This afternoon I had my first of four private lessons with Gordo. It was awesome. The man is such a wealth of knowledge, I would venture to say that he has been doing jiujitsu for as long as I've been alive. Being down here has shown the wholes I have in my game...big gapping wholes. The first, and one that needs the most attention, is my halfguard from the bottom. Anything I thought I knew about halfguard, or used to do from halfguard bottom doesn't work. In general this is not a position that I play, but here it is very difficult to recompose full guard, so I have found myself in halfguard just getting smashed. Like I have said before they crossface like nobodies business and flatten me out. So obviously this was my focus of the first private.
The whole private I worked from the bottom and Dennis sat in to be a third person so Gordo could show technique on him and then watch as I try to do the same to him. It was awesome to have a private with two blackbelts, Gordo showing technique and both Dennis and Gordo able to give me feedback as we worked. We started with some basic concepts, which is good for me because I learn much better if I can understand why I am doing something. Gordo broke the halfguard down to two basic postures for me to start with, a defensive posture and an attacking posture. The two are very similar with the main difference being in the defensive posture you are protecting from the crossface and being flattened and in the attacking posture you are looking to sweep or take the back. I think already this simple knowledge will help me tremendously. Then we went into when to sweep and when to take the back...Gordo's major point on this was always always always look to take the back. He showed me how to change angles and take the sweeps even if the person on top seems to be basing with his hips low to the mat and weight back. Simple things, but I had never seen them before. From there we went to kinda worse case halfguard, being you are crossfaced and the top player has the underhook. For a while we worked clearing the head from the crossface, or even sweeping if the opportunity presents itself. I just hope I can remember everything that we went over, because it was all really good stuff. The hip movement from the bottom is key to everything, and something for me to continue to work on. Below is Dennis, me and Gordo after my private. Agian, thanks for sitting in Dennis it really helped having you there.
2 comments:
Lovin the blog Jerrod. Something that helps me is to keep a Jiu Jitsu Journal. At the end of class write everything down in detail. You can review it again before class but really even if you dont review it it helps a lot. I think just the act of sitting down and thinking the moves out and writing them down helps it stick in your memory.
You look like a Brazilian! Cant wait to see your new moves!
Post a Comment