Today started by working on pulling guard if you feel like your opponent is better on his feet then you and then a sequence from open guard.  I have rarely tried to pull guard from standing because I always feel like I have the advantage on my feet, and rarely feel comfortable on my back but I really like this sequence.

Pulling Guard from Standing Position

Pulling guard from a standing position is very easy and felt very natural to me.  We fell into an open guard and then had the option of closing it from there.

1. From a tie up, put your foot on the same side as your lapel grabbing hand on your opponents hip.
2. Fall flat on your back while maintaining grip on their sleeve and lapel.
3. While falling throw your other leg behind their back.  With the foot that you have put on their hip, bend your knee and try to keep it on the inside of your arms.  This will put their shoulder on your shin.
4. Pull them tight and straighten you leg to close your guard, or just keep them tight for open guard

One good thing to keep in mind if you attempt to pull guard in a tournament situation is that you can’t let them be grabbing for your leg when you do this or they will get points for a takedown.  Make sure you have ample space and there is no way the judges can give your opponent credit for a takedown.

Open Guard to Sweep

From the open guard with your knee inside above there are a ton of moves that are available. Here is a sweep which can turn into an armbar, or if it fails segues nicely into a kimura.

1. From Open Guard, you control their lapel and arm with your knee inside their arm (see-above)
2. Tighten your knees to control their arm that was on your lapel.  Move your free hand to their sleeve that is on your chest.
3. Move your outside arm down to their other sleeve.  You should have control of both sleeves at this point, one leg around their back, one leg bent and on their armpit.
4. Shoot your leg that was around their back straight to sink it deeper and throw it over their arm that is pinned to your chest nestling it in the same armpit as your bent leg.  Maintain control of both of their sleeves while you do this.
5. From this position you can stall pretty much indefinitely if so long as you control both of their sleeves.  You can use your legs to control their spacing from you and they will tire themselves out trying to get an escape.

I really liked this position.  It is really easy to attain and one you have it, very easy to maintain.  Just keep hand control throughout to prevent them from pulling away and use your legs to keep from getting smothered.

To complete the sweep:

1. Pull hard on their arm that is pinned to your chest.  Extend it and go for a cheap armbar against your own thigh.
2. The armbar will almost assuredly not work because they will bend their arm, so rock them up on your body and crank their arm to the floor.  This alone may roll them over.
3. If you can’t roll them over because they have a good base, use your arm that was controlling their arm NOT on you chest and grab their leg.  Pull it up toward your head and control it.  That should be enough to get them into a position where you an roll them.

Sweep to Armbar

This arm-bar felt very tight for me and came very naturally from the sweep.  I feel like this may be on the few arm bars I can pull off.

1. As you execute the above sweep and roll your opponent to their side, control their arm that was on your chest.
2. When they hit the ground immediately move your butt toward them.  This is to get their elbow above your pelvis.
3. Once you have done this you are already in armbar position.  Just control their sleeve and fall back in to the armbar.
4. When extended make sure that you pull the arm toward their pinky and keep your legs pinched together.

Open Guard to Kimura

This was a very slick move and also something I think that I could pull off when rolling.  I loved this class because I actually felt like all of these things we do-able for me right away in live action.

1. Attain the open guard described above all the way to the point where you are about to execute the sweep.
2. When your opponent relaxes, maintain control of their sleeves and take your leg that was bent in their armpit, kick it out and snap it back (like kickstarting a motorcycle).  This puts your knee on the other side of their arm and begins the Kimura.
3. Take your other leg and make sure it is high and lateral across their back.  Maintain control of their sleeve on the arm you are attacking.  Keep everything very tight, slowly switch hands and finish the kimura.

We didn’t roll today, but I rolled briefly before class.  I beat my guy with a rear naked choke (he was a white belt about my size).  Greg left me with a few good takeaways today:

• Proper grip of the gi is done with by wrapping one finger in the gi and curling the hand up under it.  This forces them to pull your index finger through the rest of your others to get free, rather than just pulling the gi out.
• Always finish arm bars but moving the arm toward its pinky finger.
• Always pinch your legs when attacking arms.  If they can’t wiggle then you control where they move.