More Rolling, Less Thinking

11/14

I was feeling pretty good energy-wise, which was fortunate b/c it was another class of rolling. Started off with flow rolling, and I was once again amazed at how flow rolling is art that very few people are adept at. Or how much "take" there is with relatively little "give". I'm not genius at it by any means, but I think that I have a better grasp of it than most white and blue belts.

Anyway, many rounds of flow rolling, which transitioned into regular rolls. All in all, I rolled with C, James, Fernando (w), Tom, Joey, Jay, Savannah, and Sarah twice. None of the rolls felt spectacular, and overall I felt a bit off my game. Like I was winging it and making dumb mistakes. They weren't terrible rolls, but I didn't feel like I had my mojo.

We rolled for about 45min or so, and then it was KOTH. Win by mount (front) or submission. Winner stays, loser goes to the wall. I started down, and lost early on to C. We had a long back and forth roll. He had an arm-bar deep that I was able to fend off, but along the way my fingers started to hurt oddly and the second time he got the arm-bar I let him have it.

I went to the wall thinking that I was the worst pound-for-pound blue belt at the school, it was going to be another night of ego smashing, etc., etc. Got paired up with Jay and we had a lengthy roll. I finally got him in an inverted triangle and I think finished it with an arm-bar. After that, I kept my space on the mat for the remainder of the time (20min or so). Granted, I was going up against white belts and newer blue belts, but still. A couple of times I pulled off a really weird arm-bar from a mostly omoplata position. I didn't feel like it was a finishing move, but my partners said it was a legit arm-bar. I was getting arm-bars right and left, and even an omoplata.

Neck didn't bother me at all during class and is only a little stiff but not too bad a couple of hours after. Very happy that it's not going to be a lingering thing.

I feel a bit flummoxed about my game, but I think that's par for the course when I attend 5+ classes a week. I get my head too involved.