Last night was a rough one. Timing with work & life didn’t work out, so I skipped the early class and only did the advanced one.

Started off fine, our usual warm up. Then hip escaping from side control. I was paired up with Marco, who I’ve seen around, but never have rolled with. He’s a 2 stripe white belt. We drilled back and forth for a while. Then, rolling for 5 minute rounds. And away went. Marco’s pretty good. I held him off from submitting me for 4 minutes, though I was on the defensive the entire time. Round two was the same, though with him tapping me twice, once with an unusual seeming guillotine choke that he started when I was turtled. He tried to sit into guard to finish it, but I thought I could survive if I pinned a leg. It wasn’t comfortable, but I wasn’t passing out…however I couldn’t move. So I somersaulted to try to get out, and ended up moving exactly where he needed me to go to tighten it up. Round three, more of the same. However I did get a pretty good scramble going near the end, and we both ended up standing. Took me half a second to realize that our hand position was identical to pretty much every takedown we’ve drilled this year, so I punched through and tried a drop seoi nage. Didn’t work very well. As I dropped, he dropped with me and ended up on my back. Damian did see it and pointed out that I didn’t really “punch” enough, which is necessary to get him a little off balance. Last two rounds was Jason. Not sure if I was tired, or just sucking, because he crushed me a couple of times. Last time we went it was pretty even, but not today. Highlight was a triangle that I attempted to escape, and ended up getting armlocked instead. Once again, Damian saw it and pointed out my error. Did say that I was doing things “80% correctly” So, right idea, poor execution.

The lesson of the day was passing half guard. We did two versions. The “wishbone” version when you don’t have the underhook and the “tripod” version when you do. Then rounded things out with a method to bait him into attempting to escape the resulting side control and you end up taking the back.

After class I rolled with Derrick for twenty minutes or so. A little more relaxed than Marco & Jason, but still tough. He did compliment me on my efforts to deny him the ability to set up his usual open guard. Afterwards he demonstrated a little bit more organized way to do so, which will keep my arms in more and less prone to triangles, armlocks, and getting strung out.

Watched Damian roll with Marco for a bit as I stretched. Poetry in motion.