Wednesday Class Addendum

As I mentioned in my last post, sparring warrants it's own post. Did I mention that I caught Josh in an armbar tonight? Oh. I didn't? Well, let me tell you all about it!

Seriously, though, sparring was good tonight. I was worried about my energy level coming off of the illness, but actually felt pretty good. I rolled with Coach first, which went... well, about as well as can be expected. He let me work on some things. At one point, I got a leg over and had good control of his posture (pretending for a moment that he's not 6'5" and 250 lbs), but he pulled his other arm back, pinning my other leg so I couldn't lift it to get the triangle. I'll have to remember that.

Second match was with Josh. I started by pinning his knees and working to pass. Josh has superb hip movement and he tends to roll around until, blammo, you're in an armbar or a triangle. So, he was rolling around and ended up turtled up. I got into the wrist ride position, and fished in for a lapel. I figured he was expecting the Clock choke, so I thought I'd go for the surprise factor and swing over for the Rodeo Choke we learned on that same day. I got it deeper than he expected, I think, but didn't trap his arm as I fell back. Still, it put him in a bad position with me in good control of his arm. He was defending the arm bar first by bringing those damned legs of his up to my head, and then when that didn't work he managed to roll and stack me up. So, I waited until his weight was really heavy over me and rolled on my shoulders to my stomach, which popped his arm out and really cinched in the submission. Woohoo!

Of course, after that, I attempted to pull guard, he passed, and armbarred me back. But let's not dwell on that.

My third match was with big Matt, and I got a nice compliment from him, as well. I was working from guard and managed to survive.

While I don't keep score with submissions, and I think that if anything, I could use more confidence on the mats, I will remember this class fondly as the first time I've ever felt like I actually transitioned from one technique to another and legitimately caught a blue belt. I'm glad it was Josh, because he's one of the most talented people I know and he doesn't give anything away. I won't try to hide how elated I am, but I hope that Josh understands that the reason I'm so stoked is because of how much respect I have for him and his ability. Now, I just have to figure out how to do it again.