This Stuff Actually Works!

Was supposed to take off Wednesday night, but showed up to work with a co-worker on his second day training.

6:20-6:50p: Stretched with the co-worker and showed him some of the standard drills we often do during warm ups.

6:50-7p: Upper belt approached and asked if I wanted a warm up roll. He'd been training open mat for an hour or more. Went through a couple blacks, a brow, and a purple before. Said he had gas in the tank for one more before having to take off. Started in his guard. Grip fought a bit and stood up. He opened. Established combat base and began to work a knee / hip slide. He went for the arm drag to back. Basically rolled into him and pulled half guard. Remember setting up a baseball bat choke from half guard and baited him for the pass, but didn't have a very good angle and he escaped. I don't remember a lot after that other than the fact that I was on bottom a lot and he felt VERY heavy. No longer a warm up roll when all I could think about was how badly I wanted out from underneath him. Although a little lighter than me, he distributes his weight very well. I recall successfully rolling from turtle to modified x guard. Didn't last long, but the roll to x guard is something I'll be looking to try more. Near the end he had me in north south. Fought for an inverted spider. Got it. Then shot the inverted triangle. Locked it in, extended hips to break down posture and destabilize, then attacked the arm he used to base out. Got the straight arm lock. I'd been working on that particular flow (turtle to inverted spider to inverted triangle to straight arm lock) with Professor Matthias for a few weeks. I'd failed to convert multiple times in the past attempts. Got lucky this time. Wouldn't presume to think I could pull it off on an upper belt again any time soon. But the moment I realized I got the tap, the first thing that came to mind was: "This stuff actually works!"

7-8p: Warmed up and then worked with my co-worker friend through the end of the technique portion of class. We worked three half guard passes. I'd seen all three before (very similar to three passes Saulo shows in Revolution 1), but it was a good refresher and opportunity to work the techniques very slowly.