Third Stripe

10/17

Decided to a run through of one of the CF workouts for next Friday and then go to class. I could barely run during warm-ups. It was almost appallingly bad. I considered asking James if I could skip warm-ups, but once we finished running and moved to forward/backward rolls, shrimping, etc I felt much better.

We went over how to attack the turtle position. Options were getting both of their hands trapped and doing a belly down arm-bar, or getting both of their arms trapped and doing a RNC variant, or rolling them into a banana split and onto calf slicers and the ilk. Not a fan of splits or slicers.

King of the Hill, you win and stay down if you get a submission or obtain mount. I started on the wall and went against Fernando (w). We had a longish roll, but I was finally able to get him in mount. Then Savannah, who has made huge improvements in her guard passing. I eventually got her in a triangle from guard. Then a brand new guy, who was 6'4" and about as lanky as they come. I was able to keep in him in some form of guard and eventually got an arm-bar that I sortof made up on the fly. Another roll with Fernando where I got him with a choke from bottom side-control...bazinga! Might have been another roll with Savannah in there, and then James came over and decided to knock me off my perch. He let me work for a bit, and then finally took mount. I didn't feel that I did especially well, but I seemed to be doing a good job of defending chokes.

After class, Jesse, a newish white belt, received his second stripe. He's a big dude, so I didn't feel comfortable doing my normal hip toss. Instead I went for what was probably a really ugly ankle pick. After Jesse, James announced that I was getting my 3rd stripe. I was surprised, especially since he said some very nice things about my game to accompany it. Kelly was the only other higher ranking belt and did a hip toss where he kept me on his hip while he rotated around for awhile. Funny and cool. It feels good to be acknowledged in the form of promotions, even minor stripe promotions. I can't help but feel that I'm not at that level but I trust my coach, and if he says I'm there I'm not going to argue with him.

But now I have a very white stripe amid my two worn stripes. :( New dude needs to start blending in, and fast.