Haven't done a blog for a while but the urge struck tonight. I've been able to train jiu-jitsu about twice a week at the UFC gym. It's not a whole lot and I still feel pretty rusty but it's getting better. I've been taking a few judo classes here and there to compliment BJJ, learn a few techniques to get an opponent to the ground. Only thing is I haven't been able to apply anything from judo because when we spar in BJJ we start on our knees...and I kinda suck with the whole judo thing.
Anyway, I was thinking about my last roll session earlier tonight and it feels like the BJJ demons of last year are back. My posture and balance feel unstable and I feel like I'm getting swept more than I should. More often than not I find myself being put onto my back. It's like I just roll over for my opponents. So tonight I wanted to work on maintaining a solid base in my opponent's guard. Keep things simple, just maintain a strong posture when they try to sweep or go for a submission. Defend and stay solid. No problem right?
Well...
Maybe not. I rolled with one guy and he really yanked and pulled at me. Just relentless at trying to break my posture. It worked. Any stability I had was quickly shaken and before I knew it was in serious danger of being swept onto my back. I had to collapse my posture and basically hug the guy to prevent the sweep, then I had to work to posture back up again. I tired to hold him down but that wasn't happening. As soon as I got my back straight and my posture up the guy was yanking and pulling again and there went my balance...again.
This time the guy opened his guard to attack a situp sweep (we drilled it earlier that night). Now, I could see it all unfolding: his guard opened, he was controlling one of my arms, his hips were positioned to bump me onto my back. I saw the whole thing coming and something in my head clicked and said I should not get caught by this. Now I don't mean I'm so experienced that I shouldn't get caught in a situp sweep, I mean there was something about this guy's sweep that was off and I shouldn't get caught. Part of my mind recognized that his leg was out of position and all I had to do was push down on it and not only would I defend the sweep but I'd also have a wide open door to pass his guard. But another part of my mind just went duurrrr and I got swept.
So I guess there's a good and bad here. Good that my mind worked fast enough to recognize a flaw in my opponent. Bad because my body didn't respond. Guess I'll have to work on that...somehow.
I'll keep practicing on my weak areas: maintaining a strong base when in an opponent's guard, practicing sweeps when on the bottom (I realize I need a lot of work on these but that's a different blog), keeping heavy on the side mount, and maintaining a full mount. Notice none of these things include submissions, which is about right because I need to work on the fundamentals of controlling the position for a while. I'll only attack submissions if people really give it to me...or if they're being a little too overeager.
