I was pretty stoked as it's been a while since I've been able to attend an advanced gi class. Most of my advanced brethren were in attendance making it quite a large class. I'm often the only blue in the morning and noon classes so I think if I think this Wednesday class will be a nice addition.
I don't think my normal categories will apply to this class. We did a pretty kick ass warm-up including some exercises that I don't normally get to do: butterfly guard walk, Homer Simpson, and side rolls (I kind of miss those). Then we did extra reps of everything when we circled up heavy on the abdominal exercises. From there we did some killer lunges up and down the floor with some partner leg raises in between.
Finally I partnered up with Jerad for the 8 minute escape drill; the first time around having no resistance. I found that I don't have a huge repertoire of escapes from any of the positions so I ended up repeating a lot of the same ones. When we added resistance the second time through I hardly completed any escapes, but I kept moving and timing my escapes so that Jerad couldn't effectively attack. So I think I made it through without being submitted. From the top my mount felt really good, which has been coming together lately. I tried to pay back Jerad by serving him up a mounted triangle but he defended it very well and ended up escaping. He explained the escape to me in that he's bridging and using his arm inside the triangle to push me up just like the side to side bridges that we do in the beginning of class.
Greg had us break for water and then returned for some rolling. I was partnered up with Henry for this portion. I calmed myself down and cleared my head the best I could. I wasn't going to try to go strength on strength and try my best to go with the flow. I feel pretty good about my performance although our second roll my defenses fell apart a little bit. He really knows how to overcome my half guard, I may need to revisit this position and focus on it for a while. I caught him once a la loop choke and he caught once with an armbar from side mount that he setup beautifully while I defended his baseball bat grips.
I went with Greg next and I got the impression that he wasn't playing around. Everything that he did was his usual game but revved up and more serious. I felt like I had no chance, which is a real eye opener for those times when I thought I did well. 1st Roll: I pulled guard with a collar grip he passed my legs and dealt with my half-assed loop choke. From there he attacked from knee on belly going for baseball bat collar grips, while defending that he fell into a nearside armbar. 2nd Roll: Pulled guard with one spider hook. He stacked and got rid of the hook, knee slid and windshield wipered over my leg to side mount, knee on belly worked for baseball bat choke, I realized the mistake I made last time and almost did it again, he went to mount caught me in another armbar. 3rd roll: he sat to guard I went for my grips and stood up. He maneuvered into single leg-x and swept me passed to side mount started to setup the kimura which I defended for a little while, turned the kimura into an armbar. 4th roll: Is time up yet? He pulled guard I went for grips and stood he went for shin to shin and grabbed my leg to pull me in, time ended then.
Greg told me a did a good job after that, but it didn't feel like it. Really I had an overwhelming sense that my thinking was getting in the way. Every time he improved position it happened while I was trying to think of what to do next and then I had to scramble and reset my brain. That has to be one of the main things that comes with 8 more years of training.
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