Mizblog

I woke up after a bad night’s sleep, still very sore from Tuesday morning’s double leg circuit. When I got to SVKM, I was glad to find out that even Dave and coach Greggo were very sore after that training, so I didn’t feel so inadequate. Rick also brought up the experience of walking out of a martial arts class so wrecked that a kid could take you out, and how you have to question yourself in those situations. It got a laugh.

Warm up went quick under coach Mark. 10 minutes and we got down to business. We were visited by coach Drago from the main academy, and coach Mark put him on the spot for Q&A. Rick asked him how you deal with someone who’s got a knee-elbow shield against your guard leg. Drago ducked under his arm and pulled him past, taking his back. I got to practice with Brandon Sherman. He was messing me up by getting a cross collar grip and putting his forearm in my face so I couldn’t duck under. I guess it was my bad for not getting an underhook on that side so I could boost his arm up and over my head as I pulled him back and across.

The next technique we learned was the arm drag. Break posture with the collar grip, then relinquish it to pull the arm across, then take the back. Again, Brandon made my life difficult by gripping my gi above my shoulder. Much more amenable to the previous technique, but this time I had to break down his arm by folding it downward and rotating my body away while I ripped it across with my opposite hand. Very dangerous and violent technique.

After that we learned the baseball bat choke from side control top. Use your cross face arm to grip thumb-in the back of the collar. Then rise up to knee-on-belly, lift their head with your collar grip and sink the other hand into the far side collar, palm-up thumb-out. Bring your far hand over the neck and your elbows together as you step around and lower your head to their near-side hip. Very effective!

After that, we rolled.

I started with Andrew. I think I ended up on top but he recovered guard. I tried to pass but he scrambled to turtle, then when I was attacking he scrambled and I had to turtle. He almost got my back! I had to really work to get out of that, but I did. He got mount, I upa’d him over and again passed his guard. Round over. It was a good one!

Next was Ryan. I had my way with him, pretty much. I got him in an Americana and an arm bar before I decided to coach him a little bit.

Next was Matt. Again, a good roll. I got the better of him positionally but he put up a good fight and had good defense.

Next was Cosmo. I was scared of being crushed, to start off, and I told him so. He went to knock me over at an angle, and I rolled under to get into side control, stopping him from getting on the concrete. We restarted. I mounted and set up a collar choke, which was impossible to finish because Cosmo does not have a neck. I eventually got bucked off and we scrambled to me on the bottom of half guard, where we ended.

After that I rolled with Ryan again, and I just basically talked to him about BJJ and the early learning process. I gave him tips on what to do when mounted, like protecting your neck and tucking your elbows. At the end of the roll, I sunk in the baseball bat choke that we’d learned earlier in the class.

After we lined up, coach Mark thanked Drago for teaching. He chastised some of the people for not showing up. Then he gave me another stripe, as well as Andrew and Matt and maybe Brendan? The first stripe took me 21 classes, and the 2nd one took me 33 classes. At that rate, it would have taken me 44 classes to get another stripe, but I did it in only 9 classes. I’ve been getting better very quickly lately, like it was all pent up and it’s finally starting to come together.

After class, coach Mark told me I looked good on the mat today. He again complimented me on losing weight, which according to the scale I have not done. He also told me “Your daughter is going to be a beast!”