Intrepedation

(co-author credit to Matt Washington)

5:30-5:50p: Warm-up / drills. Less strenuous than usual from the Purple who led tonight. Managed all push-ups...but from knees only. Still too weak to do "real" push-ups. Noticed a few odd looks from the newer and younger white belts. Yeah...I'm not ashamed. I can't do regular push-ups. Has something to do with my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hyper mobility disorder) or the neurological issues from my two herniated discs in the neck. So what? I'm still here. Trying...

5:50-6:05p: Take down technique/drills. Two basic grip grips to arm drag and single leg take down. Pretty basic, but the single leg was new to me. Emphasis on placing the neck inside the leg and committing to the takedown lest you get caugt in a guillotine. Caused a bit of trouble with the neck. Some tingly fingers. First time with tingly fingers from training in several weeks. Bleh.

6:05-6:35p: Technique. Worked guard posture breaks. A few different techniques. Elbow into elbow. Drop feet, squeeze knees, and raise hips. Jump hips over knee to bait an arm drag and take the back.

6:35-7p: Rolls. 6 min rounds. Huge class. 28 plus two Professors. Groups of 3. Looking around the room, I was a bit anxious about the rolls. Lots of big, strong, young and “green” White Belts. Had premonitions of injury... Fortunately I got paired with two Blues. Both lighter than me, but one was taller. The other was much smaller. Both much more experience. Got two taps. Sloppy arm bar from mount via a couple rolls and Ezequiel from mount via roll to guard. Never subbed this particular Blue so, despite the sloppiness, it felt good enough. Got Omoplata'd by the other Blue. He transitioned to the Omoplata after a failed half guard pass attempt. I knew I was screwed when he recovered full guard (high full guard). My posture was completely busted. After a couple minutes of futile escape attempts, he finally locked it in and I had to tap. Afterward he said that's all he had. BS. He's money. Watched him set up and almost lock in a couple Go-Go Platas... Good stuff. Other than that...rolls were fairly sloppy and muscly. A few cool sweeps and some turtling (mostly stall tactics) but not much else to write home about.

oh...Matt rolled with a blue belt and a white belt. Defended a few arm bars and a triangle attempt. And got caught in an arm bar, kimura, and at least two other submissions. Still, a very good showing.