February 13th - Gi (Execute what we Learned in Class)

It was a smaller class yesterday than usual. Jerad taught some x-guard on Mike's request. I really like the x-guard however, I question it's usefulness in self defense. We worked off of a butterfly guards and when the opponent stepped we'd pull ourselves into the x. Then we worked on the sweep with and without the ankle and then a knee bar. We finished with someone breaking our guard from standing and doing a backward roll into the ankle pick. Class seemed to go by pretty fast and it didn't seems like we worked on that many different things.

For the remainder of the class we did a mini king of the mat with just 2 groups with 6 of us cycling in and out trying to pass open guard. I feel like I did pretty well. I lost some and won some. However, there were 3 highlights that I'm pretty proud of. One was when I was in Mike's half guard and I used the free knee on his stomach, then once he bridged into me I was able to switch my hips into side control. The other one was later on when I was on the bottom of Mike and somehow gained the x-guard and then getting the sweep with the ankle. Finally in the last match I was on the bottom against Jerad, he stood up in my guard and I thought what the heck and went over one side to the knee pick we just worked on. Somehow we ended up in a scramble standing up and I went for a guillotine fell back into guard and then we rolled over into me on top with mount. So cool when something works out after just working on it in class.

Mike asked me how I became so good lately and made some comment about we must be doing some good training on Wednesday mornings. It did feel good and I do feel like I've jumped in skill level quickly recently. I'm just going to ride the wave because I know it's only a matter of time before I plateau again. Mike and I talked about that pass that I did as well as the over under pass which I've got to drill more because I can see it coming up a lot for me.

I rolled with Mike right after class, and I think I was a little too over confident. I was doing a good job of controlling him once I passed his guard I made several submission attempts. I just made the mistake of letting him get me back to guard and allowing him to get 2 grips on my collar. He hit a collar choke that he's been trying to do to me lately and it was tight. After that we talked some more about over under pass, because I saw the opportunity but hesitated and that's when he got the choke.

Ken and I finished the night out and I was robbed. It all happened pretty fast and I'm not sure I remember all of what happened. Somehow I had Ken in a triangle but I was just a little high on the far shoulder. I was then able to sweep him kind of but I was worried about him hitting his head. Eventually he got free and then passed my guard. I vested so much into that triangle that when he broke out of it I didn't have really anything left. While I still tried to fight, I felt a lot slower. He eventually tapped me with an americana.