Getting Out of Side Control

We worked a lot of the same things tonight that we worked on Tuesday. Getting out of side control. We also worked in Saulo's "running escape" and baiting the mount defense. The whole "work your defense so that you can be offensive without worrying about getting put in a bad position" is pretty great, but it does mean that you spend a lot of training time in bad positions. We had an odd number tonight, so I was the lucky one who got to drill the techs with Klint during class. So I got to work a little harder and hit the finer points of transitioning the escape into an offensive opportunity, turning the elbow escape into taking his back and choking, clamping the wrist tight in my armpit to lock the armbar tight and fast.

I do have a problem with getting cut in class. It isn't generally "cut" in the traditional combat sports sense---I got a mat-burn on the bridge of my nose a while back, and it was bad enough to bleed. Now, I can't get through class without someone's gi sleeve (usually Andy, and his Padilla gi is brutally rough) rubbing it open again. So that happened. And then, as I was rolling with Klint, he was transitioning to try to lock a kimura, his knee landed in my eye and opened a cut on my eyelid. I'm used to the black eyes and the bruises all over my torso, but these facial cuts are going to take some adjustment. On the plus, though, I totally feel like the guys in Fight Club to go to work bruised and bloody and just dare someone to ask about their wounds. Yes, these are cuts. Yes, they are from training. No, I don't care about them. Yes, I'm limping because I'm sore from fighting and my knees are telling me to walk softer. No, I will not take a night off class to "let them heal." Sounds boring.

All the same, I'm still feeling fairly comfortable on the mat. After class, I trained a bit with Kyle and stayed dominant on him. Andy is really coming along; he had my back for most of two minutes and got closer to tapping me than he ever has. I stayed calm and kept working to get back to a safer position, but he wasn't having it. It was the point of the drill, and it was good to see his game coming so far along, even if I was on the wrong end of it. Then with Klint, the game turned from attacking to trying to attack and failing and working not to get tapped. And that takes some work, and it always fails because he has lots of set-ups for his kimuras and his armbars and chokes, but I think I might have lasted two whole minutes. My hip movement is getting better, and I can get his knee off my belly without gift-wrapping my elbow for him.

I'm considering signing up for a tournament in October up here in MN. I know I'd still be a white belt, and I would feel pretty good about that. But the tournament is the one free weekend between three weddings I have to attend, and I'm not sure what my work-load for classes is going to look like yet. I think I want to compete at some point, just to see what it's like to face someone who doesn't have any organizational affiliation with you, someone whom you have to respect but with whom you share nothing. I'll check my syllabi when I get them and see what's what. As it is, I've got my belt testing a week from tomorrow and have yet to learn a few of the components of the test. Iggitty. Should be fun though. And nothing like a new belt to keep my jacket closed.