5:45 to 8:45p

5:45-6p: Stretched. Left shoulder felt horrible all day. Woke up this morning in some of the worst shoulder pain I've ever felt. Fortunately it subsided a bit as the day wore on. Maybe it had something to do with my nightmare last night. Dreamed I was leading warm-ups in a living room of an old Uptown New Orleans bar with couches and other lounge furniture in the middle. At first, I had five or six white belts warming up with me. Upper belts were standing off to the side. The white belts slacked off one by one until I was the only one jogging. I got a bit peeved and said something to a blue belt who seemed pleased that the white belts weren't going along with my warm up. I think it was Koscheck actually. He mouthed off. I went crying to Professor Matthias who was putting up Christmas lights. Matthias said he had my back. Next thing I know it's morning and my shoulder was absolutely killing me.

6-7p: Self defense. Worked street-fight mount maintenance drills. Basically techniques you can use to secure the position against a flailing guy with little to no jiu jitsu. Then worked a maintenance technique for skilled practitioners. Not really grapevines, but use the leg hooks against back of hamstring and drive waist to chest into opponent to create a tremendous amount of pressure. Then worked a transition to technical mount and take the back if person on bottom turns onto side or starts to roll over. Finished up with proper technique to sink and maintain both hooks and taking the back with a mata-leon / RNC finish. Learned a lot from the hook maintenance technique. Big Steve (White Belt) was my training partner and I had serious problems breaking his hooks when he sunk them properly. He had similar issues with mine. Solid. Now I have to figure out how to counter.

7-7:10p: Warm -up / standard drills. Short and sweet.

7:10-7:20p: Sweep / pass the guard. Got swept a couple times. Didn't have a legitimate guard pass, but a couple upper belts who had been in bottom for a while gave up their position and let me work from the bottom. Collin (Brown Belt) passed my guard with ease. Probably 10 seconds. Geez. Got a nice sweep though on a White Belt who tried to implement the basic GB guard break technique.

7:20-7:30p: Take down drills. Tried to take Charlie (Purple Belt). Not a very good showing. He got his hips close and under mine with an underhook and a belt grip before tripping a leg. Nice. Need to work the stand up more. Only attempted the one take down. Too much shoulder pain.

7:30-8p: Technique. Professor Marco showed a side control maintenance to choke from knee on belly using a gi lapel. I've only had one submission involving a loose gi lapel and that happened by accident. The thought that I can use someone's loose lapel as a weapon rarely if ever occurs to me during a roll. But I could see myself trying this technique some time. Professor Doc Eddie showed a variation that leads to a step over choke.

8-8:35p: Rolls. 3 rounds at 5-6 minutes each with plenty of time between rounds. Got Rusty (Brown Belt), first-day 18 yr old with a name too difficult to pronounce, and Patrick (Blue Belt). Bonus after-class roll with Dr. Steve (Blue Belt). Shoulder pain was intense before the training rounds, but the pain declined with the rise in adrenaline. Had a couple submissions tonight. The first was against the new guy. It was his first day and he was completely spazzing and using a ton of muscle. Not a small guy either - almost my height and I probably had 10-15lbs on him. Waited patiently. Missed a bunch of opportunities to to control him, but finally got a sweep, established mount, and took my time setting up for an arm bar from technical mount when he rolled to his side. Executed the arm bar very slowly. I normally wouldn't submit someone on their first night, but: (a) he was spazzing; and (b) I enjoyed the challenge of implementing a game of pure technique with little exertion in the face of a spazz onslaught. Got a choke from mount on an upper belt tonight too - a palm up / palm down choke I learned at UNIJJ. Tried it many times, but tonight was the first successful implementation. Got a sweep off a pass and flower sweep on upper belts tonight as well. Kept giving up my back to Rusty. Steve caught me with a triangle /arm bar combo. Not sure if I tapped from the choke or the arm bar or both. Just knew I was kaput. Had a great time though.

8:35-8:45p: Stretched a bit and chatted with Steve.