10:45a-12:30p

10:45-11a: Stretched. Sore today. Ribs ache.

11-11:15a: Warm-ups / standard drills. Will led. No bear crawls. No burpees. No sprints. Just right for a sore old guy.

11:15a-12p: Revisited technique from Tuesday and Wednesday night. Front grab to step around to throw to knee on belly to step-around armbar. Side head lock escape to choke. Torreando pass. Double underhook stack pass. Nick was my partner. He didn't spare my ribs on the throws. Ouch.

12-12:30p: Rolls. First roll with Nick. Oh to have his energy. He charged the entire time. Fended off chokes and armbar attempts. At one point I escaped, passed, and advanced to knee on belly. Drove my 220lbs down into that shin. I could tell he was not comfortable, but he kept his cool and created the space he needed and escaped. Recovered half guard. Then recovered full guard. Impressive. Later in the roll Nick set up an arm bar from mount. He went to seated mount, but had a very good base and my trusty seated mount escape got me no where. Had to switch to armbar defense. I couldn't establish the escape posture, but somehow managed to fend off the arm bar, recover posture, stack, and pass to side control. Time ran out. We were both gassed. Tough roll. Geez. He's 17 and weighs 50lbs less. What a fight...

Will (blue belt) was next. Our roll was much tamer. Started in his guard and he swept me after a minute or so. He spent the rest of the roll in my guard. He worked hard to break the guard and I switched to spider. Will spent the rest of the roll trying to pass spider. Now...if only I knew a couple sweeps to go with that spider!

Professor Matthias matched me with Bobby next. Bobby is 11yrs old and knows some technique. We rolled around a bit and he took mount. He tried to force an americana. I showed him how to wedge a knee and create space while maintaining balance/posture so he didn't have to use so much force. I like working with the kids.

Final roll was with Kurt (4-stripe blue belt). Kurt is my size (maybe heavier). But he didn't use it much and dominated me the entire roll. Kurt likes working north-south. Not very comfortable, but I didn't panic. He caught me in a gi choke from north-south. Tap...