Overtraining

I think it's likely that I've reached a level of over-training. Or my body has something else going on completely unrelated (hormones). Whatever. 

Right as I got to class last night, the middle finger of my left hand started to go partially numb. It had a biggish bruise on the palm side and was yellowish on both sides. Out of nowhere, it appeared that blood was no longer flowing as it should. I couldn't recall how I could have impacted it to that extent while leaving work and driving to class, but apparently I did. It was really, really odd. James asked me to run warm-ups, so I did that while obsessing over the state of my finger. By the end of warm-ups it had returned to normal. Weird.

He covered the same thing in evening class as morning class, which was defending the double-under pass. Great stuff, something we haven't gone over in quite a while. Good details, a number of which I had forgotten.

Rolls consisted of KOTH, except that James said that Kasey could stay down the entire time with Nader and Rachael and I could stay down the entire time together. Huh? Kasey made sense b/c he's testing for brown on Saturday, but having Rachael and I stay down didn't make any sense. 

In any case, Rachael took the opportunity to whup my ass for a good half hour. She was completely dominant in every position. I couldn't sweep, couldn't pass, took forever to escape bad positions and only narrowly avoided submissions. She had top control the vast majority of time and was usually in a sub attacking position. My hand that had the issue of being able to do pushing motions was bothering me some, but likely only contributed a small part to that beating. 

Unfortunately, Walter is coming into town today, so I'm not going to get much of a break. Class tonight, seminar tomorrow night and group private Sunday. I'll probably be involved in shark tanking the newly promoted blues and purples on Saturday night. Hopefully the load will be light enough on Sat and Sun that my body can rest up a bit.

The Jinx

Had some absolutely garbage rolls at advanced class on Sunday afternoon and again Monday morning. Even if I'm having a rough go of it, normally if I roll with James it's still a good roll. Not this week. Felt like I was doing all sorts of everything wrong. I think it was partly due to a physical affliction, b/c I had an odd ocular migraine episode (or something very similar) early Monday. Somewhat related, either my push-up progression or recent heavy bench press jacked up my right hand. Exerting pressure from my hand in a pushing motion against firm objects doesn't feel very good.

I suspect that this is all due to online discussion between teammates on Saturday night in which I mentioned that I was planning on doing adult Worlds this year. It's pretty much a guarantee that as soon as you even so much as sneeze in the direction of a tournament, you're body is going to start falling apart.

The one positive from the past couple of days is that I felt like the spider guard defense I worked on Sunday will be of some benefit. Not too many folks play spider at my gym, but if/when they do I've felt fairly lost. Jason S plays collar/sleeve control, which can fit into some of the same principles.

Hoping for better rolls today. Will probably do a double if Rachael goes.

Advanced Basics

I decided to tackle the fundamentals of open guard in my Fundamentals class today. I'm not sure if it was successful. I did a lot of preparation and gnashing of teeth as to whether I should show a variety of open guards or try to illustrate the basic concepts of most open guards with a single one. I decided to go the latter route, and picked DLR. Started off with a guard pull to DLR, then maintaining DLR, tripod sweep, DLR to RDLR and back again. 

I was well prepared, but I had too much in my head and not sure that it came out the way I would have wished. I missed a lot of points that Rachael and Jason S chimed in with, luckily for me. I'm going to have to reassess my plan for open guard.

I got absolutely manhandled in the open mat afterwards by everybody. Two blue belts submitted me a number of times, Jason was fighting for chokes for most of our roll, Rachael tapped me with bow and arrow, Jerry crushed me twice and had me fearing for my legs at one point b/c I was so convoluted. It's crazy to go from teaching a class of 20 or so to getting creamed.

Back to Reality

Not a great day of rolling on Monday morn. I felt fine, but my rolling was not so hot. It started off on an odd foot b/c I rolled with someone who was very new and cautious about engaging. That might have put me a bit off with everyone else, or it may have had nothing to do with it at all. In any case, blue belt Chris whupped me pretty good then Jason S and Sol had their usual way with me. I probably fared the best against Jason, but for the most part I felt like I wasn't even on the same level with those guys.  

Disheartening, but it's past. 

The Fundamentals class went terrific last week. I felt like it was one of my better days of teaching. Another ~20 students, and I covered triangles, cross-chokes and guillotines. Russ, Jason S, Rachael and Sol were included in that number. A rack of purple belts my class. Just absurd.

STILL haven't picked any sort of focus for training. Maybe I'll do that someday.

Ref Experiences

Roughly eight hours straight through of reffing. Holy hell. 

There was, of course, a major snafu before the tournament even started involving the mats, but we improvised and it worked out fine.

First up was the little, little kids. They're more difficult to ref, but the upshot is that the parents and coaches aren't typically down your neck like they are for the older kids. The takedowns were just ridiculous to try to score. I had one kid in a bracket who was clearly a judo practitioner. He attempted the same throw on everyone he faced (gi and no gi) and then immediately moved to a scarfhold position where I guess he was trying to choke but never succeeded. He constantly walked his legs toward their head and the other kid would constantly walk his/her legs away in a stalemate. If you're Josh Barnett you can probably turn that into a choke. Not so much if you're an 8y/o kid. He did one of his throws on a girl that was a bit smaller than him and she hit the ground pretty hard. 

I called the arm-bars early for the little kids and not as early for the older kids. In some cases that was a good thing (the kid was able to escape) and in others it wasn't. No one seemed hurt, but I should have pulled the trigger on them earlier.

James came in to ref matches in gi and no gi (five total) on my mat that consisted of brown and black belts. I wanted no part of calling points for higher belts. In retrospect, I should have had the confidence to do it. The short breaks were nice though. 

One of my teammates had planned on competing in the brown belt division b/c there was no one in his weight class for purple and he was scheduled to test for brown later this month. James told us ahead of time that he was going to award him his brown at the tournament w/o having to test. I'm proud of Kelly for getting his brown, as it is well-deserved. I gave him a big hug before his match. 

The adults were easier to ref points-wise than the kids, but I also had coaches chirping loudly behind me. At one point I had a competitor in no gi that had competed on my mat in gi, and he made a snarky comment after finishing his match if I had given him his points that time. Yes homie, you got your points.

Overall, I know that I missed some calls. I felt like I did very good job of staying focused throughout, but in scrambles and transitions there were times when I would lose who was in guard. There were also a few flat-out misses. The subjective calls could have gone either way, but I might have missed badly on those. Those were near the end of the day and there's no question my concentration was waning.

I'm satisfied with how I did. No one was seriously hurt AFAIK, which is the most important metric IMO. I expected some unhappy coaches and parents, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. Rachael and Scott were working the table, which helped me immensely. Having people who know what's what makes a huuuuuuge difference, and I was able to confer with them several times about procedural things. I didn't quite feel like I was on so much of an island.

They Just Keep Getting Bigger

There were over 20 people in my Fundamentals class this morning. Over TWENTY. I still can't believe that I'm in a place where I'm no shit teaching jiu jitsu...and they keep coming back. It blows my mind, mainly b/c the first two schools I started at never had 20 people in ANY class that I could remember. Even my current school didn't start hitting 20 in classes until about a year ago. To not only see the growth but to be a small part of it is very, very gratifying. 

I had planned on covering the holy trinity of closed guard submissions (arm-bar, omoplata and triangle), but only got through the first two. I wanted to try out a slightly different process for drilling, wherein I show a technique, we drill it, then I clean up the details that people have missed and we drill again. The longer drill time was also due to me trying to get around to as many people as possible. I think I may be spending too much time with the drilling, but I have a difficult time not getting around to as many people as I can. If it continues to be a thing, I may pull Rachael from drilling and have her walk around as well if she's willing.

I was happy with how class went. Rachael reminded me that it would be a good idea to go over gym rules/etiquette after class so we did that for a bit. I was really, really happy with how calm and confident I was during instruction, and I felt like my technique demonstrations and explanations were correct and helpful.

I got a couple of rolls in the open mat afterwards, mainly consisting of Sol isolating my arms from my body and submitting me from pretty much everywhere. The rest of the time I was talking with people who had just started (there were at least three people who were brand new) or helping people prep their game-plan for tomorrow's tournament.

It's been a gradual evolution to being one of the leaders at the gym. I feel a sense of responsibility to represent the school and James well in all aspects. Talking to people who walk in the door about the gym comes oddly naturally to me. A large part of it is b/c I'm passionate about the subject and I believe in the school and its ethos. For someone who isn't very social, it's an interesting thing to observe and note.

Speaking of the tournament, I'm reffing tomorrow. Not looking forward to that. Really looking forward to having it be done.

Make it a Double

Did my first weekday double class in a month or so yesterday. James covered guard pulls in both classes b/c of the upcoming tournament and the large number of judo competitors that are registered. Sound plan.

Rolled with Sarah twice during the morning class, then several other folks. I don't recall anything about the rolls, other than I left feeling good about my game. Dennis has been out for a month and was a bit rusty, which may have resulted in me being able to apply much more pressure and control than usual. I felt like when I was rolling with white belts I was able to transition more smoothly than usual between techniques and give up positions more naturally, if that makes sense.

Evening class was KOTH. The big boys were separated onto another mat, so it was medium sized purples and James down with mostly blues and whites. I had several relatively easy rolls, then James came off the wall and he got me with something. I happened to get him again as I came off the line and he got me with something else. I felt like I did several not very wise things, like letting him get under me to become my base. I would start off with a knee cut pass and end up getting rolled over.

Rolled with Kelly once after class and Rachael twice (she was back after a several month hiatus). Both were great rolls. Rachael got the better of the first roll, passing and establishing a dominant side control that I couldn't escape. The second roll I got her back and harassed her arms and lapels from back and mount.

I felt surprisingly full of energy for both classes even though my sleep hasn't been great and hormones are doing stupid hormone things. The month plus of lifting with some conditioning might be contributing.

Nope, No Goals

I had several hours on Sunday to come up with a list of goals for the next little while or at the very least what I could/should drill. By the time class rolled around, I had a whole lot of nothing. I'm not sure why it's so difficult for me to set a plan with my training. I'd be well served by focusing on one area and getting proficient at it but I'm not. It's possibly due to having to drill something a whole lot before I'd ever be able to use it in rolling. It's also tough to get the matches to a specific position unless you are much more skilled than your opponent, at least that's been my experience.

So I didn't have a plan for class, and ended up drilling the long step from side-control, going to side-to-side. I've drilled this quite a bit and I think I've used it exactly zero times when rolling. I also did an omoplata and arm-bar drill that I'm thinking about using for the Fundamentals class but am not sure if it will be more confusing than not.

There were only four of us, Jason S., Jamie, Chaz and myself. We rotated through the drills once and rolls twice. I was feeling humbled by the end of class. I got absolutely worked by those guys. Chaz likes to move a lot, so not only does he does he dominate position, but he also dictates a fast pace. He doesn't hang out in especially advantageous positions, but moves on to another. That, in turn, means that I end up moving quite a bit more than if I was just getting crushed. It's good for me. I keep telling myself that.

Monday morning class was a decent size. We covered a variation of sweep from the 93 guard that I had seen before that uses a butterfly hook instead of my usual option of diving under their far leg and doing the not-quite-kneebah sweep. I was really struggling with elevating the butterfly hook until James pointed out that their weight has to be waaaaaaaaay on top of you. They have to commit their weight forward for it to work.

Rolled the entire time with Sarah. We had a really, really fun roll. At one point we had a rolling back attack battle, with both of our legs flailing in the air trying to get the shallow hook. Pure fun.

I'm maintaining the 3x week lifting schedule, and have added a year long push-up challenge. One push-up for each day of the year. Jan 1 = 1 push-up. Feb 1 = 32 push-ups. If I actually do it, I'll be spending most of next New Year's Eve doing push-ups, but that would still be pretty cool. We'll see how it goes. I picked a leap year too, of course. 

Goals or Not?

Back to regular classes yesterday. Taught Fundamentals to a class of ~10. Covered sweeps from closed guard. I'm pretty sure that I talk too much. I try to cover concepts as well as actual movement, but I think I need to structure it differently, b/c I do a lot of yapping. I think I'd be better off covering concepts as a whole in the beginning, then do the techniques and briefly touch on how they relate to the concepts as I'm doing them. 

Had a LOT of rolls during the open mat. I must have been feeling froggy after having close to a week off due to something other than being sick. Had a great mix of partners. I had an awesome roll with James, in which I felt at the time that I was getting the upper hand in attacks, but figured later he must have been letting me work at least a little bit. Regardless of how much he was giving me, I WAS doing pretty well. I controlled top position for a piece of time, and thwarted his attempt to pass by very nearly taking his back. 

I had planned on lifting after class but I tweaked my back and felt pretty wrecked the rest of the day. Had errands and chores to do anyway, so it was fine. Back feels fine the next day, so will lift a couple of hours before class.

Struggling a bit with where I should put my focus. I feel like it would benefit me to really focus on a couple of areas (i.e. single leg x and x guard and leg drags), but teaching a class in which I cover a wide variety of topics from week to week makes that a little difficult. The drill time at the Sunday advanced classes is so precious.