Cruise Control

5:20-5:45p: Great stretching and got to watch even greater rolling. Professors Matthias and Doc Eddie plus the Murray brothers Colin (Brown) and Gavin (Purple). Fun to watch.

5:45-6:15p: Private with Matthias. Mostly guard break/pass review. Each time we review I pick up on a small detail that I've been missing. Will keep using these 30 min privates to drill these basic techniques into my head. He also showed me how to counter a particular half guard difficulty I've been having. Simple solution really. Just never trusted my position/balance enough to even consider it as an option. Didn't have the opportunity to use it today, but I get stuck in the the position often enough it's bound to come in handy.

6:15-6:30p: Stretched a bit more.

6:30-6:50p: Warm-up / drills. Oddly...breathing a bit more than usual during the jogging portion. Out of shape. Had problems with the push-ups...nothing new.

6:50-7p: Sweep / pass the guard. Stepped into a Purple's guard. Tried Saulo's standing break. Need to do more squats. I couldn't stand up. Ended up with busted posture. Then trapped in a whizzer and he reached under to my cross-side lapel with a tight grip (did I mention my posture was busted?). Sort of a stalemate for a while. Then I got the bright idea to peel his thumb off. Purple (jokingly) cried out for a ref. Didn't know you couldn't peel a thumb. Illegality aside...it worked...but no sooner that I broke the grip and whizzer, he swept me. Standing in line (awaiting my next victim...ha!). Asked Collin (Brown) for suggestions on how to get out of that jam legally. He basically told me I was screwed. In a real roll situation he would have given up the omoplata attempt and work an escape from there. Next up a very large new White who clearly muscled his way through a Blue's guard. Stepped into his guard and he was clearly still in muscle mode. Struggled to maintain posture. Eventually got control, the break, and pass. Took more energy than I would have liked, but technically it was a sound pass. Got a young aggressive Blue next. Almost got a couple closed-guard sweeps. Opened the guard and immediately switched to a spider variation. Then to a De la Riva variation for the sweep. Felt pretty clean. A very large 4-stripe Blue stepped in next. Only seen him a couple of times. Big barrel chested guy. We struggled a bit. He eventually broke and worked a torreando. I maintained and forced him around to north-south. I went inverted with feet into the biceps and spider grips. Shot an inverted triangle with intent to sweep over to inverted mount...but Professor called time as I shot. Could have been interesting.

7-7:35p: Technique. Pull guard to De la Riva set up and standard sweep. Then a switch to a koala-type set-up and sweep. Finished with what to do if opponent employs typical De la Riva defenses. First option to recover and finish De la Riva. Second if they attempt a knee slide pass employed a scissor knee and stiff-arm of their posting arm to drop them on their stomach. Finish by taking the back. All great techniques. I use spider and de la riva a lot. A few of tonight's techniques will go into my arsenal immediately (fingers crossed).

7:35-8p: Rolls. 6 minute rounds. Got two much younger and brand new Whites plus a more experienced Blue. All three fun rolls. Didn't have to work at all with the White's despit their superior strength and roughly equal or greater weight advantage. Just played around. Sweeps at will. Tons of positonal advantages and submission opportunities. Played a little catch and release, but mostly didn't try to for anything. Took a few opportunities to reset and show a technique or two when they asked what they should do from this position or that. Finished with the Blue. Another fun roll. Got dropped on my arse a few times via tripod. Had a couple sweeps, but couldn't secure the position. Blue is very good at scrambling. Got my back taken a couple times, but avoided both hooks. Breathing quite hard after the roll. Good time.