March 17th - No Gi

I started off yesterday already a little sore.  On Saturday, I had rolled with my Hapkido group in the morning and then again in the afternoon with Bill, the corrections trainer.  Plus I also stood in a bar for several hours watching the UFC later that night.  I probably would have skipped but both Bauer and Bill had said that he was going to try to make it to class, so I thought I should go.  Bauer didn't show up unfortunately.

Per my request Ray had us work on breaking the turtle position and ended up having us each teach a method.  I taught kind of a bowl over technique grabbing the far arm and ankle and then pushing with head and chest to put them into side control.  Adam taught a better way that I will probably use in the future that puts a pretty mean crossface on while moving around their head.  We did a few others that I was familiar with and Jerad obviously chose to teach the darce.

We trained from the position after that with 1 and 2 minute rounds, then we finished with up/down/out with guard passing.  I took it pretty easy and kept my left leg away from danger for the most part.  I watched Ray and Jerad roll a few times impressively.  I ended up not rolling, didn't want to chance injury.  Hopefully I'll be able to stop procrastinating and finally make the appointment to see the orthopedist. 

March 3rd - No Gi

Ray had us do some single leg drilling and then half guard.  I worked with wrestler Jordan for the majority of the single leg part.  I notice I get a lot more winded working on this than when doing ground based stuff.  I felt pretty good about my head position and the technique in general.  I did have some stumbling blocks once I got the guy down.  I need to work on the leg drag a little more, Ray also gave me some pointers on how to prevent half guard and finish in side control.

We worked primarily from the lockdown in half guard, which I wasn't too happy about.  I've been doing a great job in rolling keeping my leg out of the lock down but it's impossible to do that when the other person is trying to practice that particular thing.  Everyone was cool with me asking them to take it easy on my left side.  Everything was good in the end.  We worked on underhooking, dog pawing, and taking that back.

During open mat I rolled with Jordan and we went over my limited knowledge of standing passes in no-gi.  I guess I have a few tricks.  We took turns playing guard or standing.  He gave me the compliment that he wanted to avoid my half guard, which I will accept.

January 17th - Gi

Nice large class pretty well split with experience yesterday with me falling in the middle.  Ray had us do some partner warm-up stuff with carrying each other up and down the floor, I was partnered with Wes which wasn't that big of a deal, I just wish I could have done the squats at the end in the fireman's carry.  Then we did some Judo fitting in and some throws up and down the floor. 

The Ray broke us up into groups and there seemed to be some confusion as to which group I was supposed to go with but Ray used me to demonstrate an armbar from guard on for the white belts and then let me go play with the senior belts.

Jerad had us do some sweeps from open guard.  The first one was a little difficult for me because I'm not sure about the pressure doing the shin sweep puts on my knee.  I did like the sweep though.  The second (sickle sweep) was more comfortable for me and I liked how it worked.  Next Will sent through the wrestling switch which I am a little shaky on when and how to use it.  I like it but need to know more about its applications.

We did the 8 minute drill next.  I did a full round with Jerad and then a have of one with Mike being the attacker.  I felt pretty good for the most part and I don't really get gassed out anymore during this drill.  My knee was getting fatigued by the end of class but it held up pretty well.

November 25th - No Gi (Okay it wasn't a Month)

I'm feeling pretty good after going to Jiu-Jitsu a couple of times this weekend.  My knees feel loose and strong.  I thought since my family was out of town this weekend I would give Jiu-Jitsu a try.  I know, I didn't take a "full" month off, and I express my thanks to everyone that pointed that out.  Now the question is, should I return or take another month off.  There are things that I still don't feel comfortable doing, like Judo throws and some wrestling.  Maybe another month would do me some good but after getting a little taste and feeling good after class I want to come back.  I have to think about what will be better for me in the long term.

Ray was nice enough to make the theme of the class be a deep half guard review.  Perfect, I love this position right now and I picked up on somethings that I have been doing incorrectly up until now.  The main thing that I picked up was that I need to be flat on my back once I'm in the position.  This makes such a difference to the person on top's balance and preventing them from stepping over.  Then it also made it easier to roll to the side and do the leg drag. 

We did another sweep after that using the feet to do a somewhat reverse heel hook.  The last technique that we did was a back take which I hadn't worked on before.  Both of these techniques require a little bit of flexibility to get the feet and shins in the right place.

We did some king of the mat training next from half guard trying to pass/sweep/submit.  We did just two groups.  As expected Ray, Adam, and Jerad held the bottom positions the most.  With a lot of work the coolest thing that happened was me catching Adam in a guillotine.  I really just wanted him to release his half guard but I actually got him to tap.  I don't count it as an official tap since we were doing a specific exercise but it was cool nonetheless.  There were several times when I felt like I was tricked.  I would feel like I was just about to pass Jerad and he would make it seem easy for me to take mount and when I did he timed it perfectly to roll me over.  There were a couple of other things like that, that were frustrating.

During open mat I spent some time with the new guy, Stanley.  I tried to show him some of the basic stuff that everyone should learn.  I like watching new students progress mostly to see how other people learn.  Let's see if he sticks around.

I rolled with Jerad next and he was really nice to me in the beginning.  He allowed me to take top position, pass his guard and even mount.  Somehow I ended up back in side mount later and saw an opportunity for a north/south choke.  I could tell that it wasn't working although it was tight and I was keeping him there I could hear him breathing normal.  I decided to abandon it and go back to side control.  He set up a shin sweep perfectly and I was on the bottom after that.  I defended the darce several times but like usual he got me when I was turtled and rolled me over.  Tap.

September 30th - No-Gi

Ray taught the no-gi class yesterday with a focus on top half guard attacking techniques.  Good stuff since I normally am just trying to pass half guard instead of submit from there except for maybe the darce a la Jerad's instruction. We did Kimura, Darce choke, then Guillotine choke if they defended the darce, and then a knee bar by sitting back over them and taking their leg which I had not done this way before.

We trained the half guard after that with partners and king of the mat.  I wasn't really able to pass anyone but half guard has been one of those positions lately that is dangerous for my knee, especially the lockdown.  So, I tried to take it easy from here and not do anything that would aggravate them.

During open mat I rolled with Jordan several times.  He seemed to improve quite a bit since last time we rolled.  He did a good job of exploiting my weakness but standing up and moving around my guard.  I think I'm going to play around with some inversion going forward to prevent this.  I caught him in a couple of arm bars and a rear naked, but I feel like I had to work a lot harder for them than previous weeks.  We talked a little bit about half guard and I showed him some things that I like to do to make it work like the importance of the underhook.

I rolled once with Jerad and we had a long active roll.  I spent most of the time playing open guard and half guard.  He did a really good job at defending my deep half and it was a little frustrating.  There were a couple of times when I was able to come up to like an over/under pass but that pass is so difficult for me in no-gi.  In the end he got me with an arm triangle that he set up from my back which was really tight.

September 23rd - No Gi (Fiddy Fiddy)

Ray taught class yesterday with a focus on attacking the ankles from 50/50 guard.  Besides ending up there with Mike a couple of times I have had zero experience in the position. We went over a couple of ways to get the heel hook and a compression lock on the Achilles and then my favorite the Toe Hold.  I was a little worried about hurting my knees but I didn't really feel any discomfort besides just fear for being hurt.  I worked with Adam on this and it went pretty well because we were both quick to tap when the lock was right.

We then did some position drills from open guard to work into the leg lock position or pass.  Which then fed into some king of the mat guard passing with two groups.  Adam and Ray pretty much dominated.  I can't wait until I feel 100% again and start working on my guard passing.  I came close to passing a couple of times or so I thought.

During open mat I went with Jordan for a little while and took it pretty easy.  I mostly just played guard and found myself focusing on the hip heist and kimura combo.  He and I took turns trying to submit Ray and failing.

I really have no answer for Ray as many of the things that I usually do to people have no affect on him.  His head and neck make it difficult to choke him and anytime I felt like I was going to take his back he'd ankle lock me.  I did do some good things from the bottom and continued exploring some different wristlocks and some attempts at straight arm lock.  I made it to deep half a couple of times but lost him by going out the back door like Mike has been complaining about.  We discussed deep half a bit which helped.  I got some good ideas for technique changes that I'll be trying to implement.

August 12th - No Gi (MMA)

The first thing Ray said when I walked into the Dojo was "Did you bring Gloves?  Cause we're going to hit each other today."  Cool, too bad I didn't bring my gloves and my knee isn't 100%. 

My knee held up okay throughout class.  We hit the pads with some boxing and then threw in some round house kicks and a push kick.  We also did some double leg shooting off of punches and kicks.  To end the drilling part of class we did 90 leg techniques with 30 round house kicks on each leg and then 30 knees from the clinch.

We split into 3 groups and had different stations.  First we grappled with MMA gloves and were allowed some light punching contact, next was stand-up boxing and the third station was just rolling.

Adam and I started out as partners for the first go around.  In the past when I've worked on ground and pound type sparring I've felt like I've done pretty well.  Adam is a completely different type of beast and ending up on the bottom was a terrible action for me to take.  I feel like I did okay but he would have destroyed me if we were using more contact and he didn't like me.  I did a little bit better on the feet.  Although I probably would have been in trouble with Adam if wrestling was allowed.  The gloves that I had sucked and at one point my contact fell out so we had to cut our match short.  I felt pretty useless on the ground with my knee still hurting.  I have no advantages against Adam anyway so with a gimpy leg I pretty much just try to survive.  He tapped me out with a pair of kimuras from side mount.

I went with new guy Wes for another round of 3 stations.  Due to it being Wes's second Jiu-Jitsu class I didn't have too many problems anywhere with him.  He is in shape though, so he's not a complete push over.  With the ground and pound I stayed on top and tied him up the best I could with crucifixes or mount and then sent down a few punches.  From the feet, it was a little awkward with the big gloves getting in the way.  I'm kind of a sniper and not a combination kind of fighter so I missed some opportunities to throw multiple punches.  With rolling instead of just dominating him I showed him some mount escapes and some basics.

After class I rolled with Ray a couple of times.  He took it easy on me and we decided no ankle locks.  I've been successful with a omma-platta to triangle combination lately and was able to threaten it on Ray he still defended both but it was cool to work it.  I believe he choked me out with a guillotine and something else. 

I rolled with Claire until Daito-Ryu came out and to challenge myself I tried to use my hands as little as possible.  While I kept her at bay for most of the match and had a triangle and a few omma plata attempts, escaping from side control was the hardest, and I didn't know what to do when I had mount.  I also found myself cheating a couple of times on accident.

July 12th - Gi

Busy at work today so I have to cut this short.  Ray taught class yesterday with an emphasis on going from stand-up to ground; It was for my benefit no less.  We started with shooting and sprawling then we moved to take the back.  We did a defense and counter against a throw after that.  Finally we worked on pulling guard and trying to sweep from there.

For open mat we did king of the mat with 3 groups.  I started off with David who was able to hold me into his closed guard until he put the smackdown with a triangle, my only saving grace was that it took him a long time to do it. 

I felt like I was almost going to pass Ray.  I used the knee guard break that we've been working on on Mondays with Greg and it worked great until he was able to clamp down on me with his legs while I tried to pass.  I tried to pass from top half guard for a while but was not able to and he swept me.

July 8th - No Gi

Ray was in charge of class this morning and naturally when he asked what I wanted to work on I said ankle locks.  Particularly setting them up from the leglock guard position.  We started from a failed sweep from the butterfly guard and then kicked our leg through and then hooked the hip while the inside leg went up into their crotch area.  From there we worked a few takedowns by extending or turning their knee depending on how they stepped.  The final technique we worked on was how to get out of it from the top guys perspective.  Which amounted to standing up to put the foot on the floor then controlling their leg to keep their hips down at the same time and eventually stepping over into mount.

During open mat I went with Tate first.  It was a very active roll with lots of scrambles and transitions and no one really getting the upper hand.  I pulled off a really awesome toe hold at one point but he fought like a madman to get out of it, after that he turned up the heat a little more and put a lot of pressure on me.  From there he had me in side control and then when I went to turtle he got me with an armbar. 

I rolled with Carlos next in a glorious back and forth battle.  He's getting pretty wise to my deep half guard and whenever I go there he's slipping a kimura in.  I feel like I'm starting to get the underhook on him more and more but he still has the experience to get it when he needs it.  I tried several submissions that did not finish him (North/south choke, darce, toe hold, and a triangle).  I felt like the triangle was so close.  I set it up from closed guard and kept an overhook while I continually tried form the jumprope.  I finally got it after several attempts and some omma plata attempts as well.  It seemed tight but he eventually was able to get his arm free and I ended up in side control.  Once I regained guard and told him that I thought this wasn't going to end so we agreed to quit.  I'd like to know how many points we each scored.  He might have beat me on points as I went for several submissions I think he might have passed my half guard several times more than I had sweeps from deep half. 

We had a little powwow after that with several of us talking about my game plan for the state games.  The main focus was a best - worse case senario of possible outcomes from the feet.  Ray's opinions differed from mine in a couple of cases where I thought my open guard is very strong and maybe pulling guard would be where I want to be he assured me that I should strive to be on top and keep top.  I think I find the guard more fun and facinating is why I kind of like the idea of fighting from there.  I'm going to really be focusing on my gameplan for the next 20 days until the tournament.

June 14th - Gi (More Doing)

Shihan asked to talk to me before class.  He requested that I make sure that visitors to Wednesday morning open mat sign a waiver and pay a mat fee.  Which was something I was wondering about, so I'm glad he brought it up.

With how hot it was and the fact that Ray was running class, I knew it was going to be a rough practice.  He made the comment that Shihan and he were talking about sometimes we do too much talking and not enough doing.  We broke from the usual instructor demonstrates a technique then we all work on it and instead split up into partners and worked on position sparring.  After each round the junior student would rotate.  We worked from mount, side mount, butterfly, half butterfly, turtle and some other things. 

Ray had us lined up by weight and then put us into groups.  I was of course in the heavy group.  We treated them like tournament matches.  I went with Fuji twice and had a hell of a time trying to figure out a way to get him down and end up on top.  It didn't happen and in fact he through me perfectly the first time and landed on me in side control.  He didn't submit me either time and I believe I was able to at least get half guard but he pretty much held me down and went for arm triangle repeatedly which was what he got me with last time.

I went with James next and he completely dominated me.  He scored all of the points that he could by getting a takedown to passing guard to mount, to back mount, then back to mount and then into armbar.  The time stopped before he could complete it.  It sucked being dominated like that but it was also amazing to see how smoothly he transitioned and hit all of the points.

I also went with Tate.  I was pretty tired by this time and was pretty much just trying to survive.  I remember that he tried a throw but I was able to shrug it off.  I believe he beat me on points for passing my guard but I defended well beyond that.  I ended the match in deep half which was cool to see.

I rolled with Jerad too but I don't really remember much from that match.  I know I spent some time trying to pass and I was possibly overextending myself from being exhausted.  I remember getting into a baseball bat choke early on but he had his arm in defending and I gave it up.  I have no recollection of the rest of the match.  He might have bow and arrowed me for all I know.

After bowing out I worked with Claire.  She was getting a little miffed at Ray trying to coach her.  We talked about a post that I had made a while back that she related to on a certain person coaching me.  I tried to do some x and spider guard with Claire to work on some things that I'm not as confident with.

As an added note this morning my coworker and I freestyle swam a mile (33 laps) straight without a break.  It was both physically and mentally tough but I feel great about finishing it.

June 3rd - Private Lesson & No-Gi (Watched Worlds)

Had a private lesson with Greg yesterday morning concerning the x-guard.  It was a great session and I picked up quite a few things that I hadn't known.  I especially like that most of the techniques that we worked on can be done from both gi and no-gi.  I picked up a lot that I need to drill if I'm going to use it.

I came back an hour later for no-gi class.  Kind of a small class at first.  Ray taught us some of his deep half guard game.  It was quite interesting and I feel that I gained some knowledge from the class.  We started off with getting into the position then did a sweep and then some leg locks from there.

For open mat I rolled with Tate a couple of times.  I wasn't feeling very spry yesterday and he dominated me more than usual.  I was still able to play some of my guard game but I wasn't able to get up off the floor very much.  I believe he got me with a darce and an armbar. 

I rolled with Adam next and he destroyed me even more.  We agreed that ankle locks were okay but I never came close to getting one on him.  His knee on belly was killing me once again.  He got me with an armbar and a toe hold.

After a quick shower and taking care of some stuff at home, I headed over to Mike's place to watch the IBJJF Worlds.  It was actually more interesting and exciting than I thought it would be since I really don't know the names of most of the fighters.  There was an awful lot of open guard de las rivas type stuff which was cool to see.  There were even some flying armbars and some other fancy techniques.  It's definitely an eye opener to see these guys roll at such a high level.

May 20th - No-Gi (Tournament Reflection and Videos)

Yesterday was a reflection day and not too formal.  Ray and I were the first ones and it seemed like maybe the only ones, but then Jerad, Adam, Bauer, and Claire showed up.  Just for me due to my performance Saturday, Ray decided to impart his half guard wisdom.  We got with a partner and would work on half guard and Ray would come around and help us.

The 2 things that I took away most from the session was that I need to affect and control their leg.  There were too many times during the tournament that I focused on upper body but did very little with the leg.  The second thing is that when I go for the sweep I need to shoot under their ankle or opposite leg to my shoulder instead of just to my elbow.  I need to try to take their place instead of try to pull them on top of me.  At the end of the class I still had some issues with when to shoot under and how to stop getting smashed.  But, I'll work on it.

The videos from the tournament are below.

May 17th - Gi (Tournament Prep)

We split the class into two groups after a quick warm-up.  This was pretty cool as the newer guys were learning about tournament rules and scoring etc.  We instead went through a series starting with reverse dlr to inverted back take to reverse x-guard and ending with butterfly.  I have a lot of fun working on a lot of this stuff and I seem to pick it up pretty fast.

At the end of class we did some tournament matches and I rolled with Adam first.  It was pretty difficult but I surprised myself by maintaining guard.  He scored the takedown right off the bat and kept the top position for the rest of the time.  There were a couple of times when I went to spider and lasso guard and I almost had a half guard sweep but in the end he beat me on points.

For my second match I went up against Tate.  I decided to go for broke and try a kneeling shoulder throw off the bat and I pulled it off.  That was the highlight as the rest of the match consisted of me trying to pass his guard, being in his back mount for a while and almost getting triangled.  We had some pretty good scrambles.  Can't wait until tomorrow.  I don't know who I will be going up against but I'll just try my best to do my thing.

May 11th - Gi (Broke 200)

Ray taught a pretty active class yesterday.  We carried each other across the mat a couple of ways.  We then got in groups of 3 and did the fitting in drill and then the break dancing roll and jump exercise.  We did a few combination throws from a failed reaping throw to and inside leg takedown and then a wrestling takedown.  The remainder of the instructional portion of the class was spent on the lockdown and whip up from half guard.

Ray had the more experienced people go to the corners and partner up with new people.  From there we rolled starting from different guard positions (open guard, de las rivas, reverse dlr, inverted guard, and spider guard).  It was nice to work some of these different positions specifically with new people.  It takes some of the competition out of it and forces me to try new things instead of going to the things that I feel like I'm good at.

During open mat I rolled with Jordan.  I can already see some improvement in him as he was doing some good things with body positions to keep me from passing his guard.  I started out working a lot of knee on belly and going for the far side armbar.  Still need to work on making the setup a little cleaner and sneaky.

I weighed myself this morning after swimming and I finally broke 200 lbs with 199.2.  For a long time I've just accepted that 210 was my weight and it wasn't going to change.  190 here I come.

March 22nd - Gi (Good Workout)

We had a really good workout yesterday with Ray at the Helm.  It was a good balance of cardio, throws, some ground work, and then open mat time at the end.  Due to the Judo class time change I haven't felt like Thursday classes have provided as much of a workout lately because open mat time has seemed to suffer a bit.  I think working harder like we did yesterday will make up for this. 

We did some rolls then falling.  We got with a partner and did 50 fit in combo throws and then some partner drills like leap frog and monkey rolls.  Monkey rolls are a 3 person drill kind of like break dancing where you jump over a person rolling toward you and then you roll toward the next person.  Our group was probably the most dangerous consisting of the big guys me, Jerad and Fuji.  Then we did some fitting in and worked on the shoulder throw.  I was partnered up with Gina and one of the newer guys for that.  Too bad Gina's wrist is still bothering her.  We went up and down the mat with the shoulder throw.  We worked on a couple of arm bar setups from guard.  The basic setup underhooking the leg and pushing off the hip and then where we climb up their back.  I still need to work on the climb up the back one.  My partners were both pretty new guys so I didn't get any true resistance and was helping them more with the technique.

Finally we setup two rings and did tournament type rolling.  I went with Fuji first and he beat the crap out of me.  We each tried to throw each other without any success and then I shot in for a double leg.  I got all excited because I got him down but then I was flipping over him and we both ended up standing again.  Eventually I was kind of lead into pulling guard.  From there on out it sucked as he smashed me and put me into horrible positions.  I'm sure he racked up quite a few points.  At least I survived until the end.

Second I went with Ray.  I'm always apprehensive when I go against Ray in standup.  With his Judo background he has a way of pulling a throw seemingly out of nowhere.  However, as he was pushing me sideways I went for broke and sat into the Valley Drop throw (Tani Otoshi).  It worked beautifully and I ended up in back mount.  However, it was short lived and Ray was soon on top punishing me and put me into an armlock.

I went up against a new guy Devon.  After a little bit of patty cake I shot in for a double leg and from there I didn't let him get off his back.  I did help him get out of my knee on belly but then went right into north-south choke which he wasn't expecting.  He and I worked a little bit on a couple of things after that.  The disparity in knowledge and skill is amazing in this art.  Sometimes I feel like I can't do anything correct but put me up against one of the new guys and I really can't do anything wrong. 

March 1st - Gi

Ray taught class yesterday and the theme was some judo throws for when your opponent is keeping you out at arms length.  We did 50 fit ins in a row first as kind of a warmup and then we worked with our partner with our favorite throw for real 20 times.  Ray had us all work on a shoulder throw where we dropped to our knees between the opponent's legs.  Then osotto gari and finally a throw where you grab both of their knees and they kind of sit on your knee as you take them backwards.  We did that last one on the crash pads.  My back was on and off bugging me during this, it was always in my mind so I know I was a little slower and a little more cautious while throwing and being thrown.

We did a group kind of open mat where the higher level belts took a corner and we started in guard and fought for 4 minutes or so.  I didn't do so well against Fuji, once I screwed up and let him get on top of me he became the unmovable object.  While he didn't submit me in the time limit I definitely wasn't scoring any points.

I rolled with Mike next and there was some good and bad.  He put me in a triangle but with some work I was able to get out of by keeping a lot of space, if we had been the same size I'm sure he could have gotten me.  I don't believe anyone tapped in that match either.

Ray was my final match and I think he was being easy on me because I got some things that I don't normally get on him.  Although he did tap me out first.  I had him in X-guard and did the basic sweep but was unable to get my leg free in time to come up with it.  At the end I did kind of a de la rivas back take but was unable to control him and we just ended up in guard but it was looking really good until then.

Now with kids Judo directly after our class at 5:30 I leave Jiu-Jitsu kind of unfulfilled because I don't feel like I get enough open mat time in.  I might have to start trying to make it to Fridays more once my back is 100%.

February 27th - No Gi

Had to skip last Wednesday and Thursday due to a combination of lower back pains and having a cold.  I'm not sure but I think those arm drags from last Monday might have tweaked my back.  The pulling and then twisting to the back maybe, not sure, but anytime I sat for a while and needed to get up it was a painful process.  This also meant that I missed the free in-house tournament on Saturday.  Apparently there would have been some competition for me there so I'm a little bummed about that.

Sunday class was taught by Ray and it was centered mostly around half guard mistakes that he saw at the tournament.  During some warmup shrimping Ray noticed that I was wincing or at least not enjoying my jaunt down the floor.  He had us do some yoga like stretches that made my back feel a ton better and helped me continue through class.

We worked on what to do from top half guard mostly trying to keep the other guy flat on his back or going for a kimura.  It was very informative and it also helped me realize some of the things that I need from the bottom position.

To end class we had a quasi-king of the mat having three people rotate through the rest of the group trying to pass guard or sweep or submit.  While I feel I'm improving in this area I have some fundamental weaknesses there.  Like I've been told several times already, I open my guard too easily and without a purpose and I give up on some things too easily as well.  With 9 of us rotating through this ended up taking the rest of the class time.

January 29th - No Gi

Good class on the topic of leg/foot locks conducted by Ray yesterday.  To make it simple everything that we did started from the top in our partners guard.  Once the guard was broken we'd isolate the leg and sit back and do the lock.  We worked on Achilles, heel hook, toe hold and knee bar. We were able to do a lot of reps with each and the setups were the same throughout except the knee bar so we got a lot of practice.

During open mat I rolled with Adam first.  At one point I was playing some open half guard and attempted a guillotine.  It must have been decent because I was able to turn it into a sweep and I ended up in mount.  I wasn't able to finish the choke from mount but I kept the position for a while.  Once he got out of that I ended up in side control for a long time.  I can't remember how we ended.  I think we might have just quit but he could have made me tap too.

I went with Ken next and I was so close to catching him.  I was half guard and went for the kimura on his far arm.  I rolled into top position but he was able to shrimp away from me and get his elbow free.  However, I was able to take side control after this.  He eventually caught me with an armbar or americana later on. 

I started rolling with the new guy Bosier (sp?) but we had to bow out and get off the mat before the next class.  He was very rigid like before and stiffened his arms quite a bit.  I think I said this last time but I must learn how to capitalize on this.  It was good to see a couple of new people in class.

January 19th - Gi (Stupid Triangle)

Ray taught class yesterday and it was a pretty awesome class.  My gripe about not drilling enough was answered.  We started off with some animal walking and other calisthenics.  With a partner we did sweeps, throws, and wrestling takedowns.

For the rest of the class we did several position drills just trying to escape, sweep or improve.  We did mount, guard, open guard, butterfly, half, sprawl position, and maybe a few others I've forgotten.  We kept up a pretty good pace.

During open mat I went with Brad, who I haven't rolled with in a while.  I was kind of hoping that enough time had passed that I would blow him away but that wasn't really the case.  I did well for the most part but in our first match I made the mistake of getting sucked into his triangle.  He did a really good job of holding my sleeves and pulling me into position while wrapping his legs around my head and shoulders.  I hung on for a while but had to eventually tap.

During our second roll I was able to take top position off the bat and kept him in side control for a while.  He wasn't really guarding the north-south choke so I took special care to control his head and not let him turn in and I slunk down into position pushing forward on his shoulder.  His chin was digging into my ribs a little bit but I felt like I still had it locked up pretty well and I steadily applied pressure until he tapped.

We went a third time for a tie breaker and I thought I was doing well.  I had him in the reverse arm triangle for a while but eventually lost it trying to make it tighter.  Later on I was doing the basic guard pass with my shin across his leg and I kind of got stopped.  Instead of continuing to go forward I thought it would be more clever for me to go around his leg to the other side of his body.  Big mistake as this freed his other leg and I was put in his stupid triangle again.  We hung out there for a long time and soon everyone was congregated around us telling us both what to do to submit/defend the triangle.  My sore neck tells me that I probably should have tapped sooner because I eventually had enough and tapped.  So, I'll be working triangle defenses as soon as possible.

January 12th - Gi

Ray taught class yesterday and we worked on some reverse de la rivas.  I worked with Julian for some of the warm-up.  He is an MMA fighter and has a really great attitude.  We did some transition drill with reverse de la rivas/x-guard/butterfly guard.  We worked on a lot of the same de la rivas things we've been working on lately, the back take, and the sweep.  We finished with a couple of variations for the bow and arrow choke.

I rolled with David first for open mat.  He pointed out that I shouldn't be laying flat on my back in guard so I tried a little bit to get off to a side and attack more.  I was able to half way sweep him and put him into guard and got the opportunity to see what he does from this position.  He does a really good job of putting my arm in danger making me concentrate on other things rather than escaping his guard.  I will make this my goal to improve my movement and activity in guard.  I can't remember how he submitted me, it might have been an armbar from guard.

Jared was next, and like usual I had a difficult time with his guard.  I defended some of his sweep attempts and the kimura that he's caught me with from half guard a couple of times.  Eventually he was able to get me on my back in guard.  He recall him standing up to break it and I felt like I didn't know what to do.  I finally tried to get my feet into reverse de la rivas but failed.  The rest of the time I spent defending side control either the far side armbar or the darce.  It seemed that whatever I tried was met with some type of submission attempt.  He eventually got me with an armbar.