Pans Prep II

Weight loss has been going pretty well. Depending on the day and the gi, I'm at weight now. Hoping to lose another 2lb so that I don't have to stress about weight. After several sessions with James, I'm feeling a little better about my take-down game plan, guard and passing. I've been able to use some of it during rolls. 

I had a great roll with Jason S. last week where I got a legitimate sweep on him, something I haven't been able to accomplish in I don't even know how long. Had a very demoralizing roll with a blue belt a day later that had me very bummed on jiu jitsu. But he gives James problems as well, so I need to chill.

In general I'm feeling decent with the rolls. They aren't fantastic, but I feel like the prep and mindset that I have this year is better than last year. I'm looking for hard rolls and trying to push myself at the end of each round to finish in a good position. Had a roll with Jason W. yesterday that was very frustrating. He sat in top side control and was trying to bait me to separate my elbows from my body. Of course I'm not going to do that, but I couldn't budge him to escape either. We were in a stalemate for awhile until I finally tried a big explosive movement out and he capitalized for a submission. 

I've been sticking with the weight lifting twice a week. It's working well, and I feel like I'm able to maintain whatever gains I've made in the past several months. I can't wait until my gym is in a garage or shop space instead of in the house.

Pans Prep

I've been fortunate to get some privates with my instructor leading up to Pans. Last week we went over passing, because I'm just having a hell of a time with good DLRs. Of course, it almost always comes back to grip breaks, but he explained two breaks down for me in a way that I didn't get before that has already helped. 

I'm being a dumdum and stepping right into DLR, getting entangled and then struggling. I shouldn't be surprised.

This week we went over leg locks because I'm so wildly deficient in that area. I wasn't sure when I should try to turn my knee away and when I should try to pull my leg out. Turns out that it's pretty simple...if you can't turn your knee, pull your leg out. :p We covered several positions, including 50/50, back step pass and some standing. He had some great tips for avoiding bad spots in the first place.

My hope is that I'll be able to incorporate this stuff into my game for the long haul. I hate when I get a lesson on something, it seems great and then a year and half later I'm all "gee I wish I knew how to do that thing". 

Rolls have been so-so. Some good ones, I'm making progress with pushing the pace a bit. Others I'm just getting totally stymied and lose a bit of confidence. Need to learn from that and remember just how fun this is. FUN.

Bestie is Back

Training has been going fairly well the past month. Consistent 3-4 days a week, ramping up to 6 days a week because my bestie is back on the mats. I'm loathe to give up the morning class, so doubling up on Mon & Wed. I felt a bit like a wreck on Thursday, but better on Friday.

I had great rolls on Monday and I felt competitive with Jason S. We had a real back and forth roll in which he submitted me but I was able to get and hold a dominant position after we reset. It's the first time in a really, really long time that I've been competitive with him. Wednesday morning was a different tale, as he pretty much wrecked me. I had Jason, Sol and Chaz back-to-back-to-back. Not much went my way for most of the day.

I finally decided to do Pans. It's a good motivator for losing the weight that I put on last year. I've been eating better (and less) since the beginning of January and have had a slow but steady progression of weight loss. I'd like to make it down to medium heavy, but I don't think that's going to happen. I don't want to compete against Nika (and only Nika) for the third year in a row, so I might go to adult. I'll probably get mauled, but at least I'll get mauled by someone new.

My mindset is pretty good so far. I'm not overly stressing about it, and really keeping the fact that jiu jitsu should be fun in the forefront of my mind. We'll see how that pans out. Get it? "Pans out"? I kill me.