Mizblog

TJ’s Saturday morning class. Started right in to shadow boxing. I did okay mostly. Partnered with Mike for the class.

Next we took turns running out to the speed bump behind the studio with a heavy thing, then came back in to do combos in thai pads. 3 rounds then switch.

After that we did boxing sparring. I didn’t land a whole lot but I didn’t get tagged a lot either, except by Susan. But I tagged her a couple good times too, so I don’t feel too bad.

Then it was gear off and back on the mat for stick defense. I got a group of 3, with Mike and Leo (who I barely remembered from BJJ class, and who complimented me on looking “thicker” than when we met) and we went 1 for 1 for 1. It went really well.

Finally we did a stress drill with stick and knife defenses. When it was my turn to defend, I accidentally punched Curtis in the face. Oops. Sorry, Curtis!

After class, I found out that in Saranya’s BJJ class, she was awarded “Queen of the Mat”. Congrats, Saranya!

Jumped in after KM46. The whole class was forward break falls. I kept getting confused with the KM ground fighting, and I really need to practice that. A lot. It was embarrassing.

After a whole 45 minutes of practicing that, we rolled. I decided to focus on survival and base. First was Howard the purple belt, who went easy and let me recover guard after he mounted me. Next was Phil, then Chris, then Daniel, then Jen. I pulled off an arm bar from mount vs. Chris, to the delight of Christian. I swept Jen from side control and she accused me of using “pure muscle”, so when she passed my guard later I accused her of muscling it. That was funny.

At the end of class, I got my first white belt stripe! Jen got 2 stripes. You get 5 stripes as a white belt, then you get blue. It should take a year to a year and a half of regular training.

Skipped the Krav Maga class today because I overslept. Came into BJJ fresh.

Started with Kimura from half guard. C-grip the overhook-side wrist, pull it away from the body, hip out, reach over for the monkey grip on your own wrist (of the hand that’s C-gripping their wrist, got it?), same-side calf across their back, and pull the arm over their own head for the tap.

Rolled pretty easy with Daniel, TJ, Jen, and prof. Mark. Learned a ton about maintaining and resting in closed guard. Survived without injury! I think…

Jumped into this one last second. Feeling brittle.

Warm ups, culminating in getting dragged across the mat by my belt under my armpits. That sucked.

Then some choke techniques from mount. My throat is bruised.

Then arm bar from mount. I realized I was terrified of crushing the guy under me, but I never did. Eric did crush me though. Got his forearm on my collar bone and made me tap.

Then we rolled, and I got demolished. Smashed the shit out of me and tapped me just from pressure on my ribs. I thought I was getting tougher but nope. I sucked today.

First BJJ class that I saw Mark since he went to Thailand. He has an infected cyst that he’s on antibiotics for, and he’s a little loopy. Still, he’s better than yesterday, and he taught class despite his ailment. I was humbled.

We started off right away with review of the seated gi choke. Kind of like a bow and arrow choke. Anyway, it was the one that in a previous class, Josh had given me a crazy hickey. I got in a group of 3 (Chris and Jen) and barely got any practice. Then we did a half nelson version of the same, where instead of pulling down on the gi with the other hand, it instead hooked the elbow out and up high over the opponent’s head, and then shot down behind the neck to complete the choke. We then learned to apply this to a turtled opponent, rolling them into our lap, hooking and racking them, hooking that elbow up and then shooting the hand down behind their neck to complete the choke.

Then it was all rolling. I rolled with new Chris, Ray, Sean, and Curtis. All went very well in the sense that I didn’t get injured. I suspect guys were going easy on me because I’m old, and I very much appreciate their treatment of me. Curtis tapped me a couple times, but at least he was gentle. :)

And I made it to Costco and then home safely.

Curtis’ Saturday KM All class. Saranya was doing her first ever BJJ class with Jasmine (we didn’t know it would be going on, so she didn’t bring her gi) while I was working.

Class started with shoulder tag. I accidentally poked my finger into Calvin’s nose. Sorry, Calvin.

Then, thai pads and combinations followed by a knee. I partnered up with white belt Mike.

After that we worked on inside defenses, which is great because I suck at them. Mike and I went slow and I don’t know how much I improved but I feel like maybe I did. We also did defense against straight punch to the body. Then we did one hand defenses against straight punches. Then we put on boxing gloves and headgear.

As I was getting my stuff, Christian yelled at me from the kids’ training room that Saranya knew how to pull guard. I yelled “Yeah!”. I’m so proud. :)

I got to introduce Mike to sparring. We started one handed, then switched who was one handed, and then went normal.

After that I sparred with Scott, Alex, and Renée. Scott got me a few times. Alex was being showy and elusive, so I just started chasing him around with punches (to the great satisfaction of Curtis). Renee and I traded some pretty good shots. She’d just come in and wail on me and get out, so I started trying to time her with uppercuts as she came in.

And that was class.

Changed after KM41 and got into the middle of the warmup. Christian at the helm, and he took us through some neck exercises for the first time that I’ve seen at 805BJJ. Jen was there and checked in on how my rib was doing. Last time I saw her was when I popped my rib, and I was proud to tell her that it’s 100%.

The class was mainly composed of transition drills between positions. Mount buck/trap/roll to guard, then sit up sweep back to mount. Road map side control to half guard to butterfly guard to full guard, then back. Mount elbow escape to guard, then butterfly sweep to switch. All good stuff!

Rolling all started in the mount, and we had to work to escape. I must have tapped out 6 times just because I was afraid of my neck. But I was able to learn some stuff from observing. Like Eric’s belly-on-face mount, or Phil’s butterfly sweep. I had a good time, got swept a lot, and survived. Very sweaty and breathing heavy, but I never got that panicked feeling like I used to get when I’d overdo my cardio. Very satisfying.

My neck got cranked again (by Cosmo again) last Thursday, and it’s still stiff. This is disturbing.

I first noticed the strain when my neck started to stiffen up during the drive home from 805BJJ16. I iced it right away, but it was hard to know how effective the ice pack was.

Then the pain started, right at the base of my skull. After a couple days, it spread to the right side and down between my shoulder blades. Then a couple days later it manifested as a stiffness that prevented me from moving my head/neck back and to the left.

Now I’m scared to train because I’m afraid of making the problem worse. If it’s still bothering me on Thursday, I’m going to go see my doctor about it.

EDIT: 6 days in and it seems to hurt a little bit less than yesterday, but it’s hard to know for sure. Still can’t move the head back and to the left very well, and I discovered that wiping my nose with my left hand causes a twinge in my neck.

Quick change after KM40 and back on the mat. My comment was “This one is going to be hard.” because the whole morning I wasn’t feeling strong, and I’d just finished a grueling Krav Maga class. Other class members were Cosmo and Daniel. Cosmo’s real name is “Bill” (I think) but his last name is long and complicated so people in the Oxnard PD just call him Cosmo. He’s the guy who tweaked my neck previously.

Warm ups started with shrimping, hip escapes, elbow escapes. We did person balancing and straddled shrimps. We did hook takedown/getups followed by reverse hip escapes across the mat. Oh yeah, and we did rolls back and then forward onto our knee with one foot up. You know the ones I mean, right?

It was during the warm ups that I smelled the mildew on my gi. When I washed it on Tuesday, I forgot to take it out of the washing machine until the next morning, and it was in there with kitchen rags. It was subtle, but it made me want to sneeze. It also made me want to go home. I don’t like being the smelly guy.

Then we did the roadmap. Side control to half guard to butterfly guard to full guard, then back to butterfly, then half, then top person passes back to side control and start over.

The lesson for the day was the butterfly sweep. How to set it up, how to execute it, and eventually how to recover if you try it and it doesn’t work out.

Then we rolled. Daniel and I had a very good flow. Neither could get the other in too much advantage. I’m impressed with his wiggliness, and he knows to go after a kimura but he’s never pulled it off against me.

Cosmo is a beast, and he again cranked my neck. Made me tap to a jaw crush, which didn’t suck so bad but I didn’t want to pay for it later so I eventually tapped as he kept pulling it. After that I got in his guard and held him down for the remainder of the roll.

After class I bought an 805BJJ patch for my gi, and an 805BJJ t-shirt (size XL). It fits tight before washing, so I’m worried that it’ll be too snug after washing/drying. We’ll see…

My neck stiffened up on the way home. It’s bugging me even through 2 ibuprofen and an ice pack. Can’t wait until I toughen the hell up!

Scrambled to get changed after KM39 and line up. Christian taught this class too, and we had Rick and Daniel as well as myself. Started in with warm ups. Back rolls kind of tweaked my rib right off the bat, but it settled down and I continued.

Part of warm up was arm bar from the guard. I really felt the strain in my groin (weak, tired muscles) and doing the left arm felt very very awkward.

Then we learned a couple different guard passes. The guard break, the leg staple, the other leg hooked and pulled up on the shoulder, and then crush it to their chest. From there, either slip over the staple side and quickly solidify side control, or slip around the outside of the shouldered leg and complete the pass that way.

Then there were the free rolls. First rolled with Christian, then Daniel, and then *gasp* Rick. Rick stopped me and urged me to stay calm and be heavy in the side control position while not panicking. Very helpful.

Got out of the whole day of training without any major injuries.