First Day of the Rest of My Life

Today was my first official day at the office. There was a lot of information thrown at me but I'm excited to start the projects the Feerick Center is working on. And I'm calling this the first day of the rest of my life because I'm working full time until I decide to go to graduate school. But you don't care about that; you want to know how my first day of training went after Labor Day weekend! :)

I'm typing this on my phone as I wait for the train. I haven't trained since last Thursday and I certainly felt it! I came at the tail end of the beginners class and Shaolin had me roll with one of the female white belts. I'm still trying to figure out what patterns/strengths my new teammates have, but it seemed she'd rather pull guard and sweep as opposed to playing guard. This ended in an unfortunate knee to the cheek which is swelling quite a bit! Shaolin also spoke to me before class and asked if I could come a little early each time so the girls in the beginner class would get the chance to roll with another girl.

In the 6:30 advanced class, we did a butterfly guard sweep that was somewhat tricky. You bait the person into thinking you're going to one side but then you sweep to the other. I was partnered with a purple belt and even he seemed to have trouble with it initially. During rolling, I thought I was going to pass out. We did several hard rounds, 2 minutes of half guard drills, and ended with very intense 1 minute rounds while switching partners after each minute.

I ended up staying for the 7:30 beginners class but only stepped in when Shaolin needed me to. A different girl was in that class and he had me drill and roll with her the entire time. During this set of rolling, I became quite frustrated. I kept getting stuck in side mount on the bottom and had a tough time escaping. I don't know if it was "just one of those days" or whether it was because I'd been out for a while, but I felt a little out of it.

I also noticed that there is a big difference between rolling with men and women at Shaolin's. I feel as though it's easier for me to get sweeps and passes on the guys than it should be. Not that I'm sweeping and passing easily, but it comes more easily than when I'm rolling with the girls. I don't feel as though they're going easy, but I think some of them definitely less resistance. I can't tell if this is good because they're not muscling me around, or bad because I'm not getting as much resistance as I'm used to from people who are bigger than me.