where it all fit in.
I only started 'thinking' about what I was doing about 2 months ago.
You're light years ahead of many of us!
@Anne-- Psssh! not even. How long have you been rolling? Your profile isn't enabled... I love when I hear from new people but where do you train? who are you? :)
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