Mizblog

Saturday morning class with TJ. I went into the class feeling very sore and tired. Sarala had called the house and woke me up before 6am, and I’d been up pretty late. The only reason I went is because Saranya was going to her BJJ class, and I’d feel like a heel sitting out of class while everybody else trained.

So I went to class. Warm ups went fine. I did pretty well at shoulder tag with Alex. He’s really good at moving, but he consistently underestimated my range. We seemed pretty evenly matched, which is unusual. Maybe he was having an off day, or maybe I really am getting better.

I paired up with asian Mike for most of the partner work, which made for an easy class. He took a long time being confused and failing to execute the basic motions. He’s very uncoordinated. It’ll be cool to see him start to get it and build his skills. Anyway, we did focus mitts, bursting punches, and scissoring(jumping) knees. Mike was a noob, but he started getting it. I did okay.

At the end, we did gun defenses from the front (both regular and 2-hand cup methods) and from the left side in front of the arm. For these I paired with Scott. It went well. Then we mixed in with asian Mike to do 3rd party gun defense.

The stress drill was with a row of chairs like a movie theater or a bus aisle. A gunman walked down the aisle, intent on executing the person in the front. It was up to those in the seats behind to execute the gun defense. I was the first gunman, and then took the first seat and stayed there until the end, when TJ accidentally punched Jeff in the mouth and then pithily asked “You want another one?” Haha TJ, but poor Jeff. On Thursday I bloodied his nose, and now he gets popped in the mouth. He took it well though.

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.

TJ’s Thursday morning class. I got there late and had to finish wrapping my hands during shadow boxing. I was upset because Sangeeta yelled at me for her not being able to remember the word “garage” and that somehow became my fault, and my dad’s fault. She was stressed and she was starting to blame me for her emotional state, so I tried to not take it personal. But it still messed with me and it was making me teeter between anger and depression.

Long arms served me well in shoulder tag. Dinged my right thumb and it didn’t hurt, so that’s a HUGE milestone.

Then we put on gloves and focus mitts and started throwing down combos. I’m getting better at holding mitts. I held for new guy and green belt David. He liked to throw a cross on the 4, so I held for that. I hurt my biceps throwing hooks again, but dinging my right thumb didn’t re-aggravate it, so I think I might be past that injury (finally!) We did lots of lunging punches.

After that, we geared up and sparred. One minute rounds with immediate partner changes. I started with Jeff. He was tagging me a few times, but he didn’t have his glasses on so I also was able to tag him a bunch. I really need to work on my head movement. Anyway, next I paired up with Thomas. We went really lightly. Then David. He’s short so I used my reach a bunch, but I was getting tired. Then Jeff again. I caught him with an upper cut coming in, and his nose started bleeding. I told him it was the first upper cut I’d ever landed in sparring. Finally, Thomas again. I caught him with a body shot that he said he really felt. It wasn’t that hard, but I guess it was a clean shot, and I didn’t expect it to land clean. That’s the thing about Thomas – he leaves the body open.

So I learned through repeated experience that I need to move my head around more and avoid getting hit in it.

At the end of class we learned stick defense. Make a ramp defense and a simultaneous bursting punch, control the stick arm, combatives, and take away the stick.

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.

Christian is back, and he shaved his head and mustache! He looks much younger. I teased him about which High School he goes to.

Class started right into shoulder tag. I didn’t get hurt.

Then we did warm ups with abs and stuff. I didn’t get hurt.

Then we went into bursting punches – bare hands into focus mitts. I didn’t get hurt!

After that it was knees into bare bellies. I didn’t get hurt.

Then it was knees into pads. I did get hurt. Mike was pinching my shoulder and tricep, and slamming knees through the pad into my sore ribs. Damn. I tried to return the favor, but without the pinching.

After that we did 360 defenses overhead, and practiced the simultaneous counter punch to the face. It’s really hard to get a fist in one hand and a bladed hand opposite. I messed that up a lot.

That worked right into knife defenses with a wrist grab. We ran out of time on that one, but TJ is supposed to continue it on Thursday.

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.

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.

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.

TJ’s Thursday morning class. I was pretty sure my toe would be okay once I got going, but it was still a little sore. I was right – it was fine.

Started with shadow boxing, then shoulder tag, then stretching.

Put on boxing gloves and focus mitts and just did punch combos 1-4 with Eric. He’s got a vicious uppercut.

Then we put on shin pads and practiced taking kicks on our legs. Eric kept kicking me in the knee, which hurt. Then we practiced responding to the kick with our own combatives.

Then we put on our gloves and focus mitts and did a drill where we’d do punch combos on the mitts and sometimes the mitt holder would throw a kick that we’d have to check or absorb. Eric kept kicking me in the middle of my combos, or during the last punch. Thanks, Eric. That sucked.

Final drill was a kick line, where we all lined up and took turns throwing leg kicks on one person, who had to check or absorb each one. Then we were done.

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.