Working It Out

Had a private lesson with Ben today and asked him about a few specific things that are road blocks for me right now.

Firstly, I am STILL trying to move my opponent instead of moving myself. I do this especially with my arms and more so when I am panicked or locked up. What I need to do is relax and use my legs and arms as blocks or points of leverage. Because I've been having so much trouble when people lock me up, Ben's wife, Cindy, would lock me up either in side control or top half-guard and I had to work out. Ben pointed out that I'm putting my knee too far across the belly in bottom half-guard and that I'm pushing with my leg too much instead of using it as a block and a way to move my torso back. Also, I am pulling up in the back of the gi too much when I'm trying to get out of side control or half-guard. Again, trying to move the person instead of moving myself.

I also need to be more patient. When I've got someone locking me up, I need to relax and try different things to get out, sure. But if they are bent on sitting there and gripping the crap out of me, I can always wait for them to move and let them waste all that energy sitting there squeezing me. Of course, this would not be a good strategy if I'm down by points in the last 30 seconds of a tournament grapple, but in class, what's it going to hurt? Eventually, they'll get bored and move and then I can take advantage of whatever space they make.

Another thing that has been pointed out to me is that I am still approaching a lot of techniques in "steps". I hesitate before doing things and then, when I do them, it's step one, step two, step three instead of doing the move fluidly and all together. I'm still having to think about what I do before I do it. Unfortunately, this is something that I can only fix over time. Some of it is that I need to just trust my instincts and what I've learned already. But I also have to let the new stuff I learn every week become muscle memory before I can just do it without thinking. And that takes time. Working on it.

More than anything, today, I just enjoyed being on the mat. Since Summerlin closed, I've been feeling like my week is incomplete. But that just makes the classes I do get to go to that much more enjoyable to me. I'm hungry for it and I can't get enough.