Toughest Class in a Long While

Master Saulo taught the noon class today.  Two other Black Belts, a Brown, and two Purples also showed.  I was the lone Blue.  No Whites.  Breathing hard and sweating after warm-up, grip breaking, and take down entries.  Transitioned to sweep / pass the guard starting from half guard.  We switched top/bottom and then switched partners for about 15mins.  Exhausted enough at that point.  Finished with 5 rounds of 8mins each with 60-90secs between rounds.

I got two Blacks (including Master Saulo), a Brown, and two Purples.  Saulo sucked the life out of me.  His weight distribution and placement is impeccable.  I literally felt like I'd died.  I had ZERO power to bridge and hip escape.  I managed to sweep him once and as I began to pass his guard via x-pass, he rolled out and I tried to follow to take the back but ended up on bottom.  He caught me via arm bar when I tried to escape the wrong direction and bow and arrow choke when I waited too long to implement a back escape.  Other rounds went a little better, although by the time I got to the two Purples my muscles were useless and I flopped around like a rag doll.  Toughest class in a very very long time.

Perplexing highlight of the day was my round with one of the Blacks.  Got a couple sweeps, a guard pass or two, knee on belly at least twice, and...wait for it...near side arm bar.  Hard to imagine it was legitimate.  But after the tap, when I chuckled and asked him why he let me have it, he sort of scolded me and told me to stay focused and keep training.  Also, the last minute or so of the round  he escaped my knee on belly, swept me, and really started attacking after passing to knee on belly.  He was relentless in the top attacks up to the buzzer.  I didn't really have anything left and couldn't have survived much longer.  Strange round.  Not sure what was up.