It's funny when you're rolling and a guy has you in rear mount and the professor is trying to coach you out of the position, and then when you don't take the advice for one reason or another, switches to coaching the guy to finish you.
Aside from my regular tap-by-triangle with Clint, I was bugged by my performance with Joe the white belt wrestler. Especially given the fact that it was gi, I should have done much more to exploit my greater familiarity with it, by using the spider guard more. He was not at all sure what to do with my "Marcelinho" guard approach for awhile. He eventually got to my side, I reversed him eventually, then he managed to reverse me shortly afterward. He was in the dominant position for the rest of the time, including a ridiculous amount of time when I had him in half guard and just couldn't mentally process either of the moves I'd just learned. That's the most annoying set of minutes in jiu jitsu.
Rear mount was worse, I'd gotten slow and had been face-cranked a few times while on the bottom holding him in half-guard. Jesse the Purple calls "head squeezing" and I don't blame him for not being thrilled rolling with guys who use a lot of cranks. When he had me in rear mount, I never felt much danger from a choke, but I was pretty concerned that I might get my jaw knocked out of place (or, to a lesser extent, poked in the eye when he'd cross-face me in an attempt to get better grip across my head.)
If a guy is cranking you like that, you've got to attack that cranking arm at the wrist and elbow and do Saulo's duck, shuck and spin to reverse the hell out of there. Follow the fingers and plan which leg should shuck and which way you'll spin. It only takes a second or two (it takes three plus hooks in order to get four points ...), but I bet that's all it take to make that reversal work.
Cranks may not submit, but they aren't fun and can lead to some real unpleasantness. So I want to make sure I don't fool around with guys who have games based on cranks. Use that strength-overcommitment against them, as in the reversal roll against the keylock from mount.
I felt a little fatigued, but I did manage 5 sessions of sparring (6 minutes the last one) which is a lot for me. My 3 p.m. meal was subpar, as was breakfast. Hopefully I can work on that and be better Wednesday and Thursday.
