12/01/2016 - Open Mat | Passing Closed Guard

Class #690
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 12/01/2016

Open mat is where I get most of my sparring, meaning that I am also getting in plenty of time with the open mat regulars. That's good, as it means they are becoming increasingly challenging training partners. Both yesterday and tonight, I wasn't able to finish off the triangle on one of the white belts. His posture has really improved, so he's able to stack out of the triangle. I remembered to do shoulder walking, but I'm not securing the angle or getting sufficient head control to keep that posture broken. I attempted to shift into the omoplata, but again didn't have the posture broken sufficiently, or pushing the head away and down. Pretty much a carbon copy of the spar we had yesterday. ;)

I then got some useful drilling with a student that wanted to work on his triangle finish. I've continued to be lazy with my closed guard passing, staying on my knees. Wedging open enough space to either go for double underhooks or that single underhook/knee cut position has been working for me, but I haven't tried that on a blue belt or up yet. I may therefore be getting a false sense of security there: higher belts might well punish my posture or extended arms. I'm keeping my elbows back, with the 'eat the belt' pass from Scully and continuing efforts at the Sao Paulo variation from Margarida, but need to try those on non-white belts too, like Chris.

Speaking of Chris, the point where I came closest to getting subbed today was when the student did a good job of breaking my posture down and getting his legs up high. Chris does this a lot too and it's always tough to wriggle free. When my head is down like that and my arms mostly covered, I find it much harder to generate any kind of frame or base. Something I should be applying to my own triangle attempts, must play with that more. And stand up. Must stand up in closed guard more, bad habit to avoid that! ;)