Pretty low key. Didn’t have a 6:30 training session because my coach got into town at 1 am and needed sleep. Thankfully he gave me the heads up – so I slept in too!

So at 10 I went in to play. Had fun just practicing maintaining my guard – I’m doing fairly well! Even when passed, I slid out of side control and regained fairly easily. Neither of us were going for any subs – just having fun moving.

Did get my fingers jammed backward hard enough to bring an involuntary tear to my eye. Scared me for a few minutes since I couldn’t move my hand, but it’s all good now – and made it through 4 hours of deep tissue massage this evening. So no worries!

At 11:30 there was a new girl in class, so I paired off with her. Made me realize just how much I’ve learned in the short time I have been training!

This week we appear to be working on half guard bottom position. We drilled a simple back take from underhook, and a sweep to counter the wizard on said underhook. Then a few sweeps from deep half guard.

Gotta say, I just LOVE deep half guard! I remember a team mate showing it to me my first week of training, and it became my go to move for a while. A while being: until people learned to not let me get my monkey grips locked into that position. At any rate, it’s still one of my favorite positions. What I like to do is fake a sweep, duck out the back, and then take their back.

So I’m slowly learning what moves I like most. I definitely like open guard and deep half. Coach likes to see me playing spider guard – honestly, I’m rather “meh” about it, but if I practice it more I’m sure I’ll warm up to it. He says with my “man grip” and hip mobility, it’ll be killer.

At any rate, I’m gonna be due for another private lesson here soon. I think I’ll ask to split the time between half guard and spider guard.

Oh, side note: I can now put both feet behind my head! Yay for superhuman powers! I can also pull a leg up over my shoulder and omoplata myself, and also internally rotate my hip until my foot is almost at the front of my pelvis. Makes the guys cringe when I stretch out after class!

I have been using my feet a lot more lately. Managed to get out of a few armbars by twisting and locking my feet to break someone’s grips on my hand. I’ve also been experimenting using my feet in chokes. Failing so far… But I’m sure there must be a way…

Well tomorrow is an “almost” full day of training. I managed to book myself time to get a massage at 4, so I’ll not be rolling at the 5 pm class. I’m not getting deep tissue work done though so I should be good for 6.

Tomorrow’s Schedule:
10a – competition team training
11:30a – advanced gi
4p – massage
6p – advanced gi
7:15 – advanced gi (w/extra roll time)

Looks pretty good to me! I’m gonna feel it out after my massage and play by ear for 6.