Chakara Status – Feelin’ Great

Once thing I noticed when I started BJJ: some people had tape all over their fingers. “What is the reason for this?” I wondered, “swelling?” “maybe because it looks cool?”. I had no idea.

Now, after weeks of practicing both lasso and spider guard, I’ve found out why: aggressive blistering! Time to start taping up my fingers, luckily I found a video made by Ronda Rousey detailing out the process. What a great resource the internet is.

Spider Guard Passes

We worked on spider guard passes today, going through three different options from standing:

1. Grab the inside of your opponents pants at the ankles, choose a side, then step on the inside of their leg to break the guard and move into side control. This one worked fairly well for me. During drilling I found it helped to fake to one side, then switch to the other.
2. Grab the inside of your opponents pants at the ankles, choose a side, then perform a knee slice. I could never get this to work.
3. Grab the inside of your opponents pants at the ankles, choose a side, push your opponents legs to that side while taking a knee, then place your forehead on the ground while “stapling” your opponents shin to the ground with your shin. With your forehead still on the ground, vault over your opponents legs into side control. I tried this third one several times, and could never complete it, but it did confuse the hell out of my opponents.

Example of guard pass #1

For sweeping from Spider Guard, I had really good luck waiting until my opponent was close enough, then grabbing their ankles and pushing with my feet. Simple but effective.

Goals for next class:

1. Attempt some triangles
2. Don’t get arm barred