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.

Advanced Class

Went in with a plan to work the a series of passes from the knee slice using long step grips. First time using the grips and first time long-stepping. Took detailed notes from Mendes videos. Tried to drill them with moderate success. One of the biggest issues is that most of my drilling partners weren't giving me a solid RDLR hook. Sarah did, and I was really able to get the feel of the technique with her. Feels super awkward to put my weight from the knee slice to the post leg, but with a lot of drilling it might become a good option.

Rolled with Jason S. twice, Jamie and Shaun. James and Sarah were both feeling sick so they didn't roll. Had tough rolls with Jason but felt like I was able to recover from really bad spots and get to more dominant positions. Not sure how much he was letting me do that, but I think for one of the passes I legitimately got it.

Shaun said he wanted to roll technical and that he wasn't going to do any foot locks. Ok by me! We traded several sweeps and I don't think either one of us succeeded in passing.

I tried to keep Jamie at distance. At some point I ended up in mount and spent a large amount of time trying to retain mount and get a submission. He ended up escaping when I over-committed on an americana.

One thing I've been working lately is to push my opponent's head down toward the mat in the direction of my knees when they're passing my half guard from split passes or leg weave passes. It's working out pretty well.

I felt like my drilling was moderately successful. Not amazing, but ok. My rolls were very tough but I felt like I was making fewer wtf-am-i-even-doing mistakes like I was previously in the week.

Lack of Pressure

First training back after Worlds. Still feeling the disappointment of my performance. However, the weight of imminent competition has been lifted, which is a huge relief. Since Sep 1 I've been in a tournament mindset, constantly worrying about how my training would translate to competition. I don't have any tournaments on the horizon for the remainder of the year. Next year's earliest will likely be Pans. Depending on what I have going on in my life, I may be competing at the big tournaments quite a bit less next year.

My rolls on Wednesday were sub-par. Rolled with Nate N., Sarah, Joyce and Jason W. Nate N. had top side and pretty much held the position with ease. Sarah and I had our usual slower paced roll. Joyce was working hard and I tried to make sure she had equal time in both top and bottom positions. Jason W. dominated from top side control and KOB. 

Overall I felt like I was flat and still getting my feet under me from the trip. 

I'm going to try to commit to lifting, even if it's a little bit, three times a week. I've said this numerous times this year, but so far it hasn't materialized. With my adjusted sleep/wake schedule, motivation from a disappointing performance and nothing big on the horizon, perhaps I'll be able to follow through this time.

I'm also going to try to watch instructional vids at least 4 times a week. I think what will work best is to watch the same vid over several days to really imprint the gist of it. Then I'll try one or more techniques out before classes or during Sunday's class. I need to have a real gameplan going into Sundays instead of half assing it.

No Gi Worlds

This was the super secret squirrel plan. Don't tell anyone beforehand that we're going down to no gi Worlds and see what happens.

What happened is that Rachael beat the only other woman in her division and took gold. She went 2-1 in absolute for bronze. I lost to the only other woman in my division, went 2-1 in absolute and picked up another silver. By a quirk in their bracketing, she had an extra elimination fight in absolute, which is why one of us got silver and one got bronze for the same number of matches.

My division match was against a woman that I met a couple of years ago at Pans when we were blue belts. We didn't end up competing against one another, but figured it'd happen sooner or later. She pretty much kicked my ass. I pulled a godawful guard, which gave her an immediate and deep knee slice pass attempt. Not sure what happened after that, other than I had a body triangle from bottom (I don't even know) that I desperately and in vain tried to turn into a sweep. She had a very tight choke at one point that left me feeling not so hot after the match. Lost on points, don't know the total.

Felt like crap after that, more emotionally than physically. Was perked up a bit when Rachael won, but couldn't shake my disappointment. Went into absolute with some attitude. 

Controlled my first absolute match from the outset, taking the back and working from there for awhile before transitioning to mount and then an arm-bar submission.

Second match was much, much more difficult. I was up on points with a sweep, got greedy with a pass and gave the points right back. Really kicked myself at the time for giving up the points. Had a very tight triangle applied at one point but couldn't finish because the elbow wasn't out quite far enough. I must have got another pass or sweep, b/c I won on points not advantages. It was a very close affair though, and I was physically wrecked after 6min of pretty much non-stop going.

I had a 12min break before the final. I didn't think it would be enough b/c I was gasping for air like crazy. After about 10min though I felt ready to go, so luckily the time worked out just right. I went against the woman that knocked Rachael out. I knew she was going to be very good, and she was. I pulled a desperation guard, and she immediately went on the attack with a choke as a way to free up a pass. The choke was very, very tight. I seriously considered tapping, and thought it was possible that I might pass out before tapping. I stuck with it though, gave myself just enough space to breathe and eventually her arms tired enough that I popped my head out. I may have gotten a sweep at some point. I went for a pass and HAD IT but couldn't hold for 3sec before she regained guard. She locked up a kimura from bottom and while I respected it, I didn't respect it enough. She ripped out and used it to reverse position. I rolled and tried to get out of it but she got it to the point that I was out of options and had to tap.

I was really down on myself for getting so close to making it a close fight and losing the discipline of submission defense. I was very tired by the end (my first match was around 1pm, my last match at 6:30pm). We'd been there since 10am to see Walter compete in his final. Happy to have it over with though, and happy to share the podium for the first time with my bestie.

The next day I got some perspective and felt a bit better about everything. First, I never train no gi. Second, I'm probably close to a decade older than many of the other competitors. Third, the whole point to put yourself out there and compete as hard as you can to find your strengths and weaknesses. I found some major weaknesses in my game, namely choke defense from bottom half, pulling no gi guard, being aggressive, kimura defense from the top and passing half guard. 

Even though I'm not happy with the results, I did try my best in every match and never gave up when I was in a bad spot. I went down there and stepped on the mat, so at the very least I have to be content with that.

Hatching a Plan

On the way to the Mendes seminar, Rachael and I decided to do something a little crazy. It may not be a good expenditure of money, but whatever. Going to stay mum on the details until it happens on the off chance that anyone from my gym reads this. 

This week in class has been markedly better than the past couple of weeks. I pretty on Monday, as evidenced by doing much better than usual against Jason S. Chris N. took it relatively easy on me. I wish he had a little bit more of a middle ground, but to be honest, a lot of people probably think that about me too.

Did Wed morn and night class, my first double in several weeks. Rolled pretty well in both of those. In the evening class it was KOTH, win by back, mount or sub. I started off with Jay and after what seemed like quite awhile I got to his back. After that it was Levi. He's a tall, strong MMA fighter who's a white belt that has submitted me before. I knew that I was up against, and worked to tie him up in my guard. I went for and failed on a couple of arm submissions. I was able to maintain guard, and at one point he sat so far back in my guard that I was able to get the hip bump sweep into mount. Jenny next, who got to mount but wasn't able to maintain for 3sec. I came out on top somehow, don't remember how. Finally it was very new guy who was strong as an ox. Again, I tied him up in my guard, where he had good instincts when it came to not getting too far forward or back and avoiding me getting my knees inside. However, his offense consisted of grabbing my wrists in a death grip and not doing anything else. I wasn't able to break the grips, and I was starting to get concerned as to exactly what I was going to do to generate offense. Time was called, which saved me from figuring it out.
 
Rachael and I did three no gi rounds after class. I also rolled no gi with Chaz, who gave me a really balanced roll which was pretty nice.

I'm working to get back to lifting, even if it's just a little bit. Three times a week under the bar and see if I can stick with it. 

Gui Mendes Seminar

Two day seminar, one day in gi and the other day in no gi. Three hours each, consisting of two hours of instruction and then about a half hour of rolling and another half hour of Q&A. 

The instruction was very good, and covered pulling guard, getting into the KOD position, bolo, setting up the knee cut pass, pass drills, etc. I think the biggest benefit that pulled from it was general principles as opposed to specific techniques. For example, when Gui passes to side-control, he walks the hips back so that your opponent is in a leg drag position instead of just flat on their back. This is a better control position and gives you possible back-take options.

The Mendes brothers tend to take one of their students to seminars as the uke, and the two of them seemed very insulated. They were more than happy to answer questions and help with technique while we were drilling, but outside of that they didn't interact with participants. Not a huge deal b/c I didn't attend the seminar to become their friend. However, the seminars where I've been able to just chat with the instructor were really outstanding.

A couple of our guys rolled with Gui on Saturday, and everyone except for myself rolled with him on Sunday. I did roll with Mason, his purple belt. He was great to roll with, as he was clearly more experienced but was happy to flow to different positions and not try to kill me.

I took some notes from the seminar that I'm going to have to write out soon otherwise I'm going to forget which would be a real shame.

Vacation

Took a week off of everything. Stayed at a friend's cabin in the woods near a lake. Did a lot of hiking, eating and sleeping.

Back to Friday morning class, then off to Seattle for a two day Gui Mendes seminar.

Worked with Opal and Anjela for technique, which was ok. I wanted to work with someone who was more experienced, but the numbers of the class dictated a group of three. I wanted someone with more experience as we were doing fairly advanced cross guard techniques. Selfish of me to not want to work with people who were newer, but there it is.

Rolls were ok. Rolled with Kelly first, who has decided to stop cranking my neck. He did several rolling back attacks, to which I had a decent defense. He came out on top most of the time and apparently wasn't looking hard for submissions.

Rolled with Opal, and I gave her some tips on the knee cut pass.

Rolled with Chuck and was doing fairly well until I paused at a dicey top position. He came up on top and very nearly got to mount.

Roll with Chris N. He pretty much kicked my ass. He was going pretty hard, getting a kimura from bottom side-control, a choke from top turtle and maybe something else. I got pissed near the end and started rolling more aggressively. Once again I got my ass handed to me by a blue belt, and once again rolling was no fun. I'd like to think it's a continuation of runaway hormones. I'm going through that phase where I'm sick and tired of being the worst performing purple belt on the mat. The fact that I have two stripes seems like a kindof joke. I know I need to disregard the belt color and blah blah blah, but I'm caught up in it for some reason.

Looking forward to the seminar and hoping it shakes me out of my rut. 

Perspective

There are some thoughts that I've been wanting to articulate since this weekend, and I think I finally have the space to give it a go.

The first is that I was completely stunned at how well the three of us did. I keep throwing the word "proud" out there when it comes to my teammates, but it doesn't sufficiently convey the depth of my feeling, even if it's accompanied by a bunch of adverbs. 

I wasn't anxious, but I wasn't particularly excited about competing in my own bracket. I was drained from running around to their matches and all of the involved emotions. Having breakfast and then a few snacks throughout the day was nowhere enough food to be at top form by 6pm. I made a huge error in not figuring out how to get food.

Related, I regret not doing absolute. I had a solid chance to double-medal and even get another gold. THAT would have been pretty amazing. Had I managed the food situation better, I could have chilled out after my win and just sucked it up to compete. I knew from previous experience that absolute often runs late. 

My second win was sloppy. I'm not at all pleased that I gave up a sweep so quickly. I knew she was good at deep half and I still tried a risky move to take the back instead of making staying on top a priority. If nothing else, this is an opportunity to learn from a win.

I'm really over the bandying about of the term "world champion". It's fun to joke about it with friends, but the reality is that I won two matches. Two. The tournament happens to be called 'World Master'. I am not a world champion. I won my division at a tournament, that's it. Buchecha and Mackenzie Dern are world champions. James is making a big deal about having three world champions, and I'm not feeling terribly comfortable with it.

Now that Rachael has been promoted to purple, we're going to have to figure out how we're going to handle tournaments. We knew this would come up sooner or later. It's possible that I could drop down to Med Heavy, but I don't think I'm going to want to do that except for possibly Pans and Worlds. I think my plan until next May is to compete adult divisions. If I get consistently steamrolled then I should reconsider doing adult Worlds next year. I might do it anyway...I really want to see the black belt matches at Worlds. Even if I suck in comparison to my division I'd regret not trying. Next year will be my last year in my 30s and possibly my last year at purple. I don't expect that I'd be promoted to brown before summer of 2017 but it's possible.

My game the whole week has been absolutely sucking. I don't know what's wrong. I don't feel extra pressure, I just feel kindof clueless on the mat. I'm fairly certain that it's just a phase and will pass.

Purples

Monday night back at class. Lots of congratulations, and the entire team seemed to be hyped about our weekend. Biiiiiiiiiiiiiig class.

We did take-downs, but my head wasn't really in it. I was working in a group of 3...everyone was b/c of the class size. I think I provided good advice, but my own tries were pretty poo poo.

KOTH, rolled with Rachel B and let her win after transitioning through a number of positions. Rolled with Jesse awhile later. Knew I couldn't let him get on top...but sure enough, he got on top. Finished with an arm-bar. Back in line, then had Chaz, who I could tell was just kindof toying with me, not really going very hard. Time was called.

We lined up, James starting talking about Worlds and what it meant him. He mentioned that I escaped belt testing again b/c I won my division with at least two fights in a major tournament, so I won't have to test for my brown if/when the time comes. He then called up Jamie and Rachael for them to get their fourth stripes. He handed Rachael the tape b/c he was struggling with getting it undone...and then pulled out two purple belts from inside his gi. They were both overwhelmed and the room went nuts. I think pretty much everyone knew it was going to happen except for them (and me). I was so incredibly happy for them, as they both deserve it. Both of their families were there. 

Wed Morning

I'm back to mornings after finagling my schedule a bit. Went in this morning and was really happy to see that James was covering baseball bat chokes, loop chokes and his dive choke. I've never been formally taught the BB choke, and I picked up a lot of very useful details that I've been missing. Felt decent with the rest of them.

Rolling was with Sol, Jason S., Dennis and Russ. Got pretty well worked over by all of them except Russ, who was doing a weird knee cut pass where he gave me the underhook twice, which I promptly used to take his back. Either he was trying something new or he was just giving it to me.

Wed Night

Energy was good, warm-ups were no problem. Guard passes tonight, mostly starting from butterfly. Did ok on them, not great. Rolled with Rachael, then Rachel B and a bunch of white belts. Rachael got top control and pretty well dominated the match. The rest of the rolls were pretty easy.

My energy level is good, but my spirit is off. I think it's partially due to hormones. I'm going through a phase with my body that isn't super uncomfortable but at times pretty annoying. I'm also emotionally wiped out from last weekend, and feel like I haven't had a full day/night to myself to rest up. I'm also a little skittish about all of the attention. I don't like having a lot of attention on me, even if it's good.



 

Master World

Unbelievable weekend. I cannot believe that 3 out of 4 from my school took home gold, winning two or more matches each to do it. I was hoping that one of us would get to the top of the podium but never would have guessed that all three of us that competed on Friday would do it.

Vegas is...Vegas. I'm not a big fan of the city, at least the Strip. Too many people, too loud, too much alcohol, too much extreme behavior, etc., etc. Regardless, that's where we stayed. We flew in Thursday evening, and after checking into the hotel Rachael wanted to walk around a bit. We wandered around and ended up at NYNY. They have a rollercoaster on top of the hotel, and I was more or less coerced into riding it. I would never choose that for myself a night before a big tournament, but I figured it would be a good way to blow off some pent-up energy. It did that for sure. I was trying to control my breathing but it looked in the pictures like I was trying to vomit.

Friday morning we get to the venue around 11:30am b/c Jamie's first match was scheduled for 12:30pm. It was nerve-wracking trying to find Walter so that he could coach Jamie, get space next to the mat to yell/spectate and keep track of the match times. Jamie did awesome, being patient and working for take-downs in all of his matches. I think he was on the bottom once or twice, but otherwise he dominated from top positions. He worked hard on take-downs in class leading up to this and it was gratifying to see his hard work pay off.
 
The nervous energy inside the building was outrageous. Rachael was scheduled to start around 2:30pm and I was supposed to start around 4:30pm. There were numerous computer/network problems which kept putting everything back. Rachael was pushed back by a half hour or so and I don't think my first match started until 6pm. Again with the trying to track down Walter (he was coaching a lot of people yesterday) and make sure I knew the start times for Rachael's matches. She went out and dominated both the first and second match, getting the second gold. I was so happy for my best friend and teammate. 

In my first match my opponent pulled guard. I managed to stay out of the closed guard and quickly passed, taking a top position and worked from mount and the back for the majority of the match. I eventually got an arm-bar to finish.

It was a three person bracket, so she went against the person who had the initial bye. They were pretty evenly matched for a bit, but the other woman eventually passed, got to mount and finished with an armbar. Watching their match I felt like there's no reason why I couldn't beat the third woman. I didn't want to get overconfident, but I wanted to go into the match believing that I could win.

After waiting for what seemed like a very long time (~40min?), I stepped out for the final. I wanted to get the takedown, and did a godawful job of it. I ended up in guard, but at least she didn't get the takedown points. I swept and instead of really focusing on staying on top, I tried to take the back and ended up getting swept. However, somewhere along the way I was awarded an advantage, so as long as she didn't score any other points or advantages I'd win. I was able to close my guard and that was that. I was actively looking for sweeps and submissions, but wasn't able to get anything going. Once I realized I was up an advantage, I kept my guard mostly closed. Less than a minute later, gold.

Happy for myself, but more than that, thrilled for my teammates. Both of them put a lot of work and emotional energy into the tournament. Words can't describe how awesome it was.

 

Master Worlds Prep

I debated going to advanced class on Sunday, and I should have gone with my gut and stayed home. Just killed my confidence to get rolled up by everyone.

Monday night didn't go much better, as Rachael got me several times. In the later rounds I recovered and had good transitions, but I was starting to question why I compete, why I do jiu jitsu, etc ad nauseum. I've rarely felt like that lately, but the week prior to comps can be a whole lot of not fun.

Going to flow roll Wed night and leave it at that. 

It's supposed to be 100F in Vegas this weekend. HOT.

Company completed the move to different city over the weekend. Nice office space, but definitely not a fan of open office environments. It's also going to make training in the mornings tricky b/c of the added commute.

Wed Night and Thursday Lesson

Last night was a dose of spiderguard. Take the back, sweep to the side if you can get them to step above you and a super complicated knee bar if you can't get the sweep to the side.

Rolling was KOTH, I started down with Rachael. Win by sub, back or mount. About midway through I was very, very close to mount. However, I gave up the control under her arm and she was able to get out of it. 

She had top control for awhile after that and made life pretty miserable. I think I eventually got back to a top position, but it was close to 20min of back and forth. Neither of us was going nuts, but we kept a pretty steady pace. One of us was generally in a pretty defensive position.

Did a lesson with James today. Covered quite a few areas in which I had questions, and picked up some great details that will definitely help if I can keep them in mind and drill them. He showed me an amazing sweep from a backstep that was really pretty amazingly cool. We rolled for a bit at the end and I found a few more problem areas, such as when someone rolls through a kimura. 

Wed Morn

Rolled like complete poo poo this morning. Chris N. got me with a Peruvian necktie, new white belt got me in a foot lock, Jason got me with a bow tie. I more or less controlled the roll with Chuck, but everyone else just kicked my ass. I wasn't trying to do anything specific and I don't think I was overthinking the rolls. Just. Got. Smashed.

Hopefully I can bounce back tonight. 

Monday Night

Felt a bit tired for the rest of the day after morning class and was happy that the evening class warm-up wasn't especially draining. My back was ok, but felt like it could be hinky at any point in time. 

Technique was some lasso-ish stuff that I haven't done in a loooooong time and had forgotten about. Great to be reminded of it.

KOTH, win by mount, back or sub. Rolled with Rachael, Missy, Sol someone else and Zack. Got a crappy takedown on Rachael and managed to get to mount after a piece of time. Got mount or back on Missy. Had a long, mainly despairing roll with Sol. I was able to regain guard a couple of times, but he had tight, heavy side-control and was attacking a number of submissions. I eventually succumbed to mount.

Rolled with someone else that I don't remember in which I think I won, then finished with Zack. I was trying an over under pass and kept slipping b/c the mats were slick with sweat. That was frustrating, but I probably should have changed tactics. Time ran out before either of us to get to a winning position.

Rolled with Jenny for a bit after class. She's so much fun to roll with b/c she's tiny and moves extremely well. Her mid-air balance is outrageous. She said that she's going to be testing for purple in November. I'm pretty excited for her b/c she's been a 4-stripe for quite awhile due injury and switching schools. 

Felt better about my rolls than I did in the morning class.

Weekend

Just....ugh. 

I had a whole plan for teaching Fundamentals class, but it went off the rails in a hurry. No particular reason, other than my mouth can't seem to decide if I'm going to discuss technique or theory.

Open mat was pretty good. I took one or two rounds off. Can't remember specifics other than I felt like I was thinking of body mechanics instead of steps in a technique, especially when I was in the midst of a pass or trying to maintain top position.

Sunday advanced class I worked techniques specifically for Worlds. They were so-so and need quite a bit of work. I feel like I'm making some progress though, so that's something. Rolls were tough, I always get my ass kicked pretty good on Sundays. Russ ran right through me. Rachael's back was bugging her, and I barely stopped myself from locking up a body triangle. 

I felt tired before Monday morning class even started. Got through the techniques fine, but rolls were pretty meh. Sat under Sol's side control for most of a round, Dennis demolished me and I couldn't for the life of me finish a submission Jordan even though I had numerous choke attempts.

Class again tonight. It's going to be a rough week, with a double on Wed, private on Thu, class on Fri, double on Sat and teaching a private on Sunday in addition to advanced class. I'm going to have to back off next week.

Worst picture ever, but whatever.

Benefit Seminar

Wow.

Over a hundred people, including 20+ black belts. Between the registration fees and raffles, around $10k was raised. The instruction was top notch, with a half hour allotted for each of the 10 or so instructors. There was no way I could take notes, so I'm hoping the video is distributed. It lasted around 5 hours with no formal breaks. 

Giva Santana came, unbeknownst to Foster who was really moved by the support. Renato Laranja was quite a character. I learned later that not only is he not Brazilian, but he's a former soap opera actor. Interesting dude, to say the least. Very entertaining.

 I felt fortunate to participate, and I was proud of my coach who showed some techniques and my teammates that attended. The support of the community was really something to behold.

Rachael I stayed Saturday night and joined the Sunday classes at Foster's. The first was a regular class consisting of warm-up and technique. Jimmy (?) the brown belt showed chokes from mount, including the chicken wing one that I often forget. Rolls after technique. I had two purple belts and Jimmy. One of the purple belts worked me over pretty good. Good, fun rolls. 

The next class was a Fundamentals class, then a competition class. Rachael and I wanted to bail on the Fundamentals to save our energy, but we both thought it might be construed as kindof rude. The class was very mellow, and to be honest sitting for an hour might have been worse. I got to work with a brown belt, and I picked up some movement tips from him just having him do the techniques on me. Very smooth transitions from one side to the next.

The comp class was warm-up of your choice for 20min, then people would be paired up to roll with a ref present. A couple of people would sit out, similar to a comp. The idea was to get the atmosphere as close to a competition atmosphere as possible.

There were five women (four blues and me), and we rotated through each other. My goal was to get takedowns and not pull guard. I worked my takedowns and they were largely successful, even though they were ugly as sin. I was able to work my game without much trouble in the first two matches, which were back to back. The third woman pulled guard and very nearly locked up a triangle. I was swept but managed to wriggle out of it and get to a top position. No submissions.

We went again and it was another tough match, but I was able to again get to top position. 

After that I rolled with a couple of the black belt guys, one of whom got me in a gogoplata. Boooo...

Overall, 9hrs of jiu jitsu in two days. Rachael and I were both pretty uncomfortable on the ride home.

Monday Night & Wed Morn

Monday night went pretty well. Rachael and I rolled most of the time. She did well on takedowns, but once it hit the ground I was fairing better. She had to sit out a round b/c she wasn't feeling too hot. I rolled with Keith H. who has been out for a year or so. He did very well considering he was out all that time. 

Wednesday morning was more leg drag setups and then transitioning to an over-under if they attempt to reguard using a leg weave. I was working with another newish woman (Taylor) and she was doing pretty well with the gross movements. It's very interesting to see the rate at which different people pick up concepts.

Rolled with Taylor, Laurie, Jason S., Blaine and Shaun. I tried to let Taylor work more, but her movements are so unorthodox that I was having a difficult time doing my stuff the right way but still let her work. For example, I wanted her to be able to work with back control, but I had to basically back-step into her and stay turned away for it to happen. I think it's ok if I'm consciously doing it and don't make a habit. 

Laurie was admonishing herself for not getting the underhook when knee cut passing. I tried to reinforce it by taking her back or sweeping. Tee hee. I should have let her work more during the round, but I wasn't cognizant of the time.

Jason does this thing where he gets an arm-bar from...somewhere. I come up to get him on his back and crowd him and then he takes my back. I'm doing something really wrong when I crowd him. In any case, he got a body triangle. I was able to roll him to the side to get his hooked foot on the mat, but he set up a bow and arrow. Let me tell you, having someone transition from a body triangle directly into a bow and arrow is decidedly uncomfortable. I'm not sure at what point he unlocked the triangle (if ever) but I let out quite the ooooof. He apologized profusely, so it must have sounded bad. I reassured him that I just got the wind knocked out.

I resolved to not play closed guard with Blaine. I was able to leg weave successfully and ended up taking his back at the very end. Had good control of that match.

Shaun and I started off fine, then he jumped to a choke from top half. Hit it FAST and then continued to crank it like his life depended on it. He also jumped into top side control which elicited another ooooooof from me. Clearly he's amping his game for Master Mundials. Ok, fine. We reset and I attacked his guard from top half and didn't give him an inch. Passed and got a solid cross-face.

Another class tonight and then Thu/Fri off to rest for the seminar and probably some comp training on Sunday.

Catch-up

Last week trained on Monday, Wed, Fri morning classes only. Saturday Fundies, noon class and Sunday advanced. Covered top side-control in Fundies and am still not liking how I presented it. I don't feel like I brought it into a cohesive whole. The individual techniques were ok.

Saturday open mat was brutal. Non-stop rolling for an hour and half. I think I rested for two non-consecutive rounds. A wide variety of rolling partners, and though I was tired, I felt like I was doing pretty well.

Sunday I worked the deep half defense from earlier in the week. I was struggling with the transition to the crucifix and could not figure it out for the life of me. I asked James later and it was b/c my partners weren't getting the underhook on my leg. I also did some takedowns, and finally started to feel somewhat decent with one of them. I got a lot of advice on a different takedown which was nice, but not the dump of info that I needed.

Rolls were ok. I got absolutely destroyed by Rachael. 

This week it's back to double classes on Mon & Wed unless Rachael comes up with an excuse not to go. The morning class covered the basic omoplata setup from guard and some variations on that depending on how they defend.

KOTH rolling; win by back-control, mount or sub. I almost lost to Dennis in the first 30sec b/c he pulled guard and very nearly immediately swept me into mount. I avoided that by the skin of my teeth. He dominated the roll and eventually won (don't remember how). Kris and Kelly also beat me (don't remember how in either of those). I was able to get mount on a newer white belt, Dess with something and then time ran out while I was rolling with Zack L. 

I feel like my movement overall is getting incrementally better, but my passing needs soooo much work. I don't feel threatening AT ALL.

Monday Deep Half Defense

I asked James if we could cover how to approach deep half for the person on top, since all I could really think of to do was to underhook their far arm. Wasn't sure what to do with it after that, and it usually ended up in a scramble or me being swept. 

Preventing the deep half, which was something I hadn't even considered. Go figure. What to do if you can underhook the arm on the same side of the trapped leg but they get the other arm under. The answer is...crucifix. Reacting to full deep half (under the far arm and then work your way over to the other side). If they start to sweep you from the outside, try a modified reverse scissor. All of it was really good stuff, most of it I hadn't seen before and will be drilling on Sunday.

Rolled with big Mike, Jason W., Jason S. and can't remember who else. Felt like I had one big guy after another, but more or less held my own. 

Seminar & Advanced Class

Friday morning was an open mat. Cindy had just finished a private and asked to roll so that she wouldn't get stiff between the lesson and class. She took it very easy on me and we transitioned through a number of positions. Unfortunately I don't remember much about the roll, other than I hadn't warmed up yet but felt like I more or less still rolled ok.

Don't remember much about the open mat either. I was pretty bushed at the end, and later on in the day I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Not sure how many rolls I had, probably close to 10.

Seminar in the evening was awesome. Wish more people had attended, but sad for them who didn't. Started off with a leg lace pass, where I got some good details like putting the shoulder on the side of the knee instead of the side of the thigh. Also the head down on the leg instead of on the hip as I am wont to do. After that it was sweeps and back-takes from the koala guard. Attacking someone who is back-stepping off of a knee slice seems downright awesome, but I'm going to have to drill it quite a bit b/c it does not come natural to me. Overall I was really pleased with the style and content. Many new takes and variations on themes that we rarely cover.

I had an unexpected private with Cindy while James taught the Fundies class. We started off with some passing, namely how to stay out of the danger zone of the legs and getting out of DLR if they establish a hook. From there it was some really cool details on maintaining top side control, then head snap-downs for both take-downs and passes. Also a crazy simple technique (squeeze their fingers together) if someone has back-control or if you're trying to get them react from a passing position (i.e. arm-drag). Much of it was conceptual, which is exactly the kindof stuff that I'm looking for right now.

Saturday noon class was open mat, which I only participated in the later rounds. I was a little tired from the private and enjoyed sitting next to James and watching other people bust their asses on the mats for awhile.

I used Sunday's advanced class to drill the leg lace and side control maintenance. Also drilled my DLR inversion thing a bit, the sasae (which quickly morphed into other takedowns) and grip breaking. A bit of bolo'ing too, since Sam was drilling X'ing the feet after inverting to maintain control of the legs. Worked very, very well.

I got pretty well manhandled during the rolls. Sol, Shaun, Kelly, Chaz, Sam and James. I nearly got to Sam's back (after he dominated most of the round) but reached for the upper body instead of securing the hips, which resulted in him escaping. I came close to James' back, but couldn't finish that either. He said that my leg hooks from half guard and scrambles are getting quite good, so there's that. I've been doing a lot of scorpion hooking and whatever else you call it to extend their legs and get to the back or a top position.

Road Trip

Visited a couple of schools while I was in Colorado. The first had people that were exceptionally welcoming. I mean, just ridiculously nice people. Their noon class consisted of self defense, specifically kick self defense. I was pretty winded during warm-ups, having only been at altitude for 24hrs or so. The techniques weren't terribly taxing, although I did feel uncoordinated since most everything consisted of being on one's feet.

After technique was open mat for an hour or so. I barely held my own against blues, and in some cases didn't even do that. Rolled with the brown belt instructor that had a simple but effective failed flower/pendulum sweep to triangle by intentionally gripping the wrong sleeve. Rolled with a newish white belt last. Incredibly welcoming crew. Something I'd like to emulate, at least as an individual at our school. There were a couple of instances in which I felt like not having enough oxygen was an issue, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

The next place I dropped in was for a Sunday open mat. All gym affiliations welcome, no fees. They had an interesting approach to selecting partners for open mats. Everyone lined up by belt rank and then the highest belt would pick his partner, then the next highest belt and so on. There was one brown, a slew of purples and then blues and whites. I ended up rolling with all of the upper belts. My first roll was a guy who had been out for over a year due to surgery, and I did more or less ok with him. Everyone else pretty much whomped on me. 

Stamina was much better than the day before. 

TAKEDOWN

Last week's training was pretty good. Hit seven classes, and although I felt it, I wasn't completely wrecked.

Fundies was a small class, I think five or six. Covered unsexy mount escapes, but I feel like I'm starting to get into a groove as an instructor. 

Sunday didn't start off that great. I went in with a gameplan to drill a takedown, a guard pull defense and lasso/spider pass. Both of the standing techniques were awful. I mean AWFUL. I was doing something really wrong on both of them. Discouraging, b/c it's a little over a month away from Master Worlds. The lasso/spider pass went a bit better, and I got some really good feedback from my drill partners.

First roll was with Jason S., and he quickly and predictably tied me up in knots and I think finished me with an arm-bar.

The next roll however....  I got my first legitimate takedown EVER. It wasn't pretty, but it was what I had been drilling. Russ and I were both shocked. I did well during the rest of the roll, getting good positions and possibly a submission.

Rolled with Shaun and Kelly after that. Nothing especially notable, except Shaun got a quick toe hold but otherwise I did well. Kelly tried some interesting techniques that he later showed at the Monday class. I hadn't seen them before, but I did a good job of staying in not awful positions.

Monday's class was Kelly showing us a number of leg locks that I worry will end up in getting your back taken more often than not.

Traveling this week, hoping to be able to drop in at least one day while I'm gone.

On the Other Side of Privates

Double class today. The morning class was packed and HOT. Somewhere around 26 people and 90F in the gym. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaayum. 

Covered chokes starting from N/S. Breadcutter, far-side kimura by laying your hip on them instead of pulling them on their side, and a shoulder lock and kimura on the near side. Rolled with Anjela and can't remember who else. 

Night class technique was the same thing, with the addition of the traditional N/S choke from Jamie. Rolled with Rachael the entire time. I feel like she had the better of the rolls the past couple of times, but today was my day. She caught me with a toe hold early when I tried to bolo. After that, I had back-mount and got a bow and arrow and from then on I had most of the dominant positions. She had some great reversals and was able to escape my back-mount several times. I think I was able to stay out of bottom side most if not all of the roll.

Before night class, one of the newer guys asked me if I'd give him a private lesson. I was stunned. Totally caught off guard, I told him to ask James how that would work. I don't know what James wants purple belts to charge, what percentage if any he takes, etc. Also, I assume he'd be ok with me giving private lessons... Holy cow. I sortof came around to the idea that I was good enough to teach group classes, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that someone would trust my teaching enough to want a private lesson. Totally made my day.

After class Sarah came by and we rolled for probably another 20+min. Got in some wacky positions as per usual. She got an arm-bar and was close on both a choke from top half and an omoplata. 

Saturday

Fundamentals consisted of maintaining and attacking from back-control. I think this was one of the best classes of I've done, in that I felt very confident with the material and the class was engaged. Bigger class too, around 12 ppl including Rachael. Three or four of those guys are going to be testing for their blues tomorrow, so we'll see who comes to next week's class...

While I was prepping for class, I came across a Mendes video where Rafa explained that having your head next to theirs on the non-choking side and actually tilting your head into the side of their head can help prevent them from both escaping and keep their chin up a bit to allow for chokes. A new nugget that seemed pretty legit.

Apparently the noon class has turned into an open mat, so lots of rolls. Rachael, Russ, Richard (bigger Richard), Joe, Jeremy and can't remember who else. Jeremy got me with a super sneaky toe hold, especially for a white belt. I was on the defensive more than I would have liked in general, but considering how I felt when I woke up, I'll take it. It felt like either one of my ears needed to pop and/or I suddenly went partially deaf on one side. It was messing with my groove a bit, to the point that I wasn't sure that I'd do the noon class. Very strange, but at some point during Fundamentals it cleared up. 

Seven classes this week, including Fundamentals. No advanced class tomorrow due to belt testing, so I'm going to have a much needed day off.

My weight is quite a bit higher than I would like, but I'm not going to concern myself too much with it until I get back from my road trip in a couple of weeks. That'll leave me one full months before Master Worlds to either get lighter for Heavy or go down to Med-Heavy.

Friday Morn

Arm-bar from mount. Entrances, finishing on top, breaking the defensive grip from on top or from the side. Great level of detail on everything.

Rolled with Sarah for the entirety of the rolling portion of class. I started off strong, but then she got a great position with my arm trapped for a shoulder-lock in the 50/50. She wasn't able to quite finish, but it was a great catch. We spent a fair amount of time getting in and out of 50/50. I tried bolo'ing her several times to no avail. I finally got past step #1 of my knee cut to leg drag technique that I drilled last Sunday. In fact I made it to step #2, but didn't have enough pressure so it devolved into a scramble.

Good, fun roll all around. We started standing and I got the takedown by virtue of size/strength. I think I'm going to have to abandon the John Smith single.

Double Class Wednesday

Ummm..... tired.

Tough rolls this morning where I got my ass kicked a lot. Tough rolls tonight where there were equal amounts of ass kicking by both parties. We covered a new sweep from half guard that I haven't seen before and I like it quite a bit. Will have to set aside some time on Sunday to drill it.

Tonight was rolling back attacks. From half guard, quarter guard if they are in the midst of escaping mount and reverse side control.

I started from the feet in both classes. That did not go especially well for me. I tried the John Smith single that Kelly showed but I think I'm starting from waaaaay too far out. 

Felt like I was gassing a bit this morning. Felt during the evening class. Oh, and Rachael and I got a roll in *before* class. 

So tired.

UPDATE: Briefly dozed off in the shower. 

Double Class Monday

Rachael's going to Master Worlds!!!!! We both registered today, so that's pretty awesome.

Knew that I wanted to do the morning class for sure, but figured there was a 50/50 chance I wouldn't do evening class. However, since Rachael found out yesterday afternoon that Worlds was going to be a thing, the evening class was a no brainer.

James covered sweeps from the knee cut pass, specifically the omoplata if you can separate their elbow from their body, the bump and twist sweep and taking the back if the twist sweep doesn't work. I was working with a very new girl (her second class), so spent a good portion of the time going over the knee cut itself and less on the sweeps. 

Rolled with Anjela, Dennis, Jason S. and can't remember who else. Similar theme to Sunday...I did some things right, but was in bad positions a fair amount.

For evening class, James went over setting up the kneebar and toe hold when you're the one back-stepping out of a knee cut pass and then defending the backstep. Drilled with Rachael, and fortunately we didn't have a third person assigned to us so that we could get a lot of high quality and quantity reps.

Rolling was KOTH, win by back, mount or sub. I started down, and Rachael came over first. We ended up rolling the entire time, even though I took her back at about 15min in and she got an armbar about 10min later. I felt good throughout, in that I never felt like I was flagging in a big way for energy. If I don't feel excessively tired rolls then I'm happy. 

"Flow" rolled with Clayton after class (we both sortof went for submissions) for at least 5min and then Sarah for at least another 5min awhile later.

Was out like a light for the night and a bit groggy when I woke up this morning. A big cup of coffee made everything better.

Advanced Class

I had a response plan for today in case James decided to omoplata me while I was in the midst of a knee cut pass, but he didn't show up for class. It was just Jason S., Shaun and I. We did the usual hour of drilling and then rolled. I spent the majority of my drill time on the knee cut to over/under pass to the backside. I like it quite a bit. The most difficult part will likely be the first portion, which is feeding the arm under to grip the far lapel. I need to remember to keep my near side elbow tight on the knee cut anyway, b/c that's what James has been killing me with lately. 

Rolled with Shaun and Jason twice. Got tapped by both of them, but felt like I was pretty competitive. 

I'm trying to pressure Rachael into going to Master World's, but she's waffling. Stupid work obligations. :(

Fundies and Open Mat Nooner

An...interesting mix at Fundies this morning. Nando brought his gf for her first class. A guy who comes in now and again brought a friend, who he introduced as Father Andrew. Which explained the robes. Lots of new folks that I hadn't met before. Richard (Joe lookalike), Cole (younger guy), and can't remember who else. 

The position of the day--back control escapes--was perfect for a class full of new people. I thought it went fairly well, even though my first run-through of the escape to choking side escape didn't go quite right. Nando wasn't giving me quite enough pressure, so I didn't have to get rid of the second hook before turning over. I corrected it the second time around, but was thrown off a little bit by the lack of tension. Overall though, pretty happy with it.

After Fundies rolled with Blaine, Nando and Richard. Nando was going all out and had top positions for the most part, but I wasn't in real danger and was able to regain guard. Blaine and I played our usual game of him in my guard. I tried to open it up a bit, but kept closing my guard. I'd like to just keep trying to play my open game with him.

Noon class was straight rolling. Rolled with Sol, Kasey, Dess, Glen, Jamie, James. Of note was my roll with Kasey, which I felt went much better than I've rolled with him before. I think it was partly due to him opening up a bit, as he went for a rolling back attack from top half guard. 

Had a pretty fun roll with James, although he caught me twice with an omoplata while I was trying to knee cut pass. He told me after the first one that I need to make sure I had the underhook, but I apparently didn't listen b/c the next time through I got caught with the exact same thing. 

One pretty cool thing though. He was doing the escape from back control toward the choking arm side where you grab the back of the head and step out wide and belly down. As he stepped around I was sortof able to follow, but b/c he had the back of my head I was getting flipped in front him. I flailed around somehow almost got a crucifix or armbar. I can't explain it well, but it was wild and James said "holy shit" so loud I thought I injured him. Was very close to awesome is the summation.

Back in the Fray

I barely feel like I'm back, and had a so-so rolling session on Wednesday morning. Nonetheless, last night James asked if I would cover the morning class today. I haven't been feeling especially confident in any of my techniques aside from things that I've already shown on the occasions that I've taught regular classes before. So I semi-frantically went through my notebook trying to find something and came across some notes on sweeps from reverse half guard. Voila!

Smallish class for what we've had lately, I think 12 or so. Shaun was the only other purple belt. Folks seemed like what I covered, so that was nice. We had a girl who just started today and unfortunately the techniques were fairly advanced, considering she didn't really know what guard was, much less reverse half guard sweeps. Rachael helped her out, for which I was thankful.

Rolled with new girl, Rachael and Chris N. Rachael got past my guard and it was all over. She slowly and systematically got a kimura for the finish. Had a good roll with Chris, got a sweep, probably got swept back. Very evenly matched.

Drop Ins

Trained twice in ten days. Stopped in at one school for an evening advanced gi class and was a little surprised by the basic nature of the class. I'm all about fundamentals, but this was being taught like it was their first exposure to DLR. Another red flag is that I was very evenly matched with their 4 stripe purple belt dudes. Something is amiss somewhere if I'm going toe to toe with a 4 stripe purple dude.

The other school I visited is in the same affiliation as ours. Instructor was no-nonsense, and it was no gi so I had no idea of the experience level of my training partners. Went over some attacks from the arm-wrap that I haven't seen before. I was doing surprisingly poorly on the warm-ups and technique, although my training partner mentioned a number of times that he wished he had the hip mobility that I did. I'd guess that he was a low purple and most of the other guys were high blues or thereabouts. Almost all of them were big dudes, but they went surprisingly light during the rolls. Didn't try to hulk smash their way through, which was very much appreciated.

Sleep and hydration were serious issues on the trip. It's two days later and I'm just now starting to feel like my body is getting back to normal. Went to class on Wednesday morning. Warm-ups consisted of flow rolling, and I felt like a complete idiot during my first flow roll. It's like I've never done jiu jitsu before, even though it had only been a week. It was better once I got going.

Had a pretty decent roll with James at the end of class. Also rolled with Opal, Laurie, and possibly Jason S. again.

Very happy to be home.

Wednesday

Had an absolute shit day at class and have no idea why. I had 5-6hrs of sleep the night before. Not awful, but not great. 

Technique was ok, arm-drag from guard to take the back, arm-drag from guard to half guard twist sweep, arm-drag thing from butterfly where you take the back. Worked with Kris, who seemed to understand the techniques better than I did. This was one of those days were I was just slow.

Regular rolls, win by mount, back-mount or sub. If opponent took your back or subbed you then you owed 10 jumping jacks at the end of the round for each one. I did a lot of jumping jacks. Kris got my back at least once and probably subbed me once. Can't remember the outcome of my roll with Dennis. Joe gave me fits and nearly finished a head and arm triangle from half guard. Nate was going easy on me for some reason. Sol tapped me about a gazillion times. At least one foot lock, a wrist lock, can't remember else.

I was very frustrated by the end of class. Some of it was my not great technique, some of it was being outweighed by 50lb and having guys just shove my legs out of the way or smash smash smash. Unhappy with my jiu jitsu today. Didn't stick around after class b/c I didn't feel like chitchat.

Been doing this over five years and there are still days when I'm spending the vast majority of rolls in awful positions and feeling like I'm getting manhandled the entire time. Mostly b/c of technique, but being lighter in weight definitely plays a part.

Ugh.

Fri & Mon

Friday was no gi, and I was the jerk who wore shorts and a sleeveless compression shirt. Nice for me to stay cool, but not fun for my partners with my sweat going everywhere. There was a huge difference in rolling with someone who was dressed like myself as opposed to those who were mostly covered. I'm going to go that route in the future out of consideration for my training partners. Had a pretty good day at no gi, happy with the rolls.

Monday morning was hot as balls again in the gym, 86F and probably 70% sweat humidity. Fortunately I had a nice heavy gi to soak it all up. blargh

Techniques consisted of takedowns, which was great b/c we rarely touch on those. James did his uchi mata ankle pick. Julio showed a kindof brutal I-don't-know-what. You wrist lock yourself if you do it wrong. Kelly showed my favorite, dropping down like you're going for a single but basically just knocking them over with your head pressure against their knee.

KOTH for rolling, win by back, mount or sub. I started on the wall. Had a long roll with Sol where I was defensive the entire time. Felt like it was close to 10min or so. I fended off a fair amount, but finally succumbed to mount.

After that it was Harris. He's very strong and good at closing up space. I barely fended off his pass attempts, went inverted several times and really focused on having good frames. He finally started getting tired and I caught a triangle that I eventually finished. Then it was Dennis. Ugh. Can't remember how that roll went, I was getting gassed but not badly. A couple of breaths and I was more or less back to form. He won, I can't remember how.

Final roll was with Chuck. He's very squirrely and worked a strong DLR hook. He didn't take advantage of it quite right though and I passed. I worked mostly from side-control and north south, much to my surprise. I very nearly got mount, but he had his knee wedged in just enough for it to not count. Time ended while I was in top position.

Can't complain about my rolling today.

Week of June 22nd

I'm getting lax on posting, not sure why.

Didn't end up going to SLC after all. 

Did several classes last week, don't remember anything remarkable. I did have a couple of rolls with James in which I felt like I did pretty well. I did the Advanced class on Sunday and then took Mon and Tue off. Two consecutive days off felt like forever. It's hot as hell here, getting up 108F last Sunday and consistently in the 95F+ range. Nothing below 90F in sight.  :(

I had a day where I felt exhaustion during rolls, but the next day I was fine. This morning's class was 20+ and I rolled with a bunch of big dudes.... Chris P., Dennis, Jason S. and Jason W. I felt overwhelmed a couple of times but overall my defense was fairly decent. I was in pretty crap positions for the most part. A lot of getting smashed in bottom side control.

I haven't been able to watch/focus on Mendes vids for the month of June and I feel like my progress has stalled a little bit. BJJ has been an afterthought for the most part.

Doing double class today and drinking as much water as I can beforehand.

Received a quote for an home AC unit this morning and there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that I can't afford it. The good news is that the money I would have had to put into that can go into tournaments this year and next.

 

Fri - Sat - Mon

My mind was a little scrambled last weekend b/c I came very close to make an ill-timed life choice. Realized the impending chaos that would ensue and made a different choice. That said, jiu jitsu has been a distant and welcome after thought. Attended all of the usual classes except for Sunday's advanced class which was canceled. 

Nothing really memorable from those training days except that I got to roll with Sarah a fair amount during Friday's class. My Fundies class went well on Saturday except that I demo'd an ancillary detail to the omoplata that served only to confuse people and I'm not even sure why I did it. It's not even something that I do, was shown to do, or makes a lot of sense. Weird.

Monday's class was big again with ~20 people. Rolls were ok, nothing awful, nothing great.

I'm also a little frazzled b/c I'm going to be on the road a bit this summer and am leaving for SLC tomorrow and will be staying a week. I looked into a couple of places to train while I'm there, so hopefully that will work out.

Wed Morn and Night

This was the best overall day of rolling I've had in awhile. Morning class we covered side control escapes, where I always learn something new. My bottom side control can't suck forever...right?

Huuuuuge morning class, so it was KOTH for rolling, win by sub, back or mount. Chris N., Joyce, white belt guy who's name I don't know, Joe and Russ. Best roll by far that I've had with Chris. It was a real battle, but I was determined to be on top the entire time. Not only was the strategy sound, but I was able to execute it. I don't remember how I won, but I did. 

Was a bit gassed after that roll as we had been going for awhile. Started from guard with Joyce, got a quick scissor sweep to mount.

Started working guard on white belt guy and got a relatively quick triangle/armbar. 

Was a little tired by the time I rolled with Joe, but that wasn't an excuse for getting in a bad spot early and getting choked by I don't remember what. I think I started the roll too passive.

On the wall until I hit Russ, who had been rolling the whole time. We had a spirited battle, and I came close on a belly down armbar. We were both really tired though, and had moments of regrouping where we both more or less completely disengaged during the roll to catch our breath. I eventually got to mount somehow. I wasn't happy with how tired I was, but otherwise pleased with my performance during the roll.

I waffled all afternoon about whether to do night class or not. I was bushed after morning class, as the gym was up to the mid-80s by the end. I convinced Rachael to do class, then I convinced her to take the night off, and then I decided that we should go. Of course, she's free to do whatever she wants, but she seems to prefer to go when I'm there.

Evening technique consisted of submissions from bottom half guard, namely a shoulder or armlock from 93 guard. 

Fewer people at night than morning, so regular rolling. Rachael, Manny, Jenny and Kasey. Rachael again after class.

Manny and Kasey had the better of it, but even so I recognize that I did a bit better than I usually do with them. Jenny and I had a fun roll, as she is great at elevating herself and damn near floating above you while you try to sweep her. I'm not sure how I got into it, but I do remember that I had a pretty sweet entry to an armbar.

Did fairly well against Rachael. Tried to bolo once or twice, and while I didn't get the back I got a sweep on one of them. Got a couple of passes and generally stayed off of bottom.

Monday

Huge class this morning. School is definitely out.

Leg drag from DLR, either the straightforward way or ducking under and doing it the more complex way. After that, finishing the leg drag by taking the back. 

KOTH since it was a big class. Booo.... Win by submission, back or mount. I lost every match up. The first one I was a spirited match up against Kelly. I was able to thwart his bolo and damn near get his back in the process but couldn't quite get there. Staved off the really bad positions and submissions for awhile but eventually succumbed to a belly-down arm-bar. 

After that it was Nate, who got to mount way too easy. Swept, passed guard, mount. Ugh.

Vaughn was another spirited match up. He started almost on all fours, so of course I had to take an arm-drag opportunity since he's a 200+lb brown belt. Got a hook in, eventually lost it, ended up in a bad position. Was able to get a beautiful sweep and another attempt at the back but couldn't finish it. Eventually got submitted with I'm not sure what.

Final match up against Jason S., who positionally dominated the entire time until James called it a day.

Overall got my ass kicked pretty good, but I'm happy about my rolls with Kelly and Vaughn. Not so much my roll with Nate. Jason so-so.

Weekend

Fundamentals on Saturday consisted of sweeping an opponent with both knees down. Hip-bump, scissor, flower and pendulum. Julio was in class, so that was something different to have a black belt attend. Felt very comfortable with teaching those techniques.

Rolled with Rachael for an 8min round between classes b/c she had to leave. I think it was a pretty evenly matched roll.

Noon class was drilling (if you wanted) or all rolling. I tried to drill a few things but was working with lower belts who weren't reacting quite the way that I needed. I did spend quite a bit of time helping them with some areas though so that was rewarding. Rolled for about a half hour with a variety of people. 

Sunday I tried drilling a Mendes Bros variation of the back-step from knee slice if your opponent has the underhook. If I can get set immediately it works great, but I was having issues back-stepping to the exact position I needed to be. I'll try fussing with it a bit more today.

Rolled with Kelly, Vaughn, Shaun and James. Got my ass pretty well kicked for the most part, but did have a legitimate sweep on James and almost got to the back. Just before that happened he had done a backstep pass and then sat on my chest instead of off to the side...and then BOUNCED up and down. I squawked my displeasure, but it was all in good fun.