Leaving It All on the Mat

I left practice this morning deeper into catabolic state than I had been in a long while. I’d been off the mats for four whole days, then got back to class last night and did a double, and my post-workout recovery could have been better: not enough nutrition or sleep. Woke up this morning not wanting to go train, but pushed myself anyway.

The second class Monday night had only had four people in it and we did a lot of live rolling. I got to go with a highly skilled purple belt, a very wily blue belt, and a solid (and solidly-built) white belt. I managed to work my game to differing extents with all of them (including finding some weaknesses in my mount transition from side control). This morning only had four people too: a high-level white belt with a lot of grappling history and two complete rookies.

I went with the high white belt, and as much as I knew a little of his style, I tried to remain open and free from expectations. He was extremely mobile and stood up whenever possible, causing me to transition into a really lame de la Riva, but I managed to take him back down more often than not.

We drilled a couple of standard side control moves (little hand and a mount transition) and by the time we got to the last round of sparring, I was pretty drained. The great learning moment here was about playing defense, or I guess you could say an “active resting defense.” I know not to muscle things (even if I still do from time to time), but this morning I was so dead that I couldn’t have muscled my partner if I’d tried.

So I set up a good frame, kept my knee on his hip, and let him keep trying things until I saw my opportunity, then I was able to work my game. I was still tired at the end of training (as evidenced by a very long north-south with me on top while I waited for him to quit struggling so that I could transition to a better position), but I managed to keep from losing ground or falling into bad situations because I was too tired or trying to use too much strength. Sometimes feeling bad can feel so good.