More Co-workers!!!

5:15-5:45p: Stretched. A lot. Felt great.

5:45-6:15p: Private with Professor Matthias. Worked triangle finishes. Been having trouble finishing lately. He confirmed that I'm not doing anything really wrong, my execution has just been slower than my opponents ability to regain posture and escape. Learned a cool trick to break posture. Professor said it's sort of dirty. Perhaps for the tournament bag-o-tricks. Also learned a transition to arm bar that saves a bridge off my weak neck. Pretty slick. Me likes. Reviewed a few of the techniques from the seminar, including baseball bat choke (plus a variation from guard that Gigante didn't teach), a guard pass (plus a variation when in full butterfly that Gigante didn't teach), a couple of the takedowns, and attacks from the back. He showed a transition between two of the back attacks that I didn't recognize (and Gigante didn't teach). Finished with a 6-8 minute roll. Stopped a few times in the roll to ask what he did. One was a half guard recovery from knee on belly...very simple and obvious. Can't believe I didn't see that before. Second was a sweep worthy of You Tube. I went flying over and on my back. Felt like I was 5 feet in the air! He basically took advantage of a hole in my knee or hip slide pass. Need to tighten that up...and learn start using that sweep when others try to a sloppy pass! Aside from those teachable moments, the roll was pretty sloppy on my part. Was much happier with my performance on Saturday.

6:15-6:30p: Reviewed some of the techniques from the seminar. Got in a discussion of difference between clock and baseball bat chokes. Then I got stupid. Showed one of Saulo's transitions from clock to bow and arrow. Accidentally pulled the guy helping us out back and rolled his ankle. Felt so bad. Dumb move Rick, dumb move. Hopefully he's not really hurt. How did I get so carried away? Freaking amateur.

6:30-6:50p: Warm-up / drills. A co-worker we've been courting for a while now showed up. If he sticks around, that will be 6 from the office plus one of our " clients" who showed up for his first class on Saturday. Another co-worker started kickboxing last week. Wowzers! Worked
with my co-worker on hip shrimps while the others did the standard drills.

6:50-7p: Sweep / pass the guard. Worked with the co-worker on basic guard posture, a break, and stack pass set up.

7-7:30p: The ever vigilant Matt Washington pointed out that my original post omitted a very important part of class. Geez. How did I forget 30 minutes of half guard technique? I remember two sweeps (one similar to the sweep Professor used against me during our pre-class roll) and one guard recovery option if opponent bases out in response to sweep attempt.

7:30-8p: Rolls. 6 minute rounds. Got a Blue, White, and a Purple. Blue always gives me problems in his guard. Perfect opportunity to work from his guard. We grip fought and I struggled to maintain posture for a couple minutes. Not sure if I broke his guard or if he opened just to get beyond our stall. Tried a standard guard pass from combat base. Got something wrong. Was off balance not too long into the pass attempt. Had to base out and knew I was going to get swept. It wasnt a matter of if...just when. So I fought for a favorable position and allowed the sweep when I calculated it would put me in the best open guard position. Worked from open guard, but couldn't get a sweep before time ran out. White is fairly new. Been taking kickboxing for a while. Tall, strong, athletic... Powerful. He'll be a monster when he gets some technique. Got a couple sweeps. Arm bar from guard and a bow and arrow. But not without a struggle to maintain composure under some real pressure. Purple was apparently one of the founding NOLA BJJ members. I hear he's been away for a few years. Smaller, fast, extremely athletic. Very technical. I absolutely LOVED this roll. He gave me a real hard time, but I managed my share of guard recoveries and escapes. No sweeps. Shot a couple I'll-timed triangles. Fail. He worked a lot of inverted guard. First time I've worked with someone adept with inverted guard. It was a pain in the arse! Several times I thought I was about to pass guard...he recovered...via inverted. Forced me into sloppy land a bit more than I'd have liked. I hope to have the pleasure of working with him again...soon...and often!