September 3rd 2014 - Gi

Theme & Techniques: Takedown Fit-Ins, Closed Guard Brabo Cross Choke and Brabo Choke
Partner: Ken, Will

As always, it's good to see Ken and work with him.  The technique was pretty solid today, although I don't go for the brabo very often especially in guard.  I had a little trouble coordinating the steps of breaking their posture and keeping them down while I worked their gi lapel to the back of their head, but once there the choke seemed pretty easy.

Rolling: Guard King of the Mat, Free Rolling
Rolled With: Henry, Will, Adam, Gina, Greg, Mike, Ken

Had a bit of a rough session of rolling tonight which shattered my ego a bit.  I may not have been in the right mindset walking into class, there have been a few things bugging me that logically shouldn't but some self doubt and other personal insecurities have been creeping in.  So when things didn't go right during KotM it fed my bad mood a little.  Then I got into a bit of a cycle to where I thought if I just tried harder on the next round I'd get through it.  Then when my expectations weren't met it made me feel worse.  Eventually my analytical side was able to talk myself out of it a little bit.  Of course we've all read the memes of "You either win or you learn" or "It's a marathon not a race" things that I've said earnestly to others.  It can be tough to swallow your own medicine at times.  Fuckin ego.

There were some good things that happened.  Had a good bout with Ken where I attempted a standing guard break then he stood up and Judo tripped me but I was able to use the momentum to sweep him.  I had a tough half guard battle with Adam where I used the arm weave against his knee shield, eventually he was able to almost take my back but we ended up in side control. 

By the time I rolled with Adam during the free rolling portion, I felt like my head was in a pretty good place.  My main objective was to keep him from passing my guard and I hung on longer than I expected.  He had me in side control for a while, but I was able to regain butterfly guard and got a little excited but he was able to pass it again.

With Gina I tried to be a smooth as possible without using any pressure; well I probably used a little bit of pressure.  There was a point when I caught her with the head and arm choke and I could feel that she was giving in so I told her to fight out of it and I wasn't going to let her quit.  After she escaped I started in bottom side control and wasn't able to make anything happen.  She apologized later for being a bad rolling partner and I tried to tell her that is never the case.