Same old story; the busier I get, the more stuff I let slip, including this journal.  Training has been going pretty well.  I seem to have shifted most of my training to the secondary location, as the primary one moved its hours too early for me to get in there and still have a reasonable hope of completing my degree. 

Stuff that’s been somewhat working:  Have been nailing Doc Ken’s sweep off the arm drag where you reach around their back and just grab their lat and pull ‘em over the top.  This has been working like a charm.  Downside: tried it on Matthias and he laughed at me as he passed my guard off this.   Still, must remember to thank Doc Ken and tell him this has been working for me. 

Stuff that’s still no good:  Escaping side mount.  Working from half guard.  Establishing an attacking base from half guard.  Passing the open guard of just about anyone who knows what they’re doing.

Stuff I should look up:  Setups for baseball bat choke from side.  Anaconda from turtle.   Saulo’s x-pass to the open guard.  Stacking and smashing pass.

Notable taps since last entry:  Don’t really remember how long it’s been since I updated. Pretty far back, I caught brown belt Tran with an armbar from guard. 

Caught Eddie (black) with an arm triangle from mount  last night, but in fairness, he was pretty exhausted.  Also, I can see him letting me get the tap to prove a point or teach a lesson.  In a way, he’s the most selfless of the blackbelts, although he definitely rolls the hardest out of the three (which I love).  

Set up a darce on Marco.  He was DEFINITELY letting me work and seeing what I had, but the entry into the position still felt somewhat legit; it was Charlie’s gable grip and dump from turtle.

Tapped Gavin with a guillotine from darce in nogi.  Pretty sure this was a legit tap, although Gavin is also very selfless and lets me get position all the time.  I only think it was legit because it felt like we were going pretty close to full out.  Which brings me to my next point-

Whining:  I miss training at the bigger school and getting all kickass training partners. I miss Collin and Gavin teaching nogi, and I’m not really interested in checking out the new Sambo class which fills up that spot.  I miss training with Andy all the time.  I’ll have to figure out a way to get back in there.

Random thoughts:  I like how Marco teaches.  Matthias is also an awesome teacher, but he teaches right to the middle of the class.  I feel like Marco, intentionally or not, teaches toward the upper half of the bell curve, and frankly, I feel like that benefits everyone.  Rising to the level of the lesson is a good thing.