Training Log -- 4/20 and 4/23

420's class consisted of us being split into 2 groups, which was mostly noobs and non-noobs. I was in the latter. We got to work on some interesting spider guard stuff that I *will* be implementing. There are a few work-throughs which are based on swinging one of your legs under theirs when they stand and going back to foot-into-bicep with a trapped leg. From here there are a bunch of sweeps and ankle lock opportunities. We also went over an awesome modified bow & arrow choke with you pulling their leg up toward their head and using that pressure to increase the collar choke's effectiveness.

4/23

Went to the fundamental class with Josh and Steven. We worked on no-gi guard passing and counters.

Main class was more spider guard, this time with feet-on-hips. Worked some triangles from here and some sweeps. One was similar to the bicep-slicer sweep which I've been fucking around with for a while now. Difference is, you don't lace your leg around their tricep but instead use momentum of your shin in their arm to drive them over. Both sweeps require you to underhook their leg and get their ankle up on your shoulder.

Rolling went super excellent. Armbared the shit out of Steven and pretty much kept him backing up and unwilling to engage. This is a victory for me because he's a wrestler. Our second roll saw him manage to pass guard but as usual, he was unable to capitalize on anything and I escaped several times. This is also a victory for me because he wasn't wearing a gi. No-gi is my weakness at the moment and Steven usually wrestlefucks me. With him grabbing my gi and me having nothing but limbs, I did really fucking well. He needs to put a gi on.

Managed to submit Josh with a bow & arrow after largely controlling him. This is a minor victory because he was one-armed with a torn somethingorother and couldn't use his arm. Kinda sounds lame but he usually can keep me away from advancing position and he'd certainly be twice as good with both arms. But I managed to take advantage of a few passes including the leg underhook to cross-collar/stack.

I'm feeling very very comfortable in open guard and I'm not getting swept like usual. Still have to work on guard-breaks and moar sweeps from my own guard. Shouldn't be too long before I get my blue belt, which will be awesome because being a white belt sucks.