On the Mat Day 546: Still working on my holes

I cycled to work last night and on the way back stopped off for the final hour of class which is sparring. It was full of blue belts initially until a few purple belts turned up. A lot of the blue belts are frequently training right now so they are getting quite good and interestingly each one has different aspects that I need to be wary of. Some are good at passing, berimbolo, triangles and takedowns. This is a good thing for me because I get to work on defending these because as any purple belt knows, blue belts are out for their blood and very rarely hold back. I have a much easier time sparring with purple and above. I think this is because they tend to use less strength and more technique so it doesn't feel like one of those 80s video games where you tap the button repeatedly to win the fight/race or whatever.

Button mashing fun when I was a boy

I was a bit bummed out by my performance actually (at one point I felt like heaving which is a first for me) but realize that you can't always be the hammer. I think that perhaps I have an unrealistic idea of what I can do. On the other hand I feel I have the potential to be better. I talked a little to the other guys and came to the conclusion that I need to train more frequently. That's why today I also went to the morning class, so two days in a row for me. I want to aim for 4 classes a week, 2 at night, 1 in the day and 1 drilling class on Sunday morning. I'll do this and see if it brings about any improvement. I also think I need to be more aggressive. For some reason, getting purple belt made me less aggressive during sparring. I think it is the fact that I have this impression of a higher belt being able to flow beautifully with no strength. This has led me to try to use less power (which is good) but I think I have lost the drive to push my opponent which subsequently pushes me to do more and get fitter. I need to get this back. I cannot continue to coast along while others improve faster around me.