And Over We Go

The other day, I had the lucky fortune of being watched by Fabio while I was grappling. Most of the time, he does the whole thing where he is pretending to watch someone else when really he is watching you, but this time he was sitting on the wall resting and just watching the few grapples that were going on.

It made me nervous, but he ended up pointing out something simple that I've been doing that I need to change. A lot of times I try to play an open-guard. When people start to pass, I try to use my knees as obstacles. But Fabio pointed out that, at a certain point, I abandon my knee defense because the person is moving up my side and I kind of give up and accept that they have side control. It's not in a situation when I can go inverted, because in these cases, there isn't space.

He explained that, when they start working up, instead of giving up my knee barriers because they're getting up too high, I need to go with them and take them over my head. It's kind of like going inverted. But I should end up on top.

I am going to try this in my next few grapples. I know one thing standing in my way of doing this. I think I will really need to relax in order to do it, and to resist the urge to push the person away with my knees. I need to use them like a lever. Bring the person onto them then tip them up and over. I have seen Fabio do it. I will try a feeble attempt at mimicry tomorrow. :)