Gabriel, also known as ‘Fi’, is back, and teaching all this week.

He was the one that introduced us to the Circle of Death warm up, so I arrived at class last night fully expecting to die.

I was surprised when we completely skipped the warmup, and jumped right into drilling. No real lesson, just several passes, drilled over and over. I paired up with JP. Most were DLR or RDLR passes, so they tied in nicely with recent classes. Damian attended too, and it was nice to see that he was learning right along side of us.

We finished class with four 8 minute rounds. I had JP, Evan, Wade, and Seth.

Had a mixed round with JP. Positionally and technically, I felt pretty good. But he caught me with several Ezekiel chokes and a baseball bat choke, often from extremely poor positions. I think that attempting these attacks from such bad spots is a high risk/high reward proposition. I’m pretty sure I could escape more often if I just posted on his face and postured up, but I’m hesitant to do that for two reasons: A. It’s kind of a dick move. B. JP’s got a bad neck.

Evan and I had a similar round to ours on Monday. Squirmy and mostly neutral. Twice on Monday, and twice again last night I’ve attempted the duck under sweep from half guard, he’s posted to defend, and I can’t get the counter to work. My angle must be wrong somehow.

Things clicked with Wade. I was able to neutralize his pass attempts, and get to an omoaplata position. Didn’t finish it, because he rolled under me, the way I used to escape. And somehow, and I have no idea how, I saw a quick flash of a “black magic” technique Damian showed me years ago, about how to transition to an armlock when they do that. I went for it, but he pulled his elbow back before I could secure it. He sat up…right into a triangle.

Last up was Seth. I usually can find something positive about any given round or class. Some benefit or success that I accomplished. The only positive thing about my round with Seth was, I didn’t quit. He crushed me in about 38 different ways. It was a long 8 minutes.

Fi is doing a seminar on Saturday to finish out his week with us.