Two. White. Stripes.

White stripes, all right. Two of 'em. At the black end of my blue belt.

I was sparring with someone, I can't even remember who. And I knew that my belt was slipping off. Not quite getting in the way just yet. Rodrigo told me to give him my belt and to just keep going. And honestly I thought he was just trying to get my belt out of my way (even though, of course, he'd never done that for me or anybody else that I ever saw). It wasn't until I glanced (half-blind since I can't see without my glasses) over at where he'd put my belt back on the mat that I even suspected what he'd done.

So there you have it: a two stripe blue belt on April 7, 2008.

I had a pretty good training today. I think I've finally figured out how I'm going to have to attack with the triangle choke. And I'm doing a better job than I was at the end of last week at standing to open the guard. I'm actually starting to feel dominant with my basic standing guard opener against guys my level or lower. I need to stick with it.

Rodrigo has us drill side control escapes, which was really nice insofar as I've started to rely on that gator roll reversal instead of the basic side control escape. It was nice working with JM, a two or three stripe white belt, who I got to show my side control escape technique to. It made it easier for me to remember what to do correctly.

I don't like how I'm reacting to being in bad positions: knee on belly, mount, rear mount ...I need to develop a three-count attitude to get out of these bad positions immediately, before points are scored, so to speak. Not getting submitted is great. But the point is to escape and, at least, recover guard. And that really needs to be a priority this year along with--if not ahead of--everything else.

It was really something to train five days last week. I'm going to set myself off on that pace again this week and see what happens. I've got a lot to work on, some specific areas that I really, really want to improve this year. And the more mat time I can put in sooner, the farther along I'll be.

I think the perfect time to train your hardest is when you are farthest away from both your last competition and your next one. For me, with events in February and July, that means April and May are the months for five-day-a-week training when I can do it.