I need to get past my frustrations

This morning I volunteered at the local Food Bank. After single handedly stacking over 12 thousand pounds of food on to pallets, I drove straight to the gym where I participated in 90 minutes of the most depressing display of jiu jitsu I have even seen. I had a great warm up and hopped I could parlay that into a good training session and rolling. Boy was I wrong.

Today's class focused on 2 butterfly guard passes to side control. One with your opponent's guard open and another with you inside leg in their half guard locked. The unlocked version starts when you enter their guard from a standing position and immediately grasp their gi chest high, while putting pressure on their thigh with your front leg. Your outside leg is completely outside of their guard. Your opponent tries to hook your leg with their inside leg. You push that leg out of the way with your outside hand while lifting your guarded leg high and over the leg you pushed down. Your lg will land outside of their body  with the knee on belly. As your opponent shrimps away to move away from your knee, you drop to side control.

The leg locked variation is the same except that you need to release your leg from their grasp by putting the same pressure of their knee while rotating your knee parallel to the floor and sliding your leg out.

If took me all day to comprehend those simple tasks. The funny thing is, if I had to write about the technique 5 minutes after being shown, I could have done so. I know what to do but I keep screwing up the execution.

My frustrations continued when it was time to roll. My first partner was a 1 stripe white belt whom I had 70 lbs over. Our 2 of our 3 matches ended in stale mates though I would have lost on points. I kept making stupid mistakes like leaving my arm out for the taking. Allowing my ankle to be trapped for the sweep. And not bridging or maintain hip control. I could go on and on.

Next up was a purple blue belt who too me to arm lock school. 2 armbars and a kimura along with a gi choke for good measure. Last up was a purple belt. I got caught in a freakin crucifix choke that I saw comming 20 seconds before it happened and couldn't do anything about it. He was able to execute whatever he wanted. It was so bad, the last round he just laid on the ground and dared me to pass his guard without playing and defense beyond rotating.

I feel like I am not making adequate progress. Grant it I am only 9 or 10 classes in, but I thought I would be able to at least defend a little better than I am.

I can hear the violins playing as I type this, but I am depressed about my lack of progress. I hope I have a better Fundamentals class tomorrow.

What a drag

In class today we worked primarily on  2 types of arm drag sweeps and 4 variations of am arm drag take-down. I personally worked on my breathing and energy conservation. I didn't get gassed until the end of my 4th sparring session. The 4 take-downs all started with grasping the same side wrist and locking the back of the elbow with the other hand. It took me 8 or 9 tries to realize that I was not supposed to pull the opponent to me. Instead, I was supposed to step in, in order to maintain balance.

Take-down 1: Grasp the wrist with the same side hand (grabbing the forward hand of the opponent). Grasp the back of their elbow with your opposite hand and step into the opponent. As you go for the take-down, put your head int their side, under the grasped arm, and drive forward (football tackle) as you release the wrist grab and go for their ankle. Main control of their arm with the other hand. You should end up in side control or half guard.

The take-down is similar to this but not exactly.

Take-down 2: Same as variation #1 except you hook their leg and sit down.

Take-down 3: Same as variation #1 except you drop straight down, maintaining their arm until you get to the floor. Now in one motion, transition from the wrist grab, to locking their leg and arm, then drive forward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elQUepOQ4Gc

Take-down 4: Same as variation #3 but grasp both legs during the transition.

Butterfly arm drag sweep: Your ankles are locked inside your opponent's thighs.Your opponent is grasping your gi and you have a grasp of their wrist. Switch your grasp to your opposite hand and take the same side hand and place it under their arm, as close to your hand as possible. Perform a hip thrust while simultaneously pulling their arm free and pulling your outside leg outside their body.  Guide their free arm over your shoulder and lock your outside arm around their neck. Do not release their arm as it is extended over your shoulder. Next transition their arm to your hand over their shoulder and pull tight  to your shoulder. With your free inside hand, grab inside their thigh and swing both legs over to the opposite side like a helicopter. If you don't get the sweep, your probably did not pull their arm into your shoulder.You will end up mounted.

Closed guard arm drag sweep:  The opponent's posted on your chest or grasping your gi. Grasp their wrist with the opposite arm and with your same side arm, grasp the same side elbow and hip thrust to release their hold while pulling their arm across your body. Shrimp your hips out (you can push off their hips with your outside leg). Now reach over their back and lock your wrists for over under control. If your opponent goes flat you can get their back.

Kinda like this but you grasp the elbow:

While sparring, I wanted to work on my closed guard game, so I tried to pull guard most of the time.  I did well as long as my guard was closed. The minute I opened for a sweep or shrimp out, my opponent would pass. I managed to pull off a few good sweeps from my back (which I am proud of) but did not have the technique to seal the deal. Overall this was my favorite and most productive session.