Struggle

5:30-6p: Brief warm-up with extended core work and drilled six fundamental BJJ motions from back. Should have sore abs tomorrow. Nice!

6-6:30p: Three mount escape techniques. Three Purple belts each showed a different escape. Gayton taught me a new BJJ term: quarter-guard. Almost a year into this sport and I think that's the first time I'd come across the quarter-guard.

6:30-7p: Rolls. Seemed short. 4-5 minutes? Not sure. Got a Purple, Blue, and two Whites. Struggled quite a bit.

Purple caught me in a d'arce. First time I've tapped to a d'arce while wearing the gi in a long while. Caught by the time I realized I was in trouble. Got swept a couple of times, including a tripod that was just silly. I saw it coming and almost didn't care. Retreated to guard. Got a couple of decent sweeps, including a De la Riva and one from butterfly where I trapped the leg ala Saulo's Revolution 1.

One of the Whites gave me a heckuva time. I think he's in high school. Doesn't show up very often. Probably 50-60lbs lighter than me. He took my back and almost got an arm bar. He neutralized my open and inverted guards. Good for him.

Roll with the Blue was, as expected, quite the struggle. I started in his guard and he immediately busted my posture. I really couldn't do anything to regain. He shot a triangle when he probably shouldn't have. Thought I was more vulnerable to the omoplata. Thank goodness he shot the triangle though because I needed a way out of his guard. Once out, I seem to recall that I basically pulled guard. Wasn't going to try to pass again. That said... I couldn't really do anything from guard either.

Last roll with a White who has come a very long way. Felt solid. Left his arm extended and exposed when trying to open my guard. I took it. Arm bar notwithstanding, his game has improved considerably in the past couple months.