Somebody's got a case of the Ouchies

Double class day again yesterday. I seriously only ever intended to do bjj on mon/wed/fri, and karate on tue/thur, but I'm having a hard time getting to Monday class. Beefy couldn't make it yesterday, so I was on my own. I showed up a couple minutes before class, and I was the only person there. I warmed up a little by kicking the heavy bag, and eventually two other students showed up.

After warmups, we started with armbar from mount. First, put your hands on opponent's sternum, one arm between his, the other arm going around outside of the arm you want to break. We'll call it the right arm today, for example's sake. Your left arm will be circling around the outside of his right arm, with your left hand planted on top of your right hand, on top of his sternum. Now, turn to your right, getting off of your right knee and onto your right foot. Bring that foot right up to his ribcage. Bring your left knee right up to the right side of his head. Next, lean forward, putting your weight on your hands and right foot while swinging your left foot around and over his head. You should keep low, with your opponent feeling your weight so he doesn't wiggle free. When your left foot touches down on the left side of his head, sit down on the mat just behind his right shoulder. Hook one of your arms around his right forearm, catching it in the crook of your elbow. Keep that tight, very tight, to your body. Use your non-hooking hand to hold his forearm, keeping his thumb pointed straight up. Now sloooooowly, lean backwards. Think pulling with your back, not your arms. Keep his thumb pointed up, squeeze your knees together, don't cross your feet and he will tap.

Next was a defense after the armbar was sunk. Now we'll be the guy on bottom, with our opponent trying to break our right arm. Once he's spun around the arm and is sitting down, reach up through his legs with your left arm and grab his left lapel with your left hand, using a thumb-in grip. Pull that arm tight, so when he sits back, he has to pull your weight with him, which will also relieve some pressure on your right elbow. Once he's pulled you up off of the mat a little, switch your hips and come up to your knees. Pinch his right knee in between your left elbow and left knee, and keep pressure on his left knee with your head, pushing it down towards the mat. You should have enough leverage here to pull your right arm out, and you can spin to side control.

#TODO(chops): Post video here (this one might be hard to find)

After that, we rolled. Although it was only my third class, they let me roll. First I was matched up with the blue belt. I tried to stay relaxed and not spaz out. As far as that was my only goal for rolling yesterday, I feel like I was successful. I know I wasn't very relaxed, but I consciously made myself slow down and breath at several points. I mainly focused on trying to get posture while in guard. After the blue belt, I rolled once with each of the two other white belts who were there. I felt kind of bad because the last round was with the smallest guy there, and towards the end of kind of muscled him around a little. I was too tired to do much else, so I basically lifted him off of me, and put him down with me in side control. Once I was done (sadly, only three 5 minute rounds wiped me out), the blue belt pulled me aside and showed me a few things I was doing wrong, which I thought was really cool. He also talked to me a little bit about BJJ philosophy, and how to approach rolling with higher belts. All in all, it was a great class. I can't wait to go back.

(And I promise, I'll put some videos in here soon.)

Look Who's Back

Well, it's been an interesting year so far, and I mean that in the most negative sense possible. Just before the holidays, work suddenly got crazy busy, and it didn't let up at all until well into February. During that time I got a cold, which turned into a sinus infection, which, despite antibiotics, turned into bronchitis. The bronchitis turned into pneumonia, then back into just bronchitis, and now, finally, I can breathe.

So, where were we? Oh yes, I did not hit my 10k reps goal last year. I'm torn between soldiering on now that I'm well, or just scuppering that one and starting a new goal. I'm actually leaning towards finishing my 10k reps on principle, but I still need to motivate myself to actually do the reps.

Early last December, a co-worker approached me and said he was interested in learning martial arts, but had no idea where to start. I looked into the options around our office, and explained to him what the different styles available were. He decided that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu sounded like something he wanted to try, so we went and watched a class. We tried to attend a free trial lesson, but showed up on Open Mat day. We planned to come back the following Monday, but that happened to be the day that the world exploded at work, metaphorically speaking. Today, at long last, order (and my health) had been restored enough for us to go. This is my long winded way of saying: I'm going to study Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and this will become my training blog. In conjunction with this, I'm probably not going to be so circumspect about my identity, in case you don't already know who I am.

Moving on, first class. Beefy and I showed up at 11, only to be told that class actually starts at 11:30. We hung out in the car for 30 minutes, then walked in and signed the waivers. We got changed and headed out on the mat. There were only two white belts and the black belt instructor in class today. Warm ups consisted of jogging around the mats, side to sides, cross stepping, jumping jacks, push ups, two kinds of crunches, mountain climbers, and another set of push ups. Really, it wasn't too bad, except I'm a lazy fat ass, so I was beet red and out of breath.

We moved on to technique, which was kimura from north/south position. Going against the bottom guy's left arm, you place the thumb side of your left forearm under his elbow, while cupping his left wrist with your right hand. Lift up on the elbow while pushing his wrist towards the floor and away from his center. Slide your left hand, palm down, under his elbow and grip your own right wrist, while monkey-gripping his left wrist with your right hand. Pull his elbow up to your navel, turning him to his right, while you slide your left foot behind his back. Your right knee should still be down on the mat next to his head, so he can't slide out. Put your left forearm on your left knee, his elbow should be bent at 90 degrees, with his upper arm pointing straight up, and his forearm parallel to the floor. Posture up so you're looking straight ahead. Now, slowly look towards your left, turning your whole upper body. You should be able to feel his shoulder tighten. We did this on left and right sides.

Next technique was the Americana. For example's sake. we'll be attacking the left arm again. Cup both of your hands, and place your left hand on the opponent's left wrist, your right on his left elbow. Put all of your weight on this arm and drive it into the mat. Place your left elbow on the mat next to the opponent's left ear while monkey-gripping his left wrist with your left hand. His elbow should be at a 90 degree angle, and your left forearm should be parallel to his left upper arm. Now, slide your right hand, palm down, under his elbow and monkey-grip your own left wrist. Slide his left wrist straight down towards his feet, as if you're painting the mat with it, then lift up under his left elbow with your right forearm.

Last thing we covered was escape from under mount. The instructor covered some general points about being under mount, such as not letting your opponent get high on your chest, keeping your elbows in tight, etc. He talked about the difference between covering from punches and defending chokes. Which led nicely into the mount escape. For the example, the opponent reaches his right hand into your left lapel to set up a choke. You cup your right hand and monkey grip on top of his right wrist, pinning it to your chest. You then take your left hand, palm towards you, and grab his right forearm at his elbow. Now, hook his right foot with your left foot and bridge straight up. As he posts his left arm out to keep his balance, turn and roll to your left, keeping the foot hooked and elbow/wrist control on his right arm. You should end up in his guard.