I had the honor of rolling with Carter today. While I have studied him like I've studied no other BJJ practitioner besides Professor Vandry, this is the first time he's asked me to roll.
I knew well that he had been working outside arm bars with the Professor and Doc, and Doc had caught me in one last time we rolled, and Professor has absolutely destroyed me with them. So as soon as he waved me over, I got my gears to turning about how to avoid the inevitable outside AB.
First of all, Carter (as expected) whipped me like a red-headed stepchild, don't get me wrong here, make no mistake about that. Lets just get that part straight right now. I'm also quite certain he really took it easy on me...
BUT
I'm actually a bit proud of some of the things I did right. I did a pretty good job at protecting my arms using my knee. Matt did some drills with me like 6 months ago, and ever since then I've really worked that. It worked out pretty well.
I've watched him roll time and time again, and I've noticed some things about him, and the second we started rolling, I made adjustments that probably would have worked against someone that didn't have a belt the color of the devils soul. I know that Carter has no qualms about standing up to pass, since I've watched him so much. So the minute he swept me to a bottom position I swung to a X. I was quick about it too, because I expected him to do exactly what he did. I think that's really the only thing I did against him that worked, and it really didn't prevent him from landing that triangle.
He did land an amazing keylock (some might call it an outside arm bar, but I'd get pissed at those people) that was really interesting. He was doing a great job at collapsing my hips, as I tried to step over to pass, he was able to turn me just a little. The interesting thing was I did not feel like I was in danger at all. In fact, I thought I was gunna at least get to half guard. But he did something brilliant. Too bad I can't explain it here, huh? Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to explain it, but I can't so get over it.
Another thing I know I need to keep working on is not committing my shoulders so much as I try to overpass. I've got a pretty solid overpass game, but with guys who have really good hips and flexibility like Carter, I sometimes get myself caught in omaplatas because I just commit my upper body too much, and they get their legs over me... That's gunna take a lot of work, and the only way I'm gunna work through it is to spend more time rolling with guys that work like that. Carter was amazing with his foot on hip or thigh game, and kept my hips outside. The problem was that I didn't get shoulders out too, so he was able to attack my arm, which led to a triangle choke.
Ok, brain dump complete for now...
I've been training pretty hard for the last month or so, and it's really paying off.
Thanks so much for the roll Carter, it's really an honor to train with you!
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