Making progress.. one step forward, two back...

But at least I'm in the "one step forward" part of the progression. Funny how I'll go a week or two just feeling miserable-- crying, pouting, having horrible rolls, getting just creamed all over the place, complete ineptitude-- and then poof, have a couple good days in a row. That's been the lately for me.

I've had some really good rolls with upper belts who make me work for everything and then tell me what I did that resulted in success. (I seem to need that affirmative feedback which helps me isolate what part(s) of all my effort was the key part.) I've had a number of good rolls with whitebelts and bluebelts too, in which I play all kinds of experiments and try for the new stuff from my seminars. And yes, I know, I owe you so much-- Jacare, Royler, Zach Lamano. I have been tearing-my-hair-out busy lately with work and training and holiday stuff. Need to finish watching the Gracie Bullyproof set as well and shortly will be posting a short series on Gifts for the BJJ Lover in your life. But anyway-- I also tapped my first fully-resisting adult male purplebelt the other day and it felt so. freaking. good. :)

I am fully recovered from the stomach bug thank goodness. The Christmas tree is up and decorated-- have a few more things to hang around the house but otherwise decorationally I'm all ready for the Christmas party I throw on the 11th. (If you are here in Austin that Saturday night, you are invited. Email me.)

I'm a lot happier than I was a couple weeks ago. Combination of things: jiu jitsu is looking up (but that's a circular thing too) and I'm reaching some peace with big decisions in my life... and that it's the holiday season doesn't hurt. I screwed up one of my big holiday traditions (listening to the Nutcracker while I cook Thanksgiving dinner, but I was too sick to care) but I am back on track with the rest.

I'll finish babbling and let you get back to your Cyber Monday shopping (ahem-- did anyone get that Shoyoroll Batch 8 gi that was out for 12 hours only on Friday???)

So yesterday I did class, it was all on halfguard, some passing techniques I don't usually use but I like them and need to add them to my repertoire. I had a good roll with Dan, a super powerful brownbelt who is smaller than most of the guys and has taken me under his wing to show me how us smaller peeps can make use of our attributes. Really enjoyed that. Then I noticed that we had a female visitor-- the girlfriend of a local blackbelt who came by to train with our head instructor-- and she was sitting on the side of the mat. She's a whitebelt, but has been training a while and recently won her divisions at NAGA so she's good. She told me she wanted to roll with me at the Royler seminar but it was pretty crowded and I had plans afterwards so I couldn't then. Anyway, I invited her to roll yesterday and it was interesting.

She's small, like Rebecca the 4 str blue at my academy, and she seemed fairly timid at the handslap, so I proceeded with kind of a mellow, happy-go-lucky attitude and a decision to play guard and see what she had. After all, she's still a whitebelt, she's a small girl, I probably have 20-22 lbs on her, and there's no need to go apeshit. But she is waaaay stronger than Rebecca, way more aggressive once you get going, and within the first 2-3 minutes, managed to knee me squarely in the mouth. I quickly reassessed my mellow approach and switched to more of a top game, smother-her, tire-her-out strategy. I was irked that she got makeup all over my gi but I suppose it's fair since I bled all over hers. She tried to muscle me into an armbar from guard but she's not strong enough to make that work. She has an amazingly powerful upa and protected her nearside arm very well, but left her farside arm out for too long. I almost americana'd but ended up armbarring her. (I hate when you have someone locked out fully and they have no possible defense, but they make you bridge into them to force the tap. I have complete confidence in my control but still, why force the issue? if they have you dead to rights, tap, move on.)

She tried to kneebar me a few times but left herself open to some knee on belly. She also got snarled up around my leg in some weird twisting kneebar/heelhooky kind of thing. I didn't feel at risk from the position but I also had no faith in her control or judgment, which confirmed my prior view that I don't like it when spazzy whitebelts try for kneebars and heelhooks.

Finally, I just smashed her from mount and then pulled off the mounted triangle transition I learned in the Jacare seminar to one of the sweetest ever, most satisfyingest triangle finishes I've ever had the pleasure to savor.