Open Mat

Had some time off for the holidays, which was a nice break. I kept up with lifting and went for a 3.5mile snow hike. The hiking trail was more or less packed down. I set out at one point for an extended hoof through close to two feet of snow. During one of the lifts I did some core conditioning (evil wheels) that wrecked my abs. I didn't realize this until I went to the open mat today and tried to do various movements that required contracting my ab muscles. 

Jason S. and I drilled for the first part and then I rolled with him, Julio, Crystal, Nicole, Jeremy and probably a couple more. Took me awhile to get in the groove. Drilling the RDLR to waiter sweep to leg drag resulted in mixed success. The second part of the sweep is feeling good. Getting their weight forward to get underneath still feels super weird and I'm not doing it very well. Jason gave me some good tips. I think I'm going to have to get Plans B & C figured out if I only get them forward halfway or if they base out to the side.

Good rolls. I wiggled out of Jason's back-control and right into a triangle. I fought it off as long as I could but once he gets the legs locked it's pretty much curtains. Jeremy just laughs at me (not out loud) when I try to kimura or americana him. I am not alone in my frustration/amazement when that happens, as the exact same thing happened to Zack.

Hoping to get to an open mat on Wednesday, but there's going to be a ton of college football bowl games on in the next week. It's my last fix before next September so I'm a bit loathe to give it up.

Hands, What do I do With Them?

I've decided to pursue single leg x, waiter sweep and leg drag for the next little while. I should do X too, but I think what I've got so far will be plenty. 

Saturday's Fundamental class went well. I was very prepared, and probably talked too long. Smaller class than usual, I think around 6-8. I had several people asking me a lot of questions after my class, so I missed a fair amount of the open roll that immediately follows. I didn't mind too much. 

Advanced class I worked almost exclusively on a waiter sweep to leg drag. The premise is that they are moving into a knee cut pass and you have a RDLR hook of sorts. I noticed is that you HAVE to have posture control via collar. There's no way that I can get them to post, or to get their weight forward enough to transition to the waiter sweep if they're upright. If I can keep their posture low then this works fairly well.

It took a lot of drilling on the leg drag portion, b/c it's so very not intuitive. It's coming along, though there's still a lot of WHAT DO I DO WITH MY HANDS as soon as I get them to the ground.

Had a good rolls during advanced class with Shaun, Jason S. and Sol. 

Monday morning we covered submissions from top side-control. 

Rolled with Niki, Ty, Jason S. and can't remember who else. Most memorable part of rolling is when Jason was going for some sneaky bolo leg drag stuff and I managed to come out the back and get into side-control. He's at a disadvantage b/c he had just been drilling that stuff with me the day before, but it was a fun chess match. 

Three

Awarded a third stripe last night. Of course there's the ever present doubt of whether my skills match up, but it's pointless to fret over b/c I can't change it. It was especially surprising last night due to feeling like I've been rolling sloppy lately. 

A couple of other people received stripes as well. I did a single leg take down on one that was decent and then a not great double leg on the other. 

The Fundamentals class has been going well. Averaging 18 ppl per class which is just outrageous. 

I still feel like I'm out of rhythm with my training. I've changed my schedule to wake up earlier and go to bed sooner. Overall I'm getting more sleep. I'm back to lifting (this will mark week #3). Moving in the right direction in those areas, making small steps and staying consistent. 

While I don't feel like I roll like an advanced purple belt, I have to say that I'm excited about my knowledge base. I'm able to really focus on small details when someone is instructing. When covering movements, I'm thinking about how they apply to other situations instead of whatever specific instance it's being referenced. I find that I'm able to explain the rationale behind whatever I'm showing people. The knowledge at purple belt is pretty damned fun. I'd like to hang out here awhile.

Direction

No competitions on the horizon...good for stress levels, but feeling a bit rudderless at the moment. There's a great deal that I want to try to address with my game and I'm not sure where to start. 

It's not helping that my ego was knocked around a bit last night. Didn't get much sleep the night before, so can't read too much into it. A newish blue belt who hasn't trained in awhile caught me in a triangle that he set up from mount while we were doing positional drilling (he started in mount). Chaz did his usual smashity smash. 

The kicker was rolling with Nando after class and him either working a strong knee cut or working from side control after passing. Definitely dominating the entire round. He has a habit of trying to teach whoever he just got done rolling with some technique that is relevant to whatever happened during the roll. He started doing that after the roll and I politely declined. My ego wasn't up to getting lectured by someone who rarely comes to class but can still beat my ass. 

Had a better class earlier in the morning when I had a really competitive roll with Jason S. Almost got submitted via a BB bat choke by Jordan. I didn't respect it when I was trying to pass his half guard and I very nearly tapped, even when I had gotten to mount. 

Morning class was a tough go at the beginning b/c I had an ocular migraine (or something else that has similar symptoms) from right before class until midway through the technique portion. It was difficult to focus on anything with my peripheral vision impacted, but after the second technique it seemed to clear up. I don't recall having one that severe in many years. Hopefully it's not going to be a common occurrence, as it's pretty freaky.