We were running late on Saturday…my wife came to the gym to show off the new addition to the family. So there was no time for weightlifting, and it was right into rolling.

I started with JP, which has become a regular thing on Saturdays. He’s alot bigger than I, so it’s an interesting challenge keeping his weight off of me. I did surprise him by shooting a triangle from spider guard, but he postured up quickly enough that I wasn’t able to lock it up. One other notable thing happened with JP. I was hurtled up, and he had my collar and was starting a clock choke. I couldn’t break his grip, or turn away from the choke. Things were looking bad, so I decided to roll INTO the choke, effectively tightening it on myself. Not something you want to do, but I thought that it might tighten it so much that he’d lose his grip. And that’s exactly what happened. I kept rolling and ended up getting back to guard from it.

I switched off to Dan next. Even though we’d only been rolling for 15 minutes or so, I was already feeling gassed and nauseous again. Rolled slow with Dan for a while, attempting to ride it out. Damian arrived and announced that for the remainder of the time everyone either started on someone’s back, or had someone on their back.

I switched again and got Brady, starting on his back. I started with over/under control and decided to try the Palhares style armlock. Brady saw it, and prevented it while he escaped.

Time to switch partners again…and Damian points at me. Ugh…I hope just to make it through this round without puking on him. I start on his back, and try the same armlock. He easily escapes, and points out my mistakes. I switched my hooks to a seatbelt style, and then framed his head, where the order should have been reversed. So I did it again to practice. Then we switched and he started on my back. Again, he pointed out a couple of problems with my escape. Apparently the lesson this week was all about escaping back control, and in our 8 minute round, I got the executive summary of it. On the last escape, we just continued rolling. I was on top and in his spider guard and hung up. He pointed out where I could break a grip, which allowed me to pass. I jacked up his inside elbow, mounted, started to attack the straight armlock, which he defended. I did have the underhook, so I switched sides, underhooked his other arm and then did the armlock we learned a couple of weeks ago.

Nice to have some personal attention, and I managed not to spew my breakfast all over!