The news that Mark Zuckerberg competed at Woodside reached me before CBS in the

evening. My training mate Stephen, who worked at Meta, took a video of his boss,

craning his neck looking around in a white mask and red hat before the match.

Zuck went on to win gold and silver. Good for him! Some said jiu-jitsu was going

to help him do better in business, however, and I think that's bogus.

Eric taught before the tournament. In one class, he showed three loop chokes on

the turtle: starting with a grip on the collar, he shoves the opponent's neck to

his armpit and steps to the side to catch the leg at the same side of the lapel

with his other hand. From there, he would dive, push, or hop up to finish the

choke. He seemed to dislike the turtle or maybe just my version of it and, during

sparring, kept telling me not to get into that position.

I disagree, of course, given what I learned from Henry and recently watching

Raould Audhoe's fantastic bottom game. Turtle is great, only it takes me too

long trying to figure out the next move. I've already started to put one leg up

from there, which opens quite a few options: to drive in or to trap and pull for

takedowns or to roll like Audhoe and catch the leg. I should keep on smoothing

out the mental blocks as well as the moves.

In the locker room, Weiqi recalled his experience with Eric when they were both

blue belts: "Small guys spend three or four years at the bottom and then one day

big guys cannot hold them anymore. Dealing with bigger stronger opponents day in

day out, they are forced to find space. Bigger guys, however, had to learn this

conciously later in their game." Finding space echoed what Rickson said about

the flow. Eric told me when I started that he spent three years at the bottom.

So things from these guys clicked and if they are right, I'm on the right track.

One day, after sumbitting Carlos three times in a row, I took on JR who used to

submit me twice or thrice a session. We kept a fast pace and people started to

come over and watch. I did pretty well escaping his armlock attempts and one

rear naked choke. I reversed a few times, too. Within the last 10 seconds,

however, he caught my back again and finished an RNC. It was a great roll. I felt

I definitely had improved.

There were many memorable lessons:

- from Eric: underhook at the top and bottom leg at the bottom in half-guard and

  butterfly sweep underhook attacks,

- from Weiqi: heel-hook and entries, half-guard bottom sweeps,

- from Pablo: the scarf-hold,

- from Jon: back-maintenance and attacks, and

- from Matt: quarter nelson with three-finger grips against the turtle.

Comparing the teachings from Eric, Henry, and Weiqi, I can see how they

complement each other to piece the big picture of the half-guard game.

I learned from Rickson a good way to pass the butterfly guard and have been able

to execute successfully.

The school year over, Tim is free until late Jun when summer activities start

and I am so happy that he has joined me in training. He's big and strong, much

better than I was at his age (I was fat and weak). His strength keeps him going

on the mat.