Mizblog

My 2nd class back in BJJ. Lots of Mark talking. We did a typical warm up, then congrats to Cosmo for helping with Stranger Danger yesterday, then a quick, light, warm-up roll with Matt (who is also a 3 stripe white belt like me).

After that, coach Mark called out Colt to challenge for blue belt. He paired him up with blue belt Dave, and they went at it for 6 minutes. Colt had just come back from Texas, where he was helping people recover from the flood there, so he was not in top form, but he survived for 6 minutes. Then he was immediately paired with Andrew, who submitted him from kesa gatame with an Americana. Colt will be able to challenge again next Tuesday for blue belt.

Greggo taught us how to scoop up an arm from north-south, with heavy chest pressure pushing them over while windshield wipering your arm under their elbow. Get a monkey figure 4 grip on that arm, then step over the head to kneel with your junk teabagging them. Step your back foot up to keep them tipped on their side, and at the same time clamp their upper arm to your chest and deadlift their arm up. If they’re holding their belt and won’t let the arm up, you can get more leverage by sitting on their head and leaning back for the arm bar.

Then we rolled. I started with Matt, and we had a competitive roll. I jammed my right big toe on the mat, however, and it aches. I just had that thing fixed, and now I’m messing it up again already.

My next roll was with Dave, and I was able to get on top and keep attacking throughout.

Then I rolled with Colt, who started coaching me again on my guard pass. I was trying the standing pass as done by Rick, but I got the grips wrong, and he told me just fold his legs down and lean over for the pass. It normally doesn’t work that easy, but if he’s going to give it to me under the guise of coaching, so be it. So I got side control. He tried coaching me more, but I told him I was going for the move of the day, isolated his arm, and got to the part where you have to deadlift it, but he wouldn’t let go. I sat down for the arm bar but didn’t put enough pressure on his head and he was able to get his legs involved and the round ended with me inverted and holding his arm in that figure 4 monkey palm grip. Next time I will not leave so much space.

My last roll was with Andrew and his new blue belt. He tried to get me with the same takedown he used on Colt during the challenge, but I took his back, rubbing my ear all the way across the back of his gi. Coach Mark said “It’s good for you!” and I responded “Toughens up the cartillage!” Andrew and I then had a competitive round.

I went the whole class without being submitted, and threatening submissions of my own for most of the time. I was conserving my energy, using my weight to my advantage, and usually had pretty good awareness of my position. Even when Andrew or Matt was smashing me, I stayed calm and was usually able to sweep them.

After class, coach Mark awarded several people another stripe, including me! Also including Colt, which was funny. 6 stripe white belt is your coach’s way of telling you that you suck at BJJ. Haha! Anyway, 3 1/2 months, 16 classes since my 3rd stripe. 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 my third stripe, but I did it in only 9 classes. At that rate, I would have gotten my 4th stripe in, er, well it’s hard to infer a rate from such an oscillating signal, but 3/63 is about one stripe per 21 classes, so 16 classes is faster than average. That second stripe was by far the most difficult.