There were only about 8-10 people in class today. I was the only girl, and definitely the smallest person on the mat. Shaolin had us do some passing drills from half guard. One of the main things I learned from this is to maintain top pressure when passing half guard, or being in the top position at all for that matter. Space is always something that others can capitalize on in BJJ, but it's easy to forget that space and pressure are intertwined. Our next half guard drill was for the person on bottom to always protect their neck. This is something I've worked on in the recent past. I want to work on being more active from the bottom in half guard, and this always begins with making sure that the person on top can't attack.
Finally it came time to roll and I believe there were about five rounds of six minutes each. I rolled with one purple belt and the rest were blue belts. I was surprised to see that I was immediately using the half guard passes and defenses that Shaolin had taught us. It normally takes me a long time before I can implement something just taught, but I guess it stuck with me. Lately, I've been trying to think of how to analyze rolling in class. I know thinking about it as winning or losing is a bad idea, but I do think it's important to evaluate what you did right and wrong during the roll. I think a good process would be to say
- what move did I try to execute?
- did it work?
- why or why not?
Thinking of each roll move by move might be difficult to remember, but if you can draw common themes or moves from the session, then you can figure out what you're doing wrong and what you need to work on. Shaolin is always calling out to everyone in class what they should do and what they need to work on, so that definitely helps.
By the way, if you don't understand or appreciate the fact that this blog post title is from the Wu Tang Clan, then either quit reading this blog or EDUCATE YOURSELF! :)
That's basically what I do, which I've definitely found helpful: it becomes an action plan for the next lesson's sparring.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I've listened to much Wu Tang, though I'm vaguely familiar with the name (mainly due to their love of kung fu movies). My hip hop listening tends to be quite specific, so mostly just De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Jurassic 5. Though I did go on an old school breakbeat hunt recently.