Monday, September 17, 2012

September 17th - Gi

Pretty small class again tonight.  Will taught with a focus on Shawn William's guard and omma plata.  I worked with Garrett for most of class as we went through 5 or 6 different techniques.  Nothing was too new for me but I did have some understandable trouble with the gogo plata. 

We did a king of the mat pass/sweep/submit drill after that and I had a good little run at one point.  My game has improved in the some parts of the guard I feel like I'm getting better at loading up onto my hips and working for the armbar or flower sweep and then also going for cross guard and the omma plata.  However, with my injury still healing it is very easy to open my closed guard and I often give up knee cut passes way too easily.  But, that comes with the territory of trying to heal and train at the same time.  Got to swallow my pride and just accept my limitations and find other answers.

I rolled with Will during open mat and had a pretty good match.  There were a couple times where I had to escape and give up position because of a deep butterfly or pressure on the knee.  I went for the bull fighter (not bull rider) pass and ripped Will's pants.  Apparently he was wearing his first gi.  I felt a little bad for I let it go.  I spent most of the time on the bottom in full or half guard.  I even had a couple of opportunities for triangles that we both fought for and against for a couple of minutes.  I didn't want to push too much though because triangles can be hard on the knees.  Will eventually got me in a straight ankle lock.  

I've been thinking about blue belt a lot lately and what I would need to work on to earn it.  I'm having a little internal ego battle about it.  On one hand it shouldn't matter and I should just train to be my best regardless of what's around my waist.  On the other hand I feel like I'm ready for more of a challenge to live up to.  Will my senior training partners take me more seriously?  Will I be hunted by the white belts and visitors?  It's quite motivating to ponder.

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