Well, last Thursday I took some sort of shot to the eye while rolling with Angela the Blue. The end result was a scratched cornea, which was the diagnosis provided by GroupHealth physician's assistant, Dr. Goldworm Friday morning. I spent the rest of the day--and the rest of the weekend--nursing my very sore eyeball. I ducked out of class on Monday to give myself another day to recover and was back in class for no gi Tuesday.
Rodrigo lit us up with a warm-up of laps, sprints, pushups, squats, leg scissors, the whole thing. I tell you, it's a lot different doing that stuff in a rash guard as opposed to a gi jacket. We went over some of the same things we learned last time we were doing no gi: counter to the escape from side control that gets you to the guy's back, Rodrigo's Cradle Sweep, and a arm-drag like stand-up technique when you are down and the guy is standing above you trying to pass. We prepared for sparring with some "King of the Guard" work--in which I oddly was paired with blue belt Casey three different times and then hit the mats for some "randori" as the judo folks say. I rolled with Tommy, who tapped me about four or five times in the first three minutes, then with that one new guy that Rebecca met at the Yesler tournament (Pacific NW JJ Championships, by another name), and finished up with a short session with Clint the Blue.
Observations? No gi jiu jitsu for me still doesn't feel like jiu jitsu. I am the poster boy for Eddie Bravo's complaint that gi guys are lost without their handles when the gi comes off. On the "good" side, I slipped out of more armbars last night than I ever would have if we'd been wearing gi jackets. But on the "bad" side, I had a hard time getting going in the sparring--to say nothing of attacking from the guard.
I rolled with the new guy who pretty much overpowered me and put me on the defensive for most of the session. He was pretty determined to catch me in a keylock, so it was a pretty good time to practice escaping from the attack by rolling in the direction of the shoulder under attack. I think that keylock from the side, half-guard or mount must be THE signature move of most white belts when they are on top--especially if they are rolling with someone smaller/weaker than they are. I haven't submitted anybody with that keylock in months--though I'm fond of the keylock-to-armbar variation that I've called "The Cindy."
I'll still try and work for side control when doing no gi. But I need to force myself to take the back. That new guy gave me his back two or three times and I just didn't feel confident enough to jump on, sink in the hooks and go for the finish. I'm always reticent about taking the back of guys larger than me because I feel like I can never get the hooks in well. That said, it certainly isn't going to get any better if I keep avoiding the position ...
Tonight is back to the gi. I'll try to get some extra sparring in during the open mat session if I can to make up for the fact that my Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday schedule means that I'm doing no gi twice a week and gi once. That's the opposite of what I'd rather be doing, but the only other options are to go Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday and then have four days in a row off (not good), or to break it up and go Monday-Wednesday-Thursday, which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, I suppose.
I'm still not sure about three days a week versus four. I'm feeling a little desperate to improve--which is probably a common anxiety when you are (a) tracking your improvement or lack thereof every day and (b) rolling consistently with better guys. And I know the temptation to train four days a week is wrapped up in that desperation. I'm not doing anything particularly well right now, and it feels as if adding the no gi to the mix, in a way, has made things a little more difficult--at least in the short-term which with I am preoccupied ...
One thing I am trying work on as a "staple" submission is the far side armbar from side control or knee-on-belly. There is the southside version, the one Marcelo Garcia subbed Chris Brennan with in the first round of ADCC 2005. And there is a northside version, the Abhaya one that has you crawl into north-south after you've trapped the arm and then move into the armbar position--a position Bravo calls "the spider web."
That reminds me of a last point. I want to work more at getting into the "web" position, not necessarily all the way through to the completed armbar. I think there are times when I avoid going for that far side armbar because I think I have to do the move in one fell swoop. That is definitely not the case. I've seen plenty of more experienced belts stop when they get to "the web", readjust their position and THEN methodically work for the sub.
