Now I remember...

...why I was avoiding rolling with brand new white belts.

I re-injured my right elbow yesterday. I popped it about a week ago during a grapple and yesterday I was rolling with a beginner who goes hard--which is normally great--but they went back to fast and too hard on an arm bar. Luckily, I was already rolling when they went back. I got out of it, so it didn't pop again. But it definitely hurt. Oh well. I can't expect someone who is new to know how to work around an injury. Should have been more careful.

Aside from that, though, Saturday went AWESOME. I felt relaxed in all of my rolls, which is a big thing for me. Usually Saturday morning classes have mostly white belts and mostly high schoolers at that. But this morning, Fabio and a bunch of the higher belts came to Saturday morning class. It was a nice surprise to see them all there. And it made for a lot more fun/challenging grappling as well.

Big check mark for the day...I used inverted guard in two of my grapples!! It was great. I am surprised at how mobile you can actually be when you're upside down on your shoulders. Of course, the two guys I went against passed it without much trouble. But I was happy about that too because it gave me ideas on how to pass it on other people.

Unfortunately, the first guy's technique won't help me much. He's a giant and he basically just grabbed my ankle and threw my legs--and body--the side. lol. The other guy--who happened to be Ben, my instructor--was slow and methodical as usual. He passed much more smoothly by just sliding around and in between. I don't even know exactly what he did because it was so smooth. But I will try to figure it out.

Other bonuses of the day:

- We worked more striking, which I always enjoy. I know it's a BJJ class, but I want to know at least some stand-up stuff. I won't ever try to stand up against a guy attacking me on the street. I'll run and then, if I have to fight him off, I'll go to the ground. But it's still nice to know.

- I was able to go out the back a few different times in grapples when people were trying to take my back or work from half guard.

- We drilled a basic gi choke and I realized a few errors I was making--not keeping my elbows in and not turning my wrist--that were making my choke ineffective.


All in all, great class. Good way to start off 2010!