Thoughts on polishing half-guard
Thought I'd bring up the Metamoris 3 match.
About the only copy I can find on YouTube is Eddie's breakdown on the Joe Rogan podcast. In it, we get an insight into the mental edge Eddie had once he achieved quarter guard. "I'm like 'Wow...did he just..?' 'He had no idea.'"
To bring up a point about the gi: this past Saturday, we did positional sparring from sit-up guard where the guy on the bottom had a lapel fed through the guys legs, giving him that same leverage of a deep underhook but much harder to deal with. I was feeling virtually unstoppable with that handle. I could basically fall asleep in quarter guard. Whichever way people went, I could get old-school, lockdown to old-school, dogfight, deep-half, electric clinch, you name it because the strength of the lapel just baffled them and kept me on my side.
Bringing it to no-gi, it dug into my mind to invest on always being on your side. This is cliche to say. I understand. I understand deeply. But I mean always. Not usually, not generally. It becomes an addiction. We crawl to it like a guy getting his next fix. I prefer the term 'scurry'. I also prefer the term 'swift' over 'quickly' or 'fast'. Swift just sounds smoother, more polished. So we scurry swiftly, is what I'm trying to say. Or swiftly scurry. Either one. Doesn't matter if you're left-handed or right-handed, as long as you use both. But to catch this all day erryday on a coral belt in front of a screaming crowd at a car museum means a dude has it polished to the bone. Never get cross-faced. If you do, achieve the underhook w/ the other hand. Don't let the guy get over under control and pin your chest if in your quarter guard. Don't go old-school with the wrong hand or you might get crucifixed. Have your posture to not get guillotined. High elbow underhook, head tuck mixed in with swimming to block the cross-face in a vicious cycle. Liberally kick his ass with your knee to get him off-balanced. Not accounting for offensive entries here, just ways to manage the distance and not get passed, footlocked, kimura'd, darced, Jap necktied, guillotined, or lately as has been an issue, honey-holed.
So opening a table for discussion: what inescapable, unforgivable, 'obey them or they will F**K you' principles would be representative of a professional quality half-guard? I threw out a few from my perspective. Any and all views welcome and appreciated.:)
