Almost to purple

Almost to purple! I recently received my fourth stripe as a blue belt. Its encouraging, as I can tell my game has gotten better. I am still getting destroyed by upper belts as to be expected, but I feel confident in my game. Well, what does one do when one becomes almost purple? They prepare for purple belt exam. Not that I am over eager to become a purple belt (I still feel like I have a long way to go before I feel like I belong there), but I think its good to be prepared as soon as possible. And its a good thing I did, because the exam asks for a wide array of moves from a lot of different positions. One thing that got my attention was "Chokes from side control". Now, I love armlocks from side control. It never occured to me to look into chokes from side control. Youtubing has revealed a whole array of things to do. This is super exciting. I think I need to start drilling again, as I feel like a whole new landscape of submissions has opened up for me. Anyway, time to get busy. One thing I want to start doing are the step over choke variations. Also the "choke opponent with your own gi" variation from side. I'm in heaven.