BJJ practice and learning is perpetual and this week was again progressive. Monday was hectic with a truly amazing session with the attendance of open mat at Barum BJJ in the morning. I arrived at the place at around 9ish and began practice with my regular drilling partner as we reviewed and went through passing drills, and shortly thereafter I managed to roll nearly nonstop for around 2 hours and as a consequence I got closer to my goal of rolling until I am completely exhausted and grips cannot be maintained while each and every person is tapping me. During the open-mat session, I had the providential chance of rolling with a black belt straight out of Brazil named Maurino and he was absolutely amazing as he prompted me to fully recognize the importance of gripping as he actively and creatively utilized variously styled grips to completely demolish me, and these actions reminded  me of the explicit principle for BJJ training which is the importance of always breaking grips.
  The next day training, Tuesday, was the wrestling session and it was more than decent as Joel showed a way of hitting the twister from bringing the opponent down into what I would term the wrestling half-guard, and the rolling was good as I discovered I have a weakness for the straight ankle lock so study of defenses against it will be necessary. Wednesday was another Gi session and Joel introduced the method of attacking the arm drag from the point of when an opponent's monumental momentum is moving forward for the guard pass whereupon I grasp the arm and pull him down and take the back. From the back, a nice Peruvian neck tie can be set up through use of gripping the gi in substitution for the darce set up used in no gi. Thursday was momentous as I attended a 10th planet shool for the first time at 10th planet Vista. The instructor, Giovanni, instructed me on the importance of shoulder rolling and how to hit the berimbolo through the ankle pick from the arm drag pulling back and threading my leg through to the opponent's hip, extending my arm to the opponent's opposite hip, rolling unto my shoulder and grasping the back. The rolling at the school was amazing to say the least as I got beat up and realized I should have a better understanding of the application and defense of the twister, rubber guard and the chin grip as I got annihilated in those areas. Nevertheless, I discovered my armbar submissions are half-way decent and the rolling session at 10th planet was overall quite fulfilling and I now plan on making it up there weekly. This week is IBJJF worlds week and regrettably I could not compete in the vaunted competition  due to commitments at work nonetheless I am of the strong belief that IBJJF can be construed as a bubble as it is riddled with bad calls and dubious reffing; As a result of these sentiments, I am immensely excited to participate in matches that concern themselves with the bottom line of submissions and this participation will be realized as I will plan on instituting my submission skills against formidable opponent's at the Dream sub-only jiu-jitsu tournament on June 8th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M18hSLJyKeA

  Then of course the culmination of this week prove to be quite intense as I had the first chance to attend the IBJJF worlds tournament. I attended simply the first day which was quite a sight of massacres as the men were really separated from the boys with well known stars tearing apart the competition. Matches that illustrated the notion of outclassing were readily seen as formidable and renowned BJJ players such as Torres, Viera, Satoshi-Souza, Estima and Lo to name a few subdued their opponents via sub or 20 plus points to 0. A match, however, that caught my attention was the following and needless  to say I was enthralled.



  Commentary on the worlds can be perhaps a blog post unto itself so I'll save my energy and time for that. As the week ended on Sunday, even with the Worlds in full effect, I was able to head on over to Barum BJJ and roll at his open mat session. I, however, was unable to completely mop the floor with a lot of the participants on the mat but managed to feel confidence in my movement as I am beginning to pull off my basic moves cleanly and fluidly. Instruction from my regular black belt level rolling partner, proved to be fundamental to my learning as he elucidated on some integral points for my game. Conceptually, in my opponent's guard, it is of focus to make certain that my opponent does not pull me down with his hips and legs and from that point I can start enacting my passing game. Secondly, he espoused a slow but efficient method of hitting the leg drag from being knee shielded by an opponent. This leg drag can come about through pressing the inside of my head upon my opponent's legs while simultaneously pinning  his other ankle on the mat.As the leg passes a determined threshold on my chest, I pass the hand gripping the ankle to knee shielded leg and drag the leg in, pull his pants up near his hip and move my head forward to my opponent's chin, and at that point I am able to achieve an easy leg drag pass. Unto next rolling session, I will strive to implement it and that's it for today.