Vegas lumps

On the bright side I'm pretty much healed up. Having patiently waited until my finger was ready, I can now tape it to the next one over for support and it works fine.

I'm in Vegas this week. I woke up early to drive out since it's about 5 hours (in my shitty old VW) versus about the same time to fly due to all the security nowadays. Just not worth the hassle. But the important thing is I'm here, which is disruptive to my workout routine and diet. To make the best of it I asked my coach on Saturday for a name of someone to train with. He gave me two, one of with was Ricardo Cavalcanti, an old friend of his from Brazil (these Brazilians all seem to know each other very closely, which I believe is why a blue/purple/whatever belt is a blue/purple/whatever belt, regardless of which coast you're on or which teacher you're under - the skill level is about the same).

Ricardo was super friendly, he cut the weekly cost to train almost in half and was really nice, introducing me to all of his students. We trained no-gi, which I prefer but haven't trained in in over 2.5 years. First I took a year off to study for a professional certification, then I blew out my knee and had surgery, and since I came back I've just never happened to do it. Shame really because I love the fast pace of the no-gi game.

At any rate, Ricardo taught us about 5 techniques, one of which was extremely clever (well, they were all clever, this one just happened to strike my fancy). If I have my opponent in my closed guard, I can try to sweep him by opening guard, sitting up, putting my right arm over his right shoulder (so he's staring at the back of my right shoulder), and push him over to my left in a circular motion. It's a common sweep, taught to all white belts. One of the most obvious mistakes that you drill to get past in the early days is to put your right arm over his left shoulder, essentially capturing his head as well. You don't end up with the same leverage and he's far more likely to just push you back down.

Ricardo's clever move saw me sitting up and performing this basic sweep ... wrong. I deliberately capture the head as I sit up and try to sweep him. If I get it great, take the sweep, which can easily end with me mounting him. What's more likely is he'll push back, forcing me down on my back again. My trick at this point is that as I start pushing for the sweep I pull my left leg out from around his waist so it's free and clear. Now as he pushes me backwards I slide it back in, but this time *over* his right arm. Just before falling backwards I throw my left leg up and over his shoulder, reaching around with my right hand to grab it behind his head. I fall backwards with my leg wrapped behind his head and pulling him down with me. His left arm is still between my legs. What's all this mean? I just let him push me backwards, setting himself up for a triangle (or as Ricardo puts it - "dah tree-angle" :) ).

From there it's a standard triangle finish. You're going to have to fight to close it while keeping his head down and making sure you don't get stacked. His left arm is on the wrong side, but that's no big deal. Just lock the tree-angle first and lift your hips up as you shove his arm to the side you want it on. I'd detail that more but I'm running late and it's a basic move that's pretty hard to resist, and even if he manages to resist it you just crank the elbow in an armbar so you're all good.

I totally flaked on blogging last week about my kickboxing experience at the boxing gym up the street from my apartment. It went pretty well and I may be competing soon. I'll post again soon, probably this week since I don't have that much to do for work here and will try to spend a lot of time on the mat, gaining that fresh perspective you get from a different teacher (who, like my current one, probably has 25+ years grappling).