April 5th - Gi (Unsatisfied)

Conan taught class yesterday.  James Nakashima (a college wrestler) participated in class as well and Conan had him go over some wrestling stuff.  We pretty much just went over single leg probably because there were a lot of white belts in class.  It was pretty much everything that Adam has taught us in the past with a few minor differences.  Still was good practice, as I know my wrestling needs a lot of work.  I think my biggest problem is that I don't feel confident enough to commit to the shot.

The rest of the class we worked on armbar from guard.  I ended up being on the senior side of the rotation today so I was doing a lot of teaching.  My biggest problem with this technique is I'm not utilizing the leg that goes into their armpit enough to break their posture.  Otherwise I feel pretty comfortable with it.  However, the most difficult part with any technique is setting it up without letting the other person know what you're doing it.  Once the technique is learned and in muscle memory it's all about how and when you set them up.

I rolled with Mike a couple of times during open mat.  First I tried to bum rush him and complete the over under pass but he put me into a triangle right away.  So much for being confident about the over-underpass.  He ended up tapping me from an armbar on his belly.  The next match I spent the majority of the time in his guard.  His guard is getting impossible to pass and very frustrating (not as frustrating as Ken yet mind you).  He was able to put me into the triangle again but this time I framed up as best I could and my size won out.  It was still very bad that I was there in the first place. 

We ended up in 50/50 for a while which I have no experience with.  I really just wanted to get out of the position, apparently I don't know the rules very well because I reaped the knee in my attempt to untangle us.  When we were free we both tried some dlr stuff.  He almost got me in the loop choke a couple of times.  He definitely was on the attack more than I was.  I almost passed his guard right at the end but he turtled up and Conan called us all to bow out.

I've been feeling unsatisfied after Thursday classes.  With the kids Judo coming up right after our class we have to get off the mat right away.  Unlike Monday when we stay an hour after class and have an opportunity to roll with 3 to 5 people.  It's motivated me to try to make it to Friday open mat more often.