What was I trying to accomplish?

  • Improved Ezekiel chokes (execute 5x on ranked opponents)
  • Improved endurance
  • Improved flexibility/mobility

What went well?

I still can’t say enough good things about The Grapplers Guide. There’s a treasure trove of good content there, and it makes it very easy to find exactly what you’re looking for to improve. In this sprint I was trying to get better with the details of Ezekiel chokes, which are a weak point for me.

And…that may be just about all that went well.

What went poorly?

Glad I’m not limited to a set amount of characters. I achieved one tap on a ranked opponent. To be fair, I didn’t get very many attempts. I’ve had a cold that just won’t go away that kept me out of a couple of classes. And that cold absolutely destroyed my running (well, laziness too) and yoga activity. So I didn’t get nearly as much time in for endurance and stretching/mobility.

How can the process improve?

I’ve been assigning myself fitness and stretching sessions arbitrarily. Instead of saying I’m going to run on three days and assigning the date to them, I’m just saying I’m going to run three times and grabbing one of those out of the  bucket.

I’m taking a week or two off from doing sprints. I have this dern fool half marathon in a couple of days, and I’m not really sure how I’m going to feel after that since I’m severely under-trained. I want to take that time to figure out a workable schedule for everything and think about what I want to work on next.

Blue belt is supposed to be about finding out what works best for you with trial and error. I’m not giving up on Ezekiel chokes just yet, but round one didn’t go as expected. But if nothing else, they are great threats from mount to make people show me their arms.