Days 4 5 6 & 7

Day 4- Triangles, sweeps

There was one this weird hokey s-leg thing where:
you have someone in guard,
you pull their hand across you,
pull your leg into their chest so you're ready to sweep,
post behind you, grabbing their lat (across back, to their far armpit-arm)
push into them, causing them to create resistance
then pull back, especially on their lat, so their body weight is off their legs
then you swing your armed leg (hehe) which primes them to be brought into your side control.

day 5 - knee on belly
wow this was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. I felt like when my knee was on their belly I was a. doing the splits which prevented me from actually doing something meaningul (no control over weight nor ability to feel comfortable in the move) and B. my thighs felt ultra shakey and unwilling to sit up straight when my knee was on their belly - i had a lot of trouble placing my weight correctly. I practiced this a lot and barely made a dent in it. I think I'll need some excerise on those muscles to help them do their job.

day 6 - free day (thursday)
there were 3 people in class besides me and including the teacher.
So while two were pared up rolling, the other spent their time going over whatever I wanted. I practiced that weird s-leg thing which I wasn't good at until I was good at it.
I practiced standing in guard. Knee on belly, and tying my belt.

day 7- Friend's gym-
my friend teaches and brought me to his gym a fair ways away. The gym I normally train at was closed.
 Military guys are a lot tougher, heavier and better than the white belts I've been training with - even though some of the people in the military have white belts too.
-We learned escape from rear-guard, and practiced a flow with that (escape, place in side, put them in rear, have them escape and place you in rear)
-a single leg take down to side control
- rear to arm bar
- Oh! and this hitch-hiker roll-out of an arm bar, well, my two buddies there showed me that, it wasn't something which was trained. I"m excited about practicing and trying it.

and then we rolled a good bit. I did OK - had some compliments on my leg work, which I picked up from the scissor - turning hips, placing knees. My instructor at the normal gym taught me not to let them place their feet on me - or that that was a control position, so I was much more aware of keeping their feet at bay and was also watching for this when I was sitting out.

I was able to do a number of things I'd learned including a backroll and a couple of take-downs. More compliments on my legs and ability with them.

I also pried at someone's fingers and got a stern talking to. I felt really bad because I should have known better and wouldn't want someone to do that to me. Bad feels :(( I text the person later apologizing again and letting them know I felt bad and why. They were cool.

And also, I'm making an effort to sit out when i'm pooped. I don't think I learn well when I'm exhausted and all my training goes out the window as I try to survive. It's not fun nor informative. That got a bit of flak from the military guys who kept asking if I was sitting out because I was hurt.

They tried to convince me to keep rolling and i said "I've got just enough energy to save my life if I had to and I'm not going to put myself in a position where I can't" which actually seemed to make a lot of sense to everyone (surprisingly.)

Well there you have it, 4 days of updates. I skipped one day last week (tuesday) because I had some things to take care of.

Still having fun. I especially like the attention I"m getting in my normal classes. James, the instructor, has divided up the class into us noobs and then the more experienced people. the difference is the noobs keep training while the more experienced noobs free-roll. as much as I like the exercise and fun which comes with free rolling, I greatly appriciate the ability to practice more - I if I have negativity toward free rolling it's because I'm not sure what to do or I don't feel I have enough practice to do what's necessary and thus fall back on bad habits (elbows, I'm looking at you!).

I'm trying to be more disciplined and less roudy. I'm in this for me.

Having fun, and trying to make muscles in the mirror.