Monday fun

After missing Friday night and Saturday training, I felt like I'd been away too long ;-)

We practiced going straight from a standard sweep (leg across belly) to an ezekiel choke. All we need to do is let go of the sleep and hold that bottom arm out as he lands, so our forearm is right behind his neck. As we complete the sweep and land in mount, it's so easy to bring the other arm across the front of his neck and finish.

Then we drilled what I think is the flower sweep. I don't know if he called it that, but I've seen it in books and that's what it was called. Useful for when someone tries to pass guard and puts that leg where we can get our hand on it! The important bit is to put our hand near his foot and then bring that hand around along the mat with an outstretched arm to above our head. That way it's easy. If I just push upwards with that hand, it's much harder.

As an alternative, we can reach for the other leg, where the knee is still on the ground. Grab either the pant leg, but better, the foot. The mechanics are slightly different for this version. Where the first version wants me to lift my leg and then swing it across to sweep him, the second version is more of a kick downwards. So it feels quite different. I found the first version a lot easier.

The last sweep we did was a rehearsal of the heart attack sweep from open guard and an alternative if he braces out at the last second, which is similar to the flower sweep, because we use that braced out leg as a lever.

Very brief free wrestle where I caught my partner with a an ankle lock because he crossed his legs while he had my back. I don't think he meant to cross them, we were rolling around with me trying to escape, so it just worked out that way. But being sneaky and mean, I capitalised on it. Well, I've fallen for the same silly thing in the past which I told him and we had a laugh.