Class started off with a hybrid warm-up/instructional on the same guard pulls and takedowns from Mon night. After that it was an hour straight of rolling.
Rolled with Savannah, Ben (new guy transferred from somewhere else), Dennis, Shaun, Jason S., Chris and James. All rolls started on the feet. I did crappy guard pulls most of the time.
Started off well against Savannah and was able to prevent her passing. Got a hip bump sweep, worked mount for awhile. Eventually let it go and she was able to complete the pass a second time around. I was using my hips more in conjunction with framing to prevent passes and it seemed to work fairly well.
Ben was crushing the ever loving crap out of me from various angles. His cross-face is absolutely ridiculous. At one point, he was in top half and applying a strong cross-face. I had a butterfly hook with my right leg as most of his weight was to my left. I thought if I could just get some leverage up on that hook that I could get to a better position and regain guard. I damn near choked myself out in the attempt, b/c his cross-face was that strong and I HAD to turn my face into it to leverage up the hook. I completed the movement and got to guard, but I had to take a second to recover b/c I wasn't all there.
Dennis and I had a good roll. He tried to pass under my DLR with the duck-under pass that I like, but he didn't keep my hips down so I was able to ride up top and harass him a bit from there. I eventually came close to getting his back, but wasn't positioned quite right and kept a kimura grip too long. He got my back, which I was happy to work out of, except I let him get a good choking grip. He wasn't successful the first couple of times he tried bow and arrow variations, but he eventually got it good.
Shaun said he was tired, but Shaun always says he tired. He must have been today though, b/c I fared very well against him. I had back control from his turtle position and was able to harass him quite a bit from my closed guard.
Jason S. worked guard for the most part. Some lapel/worm/spiderguard variations and I had no answer for him. The one-sided spiderguard is really strong and I wasn't able to break it once. He got quite a few sweeps.
Chris was working primarily in my guard. Through a scramble I got a sweep and was caught in his half guard. I really focused on killing his top leg AND controlling the hips. Instead of trying to sprawl back, which often fails for me, I tried to move him instead. He tried to pop his legs free at one point and I was able to slide into mount. It felt very good, b/c it was a moment where I took the path of least resistance. Also, it wasn't something that I'd ever drilled or seen, it just made sense to change my direction of attack at that time.
The roll with James occurred about midway through, and it was phenomenal. I unfortunately don't remember many details, but I felt like I was legitimately giving him a run for his money during the entirety of the roll, which has never happened. I was never close to a submission, but my transitions through positions was the best it's ever been. I controlled hips at the right times, and mostly got out of positions before they turned into bad juju for me. He did get me with a kneebah at the end b/c I was hanging on to a collar grip from guard too long. He commented several times on how it was a really fun roll. I got a number of sweeps and escapes, and it was awesome to put him on his back more than once. He may have been trying out new stuff, or giving me some rope, but it felt pretty even to me.
So now I feel like I should skip class tonight, b/c it's only going to be downhill from there.
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