Monday Morning and Night

Morning

Body felt in pretty good shape. Technique was submissions from 93 guard. Wrist lock if they grip your lapel, arm-bar or shoulder-lock if they grab your bottom leg, try to cross-face or just leave their arm hanging out. If you can drag their far arm across your torso, bring the leg that's up across their back and use it to bite down on their back so that you can free your bottom leg and lock up a very tight triangle or arm-bar (assuming you get the bottom leg out). 

Rolled with Sol, Dennis, Kristopher, Julio and can't remember who else. Didn't feel like I could work my game with anyone save for some guard work with Dennis. I started standing with with Sol and Dennis. Ended up pulling or falling into guard with both of them. Julio was smashing the bejesus out of me from top...somewhere. Heavy smash and submit. Heavy smash and submit. At one point I just chilled in whatever shitty position it was to wait him out, b/c I certainly wasn't going to move him anywhere. I attempted an escape when he moved but was not successful. I think he could tell that I was frustrated b/c then he just went completely noodle, let me take his back and work a choke. It drives me nuts when high level guys can't find a gear between hulk smash and limp noodle. Of course smash and submit sucks for me, but the answer isn't to go completely limp after we reset. Either continue with smash and submit, or for pete's sake move around to a *different* smash position. Or work guard. Or something.

Evening

Exact same techniques from this morning. Discovered that I wasn't controlling the arm at all when setting up the triangle. I was relying on a two-on-one sleeve grip instead of using the tricep (which incidentally would have a better carry-over to no gi).

KOTH, can only win with back-control or mount. No submissions. I started down and first opponent was Jenny. I worked guard for awhile trying to hit sweeps but nothing doing. Powered out of a few things that were largely due to the 40+lb I have on her. Back to guard and finally got a pendulum sweep.

Jamie after that. I spent almost the entirety of the roll in some godawful bottom position barely fending off mount. A nice mix of top side-control with some KOB and quarter guard thrown in when he had a close attempt to mount that I narrowly prevented. I could have been submitted a number times with his favorite N/S choke, kimuras, arm-bars, etc. At one point I had a half guard that he was passing with a knee cut pass. He didn't get the underhook and I came around to his back. I had one hook but had a hard time securing a seatbelt grip to work the second hook in. I tried stretching him out but it wasn't working. He eventually got me twisted around and on my back in guard. He passed and got to mount.

After that I spent some time on the wall before starting another roll with Jenny that was stopped due to time.

Overall pretty meh rolling today. Dennis commented that my game seems to have really improved over the past couple of months. Similar to what Jason S said yesterday. I trust those guys aren't blowing sunshine up my ass. Glad they're sharing it with me. I do feel like I'm getting better at leg pummeling, retaining guard and bailing to turtle when passes are inevitable. Not hugely better, but better.

Sunday

Had plenty of time to come up with a plan for drilling but mind was too scattered to really focus. Ended up working on a number of different areas. The osoto gari from yesterday, the pass from Rafa that I've watched several times (see below), rewiring my brain and muscles to go from DLR to a sickle sweep instead of a tripod sweep, grip breaks from standing in a guard (both feet and hands) and can't remember what else. 

I cannot seem to generate the necessary pressure on Rafa's pass to keep their leg from coming up. I've struggled mightily with the arm-weave with the leg pass and this is one of the major points that comes up regardless of how I try to finish it. If you can't kill the leg, you'll never really get started.

Got pretty much decimated in all of the rolls. Jason S. said that my technique seems to be improving. It's encouraging for him to say that, but I sure don't see it.

 

Saturday

I was excited to teach Fundies, because it was something that I feel pretty comfortable with...namely, submissions from guard. Cross-choke, arm-bar and triangle. I barely had time for the triangle because we spent so much time on the first two. Having a (relatively) big class of ~12 people contributed to that. I had a couple of people who trained under my previous school question the grips for the cross choke. We had all been trained to have the palm up grip be the top hand, but James teaches it the opposite way and I've had more success in setting it up that way. It makes more intuitive sense, and I think that I was able to explain why the way I showed it had merit as well.

I liked the level of detail that I was able to cover with the cross-choke and arm-bar. I wish I would have done the triangle explanation differently, b/c I confused the hell out of people with the set-up. My intention was to flow from one submission to another and I should have stuck with that plan. Lesson learned.

Noon class was wrestling with Nader. Surprise! No one knew about this other than James and Nader. There were a lot of disappointed faces around the room, which ticked me off a bit. It's fine if wrestling isn't your favorite, but keep it to yourself. I get that people would like to have notice so that they can wear their no gi gear, but don't grumble about it.

Nader was very accommodating and did several judo takedowns, including osoto gari, uchi mata from an overhook grip and a seoi nage using collar and sleeve. After that was single leg defense and single leg finishes. I did ok on the finishes, but need a lot of work on the set-ups.

Rolled with Rachael, Sol, Nando and maybe someone else. Pretty much got my ass kicked. Rachael hit the seoi nage when we started standing. I was proud of her.

Friday

Considered riding my motorcycle to work and class but with the temp at 45F and foggy it seemed like less of a good idea in the morning.

Technique was attacking from back-control. Bow and arrow (remember to lean back toward their legs, not straight back or toward their head) and then chaining the bow-tie with a chicken-wing, ezekiel and arm-bar.

Rolled with Sarah, Laurie, Christopher, Jason W., Blaine and Emilie. All pretty good rolls. Christopher got me in an arm-bar that I was doing a good job of defending but I succumbed to a wrist-lock in the midst of my defense. I started standing with most everyone and ended up pulling guard. Jason said my guard pull was crappy b/c while I had enough control to push him away, I had nothing to pull him towards me. So he was able to back out and easily pass my guard. 

I felt like I had fairly good defense from bottom side-control even though he was playing heavy. 

Class was good, but found out that a close friend received some real bad news yesterday. So there's not much else that I have to say about class.

I watched a couple of Mendes videos last night, one on a half guard pass and one on the bolo. I watched the passing one a couple of times and wanted to drill it a bit before class. Didn't get there quite early enough though so only got to play with it a bit. It's similar to the smash pass that Leah showed at the Feb seminar but with a knee cut finish that seemed more doable, at least for me. I worked it a little bit before class.

One of the warm-ups was moving from DLR to RDLR via the sickle sweep. I've been trying to hit the tripod sweep and then sickle sweep, but this seems more efficient. I'm going to have to drill this a lot to rewire my body to do it a different way.

Technique was DLR back-take, baby bolo from DLR and the sickle sweep. Felt great with all of them. Need to remember to raise my butt off the ground and hop behind them instead of sliding. Something he did different for the back-take was to step with the free leg and then shoot the hook to the far hip. 

KOTH b/c morning class was huge with over 20 ppl. Rolled with Sarah for awhile with what felt like a very technical roll. Then white belt Chris, who I pulled into my guard and didn't let out until I had an arm-bar. Started to go with blue belt Chris and then time was called.

Women...Women Everywhere

We had 12 women on the mat tonight out of close to 30 total. Quite the percentage.

Technique consisted of attacks from mount. Transitioning from top half guard to mount, mount to s-mount and trapping the arms along the way for an arm-bar. Cross choke from mount with some good details on maintaining the position and finishing the choke. Relatively basic, but tough to pull off.

KOTH tonight, with the women allotted to three spots and the men five or six. Win by submission or back-control. Rachael and I went first, and predictably took over 15min to accomplish a submission or back-control. I controlled for the most part, getting to top positions and coming close to back-control but she was excellent at preventing chokes and preventing the second hook. I came somewhat close on a bow and arrow, but she got out of it and got a top position and nearly passed except that I was able to turtle. I got into an open guard, swept, passed and finally finished with a choke from north/south (don't know the name). It was a great back and forth battle, and I was really, really impressed with how she didn't give up in bad positions. I came very close to getting the second hook in, but she was persistent with her back defense and was able to get it back to a neutral position. I found out later that she had rolled for awhile before class, so it's not like she was coming in fresh.

I was spent after that, but had relatively easy rolls with Rachael B., a new girl (Syn, Syb?), Naomi and Seline. 

I told Rachael after class that I was very happy to have her as a training partner. She knows that already, but I had to reiterate after a great battle like that.

Predictable tired after a double, but going to hopefully get solid sleep and won't feel too much like a truck hit me tomorrow.

Monday Morning

Back control escapes on the menu today. A little something new but should have been intuitive... if they start to take you back from turtle with a hook in and seatbelt control, pop that hook off with your top leg, pull their head into you as you walk around into side-control (same as if you fall to the choking hand side with both hooks). Always, always remember to keep the elbows down. I suspect that my elbows creep up while I'm in the midst of freeing hooks.

In order to win, you had to get to back or mount. Rolled with Jenny M (I use 'M' for MMA, I don't know her last name), Shelby, Sarah and Tyrone. 

Good roll with Jenny. I made it a point to try to keep my legs out of danger, even though submissions weren't allowed, just position. She got a sweep b/c I wasn't determined enough to stay on top. I did pass her guard and eventually got to her back, but time had run out so I wasn't able to hold it for 3sec.

Today was Shelby's first day and she was pretty timid. I started from a sortof sitting guard and then moved into half guard and told her to get to a mount position using whatever means necessary. She sat up tall on her knees, didn't use her hands at all and mostly just tried to crowd me with her legs. She turned her back to me quite a bit when she was in anything approaching a compromising position. I suspect she hasn't had much exposure to any form of grappling. She seemed a bit nervous about the whole thing. I was at a bit of a loss, b/c I've never had a new person approach grappling quite that way. I encouraged her to use one of her hands to block mine, get her butt closer to her heels and to always try to get her shoulders to face me. I showed her a quick and dirty knee cut pass to emphasize the low butt, using hands, facing someone, etc. It'll be interesting to see if she's still here in a month...she seemed quite uncertain about the whole thing.

Super fun roll with Sarah. I tried to do the DLR back-take and she put me in 50/50 instead. We had some good fun in there, with me trying to do the pass that Hannette showed and Sarah trying to take my back. We finally got it straightened out, trading sweeps back and forth. We ended up in some weird position coming out of the 50/50. I couldn't get her into back or mount though.

Fun roll with Tyrone. I got to his back in what I thought was a pretty slick manner. I had top side control and went for a kimura grip. I used that to rotate around his back and get back control. Twice I used the tight 93 guard to extend his leg, sweep into a split pass and then finished the pass. It was very nice to have some success with that.
 

Advanced Class

I sortof had a plan of what I wanted to drill, but it wasn't as clear as I would like. I found myself with only a few minutes to prepare my list before class. I was going to spend time watching the Ryan Hall passing series and pick out a few new things to drill, but it didn't work out that way. 

I started off with lapel and sleeve grip breaks from top position. Pant grip breaks from bottom and then my DLR -> sweeps -> RDLR rotation. Lasso sweeps, split pass and probably some other techniques that I don't remember.

Rolled with Russ, Kelly and Chaz. I might have rolled with Chaz twice. The grip breaking that was working so well for me during drills was abysmal during my roll with Chaz. It was partially due to technique and positioning, but with a sweat soaked thin gi it was much more difficult than with a dry gi.

Had good rolls with the guys. I felt like Russ was giving me full Russ power and I still did ok. He tried a berimbolo but I was able to reverse or at least disrupt it enough that he had to disengage and move to something else. 

I don't think Kelly was going full out, but didn't seem like he was backing off that much. It was one of my better rolls with him. He got a great wrist-lock that I wasn't anticipating. 

Overall I felt good with the rolls. I did squats & press a couple of hours before, but it didn't seem to bother my rolls. Nice to be able to lift and roll well the same day.

Sat Fundies and Nooner

I was a little apprehensive about Fundies, since I wasn't really happy with my last outing a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday's class went well though, covering sweeps starting from closed guard. Eight students, which is average. Hip-bump, scissor, flower and pendulum. Near the end, I reviewed all of the techniques again, and then I had them pair up a final time while I called out techniques at random. I told them not to rush through them, but to make sure they were sure about what they were doing when they were doing it. I've found this to be immensely valuable to me when an instructor has done this at the end of class.

James has mentioned a couple of times that while it's all well and good for individual fundamental techniques to be taught, it's more valuable for those techniques to be chained together so that they address common responses from an opponent. So don't just learn how to upa escape from mount, but if the upa escapes because your opponent doesn't X, counter with Y. I think that approach makes a great deal of sense, but I wonder how much you can cram into fresh white belt brains.

I'm going to work on an approach for the tail end of next week's class that takes that into consideration. It's going to be subs starting from closed guard. Instead of calling out specific submissions at the end, I'll direct the top person to place their body in a specific position and have the guard player figure out what is most appropriate to do from there. I think that might be a good approach.

The noon class was good, around 20 people or so. Mostly white and purple with a few blues. We covered side control escapes, and James went over a few details on some basic escapes that I've either missed before or didn't full understand. One of them was the basic bridge up, hip escape back and get a knee in to regain guard. He keeps the same side arm in as the knee that's going in to help protect from the opponent pushing your knee back through. 

Rolls started with the higher belt in bottom side-control. I was able to get out of Rachael's side-control less than midway through the round, which was a moral victory in itself. I ended with top position and was happy with that roll. 

Rolled with Joyce, Opal, Brad and Russ. Brad is a purple belt from somewhere else, and I couldn't tell if he rolls mellow or if he was holding back b/c I'm a female. 

Overall pleased with how I rolled.

Fri Morn No Gi

Meeeeeeeeeeeeh.

Woke up late and not feeling great. Not sick and not especially fatigued, just not...great.

Remembered my spats for the first time and felt warm in a hurry. There's no way I'll be able to wear those under gi pants in the summer. No gi only.

Technique was pretty fun. Rolling back attack from top half guard, reverse side-control, and how to counter a rolling back attack. Did well with most of them, although raising up from reverse side control to grab their other foot and roll felt a little odd. 

Rolled with Jenny, Emily, Bailey and Christopher. Jenny is an MMA fighter and likes heel hooks. Apparently heel hooks are allowed at our gym, which I didn't know until she was applying one and I gave James the wtf face. I'm not crazy about allowing them for all belt levels, especially since we have never ever covered how to apply them safely or how to defend them in any of the classes that I've been to over the past 2+ years. But whatever. 

Emily and Bailey are still pretty new (only been to a couple of classes), so I flowed with them and tried to get them around to a bunch of different positions.

Christopher went for foot locks and a couple of armbars. I got out of the armbars only b/c I was sweaty. I got sucked into his guard and was then swept several times. I finally got myself a bit more of an advantageous position the last time we reset. He used a kimura grip for a good sweep too. Didn't do well in that roll at all.

 

Worlds

Soooooooooo....

Over the course of time spent at Pans last week, Rachael and I talked quite a bit about our goals for future tournaments. I mentioned that I always wanted to go see Worlds in person, and she responded with the perfectly reasonable question of "Why wouldn't you pay an extra $100 and compete if you're going to go all the way down there and watch?" 

Brilliant. Her logic is solid. I've always thought that I'm too old and too much of a hobbyist to compete at Worlds, but why not? I had a decent showing at Pans, and if I put a full year into focused training, why couldn't I win some matches at Worlds? I'd be two years into my purple, a shade under 40 and it'll probably be the best opportunity I have to compete at that level. 

The biggest fear is that I'd walk away with a goose egg on the biggest stage, but why should I let that hold me back? Life is short and all that.

If nothing else, the focus of getting there will help improve my game, as I know I'll have to work areas that I'd otherwise like to neglect (i.e. standup) As long as training doesn't become a chore or my ego takes hit when I don't do well in class, I think this is a good choice.

Between now and then is (hopefully) Five, Master Worlds and Pans next year. There's also talk among teammates of a trip to Brazil at some point, which I'd dearly love. Maybe some other tournaments sprinkled in, which will be primarily driven by $$. Would love to spend a week at Hannette or Mackenzie's schools to train before next May. Exposure to different styles would be a huge benefit.

Anyway, that's my idea. No reason why I can't make it happen. 

Wednesday Morning

Something--possible beer--really jacked up my digestion at the tail of the trip. In addition, sleep was almost nonexistent for a couple of days, so I didn't do either of the classes on Monday. Lifted last night and hit morning class at pretty close to 100%.


Technique started from seated guard, and included the cross choke if they try to pass opposite the lapel grip, diving under for I don't even know what the choke was called and a kimura takedown/sweep if they grab a single leg. Felt good with all of those.

When drilling technique, I'm going to start (gently) swatting away their initial attempt at a lapel grip. When establishing my own grip, I'm going to fake/feed with my right and then my left.

I decided that my trepidation of standing has got to go. I started all of my rolls from standing if people were agreeable to it. We have the mat space in morning class at least, so that's the plan moving forward.

Two rolls with Sarah, two with Sol, one with Jason S., Shaun and Tyrone. I started off harder than necessary with Sarah. I was pretty amped up to be back. I mellowed out a bit, and we had good rolls. Worked pressure from top and changing angles. Tried a few things that I wasn't sure would work and...they didn't.

I worked a strong guard with Tyrone, transitioning from arm-bar to omoplata to triangle and finally finishing the triangle. James happened to be sitting right there and gave me a couple of helpful pointers. Poor Tyrone. :) 

The rolls with Sol were tough, as he would sit back, let me establish an open guard from the knees and then work smash passes or something similar. I almost got to his back at one point and worked a nice pass to mount combo...which he immediately reversed. But I legitimately got the pass, so there's that.

The roll was Jason was basically 5min of me trying to fend off a knee slice pass. I turtled several times to prevent the pass and I think I managed to keep him at bay for the entirety of the round.

Shaun wanted to flow roll, and once again I came out too aggressive and stiff. I tried to chill a bit, and more or less flowed.

I kept an eye on several different things and I'm happy with how I executed them. I mostly fended off lapel grips, I tried to not fully extend my legs in guard and I tried to change my angles and get better leg control when passing.
 

Pans

What a trip.

I had one person in my weight division, which meant that even if I lost, I'd be eligible for the open class.

I did, in fact, lose. It was by advantages, 3 - 1 (I think). I did a terrible guard pull, but managed to establish a somewhat decent guard. The remainder of the match consisted of her trying to pass my guard, and then getting advantages for near passes. I got an advantage for almost getting to her back in a scramble. Watching the video of it I'm like aaaeeeeeeeiiii it was so close. 

She came out very aggressive. She was not screwing around, and it surprised me. It shouldn't, but it did. So...lesson learned. I learned later that she's ranked #1 in IBJJF for master purple belts. Rachael is a good friend, and did not reveal this to me until AFTER my match.

Absolute was a hot mess. It was supposed to start around 6:30, but Rachael didn't hit the mat until well after 7 and my last match didn't go until 9. 

I started off in quarterfinal elimination match against a girl who was probably 130lb or so. I don't really remember what happened in the match and don't have video. She tried an ezekiel from half guard and I'm pretty sure I just benched her off of me. I got to her back and ended up winning on points. It was gratifying to get a win and guaranteed another medal.

My next match was against a similar sized girl. Chris gave me awesome advice before the match. He knew she was going to try to pull guard, so he told me to stay low and not give her the space to pull. I don't know what happened here either, except that I ended up on her back and going from back to mount to pass to whatever. Won 20 - 0 on points. I was trying like hell for multiple chokes from the back but nothing was happening.

Last match was against the same girl that I had lost to earlier. Walter said leave it all out on the mat, and I certainly tried. I pulled a better guard, and she passed relatively early. I regained guard, and fought for sweeps and subs. In the last 30 seconds, I got back to my feet and tried to take her down. When that didn't seem to work (plus a takedown wouldn't do the job anyway, as I was down 3 points), I tried a flying armbar unsuccessfully. 

Ended up with silver in absolute. I'm proud of that medal. 

Watching the black belt matches was amazing, and it's worth the trip just to do that.

Rachael and I got to chat with Mackenzie and Hannette during the weekend. It's pretty cool when world class competitors come up to you to say hi and talk about how the tournament is going. That felt pretty boss.

Overall, I'm happy with how it went. I learned some valuable lessons, and Rachael and I are going to work on those issues. Winning gold is amazing, but I feel a determination to improve that I didn't feel after winning gold in 2013. 

Some other highlights of the trip: Acai bowls, smookie (basically a cookie bowl with ice cream inside) a baby seal on the beach, spotting two grey whales offshore, amazing sunsets, 90F weather, bonding with Walter, and being there for my teammates in wins and losses. Rachael is a great travel companion and teammate, and I'm lucky to have her to train with on the regular.

Tuesday

Whew.

Did 8min rounds for close to an hour, alternating between James and Sarah. I wasn't working anything in particular, just trying to roll smart and hard. Focusing on capitalizing on opportunities instead of trying to force techniques that aren't there. 

James said that I'm still pretty stiff with my legs in guard. I'm fully extending my legs in situations where that isn't ideal. Aside from that, he said that I'm understanding the body better and my movement seems more instinctual. 

From my perspective, I realized what I need to do with my take-down plan. I was doing a decent job of initially preventing grips when I was outside of a guard, but in deep entanglements I'm not managing them. I also haven't been addressing pant grips in top reverse half guard. 

Overall it was a great session and something that would be awesome to do regularly but that's probably not possible. 

My only concern heading into Pans is being able to be warm enough before the match. It's really a bummer that there is NO matted area to warm-up before matches.

Monday Night

Rachael and I decided to go in Monday night instead of Tuesday night. There were a TON of people at the night class, close to 30. Given our mat space, it was crowded, to say the least.

Technique was working from sitting guard. Lapel drag if they are kneeling, hooking a leg and cross-choke if they try to come around to the drag side, ankle pick if they stay back and same stuff from standing. It was tight quarters to be doing drags and such.

Rachael and I rolled while everyone else did KOTH. We started off strong, with her getting a dominant position and me working out of it in relatively short order and getting top position of my own. We ended up working through most of the major positions, and I even got to KOB which I almost never attempt. She got KOB as well, top side, almost mount and a crushing top half guard.

I was worried about the fatigue, but my energy levels seemed near normal.

Slept pretty good and not feeling wiped out the next day, so hopefully the fatigue is gone.

Saturday

Taught top side-control for the Fundamentals class. No submissions, just transitions from cross-face to kesa and back, cross-face to reverse kesa, and cross-face to back-stepping to the other side if they get an underhook. James came and sat in on the last 5min or so which made me a little nervous. 

I don't remember the technique for the noon class. 

Rolled with Rachael and got my ass handed to me. She was in top side pretty much the entire round. Very frustrating. Not pleased that I had no answer for it. After that it was a roll with Melissa and someone else that I don't remember. 

Didn't do class on Sunday or Monday morning b/c the fatigue is kicking my ass. I felt like I could have fallen asleep at pretty much any point in time on Saturday and Sunday. It's a bit better on Monday.

Might do class tonight, but if so won't roll.

Going to go in for an hour on Tuesday with James and then maybe Tuesday night.

Fly out Wednesday and compete on Fri afternoon.

Mon Wed Fri

At some point, the thought occurred to me that I was rolling way too tight last weekend. I was trying to force techniques instead of taking what was available (or attempting to take what wasn't available, in the case of rolling with the black belts). I subconsciously had decided somewhere along the way that I was either going to use the DLR tech-stance sweep, the DLR back-take or RDLR kiss of the dragon. I'm not sure why I was so focused on a tight gameplan. It worked great on white and some blue belts, but was NOT the right choice against higher belts.

After realizing this, I made it a point to be less constrained about which techniques I was going to attempt. Go with the flow and all that. My rolls this week seemed to go much better. Sarah was a good sport and let me roll continuously with her. 

I didn't do any night classes b/c my body was pissed about something and seemed on the verge of getting sick. I slept as much as I could, popped Vit C and did a whole lot of nothing. As of Friday morning I think I'm in the clear.

Fri morn was no gi, but Sarah was a good friend and brought her gi. Dennis also brought his gi by mistake, so I took advantage and rolled with him after class for a fair amount of time (at least 15min). I was ahead of the game for the first half of the roll, but once he got a top position I was hard-pressed to get out of it. Overall I'm happy with it though. I got a flower sweep of all things and made it to mount.

I want to go into next week feeling like my body is in good shape and that I'm in a good place mentally. I think the mental aspect is there, but it would be even better with some good rolls.

Hannette Staack Seminar

Friday Night

Uneventful drive over. Arrived at the gym in time, which was fortunate b/c they changed the schedule so that rolling was first and Q&A was after. 

I got to roll with Hannette for two consecutive rounds and daaaaaaaamn! She's only a few pounds heavier than I am but could she ever apply top pressure. She felt 50lb heavier. It was very, very impressive. I tried to do some DLR work but she was having none of it. Shut it down so quickly. Passed and got to mount. Proceeded to crush the bejesus out of me from mount. That cycle repeated itself several times. It was awesome though.

Can't remember who else I rolled with on Friday night.

Saturday

 Yoga to start the day. I liked the shoulder stretches quite a bit. I got some "help" when we were doing downward dog which irked me a bit at the time but turned out to be fine. 

Hannette did a two hour session on two lasso sweeps and an omoplata from the lasso. She did several drills leading up to the sweeps (lasso'ing in and out of spider, omoplata side to side and inverting). It wasn't very much information over that span of time, but it was enough drilling time that I felt like I was really able to nail the techniques. I felt comfortable showing them to James at class on Monday and the next time I'm tapped to teach a class (other than Fundamentals) I'm going to teach them. 

She kept it simple but showed a great level of detail. I was able to pick her brain a bit about a few things and I was able to understand her explanations. She was very nice, funny and great to learn from. Would definitely attend another of her seminars.

I think we went right to lunch after Hannette's session. Then it was Michelle Wagner. I honestly don't remember what she went over except for a baseball bat type choke from side control. I was pretty tired by then. 

After Michelle's session it was time for rolling. I perked up a bit and got to roll with Leah several times, another purple belt, blue belts and white belts. 

Exhausted.

Sunday

Woke up feeling not exactly refreshed but pretty decent.

Yoga to start the day again. Ended the yoga session with a headstand.

Leah taught the morning and afternoon session. Morning session was different entries for standing passes. Push/pull to an x-pass, "barrel roll" to a sortof leg drag, and pin the legs to the mat or against their hammies. Then we worked into an arm weave through the legs and doing a smash pass. I've tried this before and have had minimal success. I think the details helped, but I was still having a terrible time of it when we drilled it with resistance.

Rolling before lunch. Another roll with Hannette. She wanted to see my passing game, so I started up. My passing game went as expected, as she swept me in a hot minute and back to mount. Also got to roll with Miriam C. who came down for the day. She let me work quite a bit which was really nice. Rolled with more blue and white belts.

After lunch was Leah's second session on passing. 

I was toast after lunch. Completely spent. I wasn't doing the technique well. Everything seemed to be tired and hurt. We finished with back-control work (mercifully). We beat feet out after the last session b/c it was a long car ride home.