One Handed Wed Night

I was invited out to a brew house for dinner, and I probably should have accepted that invitation instead of going to class. Didn't get injured, but the two-a-days really are brutal on my body.

James and Erick went over the spider to X technique from the Megaton seminar, then did a couple of other moves based off of that.I felt pretty good with those, except for one where you roll over your shoulder and then over the top of them. Not once did that one feel like I was doing it correctly.

Rolls consisted of KOTH, with upper belts starting down and their non-dominant hand in the belts. Other person had to pass, person on the bottom had to sweep or take the back. I got through one youngster fairly easy, then someone else, then Erick came over and passed my guard in two seconds. On the wall, then I get James and Erick back to back. On the wall, on the wall.... After a piece of time, we were able to use both hands, and I fared better, though I didn't face James or Erick again.

It was a good exercise, one that really makes you focus on hips and feet. It'd be a good thing for me to do to help with my leg weave.

I was exhausted after class, and woke the up the next feeling fatigued. My intention is to do a two-a-day only once a week (Saturday Fundamentals + noon class doesn't count :p), but even that might be pushing it.

Deep Half Wednesday

I'm more or less caught up on sleep.

Deep half on the itinerary for today. Entry points from mount, KOB (basically the same) and back-mount if they try to sit up during a particular escape. Sweep by coming outside, sweep by coming out the back and sweep by lifting up their leg and turning into them.

Was happy to work this, as I want to incorporate basics of half guard (at least proper positioning) into the Fundamentals class. Drilled with Shaun, and was impressed by how he was focused on drilling out the most reps we could between instructional periods. 

Rolled with Shaun, Ben (new guy), Tyrone and Jason W. Shaun and I had a pretty even roll if I'm remembering correctly. Ben is a big blue belt dude that has apparently fallen into deep, deep love with cross-facing. I'm fairly certain that he was trying to submit me with his cross-face at least once during the roll. It was butt uncomfortable, but I wasn't about to submit to that. I scooted around and got the roll to a more even position. I think it ended with him in top half-guard or side-control again.

Tyrone wanted to work passes but he kept letting me break his posture and get grips on his arms. I almost had his back, but didn't free my far arm soon enough. I had an omoplata attempt that he used to get to a top position, but I held on and eventually worked it to another side. Got a triangle and was able to finish. Restarted, I had open guard, worked for a tripod sweep then tried for RDLR when I whacked him in the face with my elbow. We hung out a minute while he recovered, then he started in more of a smashy half guard. That was fine, b/c I eventually got out and worked to a top position.

Jason W. wanted to kimura from top side-control. That was the entire five minute round. Him in top side-control and harassing me with chokes and straight arm-bars and kimuras on the far arm until he got it. Reset, rinse, repeat. He complained about my t-rex defense, but I really couldn't see any other options. I was bumping my hips around, but he wasn't going anywhere.

Monday Morn

Felt crazy tired and did NOT want to get up Monday morning. Haven't slept well the past couple of nights and the weekend was catching up with me. I didn't even party hard with the team and I still felt like death.

Wasn't expecting much out of my mat time Monday morning, but once I was warmed up I did ok. Erick went over leg lasso to triangle, leg lasso to DLR dump sweep and then transitioning from side-control to a mounted arm-bar by wrapping their far-side framing arm with the gi jacket. 

Felt comfortable with all of the techniques, and got to drill with Sarah for the first time in 3 weeks or so.

Rolling consisted of KOTH positional sparring. Boooooo.... Except that today, we started from bottom side-control and had to escape to guard while the top person tried to keep some sortof top position and/or submit. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa... Finally, something that I'm pretty good at. I kept my spot on the mat through Rachael (twice, which is no small feat considering her top side control is so good), Ryan, Sarah and I can't remember who else. Nate came over and was able to finish a kimura from top. After that, it was start in open guard and sweep while the other person has to work for a pass. I got through Tyrone and was working through Blaine (who was stalling in a low position) when time was called. 

I was really pleased with rolling, especially since my body seemed so unhappy at the start of the day. Dare I say, I'm finally starting to feel like I deserved my rank.

After class, I snagged Jason S. to go over the takedowns from the Megaton seminar b/c I had some questions about the footwork. It was a bit helpful, but I'm going to need some dedicated time to drill it (i.e. Sundays).

Megaton Seminar and Digging Holes

Drove over to Seattle on Friday. Left early enough to hit one of my favorite bookstores, then meet up with some teammates for the Megaton seminar.

Half of it was takedowns and half was guard work. Some of it was fairly simplistic, but I'm awful at takedowns so the simpler the better as far as those are concerned. He was a great instructor, and it was a lot of value for the relatively inexpensive price.

I'm pretty excited that I had the opportunity to attend both Megaton AND Mackenzie's seminars this year. 

Seattle Open was a blast. I knew that I wouldn't be competing until 5pm, so I spent the day running around cheering on teammates and doing some coaching when James and Walter were busy coaching at other mats. It was really quite rewarding to be able to watch everyone compete. I don't know that I'm a very good coach, but figure at least yelling encouragement was better than nothing. We had HUGE contingent relative to our school size.

By the time my match rolled around I was ready for a nap, but tried to work myself up to get on the mat. I was mostly warm and excited to go, so that was good enough.

I don't remember the match well, other than my opponent (Anica) kept her distance at the beginning. I didn't want to rush in for a takedown (or let's be honest...guard pull), but eventually committed and I think more or less pulled guard. I wasn't able to establish a good open guard and she passed pretty quickly. I think she must have got mount too (or another pass). 

I was in all sorts of trouble, but somehow got to her back, then mount, then back again. I held the back-mount and really tried for chokes but she defended her neck well and I couldn't get a good grip. My coach called out that there were two minutes left while I was on her back, and I thought my god, two more minutes?? I maintained control, kept attacking chokes, and eked out a win.

I had dug myself quite hole, but managed to get myself out. It was awesome having so many of my teammates cheering me on. Anica was a tough draw, and I know I got out of that by the skin of my teeth.

Also very cool to chat with people that I don't often get to see. ;)

Drill Before Comp

Rachael had the day off, so I met her at the gym during my lunch hour and we drilled and rolled. Some positional work (passing, sweeps, escapes) coupled with scenarios (i.e. You have someone in guard and you're down by 3pts). I felt good during our rolling segments. Hopefully it will carry over into Saturday. 

I don't compete until ~5pm. I need to put some thought into how I'm going to feed myself at the tournament so that I don't feel run down by the time I step on the mat. I know that I'm going to be pretty amped up cheering on my teammates all day and don't want to crash before I compete.

I'm debating over which gi to wear, now that I suddenly have a bunch of them. Neither of the two new gis are patched, and there's no time to get that done. Also, I'd like to have one or two unpatched gis for travel anyway (not that I travel that frequently). Soooo....I think it's either going to be my old competition SYR or the new one that Rachael gave me. 

I'm also considering going to the Megaton seminar on Friday night, but good grief that's not giving me any room to chill out and relax.

Wed Night

I was a little leery about how my body would perform, but it went surprisingly well. I warmed up the class, then James did shin guard to X and several sweeps from X. I'm finally becoming familiar enough with X that my head isn't spinning after class.

I thought I'd just do one roll with Rachael and call it good since I was worried about my body being trashed from moving. That roll went very well for me (pulled guard, flower sweep, mount, back to guard, guillotine ftw) so I sat out a round and then rolled with Ryan and Rachael again. Both of those went amazing as well. 

I felt like I was in the zone and that I was rolling on a very conceptual level. I inverted somewhat naturally to prevent my guard from being passed, sweeps were on point and I got to mount or back-mount in each roll. I watched a bit of Ryan Hall's passing fundamentals, and his description of the body as a plane and the manner in which it can be controlled from the side seemed to help. Probably the first day that I've really felt like a purple belt.  

EDIT: Forgot to mention that Rachael hooked me with a SYR! We are almost exactly the same build, except that my shoulders must be much broader b/c the sleeves were ridiculously long on her but perfect on me. Score! To rub salt in the wound of those not in attendance, she put on FB that I earned the gi by doing an informal single-leg takedown competition, which was sure to infuriate the young wrestlers who covet SYRs. ;-)

Advanced Class

I've been helping with a house move for the past two days, so I don't remember much about the Sunday class. I worked guard pulling with Antone, which was valuable b/c he gave me a lot of different looks and as a result some things to think about that I hadn't previously encountered. 

Jason W wanted to work takedowns...with resistance....kindof horrified me, but I got out of it injury-free. 

I did the usual DLR -> tripod -> sickle -> RDLR -> kiss of the dragon combination. I'm finding that in this particular chain I'm ending up too far away from my opponent to complete the back-take from RDLR. Also did some passing and guard breaks for good measure.

Rolled with Antone and several other guys. No detail on the rolls, other than they felt more or less ok. My body was pretty beat so I gave myself a bit of a pass on performance.

Class on Wed night, might do some flow rolling with Rachael on Thursday and maybe flow on Friday morning before heading to Seattle. After the hectic weekend and start to the week I probably ought to be sitting on my ass and not stressing my body before the tournament, but I just can't go five days w/o at least flowing before a tournament. 

I'm only going to have one match and it's going to be at the end of the day.

Fundamentals and Nooner

Fundamentals consisted of guard opening and passing. Relatively small class, only six (including Rachael). 

Nooner was five minutes of drill your choice of techniques. I started feeling fatigued about halfway through. I did standup with Rachael for 20min, then another 5min of standup with Jason W., which contributed largely to feeling like I got hit by a truck.

Had a bit of a break between drilling and rolling, so had some time to recuperate. Rolled with Manny, Ben and Rachael. The roll with Manny was at least somewhat competitive (he usually dominates handily). I had Ben in a spot where I was trying to take his back but couldn't get any hooks in. As he was getting me off his back, his knee dropped onto the top of my foot. Hurt like the dickens, and I had to sit out for a minute. It's just a bruise though, so shouldn't be problematic.

Rachael got me back for last night and kicked my ass. I scored nary a point. She had an arm-bar but I was able to get on my other side. Got my guard passed and suffered in side-control for awhile. All in all, it was complete domination. Kudos to her, and I'm glad that she's doing well before the tournament.

Fri Night Comp Class

Body felt good, so decided to do the comp class. Started off with flow rolls then regular rolling for half an hour. One minute positional sparring for ~20min total, then that takedown stuff that I don't care for (touch the ankles/knees). I managed to not sprawl on my knees (often).

Rolled with Rachael and several others. I did very well against her and at least decent against everyone else. Several of them were white belts, so I took the back and got to mount on a number of occasions. Jason W rolled through me like a freight train.

Felt good but very, very tired after this class.

Free Morn TMI

James went into excessive detail about how he wasn't feeling well last night. I agreed to cover the morning class if he'd stop giving me details.

I decided to go with flow rolling as a warm-up, then position drilling with a specific goal: sweep-to-mount, pass-to-mount and escape side-control and get to a top position. I think the directions confused folks, but they seemed to get it by the second round. Afterwards was rolling.

I sat out a couple of rounds of flow and drill b/c we were at odd numbers. Worked to my benefit b/c I want to do the competition class tonight.

Rolled with Kyle, Antone and Jason S. Kyle got the better of me for the first part of the round, but I had a reverse triangle for the latter half. Shocker, couldn't finish.

Antone had me tied up in knots. I came very close to having his back at one point, not sure if he was working on something new or what. I didn't actually get to the back, but I was close.

Jason cinched a triangle relatively early on and then transitioned in and out of a mounted triangle. I held off as long as I could, completely forgetting escapes (posturing and stacking weren't working). I felt like I was starting to escape out the back a bit, but then he snaggled my arm for an arm-bar. Reset, and I passed, got to side-control and eventually mount. 

I feel like I'm blanking on techniques big-time, but the rolling seemed to go better than Wednesday.

Wed Night

Feeling better, so decided to roll the dice. I shouldn't push it, but whatever.

Technique was lapel (bottom of the skirt) chokes from guard on opponents who hunker down and don't give you any space. Foot in lapel for triangle, cross choke and gi d'arce. Felt pretty good with the techniques.

Rolling...not so much. 

Started standing with Rachael, pulled a terrible guard and she immediately passed into side control. Spent at least 4min with her sitting on my face and one of my arms while she tried to attack the other one. I was barely able to keep my arm from danger. I finally, finally worked my out of that utterly crappy position and somehow got to her back. I tried to work a choke at the end, but I would have lost on points.

Next was Julio, and I did relatively well. I was still in bad positions, but I seemed to be legitimately defending subs. 

Sol had me in bottom side control for the entirety of the round. I was barely surviving, but it sucked. A lot.

With Akina I tried to transition to a variety of different positions. I let her work top for the latter half of the round. 

I knew ahead of time that it was going to be a bit rough, and I told myself to go in with a positive attitude. Meh.

Out

Digestive issues have returned with a vengeance. Will be out for at least the beginning part of this week. Crummy timing, but it is what it is. Hopefully I'll still be able to compete. :(

Saturday Fundies and Nooner

Woke up surprisingly refreshed after last night's wrecking.

Fundamental class consisted of subs from guard (arm-bar, cross-choke and omoplata). Had two guys that were brand new, as in their first class ever. A third guy had some experience but not much. Had eight people total. I did ok with the arm-bar instruction, but I think I completely lost them with the omoplata. They seemed to kindof sort of get it, but as I was showing it I realized it might have been too complex. 

I was feeling ok when the noon class started, but shortly after warm-ups I started to feel the accumulated fatigue. It was 5min rounds of drilling techniques of your choice. I wasn't really prepared for this, so ended up in my comfort zone of open guard sweep transitions. I did some guard breaks and passing at one point at the request of my partner. 

Rolls with a slew of people. Rachael did well against me both of our rolls. Had a good roll against a couple of white belts, and somehow got the baratoplata. Kelly got a sweep and had back-control for awhile. He switched to a body triangle at one point that was miserable but not enough for me tap. I completely blanked on how to defend it, and finally remembered to fall to the side of lock. I got out of it w/o being submitted, so I had that going for me. Roll with Shaun who wanted to go light, but I knew as soon as we started going that light was an extremely relative term. He got me in a bicep cutter, which I'm ok with tapping to in class, but told him that wouldn't be an option for him at the tournament.

Overall, pretty tired but mostly happy with my effort. 

All Day Friday

I had an infliction of digestive nature that knocked me out for a week. Finally felt good enough to try class on Friday morning. Rachael was there, so we got a roll in at the end. I acquitted myself very well for being out a week. Pulled guard, sweep, pass and worked a dominant top position.

Technique consisted of DLR passes, both of which I was already pretty familiar with b/c James had covered them during one of my privates in the spring.

Rolls were so-so...great one against Rachael, terrible with Manny, so-so with Russ (who seemed to mostly give up at the end). I give myself a pass for the most part since I had been out for a week and my timing was off.

Went for a five hour motorcycle ride and came back for night class. It was a competition class, so a lot of standup drilling that I was less than thrilled about, then rolls, then positional sparring. I was unquestionably wrecked by the end of class.

Shoulder Woes and Reffing

Friday night I go to class with a clearly fatigued body. I figure I'll roll with Rachael a couple of times and then head out. There's six of us, and we start with pummeling drills. No problem. Then we move to fighting for underhooks. No problem until I pair up with Jason W. He gets a whizzer type hold then yanks hard in the opposite direction. I immediately felt discomfort in my shoulder and it got progressively worse throughout class. When we finally got to rolling, it hurt to lay on it and it was too weak to use as an effective frame or support my weight. We did positional drills after rolling, and by and large I was on the defensive all night.

I was worried when I got home that it might have been a serious injury, but it felt much better the next morning and 100% the following day. Lucky.

Reffed the tournament on Saturday. Crammed into a car with teammates, drove down for 2hrs and than sat while they put the brackets together. Kids gi was first, and it turned out to be easier to ref than the adults. Parents were kept a decent distance away, and none of the coaches got in my face about calls. My first two matches went to overtime and then ref's decision, which was a stressful way to start but at least got me acclimated quickly to having to make decisions. I had the biggest issue with determining what constituted a takedown and what didn't. James corrected one of my calls but otherwise there wasn't much interference from coaches.

We then sat around for close to two hours while they worked on the adult brackets. It was an absurd period of time, and I was a little out of it when we finally started. Even though I had brought food with me and had eaten some, I still wasn't quite right. The pace of adults was much faster, and trying to determine calls was tougher. I had more coaches in my ear, and I was becoming very stressed and nervous. Nando had to leave at two, and since the person who traveled down with Nando was going to go back with James, I hopped a ride with Nando. They had extra refs so we weren't leaving them in a lurch, and I was really, really happy to get out of there. I also wasn't feeling well physically, and it was a pretty miserable 2hr ride home. 

All in all I think that I did ok, even though I definitely missed some calls. I'm not sure that I would do it again, b/c it was such a hugely stressful experience.

Fri Morn - Comp Prep

James sent out a notice last night that the Fri classes would be tailored to competition training.

Shockingly, attendance for this morning's class plummeted.

Flow rolls to warm up, light stretching then regular rolls.

My first flow roll was with Antone the human highlight reel. He wasn't going full bore, but my body was not quite ready for the inverting, twisting and stretching. 

Rest of the "flow" rolls were fine, albeit things escalated quickly from Happy Fun Time flow roll to Shit's Getting Serious flow roll. 

Multiple rolls with James, Zack, Antone and Savannah. I did better with Zack than I thought I would. He's a big blue belt from the same school that I came from. I didn't see him much when we were at the other school, but he works out quite a bit and has had his blue for at least year (maybe two). I was able to pass his guard multiple times, threaten him with mine and generally seemed to have the upper hand. 

Antone was hunting monoplatas today and I tried to fend them off but I usually got ended up in an arm-bar anyway. I did a fairly good job of preventing him from taking my back, but he was still able to use his bolo to complete sweeps and end up in advantageous positions to pass. In our second roll he got s-mount and hung out there for awhile trying to work a submission. He's not huge, but a still a solid 170lb on my chest for what seemed like several minutes...ooompf.

Nate was a handful. I tried like hell to keep him in my guard or take his back. He passed to side control in the first round, and I just chilled. He finally went for a rolling back attack, and I was in position to take his back but couldn't finish it. The second round he got mount toward the end of the round and I chilled again, waiting for him to do something. He seemed puzzled by my lack of movement, and was kindof going for submissions but couldn't really get anything going. I think he's so used to scrambling around that once he gets a top position stablized he's not quite sure what to do with it. 

I felt bad about not trying my hardest to escape all the time, and hope it doesn't bit me in ass when it comes to competing. I knew going into it that I'd be doing the night class tonight b/c Rachael asked me. She's only been able to hit one class so far this week and tonight is the last one until next Monday. The plan for tonight is positional sparring and/or rolling the entire class, so I paced myself this morning, especially with Nate.

Wed Night

We had a packed class...and James decided to work takedowns. *sigh*

Guard pull to ankle-pick. Either pull their head down or SWEEP THE LEG JHONNY! Oh wait, wrong sport.

Failing that, pull them down for a back-take. Remember to get your heeps off the mat to more force in the pull.

With the vast number of people, it was KOTH for rolling. I volunteered to ref so that I could get a bit more experience before Saturday. Also, my body was pretty fatigued. It was a nice change of pace to watch other people roll and see the areas in which they do well. The ref practice was good, especially since I learned about the 2pts for back-take (assuming you bring your opponent down from above you) which I seemed to have missed. I didn't feel too bad about it though, b/c not one other person that is slated to ref from our school this weekend was aware of it either. I'm nervous about reffing, but I think it's going to be a really good learning experience.

Wed Morn

L guard today, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Two sweeps, both by loading them up and dumping them over. A shoulder lock if they try to pin your knee down and a reverse triangle if one of the sweeps doesn't work or they are being obstinate about the shoulder lock. 

Rolls with Savannah, Jason S. and Tyrone. 

Overall I had an excellent day rolling. Savannah passed my guard, but I eventually reversed and passed her guard as well and was threatening a kimura from the top when the timer sounded. At one point we were in a bastardized and very uncomfortable sort of 50/50, but I eventually worked my way up and passed.

Jason got a sweep because I LOVE to give him a double-ankle sweep when I try to break his spiderguard grip. He got to top side from there, but I was able to escape, get on top and pass his guard before he could get his lapel/worm guard thingie. I had a hard time staying in top side-control and he went for deep half. I started attacking a kimura and worked my way up into an almost mounted triangle. Best I've done against him in quite awhile.

Tryone went to work, passed my guard early. I had an underhook and did some invert BS that threw him off enough for me to reguard. I had a nice chain of submissions that ended with an overwrap. I worked for a choke, shoulder-lock and omoplata with the overwrap. He escaped my first crappy omoplata by jumping over. I quickly regained guard, went for another omoplata and controlled his hips this time. Worked my way up to a sitting position and we see-sawed back and forth for a bit. He tried to turn toward me (opposite direction of the omoplata), so I worked a crucifix type position and he subsequently tapped from a shoulder lock.

Best day of rolling I've had in quite some time. Jason said that he thinks that my skillz are noticeably trending up, but I'm reserving judgement.