13/10/2013 - Study Hall (Closed Guard Posture Break & Side Control Chokes)

Class #529
Gracie Barra Bristol, (BJJ), Study Hall, Bristol, UK - 13/10/2013

I'm continuing with drilling offence from closed guard, attempting to develop a series that starts with breaking their posture into the gi tail control. If that doesn't work, I want to add the windscreen wiper sweep. Should I be unable to break their posture and they lean back to resist, I can switch to a sit-up sweep.

I'm still not quite sure how best to put those all together, but it's been helpful playing with it for the last few weeks in an open mat environment. I plan to teach something on the topic next week too, which should give me some further ideas. The sit-up sweep has been by far my most successful sweep for as long as I can remember, but strangely I haven't taught it yet in the two and a half years I've been an instructor, so that will be fun. :)

With the gi tail grip, I'm still having some trouble keeping their posture broken. People were standing up when I was doing that, though I found I could still finish the choke (although that might just be because I was trying it against somebody less experienced). More reps required. Also, I need to make sure I'm getting plenty of gi material, rather than snatching at it. If I can't get that grip and they're posturing up, I should be going into the sit-up sweep as before.

Geraldine wanted to work on side control chokes, which was perfect as that's what I wanted to work on too. She saw a specific step over triangle set-up that she wanted to try, from Jay Pages (IIRC). From a sort-of scarf hold position, he grabs their arm, then shoves his bottom leg into that arm. As he is still pulling with his grip, that should wedge their arm in place. His other leg then steps over to trap their arm in place, meaning he can then transfer his grip to hold on with his other arm.

From there, he can now step over their head with the raised leg, moving into the triangle position as usual. Drilling this with Geraldine reminded me to be careful of the neck. Especially when you're drilling this repeatedly, you have to watch out you're not twisting their neck into awkward positions, such as when you're adjusting your legs to lock in the triangle. I also played around with the chokes from the private lesson, but need to rewatch the video.