6:30pm to 8:30pm

6:30-7p: Worked on guard pass with friend (purple belt). Spider guard giving me major problems. He's 6'2" or so and 210lbs so we're roughly comparable in size. Has strong grips I almost feel like tapping when he sinks his feet into my biceps and pulls on the sleeves. Freakn' hurts. I tried peeling off one leg with my knee as shown/practiced in class. Not very successful. Even if I peeled one leg he had something else lined up for me that inevitably led to a sweep. Highlight? Successful S-Mount escape taking advantage of his dead angle.

7-7:20p: Warm-up/standard drills. Significant cramping. Back of calves and core. Could only complete 50% of push ups (if that). Gassed.

7:20-7:30p: Pummeling drills. I never was a good dancer. Coordination was a bit tricky, but I had a good partner. We increased resistance over the drill. Arms tired.

7:30-7:45p: Mount to armbar and knee on belly to armbar drills. Not bad. Need to work on the knee on belly to armbar a lot more. Kept stepping too wide. Need to keep it tighter. Also need to work on trapping inside arm before crossing over and applying the armbar.

7:45-8:00p: Promotions. Lots of stripes. Three belts. One yellow belt (12 yr old who came from another school with a yellow belt was re-awarded yellow). Two blue belts. I've rolled with one of the new blue belts many times. Happy for his promotion. Oh. I got my first stripe.

8:00-8:30p: Rolls. First roll with another white belt (two stripes) approximately my age and size. Started with him in my guard. Spent most of the 5 min roll with him in my guard. Made him work. I eventually reversed and passed to mount. He bumped and reversed back into my guard. Basically a draw. Second roll with the newly minted 12yr old yellow belt. I like working with this kid. He's fairly strong and knows a bit of technique. I leave myself vulnerable (on purpose) and he takes advantage. Nice. Last roll was with another white belt who got his first stripe tonight. This guy knows some technique. He takes the self defense course and knows all sorts of funky submissions from various positions. A couple weeks ago he submitted me three times while within my guard. Didn't know what hit me. This time he only caught me once (guillotine choke) when I tried for an aggressive escape to stand up to take down.

Injury Report: Felt a sharp pain in my left knee. Knee buckled inward and to the back. Odd. Happened while standing up and adjusting my gi before workout. Good news is that it didn't bother me the rest of the workout.