Monday, January 15, 2007

Back at It ... (On the real, tho ...)

I’d hoped to return to regular training last week. I was at class Monday night on the eighth. But the Arctic blast we got mid-week last week drove me away from training Wednesday night (I was on my way when I realized that the roads just weren’t safe for driving) and Thursday night. Then there was the tournament on Saturday, the BJJ Spokane (“3rd Pacific Northwest Championships”) at Edgemont JHS in Edgewood—wherever that is/was. I thought we were heading out of town last weekend, but that fell through so I ended up staying in town, but missing the tournament.

I hadn’t planned on competing insofar as I’ve had about four practices in as many weeks and that’s no way to go into my first intermediate level (i.e., blue belt) tournament. Unfortunately, BJJ Spokane never posted the results of the LAST tournament they held (the “2nd Pacific Northwest Championships”), so I don’t know how many of our folks competed or how well they did. Hopefully, I can get a report tonight.

Next tournament from these guys (BJJ Spokane-Machado) is scheduled for April 14th—allegedly at the Tacoma Dome. I want to see how this last tournament was run before committing to their next one. I had a terrible time at the 2nd event (showed up at 9 a.m. didn’t fight until 3 p.m.). So I want to make sure they’ve got their organizational act together before committing another weekend morning and afternoon to their cause.

I say all that to say this: I’m back on the mat tonight, hoping for the first full week of training in a month (December 11, 13 and 14 was the last full week of training). I want to work on guard passing, sweeping from the guard and escapes in general. From the top, my “3 from the knee” remains the submission series I want to focus on.

I actually found myself trying to work some knee on belly a week ago when I showed up on Monday. I need to get more confident with this position, posturing up and going for the chokes and armbar. I still have a “side control” mentality about knee on belly that keeps me too close to be able to do any work.