Felt a little beat up after Thursday night's training. We did a lot of competition training - mostly standup and sparring. Early on in the gi class during the standup, someone (I can't even remember who) got a good underhook on my right side as I was going to change levels and my back cracked louder than I've ever heard it (I'm a neck cracker, but not a back cracker typically). Instantly I felt a shot of needles down my right arm that lasted for about 5-6 seconds. It was similar to some of the needles I've been getting over the past few months in my right arm and hand, only much more intense and instantaneous. It went away soon enough and I was able to finish both the gi class and the no gi class - though I was pretty whipped after the gi class.
It was a bit of an Absolute session insofar as the smallest guy after me was Mike at about 175-185 or so. I tend not to have a "small" self image, so I never think of myself as being 20 pounds lighter than that (I'm a featherweight who thinks he's a welterweight). But training sessions like Thursday remind me that I am definitely on the smaller end of things - at least when some of the bigger boys of GB Seattle have arrived to train.
So that meant no training on Friday - the day class or the night class. My shoulder still aches, but there's no functional impediment, so I'm just going to keep an eye on it. I don't feel any more or less discomfort when I raise my arm or lift things - I spent an hour raking leaves today with no difference. Just a constant, lingering ache - with the every-now-and-then needles and tingling in my fingers that I'll get looked at sometime after the Revolution.
I'm feeling pretty okay about the upcoming competition. I really need to get Rodrigo's input on the Leozinho pass series - both the version he showed us the day before the summer Revolution, as well as the leg rope that Saulo shows in his book. I think it might be the last piece to complete my guard passing profile. Right now I feel at least capable of competing against most guards, but when I get that big-time hipscape approach, like a guy setting up for the Mother of All Scissor Sweeps, I haven't had a go to move. The Leozinho or leg rope series is a very nice approach for situations like that. But I need Rodrigo to walk me through the basics - and for me to drill the pass a few days this week in sparring.
