Didn't See that Coming

Kendra came to class today. I competed against her in a local tournament in no gi four years ago. I'm not sure, but she might have been the first woman I was able to compete against after a long string of dudes. She stuck with no gi for awhile, and then school got in the way, and now she's back and doing gi. I don't know if she is going to be training against us full time, but I hope so. She'll be a solid addition to our blue belts.

We worked L guard today. One sweep where you load them up and one where you shoot your leg behind their head. If you can't dump them over for the sweep, you can try for the inverted triangle (finally got some tips for finishing that). If that doesn't work, keep the far arm and head locked up and attack the near arm with americana, wrist-locks and a kimura.

KOTH. Oh. boy. Started off that you had to sweep or pass. Person off the wall could choose whether to start in guard or in other person's guard. I decided this was a good opportunity to work passes, so I tried and failed many, many times. It just so happened that I ended up against Dennis and Jason quite a bit. I'm was constantly stalling out mid-pass and gave up some easy sweeps. I'm not breaking grips, I'm not establishing grips of my own and I'm not moving forward. I can't be too surprised at the result. That said, I wasn't beating myself up too much about it. Just tried to focus on fundamentals and try again.

After awhile we switched the KOTH to submissions or back-mount. James is such a jerk, b/c I feel like I get close to back-mount, then he does some wizardry and I suddenly find myself fighting off a submission from a terrible bottom position. He's very good at baiting me with underhooks. Hmpf. I did better at this version of KOTH. Jason and I had what felt like an epic roll. He had me in a mounted triangle but I was able to squirm out of it somehow. He kept attacking for arm-bars and omoplatas but somehow I got out of all of it. He had been down for most of the time to this point, so he was getting a bit gassed. I had him in closed guard and was able to get an arm-drag and after some shenanigans I flattened him out and took his back. Felt like a 30min roll but was probably closer to 10min.

The final version of KOTH was the lower belt got to start on the upper belt's back and wins were by submission only. I had Van at this point. I was able to get out of back-mount, into guard, sweep, pass and was working from mount when time was called.

At the end of class, we lined up and Jason got his fourth stripe. He really deserves and I was very happy for him. Jason, Dennis and I are the stalwarts of the morning classes and have a lot in common. Much to my surprise, I got my fourth stripe too. Was shocked, as I just got my third a couple of months ago. I really, really don't feel like a 4-stripe blue belt. However, it's probably just as fruitless to worry about the advancements you want as the advancements you don't think you're ready for.