Day 13: Black and White

I took three days off to regain some strength and relieve some muscle soreness that I couldn't shake. Even so, my hips and shoulders were still sore, and my toes as well. Disappointing, sure, but not enough to keep me off the mat.

Roger was giving the instruction today. He's The Man, so everyone was intent on listening. He judged me to be too green to participate in the main drill today, so I worked the guard-scissors sweep-armbar flow with Bill for the drilling session of class. That's fine, since I need work on just about everything. Unfortunately, Bill is pretty frail and I couldn't work the sweep with as much snap as I would have liked.

Rod was kind enough to roll with me and it was pretty instructive. He showed me a second pass for the butterfly guard. Get your hips on top of both legs and pin them to the mat, and then you have a good chance of passing around the guard. Another simple tip was regarding having side control: keep your leg that's near his knee down and tight to his body so that he can't slip his knee in and recover guard. Rod is very very good, so he toyed with me for a good while, sweeping me this way and that. He's such a nice guy and is really the epitome of the "leave your ego at the door" ethos. I enjoyed the sparring session and I was grateful he took the time to show me some things.

The entire class halted when Roger kitted up and started to roll with Kahlil (that's the spelling, at least on the attendance sheet). Roger is so in control when he rolls that it seems like he is not expending any effort at all. He slips and slides his limbs to all of the right spots and magically appears in the dominant position. I guess that is what should be expected from the guy with a black belt so old it's gray and falling apart, and it's his third one, to boot! Great stuff. I'm glad I was there.

After Del and Rod broke the spell by starting to spar, I rolled with Mark, a young guy I hadn't met before. He's a white belt with about 8 months of experience, and, get this- he's 16. He's also strong, fast, and skilled, and handled me pretty easily. I worked what there is of my game and was able to pass his guard a few times (he recovered it pretty quickly- alas). I escaped a triangle attempt with the move that Jack showed me last week, and I finally fought my way to side control and was able to hit the Americana. I was more happy with my work during the roll on escaping and fighting for position rather than "winning".