Mizblog

Tuesday morning class; Christian was teaching just me and Chad.

I started with warm-ups. Chad had just done KM ALL class at 10am and took the warm-up time to change into his gi.

We started with the arm bar. I was better at it than I had been at UCLA because I wasn’t as scared to sit on the guy’s chest.

Then we did Americana from side control. My shoulders are super inflexible and I had to tap very early.

Our awareness drill was with our partner in side control or mount, the bottom person had to keep their elbows safe while the top person tried to separate them from the body and trap them.

After that, we expanded the awareness drill to allow the person on bottom to try to recover guard.

Saturday noon class. I paired up with old man Mike.

We started with shrimping for a warm up, but that didn’t last long.

First we learned closed guard and building “the wall”. Crossed ankles, heels digging into spine. Use it to break down the base, break their posture and lean them forward onto you.

Next we learned to deflect them, grab their collar deep and pull their sleeve across their body to limit their available weapons.

From there we learned to scoot our butt to the dead side, push their far knee out from under them, and slide onto their back.

We also learned open guard with feet on hips or shoulders/biceps.

From there, we learned to drop our feet to butterfly hooks, sit up, grab the collar and sleeve, sit out, and arm drag them forward while we scoot around onto their back.

At the end, we did some situational rolling. My guard passing started to come back to me, as well as the realization and avoidance of some bad moves. I got into side control a couple times, and got back mount on Mike a couple times. No submissions though. We’ll work our way up to that. Just got to keep going to class. I’m only a week behind most of the earliest students.

Then when I left I forgot to bring my gi top. Doh!

My second class. Mark was late, so Christian started us out. Lots of abs in the warm ups. I wore socks (and my compression sock on the right calf) but mostly I forgot they were on.

We learned to transition from side control to half guard to open guard to closed guard to half guard on the other side. I kept getting confused on which way to turn in half guard and which underhook to take.

We did some rolling at the end, but I just did situational drills to practice the side control maintenance or guard recovery.

Later, at home, my lower back was achingly tired. I slept early.

EDIT: Next morning the back is much better. So, no injuries this time! Just a very sore core.

Tuesday morning class with Mark Morales. We worked on riding a turtle, tipping it over, and choking it out. At the end we practiced being a turtle and rolling the rider off.

I got a scrape on my left ankle at some point.

Then that night I was trying to show Saranya how to do a flying side kick and I re-aggravated my right calf. I’m too stupid to move.

I got a new Jean Jacques Machado BJJ gi on Saturday. Later I found out that it has the back patch sewn on off-center. Not sure that’s by design, since pictures of others in similar attire have a centered patch.

Christian’s Tuesday night class now starts at 8:15pm.

Warm up was straight into straight punches and inside defenses. Mouth guards in. I partnered up with Adam, our newly minted black belt! My inside defenses improved greatly since last time! I did get punched a couple times but no worries.

Next drill was standing relaxed and then bursting in with a straight punch. Very first one I threw, I strained my calf. At first I thought it was a cramp, but it is now definitely strained. Hard to walk. I sat out a bit and iced it, but got back in for the chair drill where we sat on chairs and then bursted up to throw punches. My punches were flat footed, obviously, but I participated.

We reviewed choke defenses. At first I forgot front guillotine, but then it came back to me.

Then we did rear naked choke defense again. I did okay.

Now walking is difficult. I think I strained just one particular calf muscle, because some angles of foot and ankle don’t hurt, but I sure can’t walk properly.

Christian’s Tuesday night class. Warmup was a stress drill! We got into groups of 2 and had to throw repeated and varied strikes to a tombstone pad. Then we did the same thing in groups of 3 with one person pulling the striker back with a belt. I got to go twice while Christian held the pad for me and Brian. Cardio!

Then we did kicks. Advancing front kicks and front/side/rear stomp kicks. We did a drill where we had to fend off our partner with a straight leg. Then we did a plank kicking drill where one partner got in plank position and the other kicked them in the abdomen and legs to toughen them up.

Next we did inside/outside defenses with counters. I SUCK at inside defenses. I SUCK at counters with defenses. I’m too slow to see them, and don’t get my defenses up in time. Then we got into groups of 3 and had the 3rd person try to attack but the defender could kick them away.

Our last exercise was defense against back mount with a rear naked choke. Brian kept re-wrapping my near leg in almost a backward half-guard. Made it tough to escape. I ended up hurting both my big toes, jamming them into the front of my shoes during that drill. Let’s see how they recover.

[Edit: Toes are feeling better in the morning. :]

I’ve been practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at UCLA for the last few months. I’m so new I don’t even have the funny pajamas. And I always hurt after class. Today is no exception. I feel like I was hit by a truck.

Last night we were taught the twister roll! That should have been exciting, but my knee popped the first time my partner rolled me and I think that put a damper on the rest of my evening. It doesn’t hurt, and I can walk on it just fine, so I have no idea what happened in there.

The class meets in Wooden Training Center at UCLA, in the blue room. The mat (floor padding) in that room is covered with some very rough vinyl, so whenever you rub your skin against it, some of that skin is going to stay on the mat. I have a chunk of skin missing out of my right foot. Scraped off by the mat. Stingy!

This summer there are about 50 people in the class, and the room can only handle about 20 people comfortably. That means for most of the class, we’re standing around watching others do drills, or we’re trying to practice techniques in a tiny area while keeping a constant eye out for neighboring groups.

We’re two classes into the first summer session now, and I don’t feel like I’ve improved at anything. I’m up against vastly more experienced partners than in my beginner class last Spring, so they’re illustrating my lack of experience and technique. Hopefully some of theirs will rub off on me over the next couple months.