Last weekend, Damoun Nassehi (a student from the gym) participated in the grappling tournament CSAOpen 2. He had four initial fights, two of which he won. He lost one to a BJJ blue belt (on judges decision — pretty damn impressive for a white belt with less than one year of training), and the last guy didn't show up. He went on to fight in the next round, but was submitted by another BJJ Blue belt. Big congrats to Damoun for entering the tournament — and even bigger for the impressive results!

On another, more personal note, I sparred with my good friend and training partner Jimmi yesterday. As always, we had a great time and were both invigorated afterwards. We always have one or more cool moments during sparring, and yesterday was no exception; i got some great punches in, successfully executed a difficult but pimpish armbar from open bottom guard (which is fast becoming a favorite of mine), and did some good ground N pound defense from bottom guard as well as from bottom mount. Unfortunately, my elbow suffered a bit from the sparring, so I've got to be a bit careful with it the next few days.

Jimmi landed some excellent punches as well (at least two knockouts, had we gone full blast) and executed some great sweeps and reversals.

We both worked on our guard game, and found some errors and possibilities for improvement that will help us get better.

For the first time this year, we went outside to spar. It felt great! I really love the summer, and it looks like it's on its way early this year.