This week has been a bit more slacker-like than usual. On Tuesday, attendance to wrestling class was invigorating as I was able to discover a gameplan for my wrestling. A massively frustrating aspect of my wrestling occurs when I attempt a shot and it becomes immediately stuffed. The frustration I discovered is derived on the basis of attempting shots on the opponent's legs when the leg I am attacking is at a distance far too large to cover, thus I have to attempt the shot when my knee is nearly parallel with my opponent's knee. Furthermore, Jimmy elucidated how it is quite common for me to club the head and bring my opponent's leg forward and at that point I set myself up for an easy pick of the front leg and a snap into the single leg take-down. Upon hitting the single leg takedown it is best to consider it from the basic Jimmy method of driving my head into my opponent waiting for him to push back then moving forward to institute his usual method of the single leg takedown. Wednesday was treated as a rest night but I did manage to get in some swimming in which proved to be beyond exhausting as new muscles were being actively utilized. Thursday was a basics session whereupon Lucas introduced his understanding of hitting the leg drag. The leg drag according to him must be done with the knee on the side of the leg being dragged going down immediately to my opponent's hip, and from that point the collar can be gripped and the guard can be easily passed. Additionally, Lucas showed a way of hitting the leg drag by pushing the opponent's knee forward then driving the shin across the opponent's lower shin and hitting the leg drag. Needless to say the Luca's training session was filled with thought-provoking and enthralling stuff.
   The tournament performance was as usual not too good. First round match had me clinched with my opponent as I struggled for a take down. I wasted a lot of effort striving to get the take-down and miserably failed. And when I failed, I begun to realize that I should become offensive with my guard and work my guard attack.Often when I fail a takedown, I fall back to turtle which is a position that entitle to lack of tenacity and a set-up to attack; consequently, that's my learning lesson.
  Sunday was fantastic with a seminar from Rigan Machado. Within the seminar, he illustrated a method of hitting a guard passing via gliding the passing leg downward over my opponent's leg as the opponent strives to set up a delariva guard, unfortunately, the technique is too deep and complex for me to surmise in writing. Rigan also illustrated a method of attacking the gogoplata from spider guard and then also reverting to the armbar sweep. Finally, Rigan showed a way of achieving a choke via pressing my opponent's head down into my chest and then positioning my non-choking arm on the ground and moving forward. An additional variation of this push-down technique was illuminated by pushing my opponent's arm inside, dipping my head into the little hole opening, flipping myself over and then getting the tap via choke. Rolling was good and Joel's roll proved to be the most eventful as I realized I need to continually develop my Judo skills with an eye to the uchi-mata along with the basic foot sweep. Further learning was also realized in my rolls with a big guy named Gerrick as he had a very strong knowledge and prowess for utilization of the lower lapel grip which can in turn lead to the worm guard set-ups. Learning is always continual.