This was the first Saturday roll day that I’ve been able to make in a while. I was looking forward to it all week!

I started off with Eric, a newer guy, but he had trained elsewhere for a while. We went back and forth for a while, with both of us having our chances to submit, but neither of us getting it. We called it a draw and switched partners, and I got Tall Josh, who I haven’t seen in a while. We had a pretty good roll. It seemed to me that he was a bit rusty. Back and forth, back and forth for a long time, but he eventually took my back, and did the double attack armlock/bow and arrow choke, and got me. We rolled again, which didn’t go as long, and he tapped me again with something.

We took a break to get a drink and catch our breath. Lots of chatter about the UFC fights that were coming up that night. Everyone seemed to be thinking Penn was going to crush Edgar and get his title back, but I wasn’t so sure. (And it turns out that Edgar just man handled Penn to defend his title.)

Damian called me out for a roll. Ugh. I always enjoy rolling with him, but it makes me nervous. He starts on his back, and I stand up and pressure a leg, and get half guard immediately. Okay, so time to work the passes we’ve done all week. I have the underhook, but he’s blocking head control….so none of this week’s passes are going to work. And I have a complete brain lock of what to do next. It eventually dawns on me that I can grab his low arm, switch my head to that side, and tripod up and pass, so I do. I then try to knee slide into mount, but he’s blocking that too. After two tries, he tells me to open his high side elbow up…which prevents him from blocking, and I get the mount. I’m aiming for the arm triangle, but I can’t my head past his now-opened-arm, so I try for the americana/kimura. Every time I get a grip on his arm though, he switches it back and forth. But eventually I just secured the straight armlock.

We restarted, in a similar half guard situation. He secures my underhook and switches to the clamp position, and I’m stuck. He explains that rather than pulling my arm out, and then getting straight armlocked/kimuraed/triangled (his choice), I need to shove it in deeper, open my hips to get his foot off of mine, and stuff his leg. Then I can work on passing. I love the one-on-one time and advice. But I feel pressured because I know I’m being evaluated.

Afterward, I paired up with Eric again for a continuation of our roll from before. Twice I’m in half guard and work the midline pass we did last week. Twice he blocks my leg, escapes his hip, and regains guard. I have to ask about that and figure out what I’m doing wrong.