Ahhhhh

Back to the mats.  First night back, and it felt pretty good.  My tooth (or lack thereof) is a bit uncomfortable, but well beyond the throbbing stage.  I tested the mouthguard, and nothing hit anything sensitive, so we were good to go.  Did some threads/flow drills, worked some sweeps to develop open guard, drilled ladder-up armbars and learned a slick way to take the back in case that fails.  Of course, it's something that I expect not to pull off for a while, but it's definitely something I'll be hunting.

Andy tapped me tonight.  I attribute this to two things:  my unfortunate few weeks off, and his tenacity and improvement.  More the latter than the former, to be honest.  His guard has taken a step or two up, and I couldn't get anything started from mine.  Though I did get a pretty nice sweep from guard, I just don't remember how I did it.  I hit an armbar in the first roll, and he caught me in his americana-from-triangle.  To be fair, I love that tap, and I knew he was digging for it, I just got too busy defending the triangle to remember not to let him get his arm behind my elbow.  In the third roll, I had him in an arm triangle, but was too stupid to remember how to actually finish him before my arms gassed.  So first night back, and a full class plus 25 minutes of training.  (We had a roll during class and Klint worked in with us as a "breather" between our rounds.)

Andy finally tapped me.  He's been training since May (and I since February), and I've been telling him since at least June that he's moving really quickly and picking up things faster than people who started before him.  Hopefully this gives him a boost.  On the flipside, it's giving me a bit of a boost as well.  I now have to keep pace.  It isn't that I got tapped; it happens just about every practice and I have plans that will make it more and more likely.  (You know, taking more chances in rolling and trying for more subs and attacks against better opponents.  The kind of thing that I'm supposed to have been doing since day two.)  In fact, I'm glad Andy got this monkey off his back.  But I now feel like I need to work a little harder to keep him reaching, which will in turn keep me reaching.  You know, push-ups and yoga at home, watch my food a little closer (fewer Starbursts), try to limit my coffee intake.

Wait.  Strike that last one.  That has to wait until after school.

On a completely unrelated note, Klint has authorized us to create Jiu Jitsu CDs that we can play during class and training.  So.  What songs do I need to include?