I'm bored at work and thought I'd try and create some discussion.
So, what part of your BJJ game are you working on?

For myself, I'm working on a few things including:
* My side control - I'm trying to make it more crushing not just on his chest but on his arms. I did a private lesson with David Meyer (3rd Degree Machado BB) a few weeks ago who flogged me and one of the things he did was crush my arms so much from side control that by the time I finally got them out they were exhausted. So I've been working this and it's going well.
* Taking the back - I'm working on letting the guy escape from side control to his knees where I can then take the back.
* My guard - I'm working on basic hooking sweep and getting back to my knees more.


So, let's hear what you're working on.

P.S If you're having any problems and want some answers let me know. I need something to kill the time here :)

I have been working on my sweeps from the guard, guard passes and general "top game", like side control, north-south, and mount. Most of my success so far has come from fighting from the guard, but I want to have good ability on top, so I have been working on that a lot more.

We've been drilling closed guard attacks a lot recently since there were a string of nights last week where only white belts and at most one blue belt came to class. Our school, instructor and professor inisist white belts only use the closed guard, and while I've become adept at keeping it my sweeps suck and my attacks were all based on mimicry until we formally drilled them last week. Last night I set up a sweet collar choke on a larger white belt but I didn't get it deep enough so stood out of it, and then I missed the arm bar (which he said was closer to making him tap). Usually if I'm fighting guys my size I can threaten the triangle, but now I can clear the arm and don't have to wait for them to put an arm back.

I'm also reading Passing the Guard and while I can now open the closed guard with high frequency the actual pass still remains a challenge. When I do get past I can usually get to knee ride against other white belts of similar size. Larger white belts and advanced students generally don't tolerate that kind of crap for long and I end up getting reversed or put back in guard.

Personally I need to work on sweeps, getting off my back which is obviously one of my weaker points. Even though I'd like to be working on subs, I need to get better at mount escapes and passing the guard. That's pretty vague, but I'm getting caught a lot in the mount with my partners feet under my butt which is pretty hard to sweep.

Right now with my BJJ game (gi) Im working my cross side control as well. I've developed a good guard pass, so I figure next thing on the list is being able to end the fight from cross side. Right now, I usually look for the armlock from cross side (Hughes vs Pierre) or knee in the belly/mount. Im also trying to work on my collar chokes, since they're used from alot of positions (but my thumb is fucked up at the moment, making this rather difficult).

As far as no gi is concerned, Im very much working guillotine, kimura, and omoplata. omoplata is good, but i need to look for it more often. I've got a very good triangle and armlock, and fortunately I train with 2 wrestlers who've got GREAT submission defense from inside the guard. Im much more successful with submissions in no gi (from the guard anyways) and think the addition of these 3 moves would enhance my guard game even more.

Im also working rubber guard a little more intently, and Im trying to study up on some of its techniques.

Making Rickson Gracie cry.

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Learning basic principles/methods of the art, like don't push up against a guy past your guard, or else he'll armbar you.

More sweeps and reversals to better positions.
I have some 'anti-grapple' down, and I want to perfect it in a MMA environment.

My movement on top is better, my defense on the bottom is getting better.
I'm moving a lot better now, instead of waiting and going duh duh duh and getting my guard passed. I don't know how much my recovery from past injuries has helped, but it has helped a lot.


You don't do BJJ.


EDIT: LOL don't even say that ****. It makes me sick.

I need to work on keeping people from passing my guard. At the moment its laughably easy to get past me.

Subs from guard

Note: when I say "good" I mean "good compared to three to six month white belts."

I've been working on my guard game a lot the last two months, and I've gotten pretty good at sweeps now, so now I'm going to start working on my triangle (the submission I've easily had the most success with) and omplata (the submission I've easily had the least success with, but it's just to cool to pass up).

The most awful part of my game is probably my bottom game in the side mount. I just feel lost, and I just give my opponents the mount so I can go for the Upa. If anyone can give me some tips on how to escape the side mount I'd be one happy swede.

I've also found that I've become better att getting peoples backs, so I'm going to start working on chokes from that position.

Being more aggressive when taking the back.

I have the problem of using that position to rest and wait for my opponent to make a move so I can capitalize. I always hate trying to force the position and wear myself out trying to get the sub. So now I am going to use a methodical approach to breaking them down.


Side note: I met David Myer in the weirdest way. He was going door to door signing people up for a petition back in like 1999-2000. I was wearing a BJJ tournament Tshirt when I answered the door. So he instantly started up a conversation. He said he was a blackbelt in BJJ under the Machados. I was like...uhhhh....bullshit? He was a dorky looking white guy with glasses. This was a BJJ BB? Sure enough we got to talking and it was obvious he knew what he was talking about. Showed me a few things about passing the guard, got me registered and then left. Strange how you meet people.

I need to work on smoother guard passes and keeping people in my guard.

I'd also like to learn how to keep from ending up with someone in my guard after I have their back. I often get their back and while trying to get my hooks in, somehow end up with them in MY guard.

Need to be more aggresive offensively. Need to work on subs from the mount. Besides ezekiels I usually switch out to side for attacks.
Subs and sweeps from the guard.

My positional work is decent, worked on it for awhile. Time to integrate it with attacks.

Omoplata!

I learned it the first time within the first month of training, so the whole "get the triangle/triangle attempt and transition into the omoplata from here" was amazingly confusing and daunting.

I have been pretty much afraid of it this entire time, until a few nights ago when I was like "I need to figure out whats up with this move" after looking through some stuff online, I learned it wasn't nearly as scary as my one month of training mind thought.

So after drilling it a bit on the wife, I went to class that night and was able to get it three or four times, I felt pretty excited to say the least. It still needs a ton of work, but atleast now I have an idea how to get it started and what to look for.

This in particular really helped me understand it, the angles they used in the photos are great IMO:

http://www.grapplearts.com/Omo-Plata-Technique-1.htm

Other than that I'm also really focusing on my ability to pass the guard. Being still fairly new, I'm pretty familar with defending, only problem is I very rarely land subs from the guard, so I really need to get some better technique at passing them legs and hips.

PoleFighter,
Check out one of my posts on the kesa-katame thread on a side control escape.

As far as no gi is concerned, Im very much working guillotine, kimura, and omoplata.

Exactly what I'm working on... Plus my mount escapes, as always... :P