Monday night was all sparring. Before the class started, Steve and I warmed up a little with some open guard before doing some guard/pass guard specific work. I was trying to focus on standing passes, but I was having a lot of discomfort in my right ankle every time I tried to plant or move.
It was a bad sign. A little later, rolling with a blue belt from Lake Stevens, I tweaked it pretty good. We'd been stuck in a stalemate. I was unable to get the leverage to sweep him from a pretty deep half guard, and he was working chokes and passes. I put a little too much force into an Old School sweep and, though I got the sweep, my ankle paid the price. For a few moments that pain was especially sharp.
But fortunately not too long lasting. As I've since realized, it is the twisting or sideways motion that really kills me. With my brace on, I was able to do 2.25 miles today on the treadmill with no problem. But too much force in the wrong direction is excrutiating.
Fortunately I was able to get in another three or four rolls that night: a couple of white belts and a roll with Lance, who I haven't sparred with in weeks if not months.
A few observations. I need to get some motion going in my half guard by rocking back and forth with my whole body. Too often, I find myself just "pressing" against the guy instead of trying to goad him into moving. That was really glaring in the stalemate against the guy from Lake Stevens, who had a really solid base.
It's been a weird week. I had planned to miss training Tuesday night, but thought I might make it up tonight. That didn't happen unfortunately. I'm hoping to get my other two days in Thursday and Friday - and might even be able to steal Saturday since Rebecca's folks will be in town next week. But if I can get Thursday and Friday, I'll be pretty happy - all things considered.
Conditioning-wise, I'm alright. Berardi/3T on Monday, took Tuesday off, LSD9 today ... I'll probably do Berardi/3T tomorrow and LSD9 on Saturday - assuming I don't train. I've got plenty of time to max my conditioning up to where I want it. But I want to stay focused on it. Rodrigo made the point that the November tournament is likely to have a lot of competitors this time around, so we might have 3-4 fights.
I don't think I've ever had more than two fights at a tournament, so the prospect of 3-4 matches is a little daunting. That said, my problem in competing has always been my first fight. So maybe come match 3 or 4, I'll actually start to be worth watching.
The sudden rash of injuries - the ankle and the finger - have rattled me a little bit and kept me from training the way I'd've like to over the past week or so. I need to make the most of October - not just getting in at least 15 training sessions this month, but in focusing in on what I'm going to need to do well in November.
I've broken it down into three main areas to focus on: (1) passing the guard, (2) finishing from the top, (3) bringing my right side half guard game up to the same level as my left side. And that's truly in order of priority. If I do nothing more than develop a "go to" guard pass - the same way I've developed a half guard passing game that is working very well for me - I'll be in much better shape to place at the competition in November.
More on all that later. I weighed in at 161.4 or so after class on Monday, which is a good Monday night weight five weeks out. I'll start to tighten up the diet next week on Monday so that I can have a much less traumatic cutting experience during the final two weeks before the event.
