Tuesday, July 24, 2012

July 23rd - Gi (Butterflies)

Nerves for the upcoming tournament are starting to get to me.  Have I prepared enough?  What's my game plan going to be?  Will I lose my first match and have a bad showing?  Worrying doesn't help and it's going to happen the way it's going to happen and I should go out and do my best. 

I've improved greatly since the last tournament. Ray gave me some good advice in the classes immediately following that set me on the path to improving my half and deep half guard.  Greg met with me for private lessons which I have seen major improvement from.  Other people like Jerad, Mike, Ken, Adam, and Fuji have also been a huge part of my improvement.  I started swimming 3 times a week and changed my diet helping me drop 15 lbs.  All this amounts to me being able to beat the shit out of my former self. 

Mike asked me to roll before class and we had a nice little exchange.  I was actually able to pass his guard for a few seconds but then he furiously regained it.  I was playing a dangerous game with over/under sweep and double unders which comes with some danger of a triangle at times especially against him. 

Jerad began class by discussing rules for the tournament.  Then we had some tournament style matches with myself and Mike continuing our battle from earlier.  He pulled guard right away and we worked from our normal positions, he almost swept me but I miraculously recovered but it gave him an advantage which he stayed ahead with until the end.

I fought David next, who pulled guard right away.  I was able to open his guard with the vertical shin escape but I still wasn't able to escape.  He was able to accumulate an advantage and some points for sweeping me.  I then swept him back to tie up the points but he still won by an advantage (if I'm remembering correctly).

After that I rolled with Adam and then James.  I didn't do anything spectacular in those matches that I can remember.  Adam smashed me and kept me in north/south and then submitted me with an Americana which hurt a little.  James got me in a strange kimura setup when he had my back.  It was nice.

Ken and I worked with Bryan a little bit on some collar chokes.  Not my strong suit, but I do like the loop choke that Mike does.  He eventually came over and showed us how he does it, which helped me learn some of the finer points of it.

Finally I rolled with Jerad a couple of times and discussed game plan and shin sweep afterwards.  I kept trying to get x-guard but he was preventing it well.  I had an opportunity for the shin sweep but wasn't able to get him over due to one issue that we worked on afterward.  He got me with the triangle from mount the same way I tried to get him Friday.  He got me with something else too but I don't recall. 

Mike, Ken, and I talked after class about the tournament and game plans and Mike reassured me that I should have confidence in my abilities.  We had a pretty good conversation about the book that I'm reading (Talent is overrated) as well.

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