Got to do a little no gi sparring with one of the blue belt guys at 10. It was a good roll because he doesn’t try to smash me and uses good technique to pass my guard. He made the mistake of telling me he was fat (he’s a bean pole), so whenever he’d get me pinned in side control, I’d reach up and grab a handful of belly skin. Not enough to really hurt, but it distracted him enough that I’d wiggle out. Okay, so we were just goofing off really – gotta have a little fun!

At 11:30 we drilled a slick bravo choke from side control bottom. The added benefit was that if even if they posture out of the choke, you’re still escaping from the bottom.

Had a couple fun rolls, then became the odd one out and coach took the opportunity to beat on me a bit. I always feel like I’m just being toyed with – he could finish me anytime he wanted, but tosses me around a bit first. Played a lot of inverted guard!

Went to see the sports doc/chiro today about my knee. Just wanted to get it checked out. Good news! Ligaments and meniscus all good! Just a little bursitis from hanging by my knees from the chin up bar. He said probably a “little” tendinitis but nothing major. He cleared me for training and told me to do gentle hamstring stretches, ice after class, and no more hanging sit ups.

Decided to wait on getting a bike – let the knee heal up before putting more workload on it.

Speaking of workload… I went in a bit early for 5 pm because I wanted to talk with coach about training. He said I’m on the right track and just keep going – he’ll redirect me when I need it. My dad was worried that I might be over training, but coach said that I’m good – and he would bench me if I needed it. I don’t roll every day, and I don’t roll hard every single time. Coach said if I start loosing recovery time, or feel beat up all day, that’s when I need a break.

Played a bit with my thursday brown belt buddy before 5 pm class. He’s just my size and rolls nice. He has learned most of my tricks by now so I have to come up with new ones to keep things moving. Plus the smack talk we get going is awesome!

Got my butt kicked first match in class, had some give and take in my second, then had my ass handed to me on a plate by one of our black belts. (But in the best, non injurious way possible!) Twas great fun!

The no gi class was next so I worked on my BBB’s (brown belt buddy) shoulder a bit. It’s a nice trade off, he teaches and tests me once a week – and I help his arm move. I told him I gotta keep my good training partners in good working order!

For our 7:15 class, I managed to snag one of my favorite purple belts to drill with (okay, so they’re all my favorites!) He always shows me little extra things I can do to solidify position, or just to be a little meaner with a technique. He is also a Judo guy and was explaining how if someone is coming toward me, their strength may be a 6 vs my 4. I won’t win by resisting them. But if I instead grab onto them and pull while they’re moving, the numbers go in my favor and I take their base away.

After drilling, we got to do several rounds of sparring. I need to work more to stay on top, I’m just too comfortable with holding my guard and need to work on sweeps and submissions. Okay, so I really need to work on everything, but I think this next week I’m gonna really focus on sweeps, and maintaining top control once I have it.