Mad Sweeps

I've got mad sweeps. FINALLY!!! I finally feel like I can say that and mean it. Because tonight, I swept a guy almost a foot taller than me who had at least 50 pounds on me. That's right. And you know what?

Maybe he didn't want to smash me during the half guard positional sparring drill.

Maybe he thought he would hurt me.

Maybe I don't care why he let me shrimp down and get ahold of his foot and then turn my knees to the mat and push with my shoulder.

A sweep is a sweep is a sweep. We've been working half guard and the old school sweep for two weeks. I know my shit. I want to win. I want to sweep. I want to practice what I've been learning.

Maybe next time he should take me seriously. And I'll still sweep him. ;)

Retiring and Improving

Last week I made it to Robot for 4 classes in 5 days. I feel amazing despite being sore in places I didn't know could be sore. We are working on mount, which is really important for me. I get bumped off of mount so much that I've started to turn it into an attack. I'm not kidding. My best cross chokes get sunk in as I'm being reversed. I worked a lot on getting my base, sinking in my cross face, and letting go of my attack in order to get my base back out. I am feeling much better about mount than I ever have.

The last few weeks class has been way more fun than it has been for the last year. I recently decided to "retire" from competing because I think I put too much pressure on myself when I am competing -- so much so that I stop enjoying class and stop really learning. Instead of trying new things and experimenting with moves during a roll, I would push myself to stay safe and try to win. I treated class like a competition, and I would feel like I had failed at the end. It wasn't fun anymore.

So, I retired. And the craziest thing happened. Not only am I having fun in class again, I'm getting measurably better. I get taps more frequently and am starting to get in positions that I have never been in before. I notice that I'm able to evaluate options and then pick one and abandon it if it is not going well. I've gotten the back a few times, and actually did a few arm submissions, too. The other night I even tried to pop up a triangle. I didn't get it, but I tried and I sat there adjusting myself trying to make it work until I got passed. I would have never tried that before.

I think I also may have figured out my scheduling issues. I tried a 7 am class this week and felt great for the rest of the day, so I'm going to try and keep that up for as long as I can. It felt good to start the day with training and know it was taken care of, and then focus on work. I understand there may be times when it just doesn't make sense to train 5 times a week, but I'm going to do my best. I feel like a better person when I get to the mat regularly. I want to keep it up!