After a few months of not going near a NoGi class, I've managed to find myself in four classes and open mats over the course of the past two weeks.  Believe me, don't think that is a boast.  I'm fully aware that it's not enough to compete in a NoGi division yet, but it's a start.  At one point NoGi was all I trained in, but then I was introduced to the Gi and I rarely looked back.  I think it's time to get back to my roots.

I've noticed that I have become more reliant on grips and less on position.  Grips will work on those not quite as skilled as myself, but against a better opponent they can lead me to trouble.  Instead of relying on my good position, I find that I am too focused on the grips and end up getting passed.  With NoGi, there are no grips to worry about.  I firmly believe that periodically you need to assess every situation you're involved in, especially the ones you are most familiar and comfortable with, for those are the situations that need the most attention.

Thinking back to a training session at KGC in Killarney, P.J. pointed out that he wasn't overly worried when his opponent got grips, he would use them to his advantage.  Brian has mentioned this too lately when discussing passing in open guard, getting your grips while passing means that the person your attempting to pass has a chance to get their grips to counter you.  I'm hoping increasing my NoGi training, will result in recognition of positions faster and then be able to use that knowledge to my advantage when I put the Gi on.

Speaking of Brian, he showed a modification to the knee shield position and a few options to go along with it last night.  Jake showed it a few weeks ago, but I didn't quite have it down.  This time around it made more sense to me and I think it will fit in nicely to my game (Gi and NoGi).  Somehow I managed to pull one of the sweeps off tonight, although I wasn't able to finish it.  When I was a new blue belt, the knee shield was one of my favorite positions to work out of, but like most lower-belts, I became overly reliant on it and people took advantage.  Hopefully now I can revisit it with some new twists.

other notes...Along with a bunch of my teammates, I signed up for a tournament at the end of January, hopefully it will go well for all of us...I also renewed my UAEJJF membership for 2018, so we will see where that takes me...we have had a lot of newer white belts start lately and it's been nice to work with some of them and give them pointers, hopefully they stick around.