Tonight we begin with a bit of a recap. You are now officially reading the blog of a 4 stripe white belt. I'm pretty stoked about it too but please hold your applause until the end. I would also like to take this opportunity to use the relative safety of the Internet to mock our blue belts who never managed to get 4 stripes on their white belt. Sorry guys keep training though, it will come.

On Tuesday, Daniel came in for a special class. He wanted to drop in on us before he started his training tour to prepare for the Worlds. While there, Donny, Gracie Fernandina's lead instructor, received the 4th stripe on his purple belt. It was well deserved, coming off a gold medal finish at the No-Gi Pan Ams in NYC. Even better considering he's never competed no-gi. Obviously his amazing skill is due, at least partly, to Possum's awesome guard and menacing top game. Congratulations Donny we're all proud.

Tonight is the real highlight of the week, however. Wednesday night, as I was getting ready to watch a (finally) new Mythbusters, I received a Facebook message from Corey to give Donny a call because he needed someone to cover Thursday's adult class. I'll admit, I was as excited as a little girl. I couldn't dial the number quick enough. Turns out, Corey wasn't playing a mean yet admittedly awesome joke on me. Shortly after being sworn in by Donny, I began to let the power go to my head. This was going to be a long, long 24 hrs...for Ashley (She was commanded to address me as Professor Possum).

We started off class with a Peter led warm-up. I believe he read my mind and found every exercise I did not want to do that night and made us do it. If there's one thing I've learned though is never, ever, complain about the warm-up. So after toting around someone on my back and about 10 leap frogs we settled down for some technique.

Since most of the guys were fairly green, I mentioned the scissor sweep. This was completely spontaneous...ok it totally wasn't. I had it planned 10 seconds after hanging up the phone with Donny. So we started demonstrating the sweep and it goes a little something like this:

Good guy is on his back with the bad guy in guard. You hip out and rest on whichever hip you choose. In this case I choose the right. I bring my left leg across his belt and hook with my foot. My right leg sits on the floor against his leg. Your left hand grips his lapel on the same side as your free leg and your other hand grabs his sleeve. Yank them forward and scissor your legs. Simple. My slight variation involves grabbing the triceps instead of the wrist or sleeve. This also forces me to sit up a little and when I fall back it adds a little more umph to my yank (grow up!) forward.

The second sweep is a sort of half butterfly/ half full guard thing. With the bad guy in guard, your left leg goes between his legs like a butterfly hook. Your other leg comes down and traps their other leg. Sometimes, instead of just putting my free leg down to trap their leg I will place it on the back of their knee to keep them from standing. Either way, trap an arm on the opposite side of the butterfly and sweep to that side. It's important to be on your hip to do this. I've been able to do it from flat on my back as long as I can still move my hips.

Overall I had fun teaching. I tried to keep it short and even had everyone do a drill that helps set the scissor sweep into your brain but the guys weren't feeling it. I really hope I have the opportunity to do it again. I will be ordering all their black belts next week. Blue belts, let the ass whoopin begin. The rest of you, thank you for your patience, begin your applause.


Gracie Fernandina