guillotine to loop choke

PM class

techniques-

1. escape side control
-to the knees
-replace half guard and then guard

both require underhook. hand blocking hip= must go to knees, difficult to replace half guard.

2. ezekiel from side control

3. ezekiel from back

rolling

played open guard mostly.

specifically, half butterfly guard. it's great! gotta work from here for a few weeks and figure it out. can move to butterfly guard, x guard, arm drag to back, and some more i'm sure.

played around some with the half butterfly guard and figured out some passing options- square up and move around to eliminate the effectiveness of the hook. or perhaps come all the way to the side (face legs) to kill the hook. either way, can't face the hook head on (diagonal more like) or you may get swept. probably some sprawl options would be good.

one thing that worked well- the arm triangle stuff from the paragon dvd. i learned that if i don't have a brabo locked up tight enough, i can momentarily release and punch my arm deeper (scooping the head) while stuffing the head deeper to tighten the choke. as long as i maintain pressure, i can regain and finish. probably less energy than trying to squeeze incessantly.

one thing that i need to work on- guillotine escape from half guard. normally, I pass and go n/s to alleviate, but somehow today i got caught in a loop choke as i continued to go around. i went INTO the choke and tightened it even more, and got caught. lesson learned. perhaps the old heavy shoulder in the face would be a better route to go? or at least if the guillotine turns into a loop choke, i need to move the opposite direction to alleviate.

another thing i'm working on- a "sneaky" triangle. before, i'd get in position and throw up my hips all high and start adjusting explosively. i am experimenting with simply locking it up low key and moving to the choke incrementally. they are less tipped off to what i'm doing and start their escape a few fractions of a second later than usual if i had just shot up into it and made it obvious.

the high guard will shin control works great to control posture. i might like it better than the rubber guard, as it puts less stress on the joints.

another good counter- if they somehow work the triangle to the side so i can't finish directly underneath anymore, i can either try and sweep them over and adjust or just attack the straight arm bar a la jacare vs. braulio in the 2004 pan ams. very good option. don't even need to release the triangle- i can just apply pressure against the joint.

the kimuras are working well. especially the kimura to face down spinning arm lock. great combo. attacking the kimura off of the open guard pants grip is working well. one combo that might do some damage- reverse kimura to arm drag.

one thing i need to work on is threatening more sweeps from open guard. i'm doing good recovering and preventing progress, but my offensive moves are lacking. perhaps if i threaten with arm drags, i can work off of those.

perhaps one of the more important lessons- head control. i'm getting better at controlling the head from all positions, which should make it more difficult to pass.

i want to be attacking either the head (guillotine) or a bent arm lock from most positions. that will make it very difficult to mount an offense for the opponent if they are always in danger of being tapped. my guillotines need work.

there are three to work on-
1. standard guillotine
2. marcelo 10 finger guillotine (centered up- adam's apple crush)
3. 10 finger guillotine (slightly off to the side, maybe with arm in)

learning to switch between these three would be worthwhile. in an attacking butterfly guard, this could be devastating.