6:35 to 8:05p

6:35-6:45p: Brief warm-up / standard drills. Showed up late to class, but judo ran over so I didn't miss anything.

6:45-7p: Sweep / pass the guard. Passed a couple guards via stack pass (Blue) and from half guard (Blue). I recall a sweep and getting my open guard passed once or twice.

7-7:30p: Drills. 50 arm bars from guard. First time I could actually swing my hips (well...sort of). Full speed mount drills - 1.5 minutes escape/maintenance and 1.5 minutes with submission attempts from top. 30 triangles. Core sore by now. Full speed side control drills - 1.5 minutes escape/maintenances and 1.5 minutes with submission attempts from side. Survived the submission attempts, but struggled with escapes.

7:30-8p: Rolls. 6 minute rounds. Got Mr. Steve (Blue), Jorge (White), and Cleveland (Blue). Mr. Steve is how I'll distinguish between the 40 something Blue whose kid is a high school national wrestling champion (and just started jits) and Dr. Steve, the Blue I work with (and write about) most often. Mr. Steve destroyed me. D-e-stroyed. Started on top and got swept in no time. Spent most of the roll trying to survive/escape side control and north-south. Not much luck. He got an arm bar from technical mount. I fought it for too long. At first it was because I really thought I could escape. Then I got stubborn. Wasted about 45 seconds of the roll delaying the inevitable.

Rolls with Jorge and Cleveland were fun. Plenty of sweeps and guard passes. Giving and taking. Got a de la riva from ground position. Was setting up for spider, but his defense to the spider (kneel and post knee to peel grip) left the opening to insert the de la riva hook. Locked it in and pushed on the knee - over he went just like Professor Matthias showed last Thursday. Also got a sweep off a pass variation and a couple of half guard sweeps. A couple arm bar attempts from open guard, but both Jorge and Cleveland stuffed them without too much trouble. Some mount work, but I couldn't capitalize. Lots of chances to work open guard passes Just went for it and got swept quite a bit mostly because the techniques are new to me and my base/posture/timing wasn't right.

Got a step over choke from side control on Jorge. Unfortunately it didn't choke him. After the tap he looked a bit peeved and said it was a neck crank. It was a legitimate choke *attempt* so I don't think it was technically a crank (i.e., I wasn't pulling on his head at all). I've replayed the submission in my mind multiple times and even went back and watched Saulo teach the step over in Revolution 1. I had all the steps right, but perhaps: (a) he wasn't far enough on his side; and/or (b) I didn't pull his head up high enough to place the exposed part of his neck against the back of the knee. Maybe I didn't have the angle to pull his head up high enough to get the backside of my knee on his carotid because he wasn't all the way on his side...hmm... Maybe next time.

8-8:05p: Stretched. Great training tonight. Tough. Challenging. Fun.