2009-02-09 Mon PM BJJ Class

Cassio Werneck BJJ - Sacramento CA - Cassio

Cassio continued his half guard lessons tonight with more sweeps from the bottom.

The first was a counter to your opponent driving his leg across. You know that position you get in where your on your side and only have his ankle gripped between your legs. So from there he discussed not allowing the guy on top to get control of your upper body, especially no under hook, but also no lapel grips. He gets a hold of your top half and your as good as passed. So here was the sweep. Lying as described above and on your right side. You hide your right arm under your own right thigh. Deep down there. You take your left arm and get a grip behind his right leg. Now give a good bump with your knee, pushing your opponent forward, and roll under your opponent and out the back.

The second was the situation where the opponent has not yet passed the knee and you're going to try and under hook his leg. So againyour in half guard on your right side. you ball up tight and reach out with your right arm to underhook his leg. Your left arm gets a nice deep underhook on the far side. now ducking in deep underneth him bump him up and over you ans you slide down. You should end up on your back with his right leg stretching down between your legs. Now swing your knees back and forth a bit to get some momentum and then spin up (to your right, towards his front side, not his back) to your knees and work hte pass from there. I like this one a lot actually.

Rolled:
rolled four 8(?) min rounds
Johnathan, rest, Mike, rest, Brian, Brennan

I felt pretty good tonight, maybe for the first time like an actual purple belt. I was able to move around ok, I strung together some attacks, and saw a few things coming. I've heard it before that you have to grow into each belt you get. That has been the truth on this belt.

Johnathan was a good roll. I started pulling guard right away and was able to attack that left arm just like i like. I got him off balance and shot the leg over for the arm bar. I thought it was pretty tight and he still wasn't tapping. I mean his arm was fully extended, he tried rolling through and we just ended up face down. He gave a little 'ouch' and I took that as a tap and let go. I can't begrudge the guy for not tapping sooner. It's almost a complement really, I know there are guys i roll with that I know won't take my arm off if I go to long. It was either that or he was being bull headed ;) Later he passed me and was really attacking hard. He ended up on top working for an armbar. I was hiding as much as I could trying not to let him have the arm or get the leg over my head. Just as it felt like he was about to give my arm a good jerk to get it free the buzzer rang. We both started laughing. One of those I knew that he knew etc moments. I'm sure he'll look to collect next time we roll.

After a bit of a rest I rolled with Mike. The baddest ass french historian on the planet ;) It was interesting for a while, I pulled guard (again), but sine he damn near tore off his shoulder a few months ago he was not at full speed. I was able to mount some decent attacks from closed guard but it ended up like it seems to so often do with him, side control -> mount -> kimura. He even tried his usual sweep after letting me get around to side but as his arm gave out half way he only managed t drop me on his face. By all accounts it didn't feel too good.

Brian always gives me troubles. His long arms make it harder for me to break his posture in my closed guard. We battled there a long time, he stood up a few times even, and made a great pass at the end of the round.

Brennan was last. I worked the big guy closed guard, basically seeing how many ways i can try to get under his arms ant take his back. Good times. I gave him some pointers on keeping his posture and not letting me have his arm. It'll be interesting to see if he absorbed any of it next time.