Visit to Black Belt Studios

Going to Geelong with Sempai Trent from The Ballarat Dojo (one of my instuctors there), I had the opportunity to particpate in a BJJ class at Black Belt Studios.

It was terrific to be so warmly welcomed. I learned heaps and all the guys were very helpful. I had my first chance to roll with a black belt, the instructor Craig Robinson. What an eye opener! I rolled with a lot of the other guys as well, getting something out of all of it. Thanks, guys for all the help. After all, it was an intermediate class, so I really appreciated the opportunity. I hope I'll be able to take up Craig on his offer to come back again.

I also watched a class full of blue belts and above, which gave me a lot of food for thought :-)

BJJ grading

We had another BJJ grading. I'm the proud owner of two blue stripes on the white belt now.

I had to work for this one, we all did :-) . Sensei Glenn is a hard taskmaster.

Those of us who went for their second stripe had to again demonstrate the correct first stripe drills. Then we went through basic, hooking, front and back sweeps as well as chokes. We were assessed on the cross lapel choke from mount and guard, rear naked choke, front choke from guard and half nelson choke from sidemount. The grading wasn't finished until we had wrestled for a bit, attempting positional changes and submissions in a live situation. That, of course was the best part of the grading!

My thanks to my partners on the day, and congratulations to the others who graded the same day.