Mizblog

We had 3 black belts on the mat this morning. It was the school’s first day of 0530 class, so there was some discussion about its utility and proper form. I can’t take advantage of it, the same way I can’t take advantage of the MWF evening classes.

Anyway, I limped into class and walked out later. Warm up was fine. Drilling paired me with Greggo, and we went over guard passing by holding the knees and walking around, then diving into half guard. That’s what got my rib separated at UCLA in 2011, but I wasn’t as nervous as I should have been. Turns out, my rib wasn’t my problem.

So I sucked terribly at the drill. We were supposed to grip the INSIDES of the pants at the knees, hold the legs down with the feet on the ground, walk around to the side, slide your farthest knee into the apple of the hip AT THE SAME TIME as you reach your front side elbow over their opposite shoulder. Then you press them down to the mat and take your lower and and grip their pants to control their hips.

We had a little competition drill to do this. I was pretty good on bottom. Jen elbowed me in the face twice when trying to do the move. Oops.

Then we rolled. I rolled with Phil first. In a scramble, he hit me in the cheekbone with his elbow, so that was 3 elbows in the face during this class before the first roll was over. I managed to stay on top of him.

Next roll was with Christian. Mounting him is like mounting a medicine ball full of oiled midgets on speed. He got me in an arm bar and I almost got out. He complimented me on one scramble where he had to try three different things to get me rolled over on my back. I guess that shows that I’ve got good movement.

After that I rolled with Dave. He started out by passing my guard. I fought and nearly recovered a few times, but he secured side control. I inched my way to recovery, ended up sitting up and sweeping, and finished on top.

I sat out the next round, coming back in to roll with Greggo. He did his sit-up guard and he let me roll around with him. I did alright.

The final round was with Dave again, because everyone else left. It was pretty even.

At the end of class, we did 3 rounds of sit-ups. 240 individual sit-ups.