First night back on the mat in about two and a half weeks. In some ways, it seemed like a very long time. In other ways - the drive, for example - it was nicely familiar. I'll be glad to get my new cheap MP3 player. I miss Beaster on the way to train and my little four-song Temple of the Dog suite on the way back.
We did some warm-up takedowns. I stuck with wrestling moves mostly: arm drags, a lot of double legs including a double leg with an out-to-in trip, and went with a good-sized blue belt who was very good to train with, attacking with a lot of different types of throws and shoots.
We finished off the Monday skills session with some triangle chokes, building on what Lindsey had been teaching in his 5 p.m. class. I wasn't doing a very good job of elevating my hips, though I did like the way that I've made catching my shin with my opposite grip an automatic part of my triangle choke attack.
I may want to include hip elevations in my 3T jiu jitsu tabata intervals. I think I could have a pretty decent stealth triangle game against guys who aren't too much bigger than me.
I rolled with Shawn, who was one-armed due to a shoulder injury. It was interesting. He caught me in a very nice loop choke after some aggressive defense in his sitting guard. Pretty impressive for a one-armed guy - Shawn's movement reminded me of how much can be accomplished with just the right hip movement. It was a very interesting roll.
After that I rolled with Rodrigo for about 15-20 minutes (I thought it was more like 8-10). He put me in the shake 'n' bake bag more than a few times, and turned my halfway decent Old School attack into a desperate attempt to avoid getting mounted in a matter of seconds. Definitely one of those sessions that Saulo calls "survival."
That said, I did more scrambling than anything else. I did manage to "scoop" against Rodrigo's rear mount. But he already had collar control and was switching to an arm attack. Still, as far as I'm concerned, every time I do the scoop to avoid getting choked from rear mount, an angel is going to get its wings if I have to hitchhike to heaven and attach them myself.
A good night of training - a great night even. I got a good standup workout, spotted a major weakness in my triangle choke game, and got to roll with a brown belt (with at least three or four stripes) and Rodrigo for nearly 30 minutes total. Even with my morning workout (Berari/Beaster), I had pretty good energy - though I was working hard to try and keep active against Rodrigo. Post-train weight was 162.2, also pretty good for a Monday after nearly three weeks off.
By the way, I was reminded of the Nogimura (the reverse kimura that Minotauro showed as one of his techniques of the day for MMA Weekly many moons ago) during sparring tonight. I need to take another look at that technique. It could be a signature type arm attack that no one is using.
