I Think I Talk Too Much

Tonight was a fantastic practice. Had two people show, one of the girls and a different guy, who had had some martial arts training in sort of a composite, MMA style.

Same warmups as usual, into upas and hip escapes, upas with a roll... These movements that I have taken for granted for so long, I am now really seeing the importance of them, and how they translate into application. I suppose it's always kind of made sense to me, but now that I am having them perform the movements, I constantly find myself reflecting on how it applies to an actual situation or technique, because if it doesn't have that practical application, I can't figure out a reason to teach it.

Did a little position sparring from closed guard, as before, so that the guy could see some of what we were talking about. I remember being in the position of only having one thing I knew how to do, so that was all I did, but I don't remember white belts being there at my other schools, so I am constantly reevaluating what I want to say with the context of what tools I know they have.

And I think I talk too much. Sure, anyone who's read this blog for awhile knows I got in a little trouble by talking too much, but in this case I actually found myself getting irritated with myself for interrupting the flow by pointing stuff out.

My dilemma is that I want so badly to reinforce the concepts that they are putting to use. Base. Leverage. Control of center of gravity. Push-pull. When there's a natural pause in the roll, I make a point of mentioning the good thing they did, then try to quickly keep it going. I don't want to mess up the momentum, but I absolutely want them to realize what is going on.

I know from my own experience that it will take about 6 months before anything more than one or two solid concepts will stick. But damned if I'm not going to point out stuff like that.... I watched tonight as two beginners sparred, the girl on the bottom. The guy on top knows how to do a really solid stack pass, and one thing I mentioned early on was getting a cross grip all the way to the collar to prevent the turtle. Once he's got that in, he's got the pass pretty well locked.

So he was working to stack pass, and the girl was defending well. So well, in fact, that he couldn't get past her legs. When he moved one, she would cross and defend with the other until she could get her normal open guard back. He'd stack the leg again, she'd hip out instinctively, and get her legs back between them again. He stayed calm, maintained his base, and when he couldn't get the collar grip, he gripped her sleeve under the leg, which trapped her arm. That ultimately led to him succeeding in the pass.

But what I saw was two people with a combined total of four jiu jitsu classes EVER utilizing concepts instinctively that it took me more than a year to learn. In fact, the idea of crossing your legs over to cover while you reestablished guard? I had to take two private lessons at about the year and a half point to finally grasp that. And I'm STILL working on different ways to modify passes when you're stuck.

I have always maintained I am a slow learner, but tonight's class really inspired me. I am excited for the progression I am already seeing, and I think they are also excited.

So we did an actual technique tonight, the scissor sweep. Aside from the ever-famous 93 Guard sweep, I think this is really my favorite sweep, with all of its modifications, including the still-incredible-to-me reverse scissor sweep. That will come, though.

The reason I thought it would be good tonight is because we have talked every time about controlling your opponent's center of gravity, and the concept of taking out two legs from the table, as well as a little of the push-pull concept. This sweep requires all of that to be successful. Plus, it doesn't require abnormal amounts of flexibility. :)

And it showed. Once they put the pieces together, they both nailed the sweep, and we showed the knee-push variation, which works well for me against bigger opponents.

After that, did another round robin of position sparring, and capped it off with a discussion of how points work in relation to improving your position. All in all, for me, it was a fantastic night, and one that really reinforced my decision to offer this class.