4:30 - 8p

5-5:30p: Watched the kids class. They played a few games, drilled a scissor sweep, and then rolled. Watching the five year olds roll was fun. The older kids (8-10 yr olds) rolled with some technique. Scary to think how good these kids could be if they stick with it.

5:30-6:10p: Suited up and stretched. Others started trickling in. I was pretty nervous. My first evening class and I could tell it would be crowded. Glad to see a few white belts. Four to be exact. One had three stripes on his belt. All three appeared to be 5-10 years younger than me. Yup. In fact, I'm pretty sure I was the oldest guy on the mat. Even older than the early-30 something green belt (I thought the colored belts were for kids...someone will have to explain that to me). Only one brown belt tonight, but a half dozen purples and 15 blues or so. Kiri was the brown belt (self defense instructor from Saturday's class).

6:10-6:30p: Saulo taught tonight. Kiri led warm ups and standard drills. Lots of different drills that I hadn't seen before like barrel rolls and walking down one side of the wall on hands with feet up against wall. I think I did ok... Managed to do most of the push-ups (proper way), although I think pride was the only reason I didn't do them from my knees. My shoulders will be hurting tomorrow...

6:30-6:45p: Take down drills. 3 judo take down set-ups (no throws) each and swapped partners ever three minutes. The two take downs I learned at the Rolles Gracie seminar came in handy. I tried to pick up on what the other guys were doing, but I think I'll need to see those moves a bit slower before I can execute properly.

6:45-6:55p: White belts went to the side mat while Saulo worked with the upper belts. Saulo asked Michael to lead us. Michael is a 16-yr old 4-stripe blue belt and the son of the academy's manager (Mike - a purple belt). I'm quite impressed with is patience. First drilled a common judo throw. Not sure what it's called, but you basically break the gi grip on the right arm, reach over back, step in and across with right foot, check the hip, and throw.

6:55-7:05p: Drilled butterfly guard posture maintenance. Form triangle with body to prevent opponent from flattening you out.

7:05-7:15p: Drilled standard butterfly guard sweep. Trick is to fall sideways and use base leg as leverage for sweep as opposed to falling backward and trying to muscle the hooked leg over. Worked it both ways to feel the difference. Nice!

7:15-7:30p: Same butterfly sweep, but this time the opponent was supposed to post and distribute weight to maintain base/posture or prevent the sweep.

7:30-8p: Rolls. Apparently white belts have to ask permission to stay over for the advanced class sparring session. Professor Saulo allowed me to join. 6 minute rounds. Sat out the first roll due to odd number of sparring partners. Approached two other white belts who just finished and partnered up with Eric. He pulled me into his guard. I passed with a stack, then went to side control for a while. Went to knee on belly from Eric's left side, but could never lock it down for the step around armbar. He managed to escape to elevator so I took his back. Sunk only one hook in and grapped a cross collar choke before rolling him over. Should have sunk in both hooks. Eventually got the rear naked though. We started over and it was almost the same story, but I was on the receiving end. Eric had my back and was going for the choke. I fought off the choke for quite a while, but he eventually had it pretty deep. I started gargling and thought about tapping...then the buzzer rang. He was about 5 seconds away from the tap...

Second roll was with Dima (I think that's what he said). Another white belt, but clearly more experienced. He was the only white belt that Saulo allowed to stay with the upper belts earlier in the night. Not sure why he doesn't have any stripes because he's pretty solid. Dima caught me in a triangle within the first 90 secs or so. The rest of the roll was pretty back and forth, but I do recall him taking my back and that I struggled to establish back survival posture. Seems to be a theme tonight...

Last roll was with a three stripe purple belt. He approached me. Didn't catch his name. Nice guy and very easy going. We rolled a bit and he swept me, then attacked the neck. At one point he got me in an Ezequiel from half guard. He asked if I do a lot of no gi...nope. Just didn't realize what he was doing until it was too late. Rookie mistake. Next time he pulled me into his guard, swept me, and proceeded to mount. Shifted to seated mount to either attack arm or neck (felt more like a choke set up) and the trusty seated mount escape worked. Back in his guard. Not for long! Scissor sweep again...dang. Back to mount and then to seated mount. This time he had me all tied up and there was no way I could execute another seated mount escape. But I did manage to allow him to take my back (sort of slid into his seated mount and forced him on his back while he continued to attack neck). I worked hard to establish back survival posture, but he opted for the body lock. I attempted body lock breaks by rolling into the lock and a slight hip thrust/twist. Worked ok, but he re-established the body lock on the other side. Ok...let's try this again... In the meantime he's attacking the neck and I'm fending off (hand fighting / collar defense). This probably went on for 2-3 minutes and the buzzer rang. He congratulated me on the strong defense. His encouragement seemed genuine. The attacks were relentless. Glad I survived as long as I did.