Tourney Prep Mode

I'm not going to Pans, but a small group will be representing NOLA BJJ at Pans this year. That said, the entire academy is training as if we are all competing in a couple weeks. Fine by me...I'm about 90% sure I'm going to compete in the Louisiana State Championships May 21st. Need to drop 10lbs and get into the comp mindset.

6-6:30p: Traffic forced me to miss my private with Proffesor Matthias. Bleh. Stretched and watched others roll. Managed to get a few tidbits from Matthias anyway. We briefly reviewed a guard pass detail I've been missing, then worked through a couple techniques from the latest issue Gracie Mag.

6:30-6:50p: Warm-up / standard drills. Actually managed 10 regular push-ups before finishing the set of 25 from knees.

6:50-7p: Partner drills. Guard sit ups, guard walk around to back, core work, etc. Tried to guard sit ups, but my partner couldn't hold me. Got dropped square on my back. Almost knocked the wind out of me.

7-7:10p Odd sumo-esque push your opponent out of a small square drill. Did well...sometimes. Did terribly most of the time.

7:10-7:20p: Take down drills. Class split into > < 175lbs. Professor called me over to the smaller group. Looking out for my neck. I pulled guard each time. Tried to work a guard pull to de la Riva set up and sweep. Got the sweep on first attempt against a Purple. Never go it again, although I was pleased with the resulting guard position.

7:20-8p: Rolls. Groups of three. 5 minute rounds. Little rest between the back-to-backs. Got two Blues, both lighter and much more experienced. Exhausting. A bit of a haze. Recall getting Omoplata'd and spending a couple minutes fending off an arm bar before finally escaping. Spent a good amount of time in mount, but couldn't do much with it. Made only one weak (and failed) submission attempt (arm bar). A couple good sweeps from open guard. One fantastic sweep attempt from closed guard (opponent standing). Dropped him, but I couldn't transition to mount fast enough and he scrambled to force me to turtle. Spent too much time on the bad end of north-south and side control. Too exhausted to execute what my mind was telling me to do. It was a minor victory. In the past, I'd be so tired I wouldn't be able to think of anything. Tonight I knew what I should be doing, but couldn't muster the strength to execute. Baby steps.