Well twas a fun filled day! This morning we drilled some knee on belly escapes. I paired off with one of our purple belts and we were doing well until the heat hit me and I completely collapsed. He peeled my gi top off and gave me a wet towel for my neck. I just watched the rest of drilling with fuzzy vision.

I cooled off just in time to do a little rolling. Coach snatched me and did some game planning with me. He taught me a new sweep from my open guard that is gonna be my money move for the tournament on Saturday. My directions: pull guard, hit sweep, pass/crush.

I did manage to completely surprise coach! I hit a slight variation of the sweep + a step through that made him yell an involuntary “Shit!” – and he fully admitted that I got him with that. Kudos to me! He told me to be sure I write that down!

I did a little no gi rolling this evening as well. Didn’t take class, but our purple belt, doctor death, rolled with me a bit. He helped me think through a few things since I really don’t train no gi and just needed an adjustment for tournament mode. He showed me how to escape a locked down triangle – which was very useful!

Didn’t go so well in the gi class. It was myself, two newer white belts, and a big purple belt + judoka dude. He kinda let it be known that he thinks of open guard as a weak position after I asked him for tips to avoid getting passed. He did show us a really awesome way to control and submit someone from N/S that involved an inverted triangle. A bit rough rolling with him – I sensed some ego inflation. I tapped to get out then sat on the side. Was a little too late and wound up with a hyper extended ankle that is already bruising. Kinda sucks. Hope it’ll be ok for the tournament!

Good news! Coach told me he doesn’t want me doing a water cut for this tournament. So happy!!!

We have MMA fights going on tomorrow (friday) night at the same location as the tournament the next morning. I’m gonna weigh in then while I’m there. We’ve got several guys on the cards so it’s gonna rock! A buddy of mine won ringside tickets and invited me to join him – so I may just do that!

Next update will be post tournament! Hopefully it’ll be good!