the american nationals are over and now i have my first foray into brown belt competition. i did good, but there is plenty of room for improvement. i went five fights over all, two in my division and three in the absolute. i got one submission, won the rest on points, and don't believe that anyone scored a single point on me. my improvements could come in being able to advance my position from side mount more often and more aggressively. next stop is the us open in santa cruz.

tonight will be my first night back in the academy since friday morning. i have lots of work and things around the house i need to take care of. this means i have to be really good with my time management with getting ready for the next stage of a three stage plan. following the us open is the no gi worlds.

i trained last week. not a lot since i had to work some pretty long hours. but enough. i ended the week with two sparring sessions on friday and then a long sparring session on saturday. could have put a little more into saturday.

today was good. hit the morning class and sparred with dave meyers the black belt for two rounds and the rest of the guys for four rounds. all told it was about 42 minutes of sparring. my energy levels were better than friday, but not totally where i want them. i'll hit the american nationals hard but i'm looking at it as a warm up for the us open this year. as soon as the american nationals are done i will turn around and begin the prep for the us open. it will be my 7th in 7 years.

i finished last wednesday with about 25-30 minutes of sweep, pass, or submit from the open guard. thursday and friday was spent working. that 6 am wake up to trudge off to work is kicking my ass still. today was a solid hour of sparring with four of the guys at the open mat. need to start working more on my open guard sweeps. they need lot's of work and i'd like to have a few go to open guard sweeps.

so far today, things are going smooth. my quads are a little tight and sore but workable. taught the morning class today. we hit a 6 station circuit with a time scheme of 45 seconds on/30 seconds off. used the power wheel in the middle of it to throw the pace off. followed it with some deep half guard refresher then drilling and sparring. i sparred with the guys for 3 10 minute rounds. i gave victor his birthday collar choke and kept up a good pace the whole time. next stop is some more sparring at the advanced class. first some junk removal and a nap.