On the Mat Day 159: Passing the Guard with Single & Double Unders

I felt quite invigorated after class today. It was incredibly humid though. I think spring lasted a whole 2 weeks or so and now we will be training in sweating hell lol. I always enjoy the morning sessions though. You get a good work out and the rest of the day is yours to rest or do whatever. We worked on guard passing using with an underhook on the leg to crush the opponents knee to his chest then pass on the side. I felt clumsy on these because I don't really do this kind of pass except on the rare occassion I get a double under secure on both legs. Also on drills at the start I have started to do fast armbars while holding both arms of the opponent. I like these because they make you really shift your hips.

I sparred with a white belt who I haven't seen for a while. He is a few years younger than me, family and not so much time to train so really in the same situation as me. Last time we sparred he did well taking me down with single leg tackles so I watched for those this time. I tried seio-nage and failed but I did finally manage to get 2 triangles, something which I never go for. On my weak side though I noticed that I pulled down incorrectly on the head and knee side even though it was tight enough to finish. Need to tweak that.

After sparring, F-sensei asked if I had any questions about sparring. I suspect he sensed my dissatisfaction with my own ability during the week. I told him about my weakness on stopping takedowns, particularly throws from former judoka. He told me to never let them get grips and always be first. Then he showed me a few things to work on prevention and removal of grips. One good thing he said was that if you extend your arm, you will be thrown. So you should keep your arms in tight, almost identical to when I used to do Karate and the non-punching hand is resting on your hip. It's not practical for real fighting but in grappling, exposing the arms out front is bad. I also asked about turtle sweeps because it's a position I often end up in after my guard is passed.

Sparring time: 4 x 6 mins = 24 mins

A short lesson but packed with a lot of answers to questions I've had on my mind.