Icing your face comfortably isn't easy.

It's Florida-Winter and apparently, that's the time for beard growin'. I guess men's chins get cold easily or something. The gym gets furrier every day.

Had a good (rough) night with the (bigger/stronger/more flexible) higher belts...and I'm feeling it. Not surprisingly, rolling with smaller, stronger guys is WAY different than rolling with bigger, stronger guys. I can still move the smaller ones around and I can use my weight to pin them while freeing limbs. Not with the big boys. My back is FRIED from trying to move around a heavier blue. That pic is me, not tonight, but that's how I felt. Must learn to move Megan even more.

I started off partnered with one of the brawlier guys and got a lot of straight forward feedback. Probably the most important takeaway was that I'm still really loose...and that I need to work on maintaining posture...and that I should watch for where my opponent is headed and try to stop it. Aside from brute force, until now, I didn't really consider restricting movement by restricting limbs, but that takes foresight and understanding that I still don't have. 

The brawly-blue...he's one of those guys that leave me uneasy even while drilling...he hasn't hurt me, but he slams on the brakes in submissions. For a split second, I always think to myself, "yep...gonna be visiting the doc tomorrow" as I'm  tapping and then he lets go. So before we sparred, I told him to go slow on the submissions. He did, except for that dreaded baseball choke. I like it, (though I can't yet pull one off) it's like, Formula 1 class of chokes. He didn't have the choke clean and caught my jaw in it. I don't remember exactly what I said, but, judging by his face, I must have scolded him a tad. I like him as a partner but I don't want to add any unnecessary risk to the game. Chewing's a bit uncomfortable and talking's a little weird. I'm guessing I'm going to be way sore come sunrise.  This might be a problem at Chinese discussion group tomorrow...they kinda expect me to...discuss. 

He said something nice though, and I really appreciate his comments because I know he's just saying what's on his mind. He said that he thinks eventually, I could handle some of the guys...and that I know what to do, I just need some cleaning up. I also had one of the burly purples ask me to roll. I haven't sparred with him since like...day 3. The fact that he even asked was quite cool.

I was on the wall tonight watching one of the blues who frequently gives me tips and shares moves he's working on. I saw him trying an omoplata sweep he'd taught me. Trying and failing and trying again. I'd never thought about the insight into someone's game being taught by them gives you, but it makes this jiu jitsu thing make so much more sense. In all this watching, I started to feel better about my lack of sweeping abilities. Admittedly, people don't fail the same way I do, but sweeps don't get pulled off cleanly and crisply like I imagined I should be doing them. A lot of adjusting.