April 2nd - Gi (Jumping Back in the Pool)

Jerad taught class last night with a progression from an underhook in guard.  It seems like a great place to be and we did an armlock, omma plata, flower sweep (I wanted to type flour sweep), a back take, and then how to center up when you're on top. 

When we started to drill this position became a lot more difficult to maintain than I thought.  We started in the position and most of the time I was able to get my elbow back inside and center up.  Adam and Jerad did do a lot better job in the position than most.  I had a difficult time keeping the position from everyone else as well.  I may need to research it and figure out what I can do to improve it.  We each ended up partnering with everyone else in class which turned out to be 7 matches each lasting 2 minutes on top and 2 minutes on bottom.

I only had the strength to roll twice during open mat.  Seemed like most everyone else was worn out too as there were only 4 of us left. I rolled with Jerad twice.  He caught me the first time with an armbar from the belly but I don't remember what happened the second time or if we finished. 

I did get the over under pass position a couple of times throughout the night but still wasn't able to complete it against the good guys.  I went over it with Jerad and he thought I was raising my butt too high, which is what I thought I was supposed to do.  So, I'm going to try to change that and push more forward instead of tripod to high up. 

I also asked Mike about his loop choke that he likes to do.  I think I'm going to try to incorporate that more because the standard gi choke hasn't worked for me, but I've been tricked by his choke before and it's very tight.

We were talking about cutting weight before leaving and I blurted out that I wanted to get under 200 pounds and be at 190 this year.  I guess since I said it it's now a goal.  I've gotten back into the pool 3 times in the past week and it feels great.  I'm thinking about training with a snorkel for a while to take breathing out of the equation, and see if I can get more of a cardio workout.  Sometimes I feel like I can do more but my breathing gets all messed up. I've been thinking about my diet as well and I've been tapering off my pop consumption.  I welcome any advice to get this weight off as healthy as possible and keep it off.