Mon Night

Got to class early for some Rachael happy fun roll time. Reffed a kids match before the roll. Feeling a bit more comfortable than this morning.

Rachael had a suffocating top side-control. I spent some time in top position and trying to threaten something from guard, but her top side-control is just awful.

Same technique as this morning, so it was nice to go over that again. I tried it a couple of times when rolling with Rachael before class but couldn't pull it off. I don't think I trapped the leg. Or something.

Roll with Rachael after technique. Everything was fine until the last 30sec when she went pretty hard for a toe hold. I made a rather loud and alarming noise b/c I don't mess around with any sort of foot submission and I'm rather terrified of getting my foot mangled.

I sat out for a couple of rounds and reffed more matches. Getting more comfortable with it over time. A round with Missy, then an untimed round with Dennis after class. We traded positions but no submissions. 

Reffing is Harder than it Looks

I was stiff after class yesterday afternoon and stiff this morning. I had to stretch a bit before bed b/c I was mildly uncomfortable enough to bother my sleep. Don't know what I did to cause it, unless it was getting rolled a lot with James' new sweep.

Today we did open guard drills and then worked the new sweep. I was fairly comfortable with it, especially on a standing opponent. Less so if they are doing the knee cut through b/c it leaves your far arm exposed. Also... it's easy enough for them to backstep. But it's still better than being passed.

Rolled with Savannah and Julio, then James had me ref his rolls against Nate and Jordan. I started standing with Savannah and did a decent job of pulling guard. She got a pass, I got a sweep. I'm being mindful of points throughout the entirety of rolls now. I tried the new sweep and of course she back-stepped. She tried it too and I was able to do something to either pass or at least shut down the sweep.

Julio was all beast mode today. Used technique but also a fair amount of strength to wrench my arms around. He had top control the entire time and got several subs. At one point when he was crushing me he said "I'm a bully". Well, no kidding bud.

I thought that I've watched enough scored matches that reffing would come easy to me. Um, no. I'm glad that James is having me ref some matches before Saturday b/c I'd probably have a super rough start to my day otherwise. I still might, but this practice will hopefully help me have a less rough start to my day. 

After class I rolled with Jason S. and Blaine. My goal with Jason again was to not let him sweep me. I was able to get close on a pass and turned it into an almost back-mount with an almost bow and arrow. I had the bow and arrow as tight as I could get it without my legs being in quite the right spot, but it wasn't enough. He was able to escape and he ended up passing my guard. Another point I passed his guard but had my far arm trapped between his legs. He was trying to set up a triangle and clocked me hard in the nose. I decided that would be a good point to stop the roll.

I had Blaine's back for a bit, lost it and he was able to pass on hastily thrown up arm-bar. I spent some time in bottom side-control, then some really uncomfortable time in a north/south choke that he wasn't able to finish. Waited that one out, got back to guard, then we called it.

Advanced

I decided to address my issues with transitioning open guards and sweeps. Only four of us, but at least it was an even number so that no one had to sit out. 

My first roll was with Antone, and I came close to getting an arm-bar while he was busy spinning and inverting. If I'd kept everything tighter I might have been able to finish, but I was too loosey goosey. I almost caught James in a straight arm-bar, which would have been amazing on several different levels. At the very least, I was able to use it to complete a sweep. I didn't almost catch Kelly in anything. :p Kelly tried for a baratoplata that I was able to defend, but I then found myself in a tight triangle. I was able to posture for a bit, but then I was rolled into a mounted triangle. I defended that for awhile, but couldn't get him knocked back down and tapped.

Sarah came in after class so I rolled with her two or three times. I turned it up during our final roll, with a goal of staying in complete control the entire round.

Saturday Fundies and Nooner

People are soooooo quiet in my class, it's a little unnerving at times. But they keep coming, so I guess they like it. Changed my format a bit and focused solely on sweeps instead of the hip-bump/kimura/guillotine combo. I realized later that I wish I would have done a slightly different set of sweeps, but not a big deal.

Sarah was able to come to class today (finally!). She was my demo dummy for the Fundamentals portion. 

James ran the noon class like the advanced class. I didn't have anything in mind to drill, so spent one round working transitions between DLR, tripod sweep, sickle sweep, baby bolo and DLR back-take. Spent another round drilling Moura guard. Another on passes. Another on submission defense. Fairly well-rounded. 

Rolled with Sarah, Nick (twice), Clayton, Eric and Savannah. Overall I was fairly pleased with my rolling. I've been trying over the past week to really make a push in the last 30 secs. If I have guard, I go for a sweep or sub. If I'm in someone's guard, I try hard to finish the pass. I gave up some points to Clayton at the end for an ill advised arm-bar attempt. Otherwise I seemed to get the points when I wanted them. 

My decision making in open guard is pretty rocky. As much as I've been working on it, I still have a lot of blind spots and indecision. Drilling transitions between positions and having at least one option from everywhere might be a good idea for tomorrow.

Fri Morn

Mount submission escapes on the docket for today. Excellent!

Arm-bar escape by gripping your own lapel with your trapped arm, pushing the leg on your face off while you bridge back, staying heavy on that leg as you continue to work your way back, then thread leg through and belly down to end up in their guard.

Americana escape by bridging and pushing their elbow up and out, then trap their arm and roll.

Ezekiel escape by punching through opening of their choking arm and past their face. Bridge to same side, then over-wrap their choking arm, trap and roll.

Rolls with Antone (yay!), Chris, Savannah, Jason S.

I forget how smooth Antone's movement is until I roll with him. He just floats on top and never lets you get comfortable when he's on the bottom (which for me is only when he's inverted). He got me with a kimura/monoplata from technical mount.

Chris was going pretty tough today, so his back must be feeling better. He got me in an arm-bar from mount b/c I was being lazy and left it out.

Savannah passed my guard, but I eventually reguarded, swept and passed her guard. I was working from top side at the end of the round.

My goal once again today was to not get swept by Jason, but that didn't last long. He was able to get his spiderguardish grips that I didn't break in time and down I went. I hit the mat fairly hard a couple of times during our roll. He got me with a shoulder-lock from...somewhere. I'm not sure exactly what, but it was legit. The second time around I fared a bit better and passed his guard, though I think he may have given it to me. Wish I knew whether it was legit or not. Tough round and I was really tired after that one. I think hitting the mat hard a couple of times didn't help.

Definitely going to ref next weekend. I feel ok about adults, but worried about trying to ref kids accurately.

Wed Morn & Night

Morning class I felt pretty solid. We covered simple guard breaks and passes, but it was very instructional for me to find the places where I'm not solid in both the break and pass.

Rolled with Dennis, Jason S., Jason W. and several others that I don't remember. My roll with Dennis was pretty even, and I ended the round on his back. One of my better rolls with him.

I did well against Jason S too. My single goal with him was to not let him sweep me. He tried some DLR, RDLR, lapel guard and whatever else, and for the most part I was able to stymie him. We ended up in 50/50 and we both had some sweeps from there, but otherwise it was even. One of my better rolls with him.

Jason W. got a double-under pass and worked top side most of the roll. He didn't get a tap (even though he was hunting) and I was happy with my defense.

Ryan hasn't been around in awhile that I've seen, but he was pushing the pace just as much as ever. I started getting a little tweaked that I suffering under a white belt's side control and turned it up at notch to somehow get to mount before the round ended. It really tired me out though.

I told myself that I wasn't going to roll for night class, and the dialogue looked something like this:

Brain: Don't roll during night class
Body: But...I feel pretty ok....
Brain: DON'T ROLL DURING NIGHT CLASS
Body: Alright alright, I'll take your advice

Hours later....

Body: Hey look, it's mainly white belts...
Brain: You're an idiot

Rolled with Nick, New guy, Kasey (goddammitsomuch) and Sol (dammitdammitdammit).

Everything was fine until I looked over and saw Kasey without a partner. He, Sol and Jason W just sit hunched while you fiddle with lapel, sleeve, whatever. When they get tired of that they pass your guard and make you pay. Kasey is especially fond of leg-locks. Spinning leg-locks. To say I tap early would be a massive understatement. Sol crushed my soul as usual. When he just lays back and gives me the start of a position it's worse.

I'll be reffing a local tournament in early Oct...look forward to it.
 

Mon Night

I shouldn't roll (aside from a pre-class roll with Rachael) on the second class of a day. My technique and morale are almost always crappy.

Technique was half-guard pass variations, including a smash pass, monoplata and rolling back attack. That was all fine.

First roll after technique with Rachael was fine (except I got clobbered in the head by people rolling). Rolls with Sol, Manny and a kid who's name I don't remember were entirely forgettable. I was really frustrated by the time I rolled with Sol. 

I feel obligated to roll, and aside from that, it should be, y'know...fun. Very often it isn't, and I'm in danger of finding my ego in the toilet on the tail end of these days. I'm not sure if it's the mind or body that's waning, but I think I'm doing more harm than good.

I almost talked myself into signing up for Masters Worlds despite the travel cost, using the life-is-short philosophy. But alas, bills are forever.

Moura Guard

Hell's yeeeeeaaaaaaah.
 
It's been a long time since we've done Moura guard. It's one of those techniques that I really enjoyed from the very first exposure to it.

We started off by slapping on a triangle if they try to break the grip on their knee, arm-bar if they try to break the grip on your pants and swing around for a tripod-ish sweep if they stand up. I love this guard, but getting into it is another matter.

Flow roll with Kelly b/c this was his first class back from his abdominal issues. I almost got his back at one point, he zigged when he should have zagged and it left me in a great position.

Tyrone was bringing it today. He did well at the tournament over the weekend, and he seemed super focused. Great top pressure and spent most of the roll in side-control. I was able to regain guard a couple of times, but it was dicey.

Big Mike wanted to flow, but flowing isn't really his forte. He passed and then I coached him through top side-control b/c he specifically asked me to point out areas of improvement. 

Last roll was with Jason S., and he had the most frustrating spiderguardish (foot in one bicep, other on the hip or hooked) control today. I was flummoxed as to what to do with it, so I ended up in a lot of spidey sweeps, lapel guard sweeps, and just a lot of bad juju for me. I told him his control was awesome, and he had Sol come over to help me figure out how to break that damned grip. That was nice, b/c I was at my wit's end with that one.

Rachael might be able to leave work long enough to roll tonight, which would be awesome. I owe her some really offensive KOB.

Fundamentals and Spar Spar Spar

James & Co. were competing in Portland, so the gym was left in my car on Saturday. I covered top side in the Fundamentals class and it seemed to go pretty well. I picked up on some points of theory over the week that helped my understanding quite a bit. Hopefully I was able to relay the information so that others could understand it...

There were eight or so people for the noon class, and instead of teaching I decided to do positional sparring. Two minutes in each position (mount, side-control, guard, back-mount). After that it was five minute rolls. They guys were tired by the end of the class, but I think the positional sparring was a good exercise. They seemed to like it.

I felt ok with the sparring and rolls. There's a green belt kid that's been training with us for awhile that's very good with open guard, specifically DLR - RDLR transitions. I might have to pick his brain a bit.

Please Guillotine Me

Only one person remembered that today was no gi day, and that person wasn't James. We took a vote at the beginning of class as to whether we should do gi or no gi, since everyone had their gi. We ended up doing no gi.

Side control transitions, the exact topic I'm going to teach tomorrow. Perfect. Except he used me as the demo dummy. Great so that I can feel it when it's performed well, but not so great for seeing what the hell arms and especially legs are doing. I got the gist of it though.

Flow roll with Savannah in gi b/c she's competing tomorrow at NAGA. No gi with Blaine, James, Chris and Nathan. Savannah and I can't really flow roll together. That's all I've got to say about that.

Blaine kept grabbing my pants, but I didn't admonish him b/c I was still able to get his back and harass him for the latter part of the round. I believe I got his back twice.

James let me work a little bit, but guillotined me at least once. I walk right into those in no gi. Hey friend, here's my neck! He was doing a weird kimura grip thing that gave me an opportunity pass...not sure what he was trying, but assuming it was an experiment. Unrelated, but I keep thinking that if I have an underhook that I'm free and clear to take the back. Often that results in someone just completing the pass instead. I talked with James a little bit about it, but need to touch on it again.

Chris was mostly flow rolling b/c of his back.

Nathan passed my guard, got to side-control and then got an americana when I apparently stopped paying attention to my far arm. We reset, had some sortof scramble and I ended up on his back when he tried a rolling back attack. There was less than a minute left in the round, so I was trying like the dickens to get an RNC but ran out of time.

Williams Guard

Didn't do class on Monday b/c I was feeling worse than Sunday.

Wasn't a 100% today, but felt good enough to go to one class. Rachael had to work so decided to hit the morning class.

James went over the Williams guard (his pinch knee variation instead of the gable grip) and some sweeps/subs from there. I've been exposed to it a handful of times, so it's feeling fairly comfortable by now. As always, keeping their posture down is crucial. Go to omoplata if they try to pin your leg to the mat or force a triangle.

Also worked getting a high guard on the recalcitrant opponent that is hunkered down and chilling in your closed guard: Flower sweep once you have them wrapped up, a triangle if they yank their arm out the back to post and an arm-bar if they bust their arm through the front to post.

Rolled with Sol, Blaine, Savannah, Dennis and Jason S. I focused very hard during my roll with Sol when I was in guard to maintain my frame with points of contact on his hips/shoulders, break his posture and not let my legs get collapsed. I maintained guard against him far better today than quite some time. Focusing on principles really helped instead of trying to push an agenda with a specific guard. He eventually did pass several times, but I was really happy with my frame for awhile.

Blaine and I started standing. He's had at least a year of judo, so I was nervous about this, but pulled a couple of crappy guards. Meh. I need to pull guard more often in situations outside of drilling. He worked hard to pass my guard. I'm not sure if he passed, but if he did it wasn't long before I had his back. I stayed put for the remainder of the round, staying busy by threatening chokes and arm-bars. Was very happy with my back control. Not so much with the guard pulling.

Savannah pulled guard for the most. I was able to pass once, and the rest of the times ended up in weird positions where I'd either be very close to the pass or she'd be close to a back-take. It was a bit of a stalemate, but we were both pretty active.

I don't remember how Dennis passed, but once he did it was all side-control, all the time. He went for a N/S choke, then transitioned to a head-arm, but his weight was too high up on my arm and I was able to fend it off. Got a reverse triangle but couldn't do anything with it.

Jason had top side for most of our roll and finished with an excellent N/S choke. I tried to pass his guard but I lose the grip and posture battle so quickly sometimes. He even did some worm guard or lapel guard (not sure which). Wish I could remember better exactly when things started to go south so that I would stop making the same mistakes.

Advanced Class

I wasn't feeling a 100% and figured I'd just drill...but of course I stayed to roll. 

I worked on defending the knee slice pass with James and at least one other person. James helped me with details that I missing. When dumping them off to the side, when I do get the underhook I've been gripping their back as an afterthought instead of pulling their far hip down and into me to load them up. I also have to commit on trapping the foot.

If I don't get the underhook and try to dump them off to the side, I need to bail and reguard, and need to get on my shoulder and pretty much invert on the side closest to them instead of trying to reguard from my side.

I worked the DLR -> RDLR drill for a bit. Can't remember what else I did.

Don't remember anything about the five-odd rolls that I had.

Fundies and Technique Only

Feeling a bit under the weather, so I taught the Fundamentals class, stayed for the technique portion of the noon class and then bailed. 

Fundamentals consisted of side-control escapes. I prefaced with a fair amount of best practices, then went over one from each of the major side-control positions (cross-face with arm-over, cross-face with arm on same side, kesa gatame and reverse kesa gatame. Only had six folks today (including Rachael and Savannah), so there was plenty of drill time and chance for me to meet with everyone. Two new guys, Eric and Jeremy came in.

Roll with Rachael after class for at least 20min. A lot of back and forth where she'd have top side or I'd have her back. She got KOB a couple of times and really drove her knee into my sternum while pulling up on my lapel. It was very, very uncomfortable. If it was anyone else I would have been concerned about why they were doing that to a training partner, but Rachael gets a pass. 

Technique for the noon class was James' new pass that involves popping your hips over your opponents hips from seated guard. The ideal is to end in mount, but if you end up with one or two legs between yours (butterfly), it's still better than being caught in a DLR or bolo. So goes the theory.

Sarah was back in class after a couple of weeks, so of course I drilled with her.

Side-Control Blues

Neck didn't hinder me at all. I definitely got off lucky.

Technique was the reverse scissor sweep. I already have a difficult time with this, but couple it with the fact that I was working with Jason S (who has ~50lb on me) and my difficulties were readily apparent. James spent some time with me trying to correct it. It's the longest he's spent with me trying to fix a technique in class in quite awhile. I felt better with the sweep than I ever have, but it is still a struggle to get them loaded and twist off properly.

There was a tie-in back-take, knee bar and shoulder lock from the same starting position, but I stuck with the sweep b/c I needed the practice. 

Rolls with Jason S., Savannah, Antone and Chris.

Jason started from standing each time to alleviate his back issues and I started from seated guard. I did an ok job of keeping him at bay, but he was able to pass each time. 

I tried to pass Savannah's guard, ended up in a scramble and after a bit she passed my guard. I had one of those "meh" moments as she passed and decided to chill until she went for a submission or transition. She seemed to want the challenge of me escaping, but I was having one of those days and wasn't interested in flailing around. So she got a bottom-of-the-jacket grip and started to work a gi-d'arce. I spent the rest of the round defending the d'arce and cross-choke with success. I hate getting into that passive mental state though.

Had an enjoyable roll with Antone. I very briefly tried a rolling back attack on him which he promptly used to transition to a much more dominant position. I worked out of a few subs but was eventually caught in something (arm-bar?). Overall fun roll, but I was still feeling kinda poopy from the last one.

Chris and I had a fairly back-and-forth roll. I can never quite tell how his back is doing, so there were times when he let up from whatever position he was in and I backed off. 

I don't know why I got into a funk today, possibly b/c of stuff outside of jiu jitsu that's been fairly stressful.

I question whether I should bother going to Master World's this year though, b/c that's a lot of money to drop if I'm not feeling dicey about my techniques but also about my will. :(

Tuck Your Chin, Dummy

Morning

Good class, went over pulling guard to DLR, sweep by pulling them on top of you and then twisting over, failing that moving to a tripod sweep, and failing that going to X guard. I was ok with most of it except transitioning to X guard. Felt pretty awkward each time unless I waited for them to step forward (which I'm not counting on them doing). I really like the chain of the first couple though and might drill that this weekend.

Rolled with Antone, Jason W, Sol, Blaine and flow roll with Jason S.

Antone was a fun roll, and it's probably one of the best rolls I've had with him. He had the upper hand, but I wasn't that far behind.

One of my better rolls with Jason W too. He was letting me work a little bit. I felt like I was at least doing mostly the right things. I didn't come out on top, but at least I didn't feel like I was doing the wrong things at every turn.

My feelings of doing well ended with Sol. Top side control all day. Kesa gatame, cross-face, N/S...whatever. I can't move him at all when he's on top. I try to create space leaving my limbs as tucked in as possible otherwise I'm going to get wrist-locked. Very frustrating. I was also feeling like my guard was getting passed with ridiculous ease. 

Jason's back is still sore so he wanted to work passing and top game. Awesome for me. :(

I was doing well against Blaine, setting up a triangle when he tried to pull his hand inside my thigh. A ray of light shone down upon it, and I saw a baratoplata! I weaved my arm in and get my leg over his head, but he was down on his hip when I tried to hip out. Jason S. was watching and said that I could have taken him to mount and tried to finish from there or somehow get him off his hip to finish it from guard. I was pretty excited about almost pulling off a sub I haven't hardly drilled.


Evening

Some crazy back-take from top turtle. Didn't tuck my chin right and ended up (temporarily) hurting the hell out of my neck. Sat out for about ten minutes and it was better. It didn't compress, it just felt like...I don't know what, but bad. It's probably going to be stiff in the morning but I don't think it was a bad injury. *fingers crossed*

Rolled with Tyrone, Sol and Aaron. To win, you had to get mount or back-mount (no subs). Got very close to back-mount with Tyrone but couldn't quite weasel the second hook in.

Roll with Sol was just as dispiriting as this morning. He got back-mount and mount. 

Aaron put up a good fight, but I was able to transition enough to throw him off and get back-mount once.

Monday Night

There were 26 people in class tonight. Good grief.

Got there early to roll with Rachael for a bit. She got on top early and had some crushing side-control. It took me a long time to escape, but I finally got into guard and then got a sweep that I don't remember and ended the round trying to pass her half guard. 

Same half guard sweeps as this morning, with the addition of drive-the-bus and twist sweep. I was the demo dummy since I had attended the morning class that had the same content. 

Felt good with all of the techniques, although my twist sweep could definitely use some work. Got to work with Rachael, which was a bonus.

Rolling was KOTH. Win consisted of submission, mount or back-mount. If you won three in a row, you had to go to the wall to give other people a chance. My first roll was with Zack, who pushed me pretty good but he made a mistake and I got his back.

Second roll was with Richard, who was super tough. He was popping grips like nobody's business, cross-facing and in general doing really really well for a one stripe white belt. I had all that I could handle with him. He had top control for awhile, but I was able to defend and eventually got to guard. I started to harass him from guard and then got close to his back. I couldn't quite secure the back, but snaggled an arm and finished an arm-bar instead. I think he was running out of gas, otherwise that would have been a much tougher finish.

Last roll was with Missy. I tried to go too hard since she's still only a  month into jiu jitsu. I kept the muscling to a minimum (I hope) and finished with mount.

After class I played a prank on my teammate that probably won't notice until tomorrow morning (or later). I can't wait for the fallout from that...

Monday Morning

A number of different ways to get sweeps from half-guard. The key detail to note today is that you need to keep control of their trapped leg all the way through. I'd like to watch video of myself sometime, b/c I'm fairly certain I don't do that (even when drilling). I felt comfortable with all of them, except for the whole keeping-the-leg-trapped. The option to take the back was a little dicey, likely because I'm focusing on picking them up with the hooked leg instead of shifting my  hips under them.

Rolled with Savannah, Shaun, Sol, James and Jordan. Everything was fine until I to Sol. I think Savannah got a good sweep, but otherwise I was able to pass and play a top game. Shaun wanted to go kindof light, but ended up going a bit faster (as per usual). He got me with a knee-bar. I did manage to get several passes but let him out once I got to side-control in consideration of his ribs.

I felt like a tree limb going through a wood-chipper when rolling with Sol. He had top side-control almost the entire time, and I couldn't mount any sort of an escape. His transitions were tight, and took the breath out of my lungs a couple of times when he switched from one side to the other. That straight up sucked for me.

Then James, who wasn't giving me any room to work today. He got KOB and kept it, then switched it to the other side and kept it for awhile longer. I tried to escape, but I couldn't noodle an escape other than trying to push his knee away, which wasn't working b/c he had it all the way across my chest. That really sucked. I felt like everything I tried was the exact opposite of what I should have been doing. Really not happy with myself in that roll.

Poor Jordan...after my frustrations with Sol and James I had a difficult time not smashing him. I didn't go for subs, but I got to mount a bunch of times. I let him work from top side-control for a bit, but not much.

When rolling with James I did try to leave my free DLR leg out with my foot on the mat instead of hanging out where they could grip it...except James was still able to grip it. When rolling with Jordan I was able to scoot around to his back and get back-mount he tried to reach for it. So there's some good there. Going to keep playing with it.

FUNdies and Open Mat

Today was submissions from back-mount. Smaller class, but still had 6 people. I was lucky to have anyone there with perfect weather on a Saturday morning. 

James hadn't planned on being there today as there was an open mat at another gym, but decided against it and came in for our open mat instead. I spent many rolls practicing my craft against white belts. There were two blue belts and at least three white belts. I started to run out of gas about an hour into it, largely b/c I was a dork that forgot to bring water. I hadn't had any in the morning either. Oops. 

I wanted to work on one specific thing (keeping my free leg on the mat when I had DLR and a cross-grip), but did I use it a single time? No. I forgot until class was over. Instead I spent most of my time passing and working a top game. We started off with the same caveat as yesterday (a "win" consisted of mount or back-mount). 

After class we got some nuggets from James on reversing the position when someone has your back with one hook.

Apparently I Still Have Some Barriers

Turns out my bad attitude on Wednesday was due to it being that time of month. Dammit.

Watched a little tennis last night. The emotional component never ceases to amaze me, and I have to admit that I miss playing a bit. Monfils vs. Federer, and Monfils goes up 2 sets to zip. To watch Monfils blow subsequent match points and then appear completely uninterested and not even competitive in the 5th set was amazing. I give Murray a pass from the night before, b/c at least he looked like he was putting up a fight. He seemed hobbled by cramps or his back or some physical ailment. Monfils just quit mentally.

Today was no gi, and James went over his hip-bump to triangle and hip-bump to kimura and hip-bump to kimura to backtake. My hip-bump to triangle was butt ugly, mainly because I wasn't fully committing to the sweep. 

Rolled with Tyrone, Oscar, Antone, Chris and Nate.

Rule for rolling is that you had to get mount or back-mount. No submissions. Loser has to do ten jumping jacks at the end of the round. Tyrone was leaving arms out all over the place in my guard and I wasn't quite confident enough to use an arm-bar as a sweep. At best it would probably devolve into a scramble, especially no gi. So I played it safe and tried to arm-drag and hip-bump sweep. No wins for either of us.

Stalemate with Oscar and Chris. I might have had some subs, but mostly I was working from guard. I should have tried to open it up more. I tried several times to get the back-take from the 93 guard (half guard) but something was missing. Also tried the back-take when they'd try knee slice passes to no avail.

Antone had top for most of the round, but I was fending off his mount and back-mount attempts. He'd try rolling back attacks that I would kindof sortof stuff. At one point I looked at the clock and realized that there was only a minute left. I was going to get out of the round without him getting a win. w000t! I immediately fell for bait where he let me think that I was going to get his back. He got out and took my back with a couple of seconds left. :(

Nate had no shirt. Nate was also very, very sweaty. No one else was in a big hurry to partner up with him. I thought it wouldn't be that bad. It was. You have to really, really commit to grappling with someone who is a bare-chested sweat monster, and I couldn't do it today. Partly it was my brain screaming at me how much body fluid was visible and touching me. Part of it was that every time I applied pressure with a hand, foot or forearm it slid right off. Mostly it was the brain. He took pity on me about a minute in and grabbed a shirt, for which I was thankful.

Tuesday Night & Wed Morn

Hit the no gi class since I had been on a 3 day hiatus. Started off with conditioning circuits which aren't my favorite, but I was apparently well-rested b/c it didn't seem to take as much out of me as usual. Technique was the surfer guard break and then pass. Felt ok with the technique, but should have been better since I've done it quite a bit. 

Rolled with Savannah, Sol, Kasey and some other people I don't remember. Rolls were ok. Tried to not get frustrated rolling with Kasey, b/c he gets one big meathook on a wrist or ankle and it's curtains. He let me take his back after awhile and arm-bar. 

I told Sol to give me more side control pressure, as he's getting the position and letting me out. I did fairly in that roll. 

Slept like ass last night b/c adrenaline from class kept me up and when I finally fell asleep the dog went bananas on multiple occasions over who-knows-what outside. Dragged myself to work and class this morning. Class was run in the advanced class format (i.e. drill your choice of technique for five minutes, then your partner drills their technique, then switch partners and repeat). I worked primarily passing, although I mixed in back-mount attacks for Saturday's class with James and sweeps with Dennis.

Rolls with Dennis, Antone, Nate (twice), Jordan. Dennis and I had a fairly slow, technical roll. I got a pass and spent a bit of time on top. Either he or I was working guard for the most part.

First roll with Nate I started to get pissed at the end of the round b/c I was tired of being passed all the time and stuck in side-control. I was rear-mounted with an RNC sunk in, but he wasn't quite under my chin (though it was close). I was able to wait it out until he transitioned to something else. He eventually got me in a sub, either an arm-bar or omoplata. There are times when it strikes a nerve, and today was one of those days. His control of my hips was really, really good. I got more aggressive and scrambly at the end of the round, but I'm pretty sure he still passed.

After that was Antone, which isn't great for the ego either. He did his double-knee ride pass thingie, passed, got to a top position and mixed up his attacks well and got an arm-bar. Rinse and repeat. Near the end of the round he started off in guard, sweeped me immediately and more of the same top pressure.

There were plenty of people, but I got stuck with Nate again. I tried to keep my emotional shit under control and not spaz out again. He got to side-control and I waited for him to do something. He tried to transition to back-mount, which seemed to be his goal for the day. I was able to fend that off and kept my shit mostly together.

Last roll with Jordan. I mounted him a half a dozen times from guard sweeps but didn't attack subs from mount or guard. 

Thursday's Roll-a-thon and Friday Morning

I was planning on watching A LOT of college football this past weekend, including games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I watched one game on Thursday and decided midway through the second that I better get my ass onto the mats. Russ had already planned on doing nothing but rolling, so I went prepared. I was either getting crushed by big guys or I was taking the backs of white belts. There was a blue belt dude that has apparently been training forever but hasn't stuck with any particular gym. He's big, strong and good at jiu jitsu. Also an older (60s?) brown belt who was visiting and quite good, though robotic in movement. Can't remember who else was there, but I had the opportunity to roll with everyone in the room. I didn't take a round off. Go me.

Friday morning I have no idea what was covered or how the rolls went. I was too excited about riding later in the day (it was close 8hrs with a killer sunset at the end) and football.

There were open mats during the holiday weekend. I didn't participate and was happy to have a break.