Undefeated

There has been a fair amount of rolling this week, and I won every time.

Let me explain.

The least comfortable roll of the week was a five-minute round with a guy who out-masses me by maybe 50 pounds, and is as strong as a mountain gorilla, and is maybe 20 years younger. He's a one-stripe Blue Belt, while I am a three-stripe, which gives me an advantage in experience.

He managed to stay on top for most of the round, and did everything he could to submit me. I defended every for almost the entire session. He finally caught me mere seconds from the timer bell, and I tapped. I bet he thinks he won, and he did. His goal was to submit the higher-level guy, and he did that. My goal was to defend, and I pulled that off far longer than I should have been able to, so I won, too.

Last night I was partnered for a while with our smallest practitioner. I tried to not use force or weight to my advantage, which I'm sure she appreciates. She is super flexible and very fast. I was able to score a few submissions, including a couple of chokes, and she got me a time or two as well. At one point I was standing in her open guard, too close for any of the defences we've learned to be effective. I stood there for a few extra beats to give her a moment to figure out an escape or transition. What she came up with was a brilliant, improvised sweep that ignored my size advantage, used the power of her legs and my forward angle, and flipped me right over her and put her on top. I won again, but so did she.

I also got to roll with our youngest advanced student. He's only 15, but has about the skill level of a new Blue Belt. He's a big lad, and will be throwing me around like a doll sometime soon, but not yet. He hasn't really come into his adult strength or coordination yet. He seems to like rolling with me, and sometimes grabs me to do so before class. Anyhow, I was up to all my usual tricks. For the first time ever, he managed to shut most of it down. I won again, and by defending well, he did, too.

These are maybe a third of my matches this week. All of the others were well-played encounters; nobody dominated, and we all rolled through a plethora of technique.

I'm pretty sure my partners won every time.

And I won, too.