11:40a-1:30p

11:40a-12:10p: Got to class early. Observed Saulo's Black Belt class (open to Brown and Black Belts) during stretches. He's a master. He rolled with a different guys every 6mins or so. The best roll was with a BB, appeared to be same height/weight, looked white/european, but they were speaking portuguese. The guy was probably in his mid- to late-20s. Saulo submitted him about every 45-90 seconds during the 6 minute roll. Slow. Deliberate. Beautiful.

12:10-12:25p: 9 guys today (not counting instructor). 1 Brown. 2 Purples. 5 Blues. And me. Professor Cantu (sp?) noted that I was the first one to class, but last on the mats (with a smile of course). I was so distracted by Saulo's rolls, I didn't realize I really needed to pee until Professor Cantu called for the warm up. Argh... embarrassing. Warm-ups and drills were fairly standard, although I wasn't familiar with a couple of the core exercises. Also...they count in Portuguese. I studied a bit last night, but don't quite have it down.

12:25-12:35p: Worked submission drills (whatever we wanted from guard). 20 reps. I worked a few arm bars and triangles. Professor Cantu came over and showed me how to improve the armbar attack. Felt much better.

12:35-12:45p: Pass the guard drills. I chose torreando. Professor came over and showed me a variation to knee on belly. Hmm...not sure if I'm ready to go there yet. Balance felt off. One day at a time.

12:45-12:55p: Mount maintenance / escape drills. I wasn't much of a drilling partner. Have the darndest time maintaining mount and can't escape worth beans. Professor gave me some pointers on how to maintain mount. Will keep working on it.

12:55-1:05p: Sweep / open guard pass drills. Had my guard passed many times. Wish I had a camera on me because some of the things these guys were doing were really slick. Succeeded with two overhead roll / reversals to mount (technique learned at the Rolles Gracie seminar) and Saulo's scissor-sweep variation.

1:05-1:15p: Back survival/escape and attack drills. Professor Cantu showed me a couple basic techniques from Saulo's book. I had a cerebral knowledge of the postures/escapes, but executing them with the correct hip movement is something entirely different. After my mini-lesson, I matched up with Chris. At one point I had a good grip on his left collar with my right hand and saw his right neck exposed. I thought it might be a good idea to stick the blade of my left forearm on his right carotid and pull on the left collar. Well...I didn't exactly have my blade on his carotid and started smashing his jaw. Chris gave me a strange look (the "uh...what are doing?" look) and I let go. I don't think I hurt him and we had a good chuckle about it, but let's just say I should probably learn to play a few songs before trying to improvise.

1:15-1:30p: Rolls. I "rolled" with a Blue Belt (didn't catch his name). Wasn't much of a roll, which was fine by me. He just worked with me and let me move around a bit. He'd stop and coach me to hip escape here, bridge there, etc. The roll basically turned into a side control and mount survival posture / escape to guard recovery drill. Learned some great things in the process.

We had an odd number of classmates so I sat out the last roll and chatted with Professor Cantu a bit. Mostly about NOLA BJJ and my great experience there. Turns out he knows Rafael Ellwanger from Louisiana. Nice.