Down a Shoulder and a Lung

Went wall-climbing on Wednesday night after class. Felt fine that night (albiet tired). Thursday my right shoulder was pretty sore, but I didn't think it would inhibit me from rolling on Friday. Went to bed early on Thursday night, but was awake most of the night with shoulder discomfort. Friday morning and realized that I wasn't going to be doing much of anything. Shoulder was worse than Thursday, and ROM was limited when moving my arm across my body. I was worried that it was something serious like a tear, but after ice and Advil on Friday it feels much better today. It's not a 100%, but nowhere near the discomfort of Friday and most of the ROM is back when moving it to the left. 

I seem to have bronchitis or a similar itis deep in my lungs, the likely result of whatever sickness I had earlier in the month that hasn't cleared out yet. Feeling run-down and pretty meh. So between my shoulder and my lungs, I'm doing a whole lot of nothing this weekend. Dammit.

FABULOUS

Biggish morning class, around 12 people.  Spring Break, apparently.

Similar to Monday, we went over gi d'arces, this time from guard. Collar choke with bottom of lapel, gi d'arce, arm-drag if they defend with the "telephone" choke defense and an arm-drag to arm-bar. I felt good with all of the techniques and felt like I belonged in my rank. Drilled with Sarah, who's an awesome drill partner.

During the demo of taking the back, James showed the motion w/o a demo dummy and as he pushed his chest forward and planted his hand on the mat, he said "FABULOUS" in a high-pitched voice to give the notion of a model preening for the camera. He got some teasing about thinking that in his head each time he arm-drags, and I daresay that my arm-drag technique might improve for this very reason.

Rolls with Sarah, Jason (p), Jason (b) and Nate. I had to sit out the last round b/c I didn't grab a partner fast enough and even though there were even numbers, one of the older guys sat out.

I did well with Sarah, though she wasn't feeling so hot after a late night. Was able to pass and got a choke from half guard that I've tried a couple of times before to no avail.

Jason (p) decided to run all of his leg-lock nonsense on me. All kinds of weird entries to knee-bars and calf slicers. Each roll starts off about the same. He lets me get grips and pull him into my guard, and then he shuts down my attempts to sweep. When I invariably do something wrong, he uses the opportunity to pass and then submit me. If he starts in guard, he immediately sweeps me, passes and submits. I should be learning something from this, but apparently I'm not.

Had a surprisingly good roll with Jason (b). Passed his guard twice, which is unheard of for me. He was able to get top position too, but I did a fairly good job of not letting my knees get collapsed.

Nate and I had a pretty back and forth roll. He passed my guard and I came close to taking his back but only ended up regaining guard. He did a rolling back attack towards the end, but I managed to fend off the hooks.

Monday Morning

Was more tired than usual last night and felt a bit groggy this morning, but ended up feeling great for class.

Today was the gi d'arce from KOB, gi d'arce from side-control (arm trapped), rolling d'arce and a series where you go from the trapped arm to sliding over their body and either a straight arm-bar or rolling them and trying another straight arm-bar or shoulder lock. 

I kept up with my hand-written and mind-mapped notes for every class last week. It's tough to maintain, especially when I do class on consecutive work days. I really want to keep at this for a good 3-4mos stretch and see what comes of it. If nothing else, it makes it really easy to come up with a plan for drilling on Sunday.

Rolls with Sarah, Blaine, Jason (b), Tyrone and Kelly. I had pretty evenly matched rolls with everyone today, even Kelly. This is my sixth consecutive day of class, so that might have something to do with it. I got to everyone's back today, which has to be some kind of record for me. I didn't finish any submissions, but I was really happy to get an advantageous position. It wasn't all roses, as I spent a fair amount of time in bottom side-control.

Jason did a knee cut through pass several times, and the last gasp defense of stiff-arming their collar to create space wasn't working b/c he sank his weight down and his hips were in front of mine. I either need to try a different tactic (tho I have no idea what) or maybe I need to try to shrimp back? Not sure if I could shrimp back and keep the leg trapped. I feel like scooping underneath him should be effective, but not if I don't have the underhook and/or near side arm free.

Advanced Class

I had a clear plan on what I wanted to accomplish in the advanced class today. However, I bit off more than I could chew, and probably should have stuck with drilling one or two series of techniques instead of trying to cram in four.

It was still well worth the while, especially the knee cut pass defenses. Guys were doing it "wrong", which gave me an opportunity to identify areas in which I could also counter when it's done not the way that I expect it. 

Rolled with James, Keith, Russ, Jason (p) and Dennis (everyone who showed up today). I don't remember much about the rolls, other than a general sense of James letting me work a little bit. Our roll was ok, but not amazing, probably b/c I was trying to think too much. 

Jason (p) smashed me and was in top side control most of the time. Subbed me with something, I don't remember what. I was able to hold off another sub for the last 30sec of round.

Russ wasn't smashing as hard as Thursday, but otherwise I have no recollection of how our roll went. 

Keith and I were pretty back and forth. I kept him in my guard for the most part.

I tried the inverted triangle on Dennis but once again couldn't noodle the angle for the finish. 

I felt great before class and thought that it would translate to rolling well, but it was a pretty so-so day for rolling.

Saturday

Decent sized class for Saturday. Apparently a good portion of the team was out in the midst of shenanigans last night (I was invited but declined), which may have had something to do with the sparse attendance of upper belts.

DLR sweeps, all of which I really enjoyed. The Baby Bolo (as James called it), a lapel sweep and a kimura sweep. Drilled with Clayton, which was awesome b/c he was focused and knew what he was doing. 

Rolled with Clayton, Sol, Nick, Opal. Clayton and I had a fairly competitive roll. He had the upper hand for the most part, but I was able to regain guard several times and he wasn't able to finish any submissions. I couldn't quite tell if he was letting me regain guard or not. I don't think so.

Sol crushed me good. Finished with a N/S choke at one point. He said later that I was doing well, but I feel like once he gets in top side-control the story pretty much writes itself each time. Doesn't matter if he's in cross-face or kesa gatame. 

Nick wanted to be filmed while we rolled to find holes in his game, so I obliged. I moved to top position several times, then let him work from a top side-control and an attempted transition to mount. He pressured much, much better today. I think part of it was due to the fact that he was being taped and felt like it was added pressure. Whatever the reason, it was a much better roll from him than usual.

Opal spent most of the round trying to pass my guard. She did a good job of not letting me work an open guard game. I tried several times to arm-drag and wasn't finding success there either. I didn't want to submit from guard, but was focused more on sweeping.

Looking forward to drilling tomorrow. Hopefully more than just Dennis and I show up. :p

Teaching Basics Starting in April!

First of all, a big DAMN YOU, DUKE for losing on their first day in the tournament. I didn't do a bracket this year, but it cuts me to the quick when Duke goes out in the couple of rounds.

Opening the guard from standing (both feet forward), preventing the arm-bar if you get dumped, and opening the guard using the surfer stance. Drilled with Sarah and got lots of good reps in.

Rolled with Sarah, Jordan, Savannah and Nate. Sarah tried to get to 50/50, I was able to hold her off and get a triangle. We had an even match, a lot of passing and sweeping between the two of us. I think I got a triangle and a guillotine type choke from top half guard.

I did a much better job of keeping Savannah at bay. I used one of the techniques that we drilled earlier in the week to regain guard in the midst of a knee slice. It worked amazingly well. I tried a couple of the other techniques that we had drilled but either couldn't get the position or was timing them badly. Had her in a triangle but couldn't quite finish. Overall I controlled much better than I have been of late.

Jordan was working a far amount in my guard. I submitted him a couple of times and then did catch and release. He would get a death grip on my lapel from inside my guard and that led to problems for him. I gave him some advice after the roll of not committing so much to that grip.

I did fairly well with Nate, but I still got down on myself after the roll b/c he was able to pass my guard. I passed his a couple of times and I may or may not have gotten a sweep. I was really frustrated with myself at one point b/c he was in top half guard facing away from me, and I knew exactly what to do but I could NOT move him. So I must have been doing it wrong, but I'm not sure how. Now that I think about it...maybe I wasn't using the right technique for the situation....damn.

After class Sarah and I rolled for awhile. Lots of sweeps and passes, no submissions.

We had talked about it briefly earlier in the week, but James announced to the class today that I'm going to be teaching a basics class on Saturday mornings, starting in April. I'm both excited and really nervous that I'm going to screw it up.
 

Ghostbusters

On a whim, decided to hit the Thursday night class since I had the evening free. It looked like sparse attendance, but by the time class finally started, we had about 15 ppl. Russ was teaching passing the half guard into mount.

The techniques seemed to go well, and Russ did a progression from half guard pass into the brabo choke and other nasties. 

Rolled with Savannah, Keith, Mark, Russ and after class with Manny. Savannah is getting really, really good with passing. I was too busy trying to recall what we went over on Wednesday for the knee slice defense and ended up getting passed. She got a triangle at one point but neglected to cut an angle and I had too much of my shoulder. I eventually got out of that. She's pretty damned good.

Keith and I had a pretty even battle. He was passing my guard too, although I was able to fend him off a bit better. Very back and forth roll though.

Mark is a newish white belt high school kid who isn't quite a spaz but just doesn't know enough to mount much of an offense. I let him work some different positions, and couldn't help but laugh to myself as he made a kindof high pitched grunting noise (is that even possible?) while trying to choke me without being anywhere near my carotids. 

Russ kicked my ass. Sweep or pass...I don't remember which. In any case, he quickly moved into a dominant position and then proceeded to choke me out. It was a span of several minutes, and towards the end he was kindof grinding my face to set the choke. If it was anyone but Russ I would have considered it a d-bag move. As it was, I was frustrated that I get manhandled on the regular. He apologized a dozen afterwards for muscling the choke.

Manny and I had a pretty even roll after class. He passed my guard, but I was able to use the threat of a triangle from bottom side control to regain guard and eventually an omoplata. He rolled out of the omoplata and while I was able to keep his arm up after the roll to prevent him from turning into me, he had a sleeve grip on my other arm which kept me from moving into side-control. I had been trying to turn into his hips, but I switched and turned towards his head. I was almost set up for a mounted triangle, but he dumped me and I set up the triangle from guard. It was relatively close, but I couldn't finish. I noticed when I was in bottom side control that he had Ghostbuster drawers peeking out from his gi pants. It's hard to take that seriously.

Was feeling a little frustrated when I left, but ok. Class again tomorrow morning, back on the horse and all that.

Wednesday Morning

Smallish class today, around ~10 ppl. I'm mostly over my cold, funk and injuries. Knee and back didn't bother me at all during drills/rolls. I've decided that if running is involved in warm-ups for the next week or so I'm going to go in a corner and do something. Running is the only thing that seems to start the aggravation. Once it's aggravated, I can't trust it. If I don't aggravate it with running, it's fine. We didn't run during warm-ups today, which worked out perfect.

Defending the knee slice pass, going in descending order of advantageous to disadvantageous positions. I really, really like how James does these progressions. We have several people that use the knee slice almost exclusively, so it would behoove me to drill these on Sunday. 

Rolls with Sarah, Dennis, Jason (b), Tyrone, Ryan and Nate. I did great against Sarah, although during one of my passes I couldn't tell if I was using my weight or strength. At one point I somehow transitioned from a d'arce to a triangle and finished the triangle. Also had a RNC as time was running out. 

Dennis passed my guard but I was able to get his back a couple of times. At one point he went for a rolling back attack from top half guard but didn't have my feet quite right and I was able to scramble to his back.

Jason pummeled me. Swept me with ease multiple times, got to KOB and finished a collar choke. Got something else that I don't remember. His open guard is very good and he uses his long limbs to his advantage. 

I had Tyrone in some weird spots today. At one point I had both of his arms trapped to one side and managed to finish a triangle that way. I threatened omoplatas and arm-bars from guard numerous times. 

Ryan did well today. I did manage to take his back and finished a bow and arrow by being very patient once I secured it and keeping a steady pull on the collar.

I didn't get a full roll with Nate b/c I had to band-aid my finger before we started. I did manage to pass his guard using the dive-under DLR pass that I've been practicing, so that was pretty gratifying. 

Funk

I know it's just a temporary thing, but I feel like I'm in one of those funks where everyone is passing me by. Specifically, my female teammates. It likely stems from the fact that my last big accomplishment was a year ago. My teammates are out there competing and even if they aren't doing well, they're trying. One of them went through competitive white belt brackets at NAGA to win gold and silver in gi and no gi. The other competed at NAGA as well. She's in California for work and was able to stop in and train at Atos, and got to roll with Andre and/or Keenan tonight. Earlier this month she received a sponsorship and got a free gi as part of the deal.

To be clear, I really like my teammates and am so stoked for them when they do well. They are my friends and I want them to succeed. It's not so much jealousy as a worry that in the process of them gaining respect of our teammates that I will lose respect. In hindsight, that's a ridiculous notion, but it's there, nonetheless. I had to remind myself earlier today during class that we all walk our own paths. I cannot concern myself with how others choose to walk this path. I can't worry about relative progress. If someone progresses at a faster rate than I do, it's not a negative reflection on me. It doesn't detract from my own forward motion. It's a lot easier to say that crap than to actually believe it. I'm being smart with my money by not spending close to $200 to travel and compete at regional tournaments. I have to be smart with my money to stay on top of the mortgage. It's really ok if I don't compete (and other people do).

Part of my malaise stems from my recent rash of physical issues (flu, back, knee, cold) and from an impending belt promotion. It's easier (not easy) on the ego if a white belt gives you loads of trouble if you're a blue belt. If you're a purple belt, that's going to be much more difficult pill to swallow. My concern is that I'm going to be so laid back about it to protect my ego ("Yeah, I'm just going to chill in side-control while this white-belt manhandles me b/c my ego is so no involved") that I'm going to go too far in the other direction. I doubt that will happen, but I do worry about turning into an apathetic fish.

Most of this will probably pass once my physical ailments have passed and I feel like I can roll to the best of my ability. Just one of those nights.

Monday Meh

Good sized morning class with most of the regulars except Dennis.

My back and knee felt fine before class, but knee started feeling pretty dodgy during the warm-up runs. Moral of the story is not to run for the next couple of weeks. I really, really hope I don't have some CL shenanigans.

Passing the seated guard today. I was able to sit and take good notes after class, and am going to try to be more diligent about getting them typed up and into my system.

Step in pass, step in to knee slice, step in to knee slice to backstep, step in to knee slice to back step to knee slice again. A great series on handling various potential responses from your opponent.

Rolls with Sol, Sarah, Jason (b), Kayla and Blaine. I spent the entirety of the roll with Sol in bottom side. No surprise there. Sarah and I had a pretty good back and forth. I was in bottom side quite a bit with Jason, Kayla and Blaine. I was concerned about re-aggravating my back and my knee seemed fine during rolling but I couldn't make myself commit to any movements with it. All in all a pretty crappy day of rolling. I'm still getting over the cold that I picked up on Friday, but I don't think it contributed to today's woes.

I'm not going to let it get to my head. 

Saturday & Sunday

I was slated to teach Saturday while the team was at NAGA, but Kelly showed up so he taught. Low turnout (no surprise). All fairly new white belts, Kelly, Keith and I. Kelly went over some leg lasso techniques, one of which I liked quite a bit and am going to try this week.

Rolled with Joyce, Jacob, Nick and Kelly. Nick was driving me crazy b/c he is soooo passive. He wouldn't try to get to a top position at all, even though I was practically trying to pull him into top side-control. He was also keep death grips long past the point of them being useful. He's very new and I shouldn't be too surprised, but I can't think of anyone who has come in with such a passive approach who has stuck around.

Dennis was the only other person to show up for the Sunday class. I've said it a hundred times, but I still can't get over how many people bail on classes when James isn't there. Dennis and I drilled for close to an hour. We started with transitioning between DLR -> RDLR and back again with the other person standing and giving about 60% effort trying to pass. The sickle sweep from RDLR finally started to make some sense to me yesterday as a result. After that we worked leg lasso and I finished with a round on looking at submissions from top side control. One of them that I'm going to try this week is a rolling kimura. We spent the last 10min or so rolling. I did pretty well, taking his back several times and almost finishing that damned inverted triangle from bottom side.

If It's Not One Thing, It's Another

Knee felt "kinda funny" off and on today, and I considered not going to class. But since I had convinced myself that it wasn't serious, I figured that I'd give class a try. So off I went, and turns out that my knee was fine. My back, OTOH, really hindered me during rolls tonight. I'm closing in on 40y/o, but really?

Big class, close to 20 ppl. James did rotations of 2min drills. Sweeps, passes, subs from KOB, subs from mount and take-downs. Worked with Rachael, and my back was ok until she hit her first takedown. She told me what she was going to do, but I somehow failed to prepare my body for it and when I hit the mat my back was pissed. Ever since then it was kinda not ok. Getting out of side-control was near impossible. Ugh. 

We did KOTH with the competitors staying down. I had a match with Savannah first which last a fair amount of time until she got mount. I just could not use my back to get leverage to escape. A roll with James that was fun and ended up in a weird spot until he choked me with a don't-remember-what. I think I had a roll with Rachael but don't remember anything about it. A roll with Matt and one with Julio. I hated being so ineffective.

After class we spent some time with James going over the flower sweep. The humor in the room also went straight into the gutter, which made it difficult to focus on technique b/c the banter was so off-color. It was not offensive in the least, but it also certainly wasn't for children or those with gentle constitutions. It was good fun, and really made me realize how much I appreciate having a group of people that I'm so at ease with in my life.

Nando flew to California for Pans today and the Portland competitors are traveling on Friday morning to NAGA. I'm teaching class on Saturday.

No Pop, No Problem...Right?

It was my second no gi class in about three months. James is having Kelly teach the no gi classes, so we were treated to numerous rolling back attacks. Everything was going swimmingly until Kelly adjusted how Rachael was rolling. As she completed the roll, it felt like my knee was hyper-extending. But not like a knee-bar hyper-extension. I'm not sure how to describe it, other than I had a brief "oh shit" moment. The bottom center of my kneecap started feeling funny, and I sat out a roll b/c every so often when I walked around it felt weak and weird. I had full range of movement, no swelling and otherwise it seemed fine. Just odd twinges. I'm going to ice it tonight and hope that Rachael was kidding about the ACL being located there. I don't think there was a pop and am going to hope for the best.

Like a complete idiot I decided to roll after sitting out a round. I rolled with Rachael three or four times, then with Mike after class, and again with Rachael. The rolls after class were fairly long, probably 15-20min each. Mike is a visiting purple and is the one that helped me teach leg drags a couple of Saturdays ago b/c I was doing it wrong. It's the first chance I've had to roll with him, and I'm a little bummed that it was no gi b/c I'm still pretty clueless without grips. I don't flail around, but how to utilize my open guard game is pretty much a mystery. Aside from that though, I'm pretty happy with how I rolled tonight. I went over the NAGA gi and no gi point system with Rachael, and called out points as we rolled. She got me with several submissions, including foot locks and a guillotine. I got a kimura and that was pretty much it. My knee didn't bother me at all, although I did feel the twinge again during one of the foot locks.

Night Moves

First time I've done an evening class in awhile. I had more energy at work than normal b/c I wasn't tuckered out from the morning class, and tons of energy for the night class. Good thing, b/c I wanted to bring my A game for our competitors.

James announced that we were going to be training wrist locks, which resulted in groans from around the room. Even when you are really, really careful, wrist locks are dicey. Especially the ones where you're using your torso to apply the pressure. Wrist lock from standing, wrist lock from a standing arm-out guillotine, wrist lock from top side control if they are in the prayer position, and wrist lock from top side if they try to get an underhook on far side. 

For rolling it was KOTH (mount or sub wins), with competitors staying on the mat win or lose. I envied them a bit, especially since we had five or six people on the wall at all times. It was close to a five minute wait for another match for people on the wall. I started with Rachael, and we went at it for awhile before I finally got to mount. After that it was Nando, who was close on a choke but eventually made it to mount. He's been ezekieling the crap out of me lately. I need to figure out why that's happening. Part of it is due to the fact that he's getting to top positions and I have no frame. After that it was another short roll with Rachael before time was called.

As we were closing out class, I asked Savannah if she wanted to roll. But then Sarah came over and wanted to roll, and Savannah was busy, so Sarah and I had a 5-8min roll. I think I eventually got her with a bow and arrow. Rachael was hovering nearby, and as soon as Sarah and I were done she jumped in. Savannah was working with James, so I figured another 5-10min with Rachael and then I'd catch Savannah. Not so much. Rachael and I rolled for at least 20min. I was in a dominate position for the most part, taking her back repeatedly but not able to finish a submission. After awhile she escaped to turtle, then was in my guard, and then passed. She worked top side-control for awhile, and came very close on her americana attempts but didn't quite have the necessary leverage. James gave me a helpful tip for escape as he walked by which enabled me to pop out. 

By that time Savannah had left, so I'll have to catch her tomorrow. I felt strong and good tonight. My back didn't bother me at all while rolling. I'm icing it now, but I think the worst of it is happily behind me (no pun intended). I wish I was competing this weekend. :(

Advanced Class

I spent almost the entire class working on a 93 guard sweep where you get an underhook, bury your head into their opposite hip and underhook the leg. You can then either kneebar from there (if you have ANY concept of where their knee is, which I don't), sweep to either side or take the back if they are posting out during the sweep. I started with James, which was excellent b/c he gave me some tips on straightening the leg and finding the knee. Even if I can't find the kneecap, if I can straighten the leg the sweep is much more likely to occur. This seemed to work fairly well on everyone except for Jason (p), who wouldn't let me have the underhook with the arm nor get under his leg. The moral of the story is abandon it in time before they can fish for a cross-face or something worse.

Flow rolled with Manny, then regular rolls with Dennis, Nando and Jason (p). Nothing extraordinary during any of the rolls. I tried to work the dive-under DLR pass on Dennis but I couldn't get under his hips so he was able to turn into me. I think I eventually got to his back and/or top position. Nando controlled most of our roll and was definitely in tournament mode. Jason was pretty crushing, though I was able to fend off submissions longer than usual. 

Back is tight after class, but hindered me very little during.

Saturday Class

I had quite the internal debate about whether I should go to the Friday class or not. As I was walking out the door to work without my bag, the dialog continued, but common sense finally won out and I didn't go.

My back was about 85% ok for Saturday. The only movement I couldn't do well was bridging to the right from bottom-side control. Other than that, it didn't bother me much during rolling. A few twinges here and there, but it wasn't inhibiting my movement as much as Wednesday.

We did take-downs, which concerned me at first but they were trips instead of throws. I'm pretty sure a session of hip throws would've made me cry a bit. Trips didn't bother me at all. We did a couple of variations of Russian Ties. 

Rolled with Rachael, Tyrone, Sol and Manny. Another roll with Rachael after class. I did much better than I thought I would. I had dominate rolls with Rachael and Tyrone. Sol was on top but I did better than usual at reguarding and staving off his passes. Manny seemed to be going at about 70% intensity, as he was just hanging out in a combat stance and was allowing me to get DLR more than he normally would.

I'm going to go to night classes instead of day classes next week to help Rachael prepare for NAGA and Nando prepare for Pans. 

Give it a Rest

I didn't go to class on Monday to give my back a rest. I should have stayed away today as well, but it seemed about 90% this morning and I thought that would be good enough. I started stretching right before class started and realized that it wasn't as good as I thought. Being on my back and extending my legs was ok, but being on one side or the other and trying to get any leg extension if someone was pressuring me was not happening. 

What do you suppose the technique of the day was? Defending RDLR inversion. *facepalm*  Doing the defensive technique was fine for me. The problem was setting up the inversion for my partner. It didn't feel bad enough for me to sit out entirely, but it was probably dumb to stay. I decided to compound my poor decision-making by rolling, because it was feeling a bit better than before class started. 

Rolled with Kayla, Nate, Tyrone and Antone. It became apparent early in my first roll that I wasn't going to be very effective. I was in bottom side for the majority of all the rolls except for with Antone, who decided to hang out in mount for awhile. Scrambling wasn't going to happen and even sitting up was dicey.

On top of a sketchy back, I'm now on the fence about NAGA. My dog has a largish bump on her belly that might be a lump of fat or something more serious. It cost me a fair amount to take her in and have tests run on it. If they confirm that it's just fat and not really a problem then I'll probably do NAGA. If it's cancer or something else that requires surgery (and subsequently a lot of $$) then I won't be doing any out-of-state tournaments for awhile. 

Advanced Class

I considered not going to give my back a rest, but as soon I decided not to go I felt super antsy and had to get out of the house. So I went.

Only Russ and Dennis showed up (it's snowing like a beast and James is still out of town), so we drilled for over an hour and then called it quits. I had intended to work this pendulum sweep from Jason Scully, but my back was having none of it. I did the sweep from lasso guard, sweep from 93 guard (that didn't feel very good either) and Antone's pass from Friday. Also worked on the arm-drag both sides of a closed guard. All of them simple movements that didn't seem to hurt. 

Am about 90% sure that I'll be doing NAGA in Oregon in a couple of weeks. I have the $$, just need to make sure that someone can watch the dog. Will be doing gi and no gi, so hoping that I can get to a few no gi classes so that I'm not such a fish out of water.

Teaching

Back felt better than yesterday, but still not right. I arrived early and it looked like it was just going to be a couple of newish white belts. That was fine with me, as I didn't relish the thought of teaching a big class. I was hoping a higher belt would show up to teach, but no. Just a lot more white belts, a couple of blues and a visiting purple from Maryland. I couldn't very well ask him to teach, so...Damn. I considered just making it an open mat, but there were a couple of very new white belts (father and daughter) and I didn't think an hour and a half of rolling would be a good idea.

I had decided ahead of time that I was going to show DLR passes b/c I was most comfortable with those. I started off showing how to pop the hook, and then the leg drag. But I didn't do an actual leg drag, because I'm an idiot. Instead of dragging the leg across the hip, I was sinking down on top of the shin. It would still sortof work, but it was wrong. All I can say is brain fart, and I haven't drilled that particular move in a few weeks. As I was walking around, the purple belt was helping a couple of the guys by doing an actual leg drag. I asked him to show the entire class, b/c it was way better than what I was showing. Ugh.

I got it together though after that and showed the dive under pass, which went much better. I did the tripod sweep after that b/c I wanted to pick something relatively simple for the white belts. 

Rolling at the end. I sat out the first round, then easy rolls with Nick, Sam (w), Ryan and Ian. My back did ok during rolls, but there was a fair amount grimacing on my part. I wasn't explosive at all and played a very defensive game with Ryan and Ian. I did manage to get to their backs a couple of times, but spent a fair amount of time in my favorite place, bottom side-control. 

So after that little foray into teaching, I'm not so sure that teaching a basics class is a good idea. I felt deeply unqualified today.