Drill, Drill, Drill

11/9

Teammates were competing this weekend, so it was just Russ and I. There were plenty who weren't competing though, but no one shows up on Saturdays if James isn't there. I don't understand the philosophy behind this, b/c open mat is awesome. Apparently no one else agrees with this theory. In any case, Russ wanted to work on his purple belt test, so I was his dummy for an hour. Our purple belt test test requires five techniques from each position:

Subs from mount
Transitions to mount
Subs from back-mount
Back-mount escapes
Transitions to back-mount
KOB subs
KOB escapes
Top side-control subs
Bottom side-control subs
Bottom side-control escapes
Top half-guard subs
Top half-guard passes
Bottom half-guard subs
Bottom half-guard sweeps
Breaking open a closed guard
Passing guard
Guard sweeps
Guard subs
Turtle escapes
Turtle subs
Takedowns
Takedown defense

Of course some are easier than others to come up with techniques. The bottom half-guard subs and bottom side-control subs are some of the most sketchy. We rarely work bottom half guard subs, which is probably why.

We rolled for 15-20min after an hour of drilling. It was good back and forth, although I could tell that he was giving up some positions so that he could work on specific techniques from bottom positions.

I need to be more active when I'm in bottom positions but I can't quite figure out how to make myself do it. I'm a little too relaxed when I'm in inferior positions and waiting for my opponent to move so that I can capitalize on their change of position. I can't force things, but I'm a little too chill.