Strong Night

Walked into class tonight a bit sore and contemplated asking Professor to pair me with smaller newbies to avoid injury. Tonight was the first night I've trained two full classes in a row since early December. Wasn't sure how it would turn out. Turned out fine.

525-5:30p: Stretched.

5:30-5:55p: Long warm-up and drills. Partner drills. Lots of core. Couldn't do the partner push-ups.

5:55-6:05p: Sweep/pass the guard. Started on bottom. Professor stepped into guard. Different Professor than last night, but he stood up and stepped forward. Predictably (especially if he reads this blog), I attempted a rollout sweep. He stuffed it. Passed a Blue's guard. Standing break and step over from torreando set up. Swept a Blue who stood up and stepped in using the Rollout. Not very pretty - and ended up in a scramble - but finished. Swept a White next via Lasso. Ended up with knee on belly. Chants of You Tube from the crowd. Hee hee. Ok...not that dramatic...I'm a legend in my own mind.

6:05-6:30p: Technique. Three front gi chokes from closed guard. The first two are pretty standard. Palm up / palm up and palm up / palm down. The third was tricky. Professor joked that he doesn't do it anymore because it's not fair...he gets it every time. Too difficult to describe, but I couldn't execute. Maybe it was my training partner. Really big guy with tight fitting gi. Just couldn't get it to work...

6:30-6:55p: Rolls. 6 minute rounds. Groups of three. Got two Blues, roughly my size. Rolls went well enough. Mount, technical mount, a few sweeps. Inverted guard work with the second Blue. A few failed triangle attempts from inverted. Should have gone for a straight sweep, but I wanted to work on the triangle. Fail. Had my guard passed a few times. Recovered guard via north-south and inverted. Apparently kicked my partner in the face. He stopped the roll and asked me to slow down. Sorry! I really didn't feel or see the kick. Definitely unintentional.

6:55-7p: White grabbed me to roll. Big "kid." Collegiate football background. Never rolled with him before. To tell you the truth, I've avoided him. He rolls hard and, frankly, I'm not a fan of getting hurt. Whether stupid or just on an endorphin high from the great night, I accepted. Before we rolled I showed him three sweeps when someone stands up in your closed guard. The roll was fast and furious. Swept to mount and finished with arm bar in 45 secs or so. Second round, same result but it took a little longer. I showed him the mistake he was making that allowed me to get the sweeps. He corrected his mistake and broke my guard. I set the lasso and he smashed through without too much trouble. Bailed to turtle and rolled back to open guard. Set up and completed the knee push sweep. Kickboxing class started so we called it a night. He paid me a nice compliment. Asked me to call him out to roll in the future. Said he learned more in five minutes working with me than he had in a while. I suspect that's because we worked on specific problems he's been having as opposed to techniques of the night that he may or may not be able to employ during rolls. That tells me he may be ready for a private with a qualified instructor. Enjoyed this roll like I imagine my dad enjoyed beating me in basketball as a young man. After working me over, he'd say, "Son. I have to do it now because it won't be long until I have no chance." This kid is very athletic. When he figures this out, I won't have a chance.