Mizblog

Christian’s Tuesday morning class. Saranya came with me and sat at a table in the front, because Sangeeta was off running in Moorpark and didn’t make it home before I had to leave for class.

Our black belts went to a Ralph Gracie seminar last Sunday and they were really excited to bring back some of the ideas they picked up there. So we did a warm up where we were starting from an open guard position, and the top person would scoop a leg and try to go for an over-under pass, while the defender would get heavy on that leg (preventing the pass) and then transition into a sweep. Next we did a drill where we’d do a kick sweep on one side, then a scissor sweep on the other side when they got back up.

Then we did a standard stretching sequence before getting down to the lessons.

And the lessons today were centered around kesa gatame, which I first learned a freakin’ year ago (sort of). We did modified and standard, and I had the most trouble transitioning to the standard kesa. Giving up that far side underhook was difficult. I had a relatively easy time getting the arm bar and the americana, as I’d seen them a bunch of times.

We did sparring, and I started rolling with Chad (whose wife ran with Sangeeta this morning in Moorpark) and of course today we started in side control. I started on bottom. It was a good roll. I managed to sweep him but he recovered guard. He locked onto my collar, but I got 2 hands on it and would not let go, at the same time maintaining pressure and trying to pass so he couldn’t move around to a solid submission. That lasted to the end of the roll. I survived!

Second roll was with Em. It was a little scrambly, and I was able to muscle some stuff, but she was able to recover guard a lot. I did manage to get half guard on her a few times, and mount once, but no subs of course. We had a funny conversation mid-roll.
Em: You have hair like mine.
Me: You mean on your stomach?
Em: No, on your head.
Me: Gray?
Em: No, long and curly. It’s annoying.
Me: At least yours is falling out slower than mine is, so you’ve got that going for you!

Next I rolled with R/N whose name I had to keep practicing. I was able to easily sweep him once I let him get into kesa, because his base was awful. I had him restart on top again and coached him to have a more solid base.

After that I rolled with Dave, and that was an adventure. I was able to mount him and go for a gi choke, and when he defended that I latched onto his arm and went for an arm bar in a crazy roll that saw him keep going belly down and stacking me to try to get out. I never did get it, and ended up tapping when he dove for an arm bar while my fingers were tangled up in his gi. I was hoping the dive would dislodge them, but they remained stuck and I verbally tapped. I fixed my belt for the remainder of the roll.

Last I rolled with Aaron, who was suffering with a bruised knee. I found him impossible to hold down, and kept ending up under his north-south pressure. At the end, I was turtled and managed to roll under him, but his arm was trapped and he both wrenched his shoulder and hit his head. I was actively trying not to hurt him, but it didn’t work out that way. Poor guy. Hope he recovers quickly.

Last Wednesday I started feeling sick. I went home a little bit early. Thursday it got worse, but still not bad, but it was still worsening, so I took Friday off and stayed home. Good thing I did! Friday night was horrible, and when I woke up Saturday morning I felt like I was dying by choking on thick phlegm. It took me quite a lot of effort to feel like I had coughed it all up. I took Saranya to BJJ, where she was awarded her BJJ yellow belt. I went home and suffered, trying to distract myself from the awful congestion.

Saturday night was worse. I slept for an hour and woke up choking. I decided I was done trying to sleep at night. I stayed up and played Minecraft, Empire, watched Youtube videos, watched a movie. I was cold but I didn’t want to wake Sangeeta up by running the heater so I just wrapped myself in my bathrobe. I did get a couple hours sleep in the morning, but Sunday was another awfulness. Sunday night I got another hour of sleep.

Monday, again, no work. I slept 3 hours in the morning. Starting to feel some improvement in the congestion! Stayed up until about 8pm, when I finally crashed out. Woke up at midnight, still congested but not dying. Went back to sleep at almost 4am and slept until almost 8am, so that makes two stretches of 4 hours each.

So Tuesday morning dawns and I’m feeling slightly congested but rested and optimistic. The scale says I gained about 5 pounds during the cold, and I’m not sure what that’s about. Probably all the salt from soup and pretzels.

Saranya just went running to the bathroom, saying “Gotta go now! It’s a turtle.”

Cracked me up!

I went to SVKM this afternoon to watch Saranya’s BJJ and KMX training.

First was the BJJ class at 4pm. TJ was doing police officer stuff (Jack asked “Like what? Sitting at a desk and eating donuts?”) so Christian taught the class. They learned snap down to single leg takedown. They did lots of little drills and ended with sumo competitions and takedown competitions. At the end, Saranya got promoted to a 4th stripe. Next time, she’s going to get a yellow belt! That’s a belt I’ll never get in BJJ, because it’s reserved for intermediate pre-teens.

After that was a quick change and a jump to the big mat for KMX. Brandon lead the class, and they started with some shadow boxing. It looked to me like Saranya was looking at the ground, though she says she was pretending to look at her opponent’s chest. She must be used to fighting much shorter opponents. They did practice of choke defenses and bear hug defenses, and I noticed her throwing some blind elbows behind her. Best to look before you strike, huh?

Then then moved to the back room and practiced front and back rolls. Saranya needs help here. Her forward rolls were somersaults, and her back rolls looked like tipping over sideways. I’ll have to sit down with her sometime and teach her the right way to do those without getting herself hurt. Anyway, they then practiced rolling into ground fighting position and quickly turning to face the way they came, as though addressing a threat that had sent them to the ground in the first place.

Christian’s Saturday class almost started with me the only student, but Ronnie showed up at the last minute, and Diego continued from the Strikefit class prior. We got right into it by pairing up and punching a tombstone pad. Diego hits HARD! We also did legs-up toe touches (upper ab work) and front kicks (Diego is much softer at these) and lizard push ups and hammer strikes and lateral shoulder-hip mobility.

Then we broke for water, got our boxing gloves ready and put our mouth guards in. The first exercise was getting punched in the face. This is one I’ve done a few times. Christian used me as the example dummy. Then I paired up with Ronnie and he punched me in the face. He was better than Andrew because he didn’t put his knuckles into my eyeballs. Ronnie took my light punches with stoic resolve.

We then gloved up and did punch combinations for a few minutes, using our boxing gloves as focus mitts. I found out the hard way that my left elbow is still messed up, because every hook punch I caught with it caused me some real pain. I worked with it and it didn’t really get worse. We then added some evasions at the end. After a 1 or 3 we’d slip a straight punch from the pad holder, and after a 2 or 4 combination we’d bob and weave around a followup hook. Ronnie and I got after it, and we did a good job once we got into the swing of it. I even was able to take angles after some of the evasions.

At the end, we put on headgear and we boxing sparred. 90 second rounds. First against Ronnie, I found myself with a couple bad habits. First, I was flinching and trying to throw punches in while keeping my head averted and out of range. Dumb! Against Diego, Coach Mark told me to use my footwork to circle out instead of just leaning away. Last round with Christian, I put it together, but I wasn’t able to keep my chin down and see him at the same time. I’m resolved to adjust my headgear to ride a little higher on my head from now on, so I can tuck my chin and still see. Christian said I did pretty well at everything else. Pretty good head movement and footwork. Still tons of room for improvement.

After class, I was sweaty and beat. Saranya told me that she got 3 stripes on her BJJ white belt, so now she’s way ahead of me!

Well, Saranya and I are. And I’ve got an itchy face, a rash starting in my left arm pit, and the sniffles. Saranya has diarrhea and stomach cramps. Sangeeta stayed in Nepal to take care of family stuff.

Saranya got her green belt last night.

TJ’s Saturday morning class was not one I approached enthusiastically. After a week of neck and shoulder problems, I was very apprehensive. But I had to take Saranya to her BJJ class so I suited up at the last second and took my place on the line.

I knew I was in trouble right away. My cardio wasn’t there anymore. The early jog around the mat was causing my left ankle to twinge and complain. I felt unbalanced during shadow boxing. Unbalanced and awkward. We pulled out the bags and did a circuit, moving from one bag to another, landing a variety of strikes on each before moving to the next. I did okay but was seriously gassing out on the second time around. Then we stretched, and I sweated all over the mat.

We gloved up and did Thai pad work. I teamed up with Thor (Eric) and had a good learning experience. Again, I was gassed. Very low energy reserves.

Gloves off, we learned ridge hand strikes. We also learned mouth hand strikes. These essentially both strike with the injured part of my right thumb, so I had to use my left, and it hurt my elbow and biceps. Very awkward.

We did vertical forearm defenses against high kicks and straight punches to practice for knife defense. Straight knife, and backhand knife defenses. Ended with a drill.

When I got off the mat, I just leaned my head on the TRX post to relax my strained neck muscles. Saranya was sitting on Ivan and crying because she’d hit herself in the eye with her own knee. We were both hurting. Eventually she wiped her face and calmed down enough that we could go home.

TJ’s Saturday class. Saranya’s class was before, and Brandon taught her since Christian is back on the East coast. My left knee was hurting, and I really had to consider whether or not I should train today. I finally manned up and lined up.

We started with shadow boxing, shoulder tag, and calisthenics. Then we had a game of flag tag, hopping on one foot. I was on team yellow. We won the first round, and then Calvin and I stalemated at the end of the second round so everybody but us had to do sprawls.

After that, we brought focus mitts and gloves out back to the tarmac, where we practiced combos on uneven terrain with the threat of cars coming past. I partnered with Mike again. Outside combos in the sun were different but not too uncomfortable. We added knees and kicks with thai pads too, and I didn’t have much problem except for one twinge in my sore knee.

Then back inside for self defense training. We did choke from behind first, but finished with an arm bar take-down. I don’t think I got the blade of the wrist on right, or the wave motion to turn the elbow. Got to work on that.

Then we did full nelson defense. It involves peeling the fingers off the back, with a samurai sword drawing grip. Use the finger to step out, throw combatives with the other arm, spin to get the finger bent toward the attacker, and then snap it down and continue the fight. Mike got my finger pretty good. I heard his pop, but he said it didn’t hurt at all. Anyway, that was the class.

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!