July 3rd No Gi - Sore Neck

Had a relatively small class.  Greg taught and we worked on getting the back and gift wrap.  One thing that really stuck with me was that if I couldn't get my hooks in go for the choke and they take the focus off the legs and then the hook comes easier and vice-versa.  We finished with some 2 minute drills of starting in the gift wrap or side mount and working out of it while the other person imposed their will.

Ray was very tough to deal with and I ended up tweeking my neck a couple time when we were rolling around or when he got me in a head/arm triangle.  I've had worse at least I can turn my head when I'm driving this time.

One thing that Ray said that was a little coincidental was for me to "visualize what I wanted to happen."  I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember exactly what he said, but it reminded me of the book "Mind Gym" that I'm currently reading.  Basically it is a book about mental training and gives a lot of examples of professional athletes and how they think.  In one of the beginning chapters it talks about focusing on what you want to happen instead of what you don't want to happen.  It gives the example of an inexperienced golfer at a water hole focusing so much on not hitting the ball in the water.  Most of the time that is where the ball ends up because it was what your mind was focusing on.  Instead focus on positive things like hitting the ball onto the green.

For me instead of focusing so much on I hope I don't get armbared or kimura'd or choked or mounted I should be focusing on taking mount or side mount or the back or submissions.  I spend way too much time thinking about not getting mounted or not getting submitted that I don't give enough resistance to my opponents or at least I'm probably easy to read what I'm trying to do.

I rolled with Ray who destroyed me 3 or 4 times.  I rolled with Patrick who I did not do well against this time except when he let me start in side mount.  I rolled with Christina who I have 100 pounds on.  I tried my best not to crush her and we both got a couple of submissions on each other.  I think I went at the right amount of resistance for her.

At the end I rolled with Jerad, he seemed to give me some more room to work.  We switched between half and full guard a few times and eventually he got me in sidemount.  I don't remember how he finally submitted me though.  After that the guys were telling me how strong my legs and hips were and that I could do a lot more with shrimping and getting my hips out.  Hopefully I'll be able to figure that out eventually because I don't want to spend all of my time in sidemount.