Friday Morning

I woke up, for absolutely no reason, a half hour before the alarm. This was not desired behavior, b/c it took me awhile to wind down last night, so I was cutting into my sleep as it was. Groggy this morning, but got into work by 7am.

Both Jason (b) and Dennis were out, so I was the only one of the three amigos attending today. One of the smaller classes I've been to in awhile with ~8 ppl. The request was for opening the guard, so we went over the classic knee-in-butt, surfer and standing. The surfer was crazy hard for me b/c to initiate the break by stepping my back leg up instead of turning my front leg in. Once James fixed that it went a little bit easier, but that's something I need to drill. 

Rolls with Sarah, Kayla, Ryan and Roberto. I feel like my grappling cardio is coming back, and I'm very happy for it. Still had to take a small pause here and there mid-roll, but it was unnoticeable to my rolling partners and I felt like I could be more scrambly. I decided to live dangerously and pulled Sarah into 50/50 near the end of our roll. We stalemated out, probably b/c I caught her unawares with such a bold move. :p

I don't remember much about my roll with Kayla, other than I was able to control fairly well from guard and the top position. I tried a couple of times for submissions, but was more interested in positions. 

Ryan gave me fits and was able to pass my guard, but I did better with him than I have since I've been back. Several times I was in a 93 guard (half guard variant) position and was trying to noodle my sweeps from there but couldn't hit them. It's been quite awhile since I've drilled them and he wasn't staying in one spot quite long enough for me to think it out. He's good. If he sticks with it he's going to be a beast by mid-blue belt.

First time I've rolled with Roberto. He has quite a weight advantage, so of course the goal was to keep him off the top. He was also pretty tired by the last round. I made a massive tactical error by trying to go right for a head-arm choke instead of establishing position. Tbh, I'm not entirely sure that I could have completed a head-arm choke on him anyway, as he has a pretty big frame. James was watching us off and on and I felt like I was making one blunder after another. :( 

Looking forward to teaching submissions from mount tomorrow. Collar choke, americana and arm-bar.