The past few workouts have been mediocre for me. I’m not giving 100%. I’ll rephrase, I’m trying not to use strength during my rolls. “I’m trying real haaaard to be the shepherd, Ringo.” I want to see my opening clearer. And develop that intuition to make opportunities. The shit just moves too fast!!! I’m sure it’ll come. Like a pro tennis player. A novice has little chance on connecting against a pro serve, but the pros can see it. Plan it. Set up. And put it where they want. My current goals are using less strength to escape from the bottom of side control and mount. This week I learned some efficient ways of escaping which I’ve been trying to drill. On offense, it’s the triangle and baseball choke. I was actually successful on getting the triangle choke a few times this week. My legs are getting just a tad more flexible and I can get the mechanics to flow a lot more easier. One day, I hope it to be rapid fire!

So here’s some notes I have for myself:

• I’m still pulling guard to practice guard retention and work my bottom game.
• Learned a bottom half guard sweep from “Chris” but I can’t pull it off on heavier opponents yet. I’ve also learned the smashing counter that requires timing. I like that a lot especially the crawling hands to trap the arms when coming to mount.
• Learned a nice mount escape from “Chad” which involves shrimping to the side then double under with my arms under the leg to escape.
• Learned a North/South sweep from “Brian” where I bridge, pivot and cross face to grab the opposing shoulder, get in line to then bridge and sweep like Upa.
• More on triangle defense and I drilled it more with “Josh”
• Brandon and I played with Berimbolo from half guard. I don’t give a fuck if we’re novices, it’s fun as hell!

This week I got to witness proof of my son’s progression. I watched him as he rolled with a new student at the academy. His opponent had about 40lbs on him, but Brandon was on the offense the entire time. He was relentless and got 3 submissions in that round. I was so proud!!! He was feeling a tad down in the dumps last week since everyone in the academy is larger than him. He is a tween amongst men. Everyone is very helpful and provides the right amount of challenge for him. I told him in time he’ll have opponents to test his skill and look forward to competition. After that class when he rolled with the newer student, he was beaming. He had proof he was improving, and it goes to show that skill can overcome size.