Mizblog

Christian also taught the morning BJJ class. There were 3 other students aside from myself, and I got there late (I was ruined after KM75). I jumped in just as we were finishing the warm up, bridging and limbering our necks.

Then, surprise, we went into the back room and did wall rolls. I was able to pull it off pretty quickly, but still had a few hiccups as I tried to repeat my success. Oh yeah, and I tried to tape up my black nail but the tape pulled off immediately. Then we went back into the big room and did the berembolo roll with a partner. This one I got right away and knocked out some shoddy reps.

We then did a guard retention drill where we’d advance around our partner and they’d then post, scoot, and recover an open guard. Across the mat and back the other way. Next round we upped the intensity and pressure. Last round was a counter-stacking drill, putting pressure on the stacking leg while using the opposite leg on the hip to get space, then circling the foot around the underhooking arm to recover an open guard.

After that it was noon and time for rolling, and I bailed out. No gas left at all, but not injured as far as I could tell. Had to rush home to take my antibiotics (2 hours late).

In an echo of one of my very first classes, we did collar chokes from behind, using it to attack an unwise turn-away from side control and take the back, or to tip a turtle. I teamed up with TJ to practice and we both managed to make one another dizzy with our chokes. It took me a while but I started getting it again. It started coming back and feeling normal.

I left before rolling, and I’m glad I did. Even with the relatively light duty, I had sore muscles everywhere come Sunday.

I went hiking with my family and Rob and his kids on Sunday. Afterward, we ate at Sharky’s, and after that, my left big toe became too painful to walk on. I also noticed that my groin muscles were still sore from 9 days before, my left MCL (inner knee) was still very sore and getting worse. Then on Monday I could only limp around UCLA, but by the time I got home I had strained my soleus (calf) from all the limping, and my toe hurt worse than ever. Ouch!

That ruled out training on Tuesday. I rested, and I hurt.

Wednesday was more pain and limping, but minimizing the ambulation seemed to help.

Thursday morning was a work meeting during class time, so no training again, but the pain would have precluded that possibility anyway. The foot still hurts. If it isn’t better by Saturday morning, I’m going to schedule a doctor appointment come Monday morning.

Mark’s Saturday class was essentially a review of mount and how to escape it back to guard. No submissions, just this. Mount isn’t just sitting on someone – it’s squeezing the knees together and making an A-frame above the opponent. Guard recovery when you’re mounted involves three hip bumps to get the knees to slide and collapse the A-frame before shrimping, wrapping a leg in a loose half guard, then turning the other way to secure the underhook, possibly coming to the elbow and getting back to the knees.

Then we rolled for a half hour before everybody got tired and Mark got a little disappointed in our conditioning.

I started rolling with Cosmo. He’s figured out to slam me back down when I try to sit-up sweep him, but I was able to overbalance him from half guard. That’ll be a theme for the day.

Next I rolled with Sean. He’s really slick, and we had a pretty flowy roll. I thought he was going easy on me until he tried to land that mounted triangle on me (I slipped out the back as soon as he moved to set it up, so I was proud of that) and then I thought maybe not. But neither of us were going nuts trying to submit the other. I managed to stay calm and focus on techniques, and everything was over too soon.

After that was Jen. She basically sat back and worked open guard. I was able to pass a couple times but she always recovered. I probably need to be heavier on her after I pass, but that somehow doesn’t seem very nice. Plus, Mark was coaching her through the whole thing. So I essentially worked to maintain good base as she tried to separate my arm from my body.

After that was TJ. He’s becoming a beast. Solid guard passing, heavy side control. I was able to reverse him from kesa-gatame once, which garnered applause from Mark. He ended up sweeping me and arm barring me once. Good stuff.

Next was an optional roll, which devolved into TJ showing me his triangle setup. Mark was a little dissatisfied by our lack of conditioning, but hey that was my 2nd hour of martial arts training for the day. I think I did great!

Warm up for Christian’s Thursday BJJ class was just guard passing drills. Torreando pass was grabbing the pants legs, pulling the feet to the mat, pulling them out, and scooting around them to the back side for the pass. We then went over the bread and butter pass with the leg staple, and I solidified a few details I was foggy on. The knee that comes up is the one by the hand that’s holding the belt or the pants fabric.

We went over kesa-gatame again, and the arm locks from there, with a hint at the arm triangle.

Then we rolled, each time starting in kesa-gatame. I paired up with Eric first. I started on top, but he sneaked out and took my back.

Next was TJ, who triangle choked me. Then Phil, who I dominated from top position the whole time. Then Daniel at the end. I just couldn’t pass his feet!

Jumped on the mat late after KM51. Got chastised to go take off my gi top for weight exercises. Mark said “Don’t be that little kid in the gym lifting weights with his gi on.” So we started with the same plate exercises we did before.

Then we learned the running man sweep. It starts from full guard. Get grips on both arms, double up on one, pull it across the body while transferring the near grip to the triceps seam. Then pull them down with your legs as you release the crossed sleeve grip and transfer that grip up to the collar, as far behind the neck as you can get. Once you’ve got them there, they’ll probably be trying to get up, so you just open your guard and hip WAY out, getting sideways with one leg on the mat next to their leg, and the other leg up and across their body. Pull them forward by moving your head to the 12-o’clock position, and that lets you scissor them over with your legs pretty easily. Well, not really easily. I kept twisting my knee doing this. Ouch. Anyway, you end up on top in “rodeo mount” as you maintain that collar grip.

Mark then refined the way we hold mount. You don’t sit on the hips – you make an A-frame with your legs and squeeze their sides with your knees. Also, don’t come up on your toes – keep your insteps flat on the mat. It makes the position much more stable. We tried it a few times and that made us believers.

Finally we went on to learn a submission from rodeo mount. Reach your free hand across to the collar, and then dive your face over that side to press your collar-grip wrist into their neck. Mark showed it on me, and the weight of his arm on my cheek was almost enough to make me tap.

We practiced that a little, and then we rolled. I started with Brandon (Saranya’s KMX teacher) and he was brutal. He tapped me twice – once from crushing my head off from INSIDE MY GUARD! Next time I got him in kesa-gatame and he trapped my head between his legs and squeezed until my eye bled. Now I’ve got crazy eye bruises.

After that was Cosmo. I swept him a couple times with a hip sweep. I shot for a triangle once and he stacked and cracked me. I need to secure guys better if I’m going for triangles. Ray was stacking me pretty easily too a few weeks back. Anyway, I ended up on top and he was gassed. I just kept crushing him under side control. I might still have some hidden resentment for all the times he cranked my neck.

After that I rolled with TJ. He got me in some deep waters. Much improved.

Finally I rolled with Christian, who noticed that my fighting for underhooks had improved. I was also focused on keeping my elbows tight to my body.

When class was over, I was beat up and moving very slowly, but nothing major seems broken.

Scrambled to get to class after KM50, and still missed the bowing in. Slipped into warm ups.

The theme for the day was defending when someone’s got your back. We learned getting the head high and to the underhook side, walking the hips onto the thigh, and shooting out for side control. I pretty much sucked at that, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

One by-product of the drilling was to keep your hands up protecting your neck. Christian demonstrated that you need to be sensitive to when hands are getting in to get grips. I can’t feel that crap very well. Got to work on my awareness of my neck, or I’m due to be choked out a bunch. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.

I got a call from Rachel in the middle of class, asking about Marines training. Had to postpone that talk, and then leave early from class to handle it.

First rolled with Curtis. He tapped me to an arm bar once, and I swept him once off of kesa-gatame the way Eric showed me last week. Great roll!

Then I rolled with Tom. We ended up the last couple minutes content to stall with him in my closed guard. I was making him work to sit up, and he was out of gas so he just sat there. I was out of gas too so I just relaxed.

Final roll was with Christian, who showed me how easily I can be tapped by a black belt. Repeatedly and effortlessly. Good to know. Protect your neck. Keep your elbows hidden. Maintain good base. Etc. It all has to become automatic, and it will with practice. Keep practicing.

Just a note in postscript: This marks the day when I’ve done half as many 805BJJ classes as SVKM classes.

Between KM49 and this class, I drove my car around the parking lot, ate a banana and some almonds, stopped in at Big 5 to throw away my banana peel and see what they had for sale, and generally pondered the advantages and disadvantages of chickening out of BJJ class. Finally I manned up and drove back, unloaded my gear, and went in to change.

There were only 3 students in the class – me, TJ, and his friend Tom. We started with a bunch of weight plate exercises. Mark wants to prevent more rib injuries from people not having strong connective tissue in their ribcage, but generally strong muscles everywhere else.

The first exercise was the one he taught me before, where you hold the plate on opposite edges just above the center line, and swing it around so that you’re holding it behind your head. It’s important to not move your head, and have your arms do all the moving. It’s also important to spread your legs and bend your knees for good base.

The second exercise was where you set up to throw the weight away at a 40 degree angle to the front, and then you catch it out of the air and pull it back to your bread basket. Alternate sides.

The third exercise was the cat stretch. Then oblique sit ups, then bicycles.

Once we were warmed up, we started top-bottom-out situational drills. First was side control. We practiced resting on bottom and waiting for the top person to move before we made our escape. I improved a lot. Mark was impressed. He said it was a night and day difference between how I moved in my early classes and how I move now. I used to move like a creaky old man, and now I move much more athletically.

Next was mount. Then on the back with a standing person trying to pass, starting with hands on feet. Then starting with hands on knees. Then starting with hands on belt. I tweaked my lower back on the last one, when Tom got my back and his leg under my lower back. We’ll see if it amounts to anything. It felt fine after I got out of the position, and now 2 hours later it’s still fine.

I did a sit up sweep on TJ that caused him to tap because his toe got trapped under his other foot. Almost exactly what happened to me last Saturday when I was rolling with Josh. Josh is another guy who went down with a rib injury.

I came out of the class very glad that I had gone and not chickened out.

This was a scary class. It was all about submissions from Kesa-gatame.

First it was just putting pressure, which really hurt my rib. Then we learned a shoulder lock (“the only submission in wrestling”) where you grab around their arm and then pull their shoulder over their face. Then there was the arm bar and Americana, where you move the arm over your leg in different ways. All of them involved keeping pressure, and gripping that head.

Rolling wasn’t so bad. Sure, I got tapped a dozen times by blue belts, but I didn’t get injured! At least, I don’t feel an injury yet, after just over 2 hours. I sat out the last roll. So did Brandon, who was just coming back after 3 weeks of rib injury recovery. Poor guy. He ended the class by puking in the bathroom.

Class had already started before noon when I showed up and jumped on the mat. It was “What is Larry struggling with?” themed. So we practiced getting our underhook when on the bottom in side control, and preventing mount. Then we practiced keeping either both arms in or both arms out when in someone’s guard.

I rolled with Cosmo, and I pretty much dominated him on the top, ending with an arm bar tapout. Woot! Then he got on the top and pulled my head until the end of the round.

I rolled with Jen and she played a good open guard and mostly kept me off her.

I rolled with Josh and got some good sit-up sweeps on him, but he mounted me, but I swept him, and I stubbed my toe and now I’m limping. Hope it’s not serious.

I rolled with Ray and he’s gotten really good. Passed my guard by stacking me when I shot for a triangle. Mounted me and laid on my face and made me want to quit.

Then I came home and mowed the lawn, limping and slow the whole way.