Tonight, there were a few times when I did the right thing. Believe me, there were plenty of times when I did the wrong thing. And an uncomfortable amount of times when I didn't do much of anything at all. But those flashes of half-way decent jiu jitsu were something I want to bear a little witness to.
My mount escape is still solid. It puts me into guard, which is another adventure in and of itself. But I'm happy that my basic escape continues to work ...
I'm starting to get how to attack the spider guard, dipping the hand under the spider leg or, if that doesn't work, using the opposite leg to attack that leg. I'm also getting my foot free when it is grabbed from the guard, the small kick and circle ...
It's not so hard to stand against the guard. My guard passing wasn't very good, at all, tonight. But I finally got myself to stand every (other) time I was in the guard, closed or open. What was nice was that the only time I was swept was by Maggie, who's got very, very sharp technique. And even then I actually felt like I had something to do--compared to when I'm trying to fend off the guard while on the ground.
So, a few things to build on. It was nice to stand in the guard and realize that the world would not come to an end--even if I did get swept and wound up in a scramble. And a few things clicked nicely against the spider guard.
In other news, I am getting submitted by armbars from the top almost exclusively these days. Andrew and Chris were both getting them against me pretty regular, and tonight Maggie joined the club. I know two escapes with the gi, so if I'm going to get caught in them, I might as well practice the escapes.
I still feel fatigued more than I should. My diet was close to perfect today (I've backed off the yogurt and mixed nuts at 10:30 and 1:30, and just had the iced green tea ...) and I still felt like I was dragging through my specific drills and first few sparring sessions (a visiting white belt named Colin and James).
I think that I'm just sparring with bigger guys more regularly, and I'm trying to combat their strength with mine. I need to spend more time specifically applying technique against that strength instead of fighting it and wearing myself out. I do think that I'm not back to "November form"; that will probably take another few weeks.
All of this sparring with bigger guys will necessitate improving my guard AND my submissions. I can't fool around with these guys. If our skills are comparable, then I'm just going to get worn out. I need to focus on opportunities to finish.
Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Eddie Bravo makes the point that being good on the bottom makes you more willing to take risks from the top. Makes sense to me. We'll see how things look come April.
