Fri Morn - Comp Prep

James sent out a notice last night that the Fri classes would be tailored to competition training.

Shockingly, attendance for this morning's class plummeted.

Flow rolls to warm up, light stretching then regular rolls.

My first flow roll was with Antone the human highlight reel. He wasn't going full bore, but my body was not quite ready for the inverting, twisting and stretching. 

Rest of the "flow" rolls were fine, albeit things escalated quickly from Happy Fun Time flow roll to Shit's Getting Serious flow roll. 

Multiple rolls with James, Zack, Antone and Savannah. I did better with Zack than I thought I would. He's a big blue belt from the same school that I came from. I didn't see him much when we were at the other school, but he works out quite a bit and has had his blue for at least year (maybe two). I was able to pass his guard multiple times, threaten him with mine and generally seemed to have the upper hand. 

Antone was hunting monoplatas today and I tried to fend them off but I usually got ended up in an arm-bar anyway. I did a fairly good job of preventing him from taking my back, but he was still able to use his bolo to complete sweeps and end up in advantageous positions to pass. In our second roll he got s-mount and hung out there for awhile trying to work a submission. He's not huge, but a still a solid 170lb on my chest for what seemed like several minutes...ooompf.

Nate was a handful. I tried like hell to keep him in my guard or take his back. He passed to side control in the first round, and I just chilled. He finally went for a rolling back attack, and I was in position to take his back but couldn't finish it. The second round he got mount toward the end of the round and I chilled again, waiting for him to do something. He seemed puzzled by my lack of movement, and was kindof going for submissions but couldn't really get anything going. I think he's so used to scrambling around that once he gets a top position stablized he's not quite sure what to do with it. 

I felt bad about not trying my hardest to escape all the time, and hope it doesn't bit me in ass when it comes to competing. I knew going into it that I'd be doing the night class tonight b/c Rachael asked me. She's only been able to hit one class so far this week and tonight is the last one until next Monday. The plan for tonight is positional sparring and/or rolling the entire class, so I paced myself this morning, especially with Nate.

Wed Night

We had a packed class...and James decided to work takedowns. *sigh*

Guard pull to ankle-pick. Either pull their head down or SWEEP THE LEG JHONNY! Oh wait, wrong sport.

Failing that, pull them down for a back-take. Remember to get your heeps off the mat to more force in the pull.

With the vast number of people, it was KOTH for rolling. I volunteered to ref so that I could get a bit more experience before Saturday. Also, my body was pretty fatigued. It was a nice change of pace to watch other people roll and see the areas in which they do well. The ref practice was good, especially since I learned about the 2pts for back-take (assuming you bring your opponent down from above you) which I seemed to have missed. I didn't feel too bad about it though, b/c not one other person that is slated to ref from our school this weekend was aware of it either. I'm nervous about reffing, but I think it's going to be a really good learning experience.

Wed Morn

L guard today, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Two sweeps, both by loading them up and dumping them over. A shoulder lock if they try to pin your knee down and a reverse triangle if one of the sweeps doesn't work or they are being obstinate about the shoulder lock. 

Rolls with Savannah, Jason S. and Tyrone. 

Overall I had an excellent day rolling. Savannah passed my guard, but I eventually reversed and passed her guard as well and was threatening a kimura from the top when the timer sounded. At one point we were in a bastardized and very uncomfortable sort of 50/50, but I eventually worked my way up and passed.

Jason got a sweep because I LOVE to give him a double-ankle sweep when I try to break his spiderguard grip. He got to top side from there, but I was able to escape, get on top and pass his guard before he could get his lapel/worm guard thingie. I had a hard time staying in top side-control and he went for deep half. I started attacking a kimura and worked my way up into an almost mounted triangle. Best I've done against him in quite awhile.

Tryone went to work, passed my guard early. I had an underhook and did some invert BS that threw him off enough for me to reguard. I had a nice chain of submissions that ended with an overwrap. I worked for a choke, shoulder-lock and omoplata with the overwrap. He escaped my first crappy omoplata by jumping over. I quickly regained guard, went for another omoplata and controlled his hips this time. Worked my way up to a sitting position and we see-sawed back and forth for a bit. He tried to turn toward me (opposite direction of the omoplata), so I worked a crucifix type position and he subsequently tapped from a shoulder lock.

Best day of rolling I've had in quite some time. Jason said that he thinks that my skillz are noticeably trending up, but I'm reserving judgement.