Thursday Night

I'm not 100%, but I'm definitely getting better every day. I felt more competitive in rolls, and breathing wasn't much of an issue.

I'm getting asked on a daily basis when I'm going to get my purple belt. Walter isn't scheduled to come out as far as I know, but apparently everyone is in a big rush for the blue belts to get promoted. Not a one of us seems to be in the same hurry that everyone else is.

Russ taught tonight, and what else but guard passing. Starting from his control center, we went over what to do if they put a foot on your hip to create distance or if they start to establish DLR. After that we combined them into a super pass. Kelly went over a rolling back attack from the torreando pass.

Rolls with Tien, Russ, Grant, Clayton and Aaron. Tien seemed to be rolling controlled, but I couldn't tell if he was giving me positions or not. I'm fairly certain that I was getting there legitimately, but sometimes it's hard to tell. I worked primarily from guard, although I did pass his guard once or twice.

Russ said something about going light, and then he proceeded to not go very light. I think he was a bit on edge as we had a visiting brown belt and purple belt MMA guys. I don't remember much about the roll, other than he was kicking my ass.

Grant and I had a good roll, and again I couldn't tell if I was getting to positions legitimately or not. I think he was taking it relatively easy b/c he has a fight next week. I did get him with a head and arm triangle, and when he used the telephone defense I finished with an americana. I did quite a bit more guard passing with him. James had shown up around this time, and to be honest, we were both paying more attention to James and the visiting brown belt than we were with each other.

Clayton pretty much wrecked me. Both in my guard and in his guard. He'd get a death grip on one of my sleeves when I was trying to pass and there wasn't anything I could do. I tried to create distance which was probably the wrong answer when I couldn't break the grip. I couldn't get his legs where I wanted them though, so I didn't feel like I had many options. 

I went pretty light with Aaron and worked from several different positions. I was in his guard and he had the start of an omoplata, which I let him keep and rotate through. He got ahold of my far arm and was able to get a good finish. Was very proud of him for the progress that he's made over how ever many months he's been coming.