How do I roll?

I'm still thinking a lot about how I roll, and what my game is. I still don't really know. I'm starting... just starting... to figure it out. It dawned on me today that I'm a plodding, methodical personality. While I can be prone to bouts of spontaneity, I prefer a more considered approach to just about everything in my life. It dawned on me that it's taking me so long to figure this out precisely because I'm a plodding, methodical person.

This week, we've been working a very fundamental skill: passing from side control to mount. Doing this correctly involves a tight control, good shoulder pressure, and if done correctly there should be very little my partner can do to stop me. I think of the movie, The Matrix and Agent Smith as he says, "Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability." If I do things correctly, I can pass into mount slowly, methodically and with the inevitability of a glacier.

That's how I like to roll. I like the moves where, if I do them correctly, I can do them slowly and my opponent is helpless to stop me.

I have always considered this lack of explosiveness to be something of a detriment, but tonight one of the newer guys told me he thought I was one of the more technical white belts. I was genuinely surprised, but it was a very nice compliment (whether true or not). It occurred to me that, while I'm far from technical, I want to be technical and really appreciate the skill that some of the upper belts possess. That's the goal and I'm content to work slowly toward that goal. I don't need to get something to work right away. I'll just keep trying it until I figure it out.

I had a good night sparring. I didn't make any real mistakes and got a lot of good work in. I rolled with a couple of really big dudes tonight, both of whom had over 80 lbs on me. I pulled guard on Todd and while I couldn't exactly budge him and didn't submit him, I played an active open guard, threatened several times with various chokes and stymied his attempts to pass. Rick passed my guard, but I kept him in side control for the entire match, kept my arms in, kept working and tried not to groan as he kneaded my innards like bread dough.

I also rolled with a few of the newer guys, one who has some no-gi experience (although I don't think it's a ton). Rolling with guys no-gi is a real stretch for me. I don't do a lot of no-gi training (as in, almost none) and really need to get moving on that. The lack of handles is a real challenge for me, as I generally work for grips right away. Still, I worked from the bottom and did okay, I think.

But more than anything, tonight, I had fun and tried to roll like a glacier: not fast, but inevitable.