After Wednesday night, I felt a pretty sore. It didn’t last long though.

Saturday brought us a healthy sized group. Quick warm up, then into groups for rounds. We had 12 in ours, and did 8 in, 4 out. 3 minute rounds, alternating starting on top/bottom. I had Richie, Stu, Alex (twice), Kevin, Juan (twice) that I recall.

Two notable moments. In my first round with Richie, I nearly pulled off the move of the day from Wednesday’s class, only the buzzer saved him. And in one of my rounds with Juan, I mounted and cross choked. I had it about 90%, but we were at the edge of the mat, and I didn’t extend up too high because of the concrete. He rolled me, and it allowed me to adjust my grip. It was as deep as a cross choke as I’ve ever had…and he still didn’t tap. I let go, because if he wasn’t going to tap to that, then me squeezing it more wasn’t going to help. He must not have any arteries in his neck or something.

Ugh. It is Sunday now, and boy, do I ache.

Damian split the Saturday class into 2 groups, 2 (3?) stripe whites and up get our normal Saturday training. Fresh whites (and anyone else that wishes to attend) get a drilling class that starts at noon.

I’ve been super busy with work and family stuff, so I haven’t been able to go to class much lately. Broken record, eh?

Anyways, this past week marks 9 years that I’ve been doing jiu jitsu now. Sure doesn’t feel that long though.

Damian broke our “advanced” class up into groups. I think we had 8 in ours, and then we ran the chipper. First point scored wins. And it was brutal. Going hard for a minute or two, then only a short break in line before you’re right back in. I had Wade, Daryl, Nick, Alex, Brock, Richie, and Harris in my group. Tough guys.

It was also Daryl’s last day. He’s moving soon. We’ll miss him. Nice guy and good training partner.

Ugh. What a month it’s been. Slammed with work, family, holidays,
and sick for a lot of it too. Which, makes for a distinct lack of jiu
jitsu.

Coming back after a break is always hard on the lungs, and today was
no different. Made it through the warm up though, and went easy
during the drilling.

Lesson of the day was switching from closed guard to spider guard,
standing our partner up, then transitioning to a sit up guard sweep.
I drilled with Schwartz. Been a long time since I’ve done this
sweep.

Only did one round, with Joe. Starting in spider guard, sweep/submit
vs pass. 6 hard minutes!

Small group on a cool Monday. Tim led, but I got to do the warm up and be the demo dummy.

We did some standing grip breaks plus a wrist lock. On the ground, we covered armlock from mount.

Nice low key drilling.

Doing my best to make time. But man, it was a struggle to go today.

Tim led the class. We drilled a omoplata variation. instead of going parallel to our opponent to finish, we hook their other arm with our foot and flare our knee to drive their shoulder down, staying perpendicular the entire time.

For rounds, I had JR, Isaiah, and James. Did okay with all three. Tough to finish someone in three minutes though!

Random Thursday off…can’t miss out on jiu jitsu. It was nice to not have any time constraints due to work for a change too.

Before we started warming up, Charlie and I were talking about being tired of being “the nail” and getting beat on. He said something to the effect of being the hammer today. I responded back with “You can’t choose to be the hammer. The hammer chooses you.” Some days you have it, some days you don’t.

Lesson of the day was a half guard sweep/back take combo. From half guard, defend your head, duck under & grab their far knee. Work to our knees. They wizzer to prevent the back take, we push in, they push back, we duck under and sweep. Or we can Pete Townsend our wizzer’d arm out, take the back by stepping up and sitting into it.

For rounds, we did 3 minutes on top/bottom of half guard, three times. I had Derwin, Ryan, and Darren. I did kinda meh with Derwin, despite hitting a rolling back take at the buzzer from on top. Ryan and I were even, both getting some successes. And I ran through Darren. So, nail, even, and hammer today. Success always tastes good.

Normal warm up, then Brady made up the groups. I drew Wade, Dumi, Gil, and Richie. 20 minutes in, 5 out.

I had Wade first. We had a nice back and forth going for most of the round, me attempting to sweep, him attempting to pass, and neither of us getting our way. Mesfin commented later that he thought my guard work was great.

I had Gil next. And it was a 5 minute smashing that tweaked my wrist and shoulder both. My wrist got twisted up in his gi from the bottom of side control, then he switched sides and I couldn’t pull it out. Later he had be in a crucifix, and did a weird shoulder lock. I complained about young white/blues hurting me a couple weeks ago, and now I’ve gotta watch out for the browns too.

Dumi smashed me too, but very gently. His control is outstanding.

Richie was going slow all day and working on the bottom, so I played along too.

Nooner. We started out with some self defense drilling, bear hug from behind. We covered the basic escape, sit, break the grip, chop & turn. Then we did the anti-throw hook with our foot, to the knee bar.

Then we had a quick lesson on passing the guard when we’re broken down. This is very interesting to me, as I end up there a lot. First, establish some safety so we don’t get choked, grip at the armpits to prevent him from getting the right angle. Then re-grip, and do a punching motion to push his collar toward him, stepping up with the same side foot, we can stand and twist to open the guard. From there, we can either land in leg drag, or side control.

For rounds, I had one with Phil, Davis and Justin. Phil was lively, and I caught a knee in the nose for it. Davis and Justin are white belts, both struggling to find the balance between dead fish and hulk mode. I stayed safe, but I’m taking no chances with those kind of guys.