Today my instructor's buddy Jon Santos, a Cesar Gracie purple belt, rolled through and taught class. He also brought some of his guys along so it was great to roll with different bodies. After being taught by the same guy for about a year and a half it was pretty interesting having a new instructor and I felt that the change made me more attentive and receptive to what was being taught. We learned 3 half guard sweeps and a sweet armbar from back control.
All the sweeps start out in the same position so I will try to go into detail about that and then just list the 3 finishing parts.
First, if your getting flattened out on your right hip (right leg is trapped by top guy) you would take your left arm and swim it underneath top's (will call it T from now on) chin and grab his left lapel or his shoulder. From there you want to angle your elbow and push up with your forearm to create space. At the same time you want to T-Rex his hip by keeping your elbow in and pushing. By pushing at both places you can create enough space to bring your left leg into his stomach. Something like half way scissor sweep. This is the basic starting position for all the variations.
Variation 1: So starting from the basic half guard position what you want to do is keep your right arm t-rexed to block the crossface and being flattened out again. From there you would take your left arm which was underneath his chin to go for a deep underhook and grab either T's gi or belt. From there you shuck your shoulder (basically like going out the back door) and take the back. When you shuck the shoulder you will already have one hook and should be able to grab the chicken wing grip with your right arm. From there you can sink your left hook and chicken wing the remaining arm to stabilize back mount.
Variation 2: Starting once again from the basic position you want to maintain the space and once again get the deep underhook with your left arm. From there grab the gi or belt again. It may seem a lot like Variation 1, but this is where things get different. So while maintain your underhook you want to take your right arm which is t-rexing T's left arm (left arm is based out) you get grip on the gi/wrist (i found pistol grip helped a lot) and pull on the wrist while you drop your left leg to the mat (left leg would've been scissored across T's stomach but you drop it to the ground.. similar to hip bump in a way). So while pulling away his base you drop your left leg and sit up and push into T to get him over. You should end in half guard.
Variation 3: Variation 3 just starts in half guard with lockdown or the basic position above. So what you want to do with this one is first create space by using the previously mentioned technique. Once again you get the left underhook by grabbing either gi/belt and t-rex with your right arm. Once you have created the space you want to take your left leg and switch it with your right. So instead of having your bottom right leg wrapped around T's leg, you will have your left. With your left leg you can either pull it towards the outside or do whatever makes you comfortable (as long as the leg is trapped the technique will work). So the position you should be at this point is on your right hip with your right arm blocking T's left arm from crossfacing and your left arm underhooked and grabbing onto T's gi/belt. What you do then is turn your head to the left and in one exploding motion roll T over you. If done correctly you should end up in side control cleanly. The thing about this technique is that it doesn't require any strength at all. As long as T keeps driving in, this technique should be cake.
Rolling at the end of class was pretty fun. I don't really remember a lot about what happened since I was just concentrating on having fun but I did get subbed a few times but it was a awesome experience. I can tell that they really like to play top game so it was a battle just to sweep to get on top. I did have some success with some half guard sweeps (x guard sweeps) and i was also able to get a bow and arrow choke from the back. I'm getting a lot more comfortable maintaining the back now. I also had some limited success with the wrestling sitout which I have been drilling constantly whenever I have free time on the mat. I think when I get more comfortable with it my game will change greatly since I am getting more and more experience scrambling. The one thing that stood out to me was passing guard. It's not that I don't have trouble passing both legs, it's the trouble I have controlling the bottom person's hips. What ends up happening is I'll either get stuck in half guard or guard and it's frustrating when I pass both legs and have to start all over again.
Things to remember/work on:
Controlling bottoms hips when passing guard
The 3 half guard sweeps listed above. (I really want to get good at these by the time I'm ready to compete again)
Wrestling sit-out
Posture in guard (don't look at bottom guy, there is no need)
Remain calm
Breaking down top's posture when I'm bottom guy
Just want to thank Jon Santos again for coming down and bringing his guys to roll with us. Was really a great learning experience and it's cool to see how I stack up against guys from other gyms. Hopefully I can "master" these sweeps. I'm probably just going to work on these for a little while. Of course I won't forget the other basics, but I feel that if I can just get these half guard sweeps to work for me I will get way better.