midweek

On Wednesday, in the small lunchtime class, we went trough attacks from side control.

We assumed the common scenario, where the far arm is around the back of our neck. We are in short base. Firstly, having established the postion, I could sit there for a second or two, with my left hand on my left ear, in case my opponent brings his right hand around the front of my face to push me off. In that case, I can just slam down my left to the floor, trapping his wrist and I'm set up perfectly for a figure four.

Alternatively, I can slide my right forearm under his left arm, making sure I'm high up in his armpit. I sit up and pull, so that he is on his right side. Immediately, I move my left knee over his head and push my shoulder down on his left arm. That pressure pushes his arm against the side of his ribcage, made worse by the fact that my forearm is in his armpit. It's not comfortable!

From there I have two options: armbar or figure four/kimura.

This makes a neat three option attack combination. I like it as I'm not a speed wiz, and it enables me to set up a nice tight armbar or figure four whilst staying in good base the whole time. I like it :-)

Did a brief free wrestle and was partnered with Sensei for the first time in a long time. Didn't take long before he had my back. I went for some time avoiding a RNC, but none of my usual escapes from back control worked. Just as I thought I finally could get out, I realised the little opening was just so he could get the other arm in. After I tapped and we talked about it, I realised that our time would have been better spent tapping earlier and spending time on other stuff. Like as in: as soon as I realised I couldn't get out of back control. Duh. So the only good thing that came out of it was that my defence is improving.

The second session was a brief rehearsal of the butterfly sweep we worked on a couple of classes ago. Then we were shown a cutting armbar from butterfly guard.

That though was only the lead-in or fake to get the opponent to turn his arm and leave it exposed for a sweep. I don't know what it was called, but it involved hipping out the the side opposite the trapped arm, cupping his chin and then hipping back in under him before rolling him over for the sweep. Don't know if I'll be pulling this one of in free wrestling for a while yet... But I'm only beginning to realise how many ways a person can get swept!

For the rest of the class, we did some free guard passing first. Had one of the bigger guys for a partner. Couldn't pass his guard for the life of me, and he swept me every which way. :-((

Then we did some free wrestling. Had a young guy with some grappling experience. I suppose it was unfair that some of us had taken the gi off (including mysef), and he still wore his gi top. We tumbled and rolled some with several interesting postions
here and there. My closed guard gave him a lot of grief :-). But in the end I did some fancy move from bottom turtle and got to switch back side control where an armbar did the trick. Don't ask me how that happened. I only remembered that I looked up at one of the guys who was watching and said: now was that an inspired move or what?? I'm such an idiot at times ;-)

Last guy was a very new guy, it was only his fourth class or so. So I ended ups showing him stuff and pointing out the danger of triangles during guard passes etc.

It doesn't seem so long ago that I was where he was :-)

Monday and slowly recovering

As an after-effect of Saturday's training, I had sore calves and forearms starting Sunday evening and all Monday. Funny how different muscle groups take different times to go through the delayed soreness stages. Wasn't really bad, but I was glad that I did a thorough stretching session on Sunday. Shoulders and right arm are still not happy, but since after the Monday night class, they are improving.

Aside from still feeling a bit tight and stiff, it was pretty hot yesterday. For some reason my appetite hadn't been good all day so I had not eaten much, either. A little inner voice whined "... you can just stay home". But having spent all day in front of the computer, I figured the exercise would do me good, so I packed my bag and went.

But I was very happy we had a quiet sort of a class :-). We basically went through syllabus stuff, getting in reps and ensuring that we're technically correct come grading time at the end of the month. And of course I was glad that I went!

Melbourne - week 1

I'm taking part in a 7 week competition preparation course at Dominance MMA in Melbourne.

Every Saturday, starting yesterday, there is a three hour training session. The last weekend of it is the Victorian Championships in Melbourne on March 19+20. Next weekend, there is a no gi mini competition so they can see us competing. All other Saturdays we have two hours of BJJ including competition style rounds, followed by a one hour long conditioning/strength session.

For me, it's a 2 hour trip to Melbourne, which is a pain in the behind, but the drive home is worse |-). I'm lucky, most of it is either freeway or quiet country road, but the problem is sitting cooped up in the car after the exercise. I was pretty knackered when I got home yesterday. Had a rest and then dragged myself out to feed the horses. After a good sleep, I had enough energy this morning and not enough soreness, to go for a two hour horseride. Or maybe I'm just an idiot ;-)

My shoulder hurts because I tweaked it Friday night. I didn't have time to worry about it yesterday, and found with things like that they hurt only when I'm cold, not when I'm warm and working. But they make up for it when I'm cooled off! Having worked it hard, it hurt like a bitch on the way home in the car but is better today. I did also manage to do something to my right ring finger. It's swollen on the knuckle near the hand and it's stiff. I taped it up when I went riding. My friend thought that was so funny, she took a photo. Yeah, haha?! My shoulders are generally stiff, but the rest of me is in pretty good shape, aside from a missing piece of skin on a big toe due to matburn.

Was it hard? Yes. Did I last? Yes. I even moaned and groaned less than quite a few others, and I wasn't so washed out after the conditioning session that I needed to lie down and die. I could have even kept going. But it was tough and between now and the March comp, it will get tougher. Several times, I did ask myself the obvious question: why am I doing this? Still looking for an answer...

The BJJ part of it was a quick introduction, then a warmup (joint mobility), then 2 minute rounds holding positions and the partner trying to get out, taking turns (back, mount, side control, guard). Then guard passing from open guard in groups of threes with one person resting. After that, competition style rounds from knees, then comp style rounds from standing. From recollection, that pretty much filled the two hours. We were urged to go hard, with constant reminders to keep up the pressure if on top and to look for a sub. If on the bottom, get out and do something!

I reverted to my usual game of protect, survice and try to get out. I had girls as partners for the rounds. That's kind of novel to me :-) But it was good and certainly painfully showed the obvious holes in my game. I have a lot of work on before the comp in March. But at least the blue belt girl commented that my defence is really, really good, she could get nothing forever and had to work hard for it. In the course of a few rounds, I managed to pass guard a couple of times and get some positions, but nothing came of it. Work to do!!

I wasn't the only one struggling against fatigue. Really, very far removed from the casual rolls in class ;-). Totally different intensity, and only brief rests.

Aside from that, we did some drills working on grips, taking turns getting and defending grips. I was told I have good grips :-). I did show my partner a way to peel hands off her collar which she then promptly used against me. She showed me a way to get her hands off my pant legs, so we both benefited. She was an excellent partner anyway.

The conditioning hour was basically three lots of 15 minutes (about 5 minutes break between). Each 15 minute session was divided into 5 three minute intervals, the first, third and last interval being intensive, the other intervals were jogging. The work intervals were in bursts. First session was sprints/jogging. Second session was burpees/jogging and the third interval was pummeling hard/slow. I have never thought it would be possible that I should look forward to jogging |-), or that I can recover so well by jogging for three minutes. And I managed to maintain a jog. A no time did I walk or shamble, and it didn't take the ungentle motivation and jibes of the fitness coach to keep me going (there was a lot of walking going on!). I found that astonishing as I never run or jog, as I hate it. And I don't even have sore legs. Maybe a bit tight in the hamstrings, but that's about it.

It is amazing what I discover about myself. I'd never been pushed hard physically until I started martial arts. And since then, I've been pushed hard a few times, but yesterday was a notch up again. It will be interesting to see how well I'll survive the next few weeks :-)

Anyway, I think I'll take the rest of today nice and easy, maybe ice my hand again. I'm going out for dinner tonight. That will be lovely. And then I'll be fit and well enough for regular training tomorrow night!

Friday - sweeps and side contol

We went over a couple of the open guard sweeps from Wednesday night. I helped the guy I was paired with as he hadn't been here that night. For me, it was good to get some more reps in, especially that reverse hooking sweep.

We were shown a hold down from side control, which is a very safe position where you can hang out and recover while the bottom guy expends energy getting out. Then, when the moment is right, a couple of grip changes lead right to a tight collar choke.

It goes like this: I'm in side control on my partner's right side. My left elbow blocks the left side of his head, my right hand by his right hip. I lift his head a bit with my elbow and rotate my forearm backwards toward me, under his head. I push my right hand up behind his back until I can clasp hands behind his back/shoulders. I'm sprawled out in long base. This way, his head is pushed to his right. My head his flat on his chest so he can't attack it. His right arm position doesn't matter so much, but best if I managed to catch it sticking up. When the moment is right, I work my right hand into the back of his collar. This stops him from turning. Then I bring my left hand around the front of his face, grab the left lapel as deep as I can and bring my elbow to the ground on the right side of his neck.

Free wrestling, no gi: not much good to report, got someone's back but couldn't secure the position. Then it was all downhill from there, ending in an armbar which tweaked my right rotator cuff. Not really bad, more that it probably irritated an old injury. A couple more rolls which were a bit lacklustre, but at least I managed good positions a few times. Didn't hang around for open mat as I didn't want to aggrevate the shoulder and being mindful of tomorrow's plans...

back attacks and sweeps

Wednesday lunchtime class: more on back control and attacks from there

Only four of us were there, two big guys, one guy my size and my little self.

Firstly, we had another go staying on each other's backs. Taking turns, we started from back control with hooks in and then saw how we could maintain position, especially if losing and regaining hooks. Then we had a go spinning around on top. Bottom person was turtled. Also, we looked at the scenario where we might have lost back control, our partner is on his side with his back to us and about to roll over his belly to face us. Keeping weight on him, we spin around his head, so that by the time he arrives on his other shoulder, we are already there behind him again. This means shoulder pressure, as little weight as possible on our legs and spinning fast, like being airborne with the feet. Looks easy. Didn't feel too easy, but a few reps and I got the hang. Sort of..

Then a little bit of rolling, attempting to get the back. However, I ended up with my partner in my guard. Tried to break him down and get his arm across to get to his back but that wasn't working, so went to open guard, feet on his hips while holding his sleeves. He tried to stack me and I shoulder walked. So he couldn't stack me but it didn't improve my position, either. Sensei popped over and suggested I should have gone for the omoplata. He showed me and it was plain obvious. How can I not see these things??

Then anther roll, this time us lighter people got one of the big boys each :-). I have to say that ended up being one of the most enjoyable rolls I've ever had. More like a flow roll. He didn't shut me down with his weight, but he mercilessly swept me when I wasn't watching. So it was an ongoing series of position changes, and what made me most happy was that every time I was somewhere decent, I kept the attacks coming, even going from one to another. And then he'd get out :-). I even managed to roll him out of a turtle into a crucifix. Wooohoo. And then stuffed up attacking his arm. I guess I was too busy gloating about the fact that he said "what the..??" when he landed in crucifix |-). Also, I succeeded in a couple of the spinning thingies when I had top positions. It was really, really great.

And at class end, we all got a pat on the back for looking technical and having wrestled well. What more could one want??

Evening class was bigger and we had a couple of newbies.

We drilled the basic sweep from closed guard with shin across the belly. Then we learned a different one from the same setup. This is a great goto if our opponent resists the basic sweep. We pass the arm across, grab his belt and sweep him the opposite way (same foot position, so he needs to be loaded on our leg). Works a treat and I found that often we landed with his forearm exposed, yelling out for an armwrap or other attack.

We went over an open guard hook sweep. Not the standard hook sweep where you roll over backwards and load him up before going to the side. We're in combat base with the right leg flat on the ground and the other knee up and the foot ready to hook under his right leg. We sit up close and have a left underhook. Right arm blocks his left elbow. Now all we need is to pin him to us and fall a bit to the right, rolling along the axis of our right thigh. This immediately unbalances him, and as he comes over, a little push with the left hook flings him off nicely. I love this sweep, it's so easy.

Then we did a variation which I need to spend more time thinking of, as it was a bit more complicated. Essentially, we aim for going to the other side. So we need to trap his right arm across our body. The crucial part is to reposition our left foot so the foot hooks his left leg, and our knee is more to the left side of his body. Lean back, load him up and do like a crescent kick with the left leg. As we land, we are both on our backs, so I need to follow him and go for side control. This sweep I will need to look at a few more times...

At the end, free wrestling, after taking off gi tops. Scored a big boy. Couldn't do too much, but defended well so he got nothing, either. Had trouble passing his guard but eventually did, spent some time in half guard, ended up in mount, got reversed and after ages ended up in his closed guard again. By that time, our arms were that slippery it was near impossible to get grips on wrists :-) And I couldn't help saying that after all that work, how come I still ended up in his guard?? We went a little longer, I managed my usual smash pass of his guard, even getting switch base side control. And then it was time out....

can't wait for this dvd!!

I love Roy Dean's instructional dvds. And his music, too :-)

So how good it is it that he's about to release another dvd called No Gi Essentials?? Hurry up, I want it!

Here's the preview:

drills, drills, drills.... a grading looms

Monday night class. The holidays must be over for good, class sizes are returning to normal at last.

Sensei has announced a grading for some time in February. More stripes for us white belts. I'll be going for my fourth.

So, we went over syllabus stuff, making sure our drills are correct and that all the sweeps, chokes, armbars, armlocks and escapes are up to scratch.

gimme your back!

Saturday class. As usual, a small but intensive class. We worked on getting and retaining back control.

The crucial part is the seat belt grip, the hooks help. Sometimes we have to relinquish a hook so we can use a foot for pushing off to help our goal of keeping our chest glued to our opponent's back. Having a good grip is important, with correct hand placement. But the trick is to go with him to maintain the chest/back connection, rather than stiffly trying to use our grip to pin him to us.

With that in mind, we took turns one one another's back. Goal was for the partner in back control to escape and for the other one to keep it. I'm sure that was quite amusing to watch, particularly when my partner stood up at one stage, with his hands on the floor, trying to shake me off over his head. But we really did some pretty creative rolling.

The trick is to stay loose and maintain that chest/back connection with as little energy as possible. It was soon obvious that the person in back control trying to escape was expending a lot more energy than the one maintaining back control.

Then we worked on maintaining and regaining position if we have someone's back and he is on top of us. To escape, he would try to get his back to the floor. To keep him square on us or a bit off to the other side, we can take out a hook, put the foot on the floor and push off with it while scooting our hips back under him. That was very effective.

Finally, we worked on changing grips from seat belt to RNC.

And at the end, some free rolling. But this time, any sub was good, but first person to get an RNC was promised a Mars bar :-). I was partnered with someone my size, less experienced but faster and more flexible (who usually subs me). I don't know, but with a clear goal in his mind, I went him, got his back and had an arm around his throat. Mars bar in reach! And then... He defended by tucking his chin and I couldn't get under it. Waah! So close. Sensei said I should've had that three times over. I just couldn't think of a way to get him choked, even thought he couldn't get out of my back control. How stupid was that?? So Sensei showed me a couple of little tricks to make that neck more accessible, which I'm sure I won't forget |-).

Had another start. Wiser to my arm drag to neck snapdown attack, I couldn't get the back right away. But in some scramble, I got him in my guard and was busy breaking him down. I was actually making inroads into an armdrag to getting his back, when it was time out. So no Mars bar, but I was happy to find myself being aggressive, and being so close to my goal. I even rated a "well done" at the end. I went home a happy girl :-)

Friday night

In our Friday night class we added onto stuff we learned at the seminar last week.

Starting from mount, we have our partner's left arm in an upward figure 4. Instead of going for that submission (of if we can't get it), we bring our arms across his neck, block his elbow with our chest and then reach around the back of his neck with our right hand for an armwrap. We dismount into a low kneeride. Then we reposition our left hand to also grab his trapped forearm. Then we do the boat ramp: as we sit on our but, we pull him up towards our chest and across our right leg and end up in back control with both hooks in.

From there, we look for the RNC. However, if he tries to pull our right arm down (for the drill that's what our partner did), we use our right leg to clamp over the arm to trap it. If possible, we cross the left leg over the right at the ankles. Now it's possible to use both of our arms against his left arm. Bringing our right arm to the left side of his neck, we grab his left wrist and figure four it with our left arm. Once that's in place, we can push on his head with our right hand while pushing down with our legs. This will push him down and across. Lastly, we bring our right leg across the front of his face, and as his left arm is already trapped in the crook of our left elbow, an armbar is easy.

A new guy turned up, and we took turns in pairs to show him basic drills. Watching him struggle and sweat reminded me of how hard I found it when I started :-).

We mostly drilled this set, first in stages, then the whole thing. After that, we did a bit of free rolling. I wasn't very successful, getting caught in an armbar, a triangle, a figure four from headlock etc. Nothing seemed to work for me. The best thing that happened was when I managed one escape from a bad position under a heavy blue belt guy, who commented "good!" for my effort. Only to regain his position and squash the breath out of me while he casually put on a figure four...

I was not impressed with myself, feeling like I was walking into the same submissions and not doing as well as I should. Near the end of open mat, one of the senior guys asked me for a roll. He asked if there was something specific I wanted to work on. Feeling down, I said I was getting stuck in stuff over and over but not to worry. We had a bit of a chat where I'm at. Most others had left by then and another guy came over. Then they spent the next 20 minutes giving me advice and examples on starting from knees and turtle escapes and attacks. That was terrific. I felt terribly guilty taking their time and I would have been happy to watch them roll and learn from watching. But I really appreciate their help. It is fantastic to see how much interest people take in helping others in our school. I guess as we all get better together, we enhance each other's learning. And I get my turns helping others with less experience.

half guard, half guard...

Three more BJJ classes, all concentrating on the half guard.

On Monday, we mostly went over seminar stuff, which was the lockdown, whip up and the old school sweep from half guard. Drilled all that a fair bit.

Then we learned another technique which will allow you to take the back from half guard bottom. Assuming I'm on the bottom and I have my partner's right leg in lockdown. If, for some reason he lifts his right arm (in MMA, he might be trying to punch), I stiffarm him on the elbow with my left arm. I bring my left knee up and in front on his bicep then slide my hand to his wrist. This locks his arm against my knee/shin. If I push up and out with my knee while controlling the wrist, it lifts his upper body away from me. I can now push my right arm under him and through his right armpit and cup around the back of his right shoulder. With that setup in place, I quickly straighten my left leg, drag his shoulder forward/down while pushing his wrist against his body. That gets me out from under him and a clear path to his back. It has to be a sudden jerk on his arm to make it work. My right hook is already in, so getting good back control is relatively easy.

In our Wednesday classes, we did again go over lockdown. I still had some problems with the whip up. Wrong technique, so it worked on a partner my size, but not on someone bigger. Adjusted technique, and now it works. Let's hope I can store that in a part of my brain that allows easy retrieval, as that was the third times I've been shown how to do it.... Sigh.

We did the drill against a partially resistant partner. To avoid someone pushing up on my head to creat space for double underhooks, I buried my head on their neck or put it to the floor. This was partially successful, but still they would lever it up. However, if someone did it to me, I couldn't move their head. So Sensei showed me a sneaky way to lever their head off the mat to get me into the starting position. It's pretty hard to explain, so I won't even try but the crux is not to try to muscle it, but use leverage and positioning = good jiu jitsu.

We learned yet another sweep and submission from half guard. Again, hard to explain, but basically it's useful where the whip up worked, but we couldn't get turned and get our right side to the mat. So we are still under him, but deep. So instead of coming out on his right hand side, we aim for his left side. I push my left arm out under his right armpit and straighten it. Then I try to bring my the arm to my left side while I reach for his left leg with my right hand. This rotates him to my left. I keep the lockdown on his right leg, lift his left leg over my head and then pin his knee to my chest. This puts him in the splits position. I can add more pressure by straightening my legs on his locked leg.

Aside from that, we did several rolls from half guard. I got a lot out of that. Had a good laugh when I was busy trying to get someone's back, fiddling around with my left foot. He had the audacity to tickle it!! My answer, of course, was to choke him, but I think we were laughing too much, and I don't recall what happened from there (couldn't sink the choke on his short, thick neck). But the roll went for a long time. I'm pleased about my escapes and avoid a lot of subs. But my attacks still need a lot of works. Still, at least I'm now getting positions where attacks can be contemplated :-)

quiet Saturday

My neck wasn't too sore after all the abuse received during the seminar. I'm still not sure if the chokes themselves were worse, or the "jaws of life". But in any case, the neck was only a bit stiff, not really sore. But I have some lovely bruises on shins and ankles from practicing the lockdown.

In class today, we went over the lockdown, jaws of life, get underhooks, push the partner up and then do the old school sweep again. We just went over all that several times, as there are a lot of steps. I still don't bring my forearm across far enough which means I then have trouble sucking in the other elbow. But I managed to improve on it. The sweep itself worked sweetly.

At the end of the class we had a few minutes of rolling. Went through some truly weird positions and found myself attacking a fair bit without quite succeeding. I was swept a few times, but returned the favour. I had success escaping from mount and back control so he couldn't get anything, either. I was going well, had just managed to sprawl on him ready to attack his back, when I suddenly gassed. It was just gone. So he mowed over me and it was a sudden end in an armbar. Grrr. It doesn't happen to me often, and it annoys the hell out of me when it does. I had a quick drink and was ready for another roll, but unfortunately, time was up.

choked by a sadist

On Friday night, instead of our regular BJJ class, we had a two hour seminar with John Campbell, nicknamed "The Sadist". It was no gi/mma. John recently returned from the States where he trained with Eddie Bravo. We knew we were in for an interesting evening :-)

We learned the lockdown from halfguard bottom which seems pretty much like a grapevine. Then we worked on getting double underhooks through a technique called jaws of life. Basically, you push your partner's head up and away by placing your hands on his temple. You rotate your free arm in, with your elbow/forearm in line with your sternum, to fill the space created. That allows you to suck down your other forearm (which was underhooked). From there you can have double underhooks and lock him down with a gable grip around his back. In mma, burying your head in his neck or chest will pretty much prevent him from hitting you.

Then we learned the old school sweep, which included transitioning the lockdown foot position to where his lower leg is trapped in the crook of my knee. As I push him over by grabbing his foot, the crucial part is to step backwards with my free leg while having my shoulder on him, and holding his foot. Then, depending on positioning, I pull out or slide out my other leg and establish side control. Very neat.

If we can't grab his foot, we can get up on our right arm while maintaining the left hand across his back and hooked on his far hip. Then drive into him to sweep. If he has whizzered our left arm, we can rotate the hand and limp arm out of it, swing it clean over his left shoulder and go straight to a seat belt grip, insert our right foot for a hook and have the back. Lovely.

After that we went through head arm chokes from side control. Learned a nice and easy way to peel out the right elbow and trap his upper arm with our head while going to mount. After that, we have a number of options for making the choke work, each cinching it tighter. So if he doesn't tap to version 1, we transition to 2 etc. Essentially, if a plain head/arm choke doesn't work, we can go from the standard left hand on right bicep, right hand on head position to a double hands on elbows postiion. Either way, we make it tight by driving our head towards the mat, tightening the elbows, and pushing our chest out. If that doesn't do the trick, we slide our left foot across his belly, with the foot hooking his right hip. Then we stick our right foot on our left or on his hip. And push down with our feet. That adds considerable force to the choke. The final version was to transition to knee ride, with the knee high on the sternum. That was not nice, to put it mildly.

The whole sequence is nasty because you just go from one evil thing to another, cinching it tighter and tighter and making it more and more unpleasant. John was walking around checking how we all went and offered to let us have a feel. I accepted :-). OUCH. It's choke with a bit of a neck crank, more of a crank with the feet on your hip. Ouch. (Note: don't accept a sadist's offer to choke you while sticking his knee in!)

Finally we did a bit on back control and how to bring up your legs to trap one arm. From there we might have a clear run at a RNC. Or we figure four the other arm. Alternatively, we transition to an armbar. I think he called that the black widow.

It really was a very interesting evening. Most of us had a bit of a roll after, and a couple of opportunities came up to try those new things. Luckily, my legs are long and flexible enough for that sort of stuff. And it was good that we did all that work with the head/arm choke, as we had beeen drilling the same choke several times during the week. So for me personally, it really opened my eyes for a whole new attack game. Good stuff indeed :-)

I hear that John will be back and I'm looking forward to it.

another week ticks by

I'll never ever be organised enough to write about every class :-)

So a whole week has passed, which meant another 5 BJJ classes. We did some new stuff but what always strikes me is how much new stuff I can discover about a technique or position I learned ages ago. It really pays to revisit, retry, re-evaluate everything.

I have a terrible habit of trying something new a couple of times and then I get discouraged and file it under "I can't do that". Being still pretty wet behind the ears in terms of BJJ, there are a lot of new things which won't work when I first try them in rolling. I'm still lacking the awareness, balance, sensitivity and general knowledge to see what makes stuff work, so I need to practice, practice, practice before anything works. So what happens is I try a move when I roll, a fail a couple of times and convince myself that it won't work for me.

When I teach horseriding, I always come down hard on people who say things like "I can't" or "I'm not good enough" or "I'm hopeless". Yet, I do the bloody same. How stupid is that??? Because it's defeatist and self-fulfilling. If I tell myself often enough that I can't do XYZ, then in due course I really will fail which will of course reinforce that message.

So on the one hand I must get good enough at a given technique to be able to pull it off, on the other hand, I must believe that I can do it. Now we all know that a body has limitations, and that some techniques are hard to do for some people due to size, strength (ours and our partner) - experience aside. But it's not like there is a cut off point. It's more that it gets harder and harder.

What made me think of this is what happened in class the other day. I was partnered with the biggest guy in our school. Can't remember exactly what we were doing, think it was halfguard position and I was working on either a sweep or getting on my side for deep half guard. I needed to get his weight off me and up, using my legs and arms. For him to do that to me is a piece of cake ;-) (I'm half his weight). For me to do that to him takes effort. When it was my turn, I did my usual "oh, I think I can't do this", and made a half-arsed effort. It failed. Surprise, surprise. So he showed me how to do it again, making sure I used my legs mainly, rather than relying on my arms. Basically, he didn't accept that I couldn't do it. That was just the figurative toe that was needed up my arse. I tried and meant it. It worked. Which was an excellent experience. Because if I can manage to move a guy that size, I can move anyone. It was only down to proper technique and a proper effort. So I should quit the size excuse and have more faith in my teachers and myself.

Anyway, what else did we do during the week?

We worked exactly on those things which I'd been having trouble with and wish I could revisit and drill :-)

Such as... hook sweep, double hooks sweep (transition to hip bump sweep if they sit up). And head/arm chokes. YES! Frome side control, from half guard top and from half guard bottom. How to trap arms to get into a nice choking position etc.

I did learn one new thing: the d'arce choke. Hmm. Interesting ;-)

And the last session with our departing purple belt was devoted to attacks from his favourite position - switch back side control. And more head/arm chokes :-)

So it's been an intensive week which has hopefully hammered a bit more understanding into my brain. Not so much new stuff as discovering new stuff about known techniques, which mean that they will now work for me. I know I often manage to get arms across during rolling, and I was frustrated that I couldn't get head/arm chokes to work. This last week has expanded my arsenal in that area.

Also, I had a range of good rolls with different people, and took something away with me from each of those. Aside from that, they were fun. Good fun :-)))

Wednesday double

Thankfully, it wasn't hot on Wednesday. Just right, really, only a little muggy in the evening.

Only three of us turned up for the lunchtime class. Our instuctor is back on deck after a shoulder injury kept him off the mat at the end of last year. So we took turns partnered with him and he had a chance for a couple of rolls.

We worked on a double hooking sweep. Once I realised just how close you need to get when you sit up into your partner with over and underhooks, and that you need to fall back a little on the side you are sweeping to, this worked wonderfully. We swept right into switchback side control.

From there we had a quick look at possible attacks, because the right arm is already isolated.

Then we looked at the scenario where our partner manages to free his top arm (maybe he pulled it through while we swept) and tries to roll away from us. We drilled trapping his arm to prevent him from getting away and set up a submission. If for example, we swept him to our left, he rolls to his left, we stick our right hand under his right elbow (from behind). Then we make a fist, drop our elbow down behind his back and consolidate our position while squatting behind him. Can't lean forward, need to keep the weight low behind him, with knees blocking his back. Then we have time to set up a submission.

From here we can go for an armbar by stepping over the head, or we can set up a kimura from north/south. We played around with this for a short time, trying out differnt options.

We finished off with a couple of rolls each. Same as on Monday, I managed to get good positions several times. I pulled off a wrist lock and tried a variety of chokes and armlocks. Of course I also had tons of opportunity to practice survival and escapes :-) Both rolls were productive, and the stray heel to the base of my nose didn't cause any damage.

I came back for the evening class. One of our instructors is moving away and this was one of his last two classes. Also, while our PFS classes are still in recess, I'm only doing BJJ, so I figured the extra class was the go, even if it meant to travel all the way into town a second time in one day.

Aside from one newbie who leaned some basic drills, the rest of us went from light free guard passing to guard passing with subs and then to free wrestling. It was a medium sized class, so I had lots of rolls with various partners. I wasn't quite as fresh as I was for the lunchtime class, and with higher humidity, I felt like being in a sauna.

I rolled with two bluebelts, both of whom had suggestions to make. One comment was that I need to be careful when I commit my weight, be it guard passing or position changes when on top. He said I commit too much of my weight which makes it easy for people to sweep me. I laughed and said that with my (lack of) weight, I need to use all of it. But he's right of course. I need to give more thought about keeping base and maybe concentrating a percentage of my weight on that part of my opponents anatomy which gives me the best control, ie: control ONE shoulder instead of just lying across his top half.

The other suggestion came when I was guard passing. Generally, I manage to pass open guard reasonably well, but yesterday I had troubles. So I was busy trying to pin one leg down. And because I wasn't thinking, I was also trying to push the other knee down. He showee me a better way to pin the first leg and pointed out that if I pull up on his other knee, that would rotate his hips toward me and help flatten the first leg to the floor. Of course, it's obvious when I think about it. Duh!

That aside, I had plenty of fun. I was mauled as usual by the really big four stripe guy. I was pleased to get past his open guard once and actually get to side control. I lasted there for less than 2 seconds and it went all bad for me after that. However, I rolled out of one omoplata attempt and I know I'm making it harder and harder for him to get a hold of my arms. We tend to make jokes about it, after all he is twice my weight. One roll we started with him lying down, sort of roman emperor pose, propped up on his elbows. Then he waved me in, with the sort of grin like his favourite dessert had been served. Needless to say, the outcome for me was tapping :-).

One of the bluebelts caught me in a wristlock. Sneaky, and just as I had escaped something else. Can't remember too much else aside from the issues about the open guard passing. Aside from that, he caught me in a gi choke. Some rolls later I finally retaliated - with an wristlock :-).

I had one roll with our purple belt instructor. It's been ages since I've wrestled with him. His favourite is switch base side control and he knows a lot of horrible submissions from there. Anyway, we started from knees and I surprised him by snapping his head down, he went turtle, I fumbled around and he rolled me but somehow there was a scramble, I passed his legs and ended up - in switchbase side control. While I was busy gloating, he swept me - into switchbase side control :-) He is much bigger than me, and it's not a nice place to be. Soon after (details escape me), he got me in some kind of crank. Head facing one way, legs the other. Not nice. Humans weren't designed to be corkscrews.. Tapping time!

I did have a couple more rolls, I remember one where my opponent (my fellow three -striper) had top half guard. He uses his shoulder wickedly. Being under his side control is no fun, either. I think I escaped once, just to get into the same position, and eventually he got me in a figure four.

A whole hour of one good roll after another, even though I felt like pizza dough some of the time. I was so hot and tired at the end, there was sweat pooling in my ears. Yuk. Gi was twice it's normal weight. I came home with new matburn, grazes on my elbows and left knee, a bruised chin, a pinch/bruise to my left side and assorted other bruises of course. But as happy as can be.

Due to being super careful about drinking plenty and eating a little before class, and then something straight after class on the way home, I felt excellent the next day and after that. It makes so much difference to the amount of soreness, if I feed myself well. I'm absolutely fit and rearing to go for my next class tonight :-)

mad dogs and englishmen..

How does the saying go? Only mad dogs and englishmen go out in the midday sun, or something to that effect.

It wasn't only the midday sun today that was hot. It was really, really hot all day. It was 38 deg.C (100F) before 11am, it peaked at 44C (111F) and fell to about 35C (95F) by the time we started class at 8pm. By the time I came home just before 10pm, it was still about 30C. It was brutal outside and I don't have a/c in the house.

Was class tough? Is the pope catholic? Needless to say it was a small class for a monday night. But it was good to see the die hard BJJ addicts back again after our 3 week xmas layoff.

It seemed like a good opportunity to do a no-gi class :-)

We drilled armbar from knee ride and far armbar from knee ride. I mainly worked on getting the right grip for good penetration, and gripping knees so that the whole deal was tight, for both armbars. I've drilled this technique before and going over it again, I'm finding lots of ways to improve it. As with a lot of the other techniques, I know the basic movements so I can concentrate on the small stuff that really make them work. With that, I find that in rolling, techniques I knew but couldn't pull off, are now starting to work. Good stuff!

When we were drilling, one of the bluebelts pointed out the importance of having the trapped arm over to the correct side of my body, ie: the side where his feet are. Often, it works if the arm is along my centreline, but with flexible elbows, I can get more extension and a better angle being off to my side. Having the arm over the other side gives my opponent a better chance to pull out of the sub.

One of the guys showed us an omoplata to armbar transition. He 'borrowed' me to demonstrate. As I rolled out of the omoplata, I kneed myself in the left eyebrow.

Most of the class was spent rolling. Everybody took it reasonably steady because of the heat. But all the same, it was pretty non-stop. I had two long rolls with a blue belt who is at least 30kg heavier than I. He almost toyed with sweeping me, giving me a chance to feel for getting better base. When he got top positions, he'd not squish down with all his weight, giving me loads of opportunity for escapes, even a sweep and consequently I had several opportunities to work my top game. All along I remembered to attack and found myself going from one attack to another several times. Really, really good rolling. I told him how much I appreciate that bit of space and he said it was good for him, too because it made him work more out of bad spots and not rely only on strength and weight. Win/win.

My other roll was with one of the young, quick, flexible guys. One of those lucky types who looks very natural and who's been giving the higher belts a challenge. Still, he is only about my weight, so he can't shut me down the way the big guys can, and I'm a few month's training ahead of him which does make itself felt here and there ;-). We had a lot of positional changes. I couldn't submit him because I could never establish solid enough control and when he'd reverse me, he couldn't get a sub because my defense is pretty good. Again, it was good to have opportunities to work my top game. Because my top game sure needs work!!

We were all soaked and pretty exhausted after class, but it was GREAT to be back on the mat. I drank heaps and ate something soon after, so I felt pretty good.

photos for the people :-)

I had dinner with my friends Yvonne and Greg last night. Greg took the opportunity to take some photos - silly photos of cats and yours truly are always part of the after-dinner entertainment :-).


So here is me sporting my new super-cool hair do.

Good timing indeed, as the weather was horribly hot yesterday. So absolutely no regrets. As the forecast for tomorrow hints at an even hotter day, I imagine that I will appreciate the improved cooling effect when I finally resume training tomorrow night.



Just for comparison, here is a recent photo of my long hair. At times it has been much longer than that.

things we do...

I've spent well over 20 years with long hair. It's a pain in the summer and it's a pain under a riding hat. Always kept it braided to keep it out of the road, but long hair it had to be ;-).

Then I started grappling. I braided it tighter, used more elastics, tried different braids. Same result, it's hot and it looks insanely horrible after a good wrestle and the earguards slip around on it. Worst of all, lots of it gets left on the mat.

Sometimes the braid gets stuck under my back, once I even had to tap out to a backward neck crank! But it's the hunks that get torn out which is the worst. I remember the horrified look of one of the guys at the end of a roll during a no-gi session one night, when he literally handed me a goodly hunk of my hair - "I think this is yours?!". All in all not optimal.

So today I did the deed. Off it came!

As it is a very hot day, I can feel the benefits already :-). But the true benefits will be apparent when I'll go have have my next BJJ class on Monday. But how good is that for true dedication to the sport ??? Eh? Eh? ;-) (And I shall ignore those in my wider family who quietly think I'm nuts.)

Yay! Three more days and we're back on the mat. Beauty!

funny forum stuff...

As I'm still not back on the mat (four more long days to go..), I've been reading the forums. I didn't find many profound posts, but here is some funny stuff:

On MMA Underground:
Official 2010 BJJ Vocabulary Disambiguation thread

On Grapplersguide:
You know your BJJ is improving when...

On Lockflow:
You know your a grappler when..

two bodies

We are experiencing weird weather. For example, we had a big heat wave in November, then more cool and rainy weather, nearly like winter again. Since then, it's been a roller coaster. For example, two days ago, we had temperatures up to 38 deg.C, then a late thunderstorm on New Year's Eve brought cooler and moist weather. Today it's only about 15 deg.C out there and a stiff breeze. Consequently, it's very difficult to adjust to the weather. Singlets one day, parkas the next...

I used to hate hot weather and didn't mind the cold so much. Ok, it's not too cold here in winter, it's pretty much a mediterranean climate, so snow is unusual, but we do get frosts in winter, and weeks of cold, windy and rainy weather. And the summers are (usually) hot and dry.

With distinct seasons, and a gradual change between them, it's not too hard to adjust to the weather, dress accordingly and heat the house when necessary. I also adjust my training, taking longer to warm up when it's cool for example.

As I'm getting older, I find that I prefer the hot extreme to the cold extreme. I think that's the result of two things. One the one hand, being fitter through constant training, my body has learned to sweat and cope with being hot and it's no longer exhausting just to feel hot. On the other hand, I'm getting less flexible and take longer to recover than I used to. I find that cold/wet weather means stiffer joints and more aches. So nowadays I'd rather be too hot than too cold.

I've found that I have two operating modes. One is normal, at rest or low to medium level activity (from sitting in front of the computer to say... going horseriding). Mode two is "running temperature". Like a well warmed engine. How much work is required to get into M2 depends a lot on outside temperature, which is why I prefer the warmer weather these days. Of course other things come into it as well, such as whether I have muscle soreness from previous days, carry an injury and how long since I last had a good workout and stretch.

Why is all this relevant?

Because it never ceases to amaze me what a different body I inhabit when I reach proper running temperature, as opposed to normal operating mode. There are days when I pack my bag and head off to training and I feel like a wooden doll. I actually doubt that I can train properly some days and I'm literally afraid of going. I've had the odd day when things really were a bit tough. But that was nearly always when I'd have a class in the morning, an hour off and another class straight after (Too long a break to stay warm but not long enough to recover). But that aside, my body always managed to do the business after proper warming and stretching. I ought to have learned by now that I can rely on it!!!

I'm on the grey side of fourty, so just getting out of bed in the morning, I feel like need to order spare parts and a grease and oil change for my body. That is every morning. Some clever person on some forum remarked that over fourty, you hurt in the mornings no matter what. If you hurt after abusing your body during grappling the day before, at least you have a reason to hurt. That sounds sensible :-).

What I notice as I work around the farm, ride horses and do my daily chores etc are other issues. Lack of flexibility, mainly in the lower back, but also in the shoulders and neck and knees. Also I notice that some joints click and crunch. One of my knees, hurt many moons ago in a horseriding accident and then re-injured later, has what feels like lax ligaments. If I just blunder around, stuff moves around in there, and I've had it lock on me to the point where it won't straighten. Less so lately, but it's been an ongoing problem. My neck sometimes "crinks", for no reason at all, but often it's at times of stress. So in other words, in normal mode, I feel like the average 40+ year old. I can fully relate to what my parents used to bitch about when they were this old! Winter mornings are worst.

Then I go to classes. Whether BJJ or PFS, there's the warmup, some stretching and then we're into it. Joints gain more range of motion. No crunching or clicking anywhere, knees feel tight, general flexibility increases. And hardly any aches (well, shall we say there can be some "discomfort" during warmup) once I start rolling. What I'm so stunned about is just how different my body performs when it's in that state. It really is like a different body to the one I usually inhabit :-)

I suppose I could say there is another mode, that being sparring mode. Simply, when the rolling or standup sparring gets a bit more intensive, then it goes to the point where more and more pain can be tolerated. For example, that's when I come home with bruises and matburn which I don't recall incurring. Or when I came up against the limit of what I have in my "gas tank" and still manage to push on a bit more.

I just wish I could run at that enhanced level of ease and flexibility ALL the time, but I doubt that's possible. I basically think I'm a lucky old bastard, being able to go pretty much as hard as I like in training - as long as I warm up adequately. I see plenty of people younger than myself who evidently live a much more sedentiary lifestyle, and who certainly couldn't do what I can do. And I don't do so badly during training, compared to the guys in their twenties - if I may say so myself ;-). Yes, I am lucky, even if I need to always get to running temperature before I can play!

I had to laugh when I friend of mine came along to watch a BJJ class one day recently. He said he could never do it and that he felt tired just watching us warm up :-)

holidays and training

I miss going to classes.

I've been amusing myself with watching UFC, BJJ instructionals and other predictable stuff :-))

I've been trawling the forums. There seem to be a lot of bored people out there, too. Sometimes I come across some good stuff, for example the Sherdog thread on BJJ Quotes. There really were some good ones. But hell's bells, there are a lot of stupid posts. I don't know if that's because people think they can post whatever inane crap or poisonous b/s they like in the relative anonymity of those forums. Or whether that's just the way they really are. Scary either way. Still, there is the odd pearl of wisdom in these forums, and some funny stuff, so when I have time to kill (not often), I go and have a look.

To save myself the pain of going back to training after three weeks off, I've started using my mini gym. Ah, really it's not just the fear of things to come, I really do get all pent up when I've not been working enough. I gave myself a week off after the last class this month. That gave all the icky complaining body bits a chance to heal up and shut up. But it was time to get the old body used to being sweaty again. It's not as though I sit on my butt all day long, I live on a farm and I feed and work horses. But it's not very intense.

I've invested in a timer (gymboss). What a good little gadget! Quite easy to program, and a beep loud enough so I can hear it over the music I play when I do gym things. I think that I've mentioned in a previous post that I'm not the most self motivated person when it comes to working out. It's just that it's not very exciting and I'm always willing to let close enough be good enough. What's good about the timer is that I can set it to whatever intervals and then I'll decide to do so many rounds. I have enough discipline that I will start at the beep and I won't stop until I've done the rounds I set out to do. And instead of watching the clock, I can concentrate on doing what I'm doing, for example hit the heavy bag, until the beep relieves me :-). And start hitting again when the merciless beep goes off yet again!

To ease myself in, the first day I did ten one minute rounds with a minute off inbetween. Alternated between hitting and kicking the heavy bag one round, and the next round hitting and doing positional changes on the bag on the ground. That was after a good warmup of course and some other stuff (situps, pushups, leg curls, squats etc). Did about 3/4 hour all up, including stretching etc.

Then I had a day off and yesterday did another 3/4 hour in the gym. This time, 10 one minute rounds on the heavy bag with 30 second breaks. That got the heartrate up considerably more! That aside I practiced armbars from mount on the ground bag (I imagined the arms), did positional drills on the same bag, especially knee ride. I did some squats with kettlebells, working particularly on standing up one leg at a time like I would for a standing guard pass. And a couple of turkish getups (I think that's what they are called?). I also did some pretty thorough stretching.

And I felt really good afterwards. So I'm going to keep a similar schedule for the next couple of weeks until we have classes again, and even after that probably.

I'm lucky enough to have a mini gym for my own use. It's nothing fancy, just a few basic things in my shed. A suspended wooden floor with mats, a heavy hanging bag a floor bag, a simple weight bench, a small selection of dumbbells and kettlebells, gym balls, a treadmill (for winter nights), a selection of wooden practice weapsons, a bar for towel pullups and of course a cd player! The only thing missing is a training partner. But living out of town, the chances of finding a like minded person withing striking range (pun intended) is slim indeed. So I just play loud music and get on with it :-)

I get my ideas for workouts from several books I have, and from Ross Enamait's Rosstraining website (I also have his book "Never Gymless"). That guy is amazing. I don't have his drive but he is an inspiration to me all the same.

year end, open guard etc

It's that time of year. The Christmas holidays are coming up, the end of the year has nearly arrived. That also means no classes for nearly three weeks. As the typical BJJ addict, that will seem like a loooonnnngg time to me.

I had some excellent classes last week, both PFS and BJJ. So I finished the year on a high and I have a lot to look forward to next year. To be fair to my body, a week off will probably be good. But three weeks? Waaah! ... just venting ;-).

We did some pretty technical butterfly guard sweeps on Friday night and continued on with that theme on Saturday. I've only started experimenting with open guard fairly recently, and I use it mostly with the big guys so I can keep them off me. But sweeps are hard on the big guys. So that means I need to use open guard more often rather than looking for the "safety" of the closed guard. If I use it more often, I'll see more opportunities for sweeps and they will become part of my repertoire. So in the new year, I'll promise to use open guard aggressively even with the people more my weight.

It is so easy to stick to what I know and feel comfy with. It is much harder to go outside my comfort zone (=closed guard). Because there, I will probably get passed and then I'll end up on the bottom. Having spent most of my first year primarily on the bottom and in bad positions, I don't want to be there any more than absolutely necessary. But hey, I will never improve my open guard and utilize the many sweeps and attacks from there if I don't try. And what's the worst that can happen? I get passed and if I can't escape, I tap.

Also I find that there is an even greater reliance on timing, balance and utilizing momentum in an open guard scenario. I can really do with an upgrade in all those areas, and I see open guard as a way to get there. As I still get swept very easily, I also hope that that better understanding will help me become more sweep-resistant.

Our last BJJ class ended with a couple of scored rounds from standing. I like those, but still I get that tingly feeling. It's probably not fear, but excitement. In any case, I think my adrenal glands are getting a workout ;-).

So close to the holidays, our classes have been pretty small, and the Saturday class was just myself and two blue belts. So no points for guessing whose pelt was nailed to the wall when we had our rounds :-))). With three of us, it was two rounds each. First fight, I hesitated and was taken down. I always have trouble remembering what happens, but what I do remember is that I didn't spend the entire time on my back. At some stage I was turtled and trying to take him down which partially succeeded but then there was a sudden and unexpected choke a short time later (from mount??).

The round with the other guy was so brief (takedown... armbar) that we had to go again. Somewhat pissed off with my own (lack of) performance by this stage, I shot for a double and got it easily (yeah!) and managed to get to side control. I couldn't get an arm and whilst trying to attack, he rolled me (have I mentioned before that my top game is a joke??). From there it was downhill for me, even though I regained guard at one stage. I also managed to get back to half guard from under mount, but couldn't sweep or do anything and in the end it was an armbar that I couldn't get out of which led to my demise ;-)

Not the most glorious performance. However. I scored a takedown and it wasn't all just a case of spending the whole time being mounted without being able to escape. I had the chance to try some attacks in both rounds and that is progress for me. If I can make them work harder and harder to get a submission, that is progress.

I can't wait to come back next year.

We've been told we can eat as much as we like during the holidays, because we'll have our butts worked off after we come back. A certain BJJ teacher has plans for turning us into lean and mean fighting machines. Oooh, I can see how that translates into sweat, bruises and sore bodies. And as we are heading into the hot time of the year, I suspect that means yet more sweat...

Anyway, in late January we are expecting John Campbell to hold an MMA seminar at our dojo. That should be good. He's been a BJJ guest instructor a couple of times and I like his teaching style.

To everyone who drops in and reads here, I wish you happy holidays and a fantastic new year!

need to rewire that brain

When I was a couple of months into BJJ training, I heard that one has to pay one's dues on the bottom. That those who spend much time on the bottom in the beginning end up with solid defenses and escapes which firstly ensure survival and secondly bring about good positions which lead to attacks.

Well, I think I spent pretty much my entire first year on the bottom. There were times when I thought that's all I'm destined to ever do in BJJ and I will admit that at times it was very frustrating.

But from being owned and submitted fast I went to being owned and not submitted quite so fast. Then I managed to escape sometimes and it evidently became more and more difficult to submit me. Ah yes, we all know how it is, one day you fly high because you fluked a sweep and then a submission, or you just had a good start and the right body part moved in the right direction by accident and you ended up on top. Then, the next day, every Joe and his dog sqash and dominate you, rip your arms out and choke the living daylights out of you and you limp home wondering why you come for these beatings.

So time went on and on the balance of things, my sweeps happened more often. My escapes happened more often, I saw openings I never used to see, I managed to pass guards. I managed to stay out from under the heavy guys more often and found that the big new guys didn't always succeed in muscling me around. I started being a bit more aggressive at the start of rolls which set me up for better positions. My already reasonably closed guard got even better.

Ok, and now comes the next big thing. Due to my lack of "top time", I have little experience in applying all those lovely submissions. I've learned loads of armbars, figure fours and chokes from various top positions. But I have only ever practiced most of them on a compliant partner. So when it comes to rolling, I find myself in mount or side control, I have a great deal of trouble setting up and finishing subs. About the only place I'm reasonably ok with is back control. I guess it's because it's so dominant. So one part of the problem is lack of practice. But that will come.

The other problem is the mindset. Since I started, I've primarily been concerned with defending and escaping. But what I need to do is think of attacking. Even when I'm defending or escaping, I need to look at ways to turn the table and make the game mine. If I wait until I have a good position before I look for a sub, then likely I'll give my partner the time to consolidate, defend and even start escaping before I have time to even set up, let alone finish a sub. So I need a plan of attack. From every position, I need to know my best submission and one or two backup ones which flow on from there. But really, I need to rewire my brain so that I no longer think defensively, but offensively. That includes looking out for loose arms and exposed necks all the time and then find a pathway to attack that target. I need to arrive at the attacking (dominant) position already set for the attack, and ready with the next one if he defends.

That's a pretty fundamental shift in thinking. Actually, I like taking the initiative and the thought of having a string of attacks up my sleeve makes me smile. So it's not like I'm a timid soul. But it's so easy to get into a mindset. Same as I ended up in the "I can't do it" mindset regarding takedowns (which I have successfully discarded), I'm in a defensive mindset out of habit and experience. Now that my skill level has improved, it needs to be matched up with an aggressive attitude. I know that aggressive sounds a bit over the top, I'm not aggressive with my training partners. What I means is the opposite to defensive, taking the initiative and dictating the pace of the match. I hope I've expressed that well enough.

So for next year, my goal is to be active rather than passive and to develop a small arsenal of effective techniques which are part of a small and simple game plan.

I think BJJ will be even more fun next year :-) And of course that will translate into my no-gi grappling and standup stuff as well.

takedowns - there may be hope yet!

Just like so many other people, I've not been mad keen on takedowns. Not very good at any of them, not very successful and not confident. Not sure if the lack of confidence led to lack of success or the lack of success (from lack of skill) led to a lack of confidence. Probably it's a bit of a vicious circle. Particularly shooting for a takedown wasn't working. I had the grace and the success rate grace of a drunken gorilla....

So I will admit I was secretly very glad that we usually start from knees or in some sort of open guard at BJJ. I know that a lot of people poo-hoo that, but I suits me just fine :-)

Both in BJJ and PFS, we have been working on takedowns for some time. So I know a variety of takedowns for both gi and nogi situations. I know how to do various versions of singles and doubles, how to do entries by shooting or from clinch. I also learned a hip toss, some foot sweeps and a sacrifice throw. And of course I've been taught how to fall so I don't break my head or my limbs.

All the same, usually when I hear the word takedown, I cringe, and if I had half a viable excuse, I'd do something else. On the other hand, I don't like guard pulling in BJJ, to have half a chance against the bigger guys, I can't start off on the bottom.

I notice now that here and there something positive is happening. Sometimes when we drill takedowns, I pull one off nice and sweet. That must have given me a bit of heart which means now I'm that little bit more committed which in turn means I have more success.

Last Wednesday, we did some free wrestling from standup, it was a small class and everyone had a turn with everyone else, so that was four fights for each of us. We had set out a little competition sized area and someone scored the fights. I'll admit right upfront that I cringed when I was told the plan for the day. The smallest of the four guys is probably 10kg heavier than I and he is a much quicker and more flexible at less than half my age (sigh...). The biggest of the guys would easily be twice my weight. Wrestling with these from a ground start is tough enough, but from standing??

I had the first fight with the young guy and he took me down. Don't recall how. It went for a while but I was mostly on the bottom defending until he isolated one of my arms. One of the fights I barely recall (goldfish brain ;-) ). I think I was looking for a takedown when he pulled guard, and then I was swept and then it went downhill from there to a submission I really can't remember.

On the really big guy I shot in on for a single leg. He put his weight on me, so I dropped down for a low single but still got flattened. Then I was systematically squashed until he had high mount and made me tap from a wristlock. Anyway, at least I attempted the takedown. The last fight was with another fairly large guy (probably 30kg heavier than I). I attempted a takedown again, not sure how he defended but I ended up with him in my guard from where we had a lively wrestle. It ended in another submission, after I fought off his choke attempts for a long time. Just can't remember the details.

But the relevant issue of the whole session was that for a change, I (yes, I!) went for most of the takedowns. Sensei noted that it was commendable that I took the initiative and that it would always be very difficult for me to take down big guys with more experience. I allowed myself to be very pleased with my little self ;-)

Last week we also had a PFS class where we worked on takedowns among other stuff. We learned a new version of a double, where you drop, step in deep, hug his knees with your arms, clasp your hands and bring them towards you while driving forward with your shoulder on his belly. As he goes down, your shoulder pins him to the floor, and you hold his legs together while your legs walk around to side control. The guy I worked with is usually very good at takedowns, but this one didn't work well for him. I think he had an off day (I know the feeling all too well). First, the takedown didn't work for me either, but we had the chance to get in a few reps and in the end it worked quite sweetly. So although we only drilled, it was another success for me.

In tonight's PFS class, we worked various combinations. Step and pivot to avoid a punch, and from there to either a kick, a combination of punches or a shoot. We drilled shoots from various positions, avoiding punches. At the end of the class, we briefly did some free sparring from standup, all allowed. In the past, I used to dread those because for the life of me I couldn't get a good entry for a takedown, so it would either just stay up or I'd get taken down to an inferior position. Groundfighting with punches thrown in.... I don't like to be on the bottom! The difference tonight was that I was the one who initiated the takedowns. Never mind the fact that I was idiotic enough to attempt a single with my head on the outside. I deserved the guillotine choke I had to tap to. Never mind I did the same damn thing again. At least the second time I defended the choke.

What I was pleased about was the fact that I initiated the takedowns. In the first spar I shot for a single when I saw an opening. In the second one, the guy really didn't want to be taken down, and tried to keep me away with kicks. But I snared his leg and got the single that way.

There is so much to be learned and so much of my technique to be tidied up and mistakes to be eliminated. But something in my mindset has changed, and that seems to be making all the difference. Believing I can do something is such an important step in succussfully doing something. The mind is a powerful thing, it needs training and developing, just like the body ;-)

how things change

I have been reflecting on my training for some time. I was questioning my commitment to training in a martial art which emphasizes forms and patterns rather than live training.

The thought of learning more katas and other patterns didn't make me enthusiastic. Also, for me, there will never be proficiency, let alone efficiency or elegance in high kicks, spinning kicks and some other pretty stuff. I am tall and have long legs and my balance sucks, so to speak. I was really struggling with those kicks. And that illustrates a point. If something isn't working for me due to body type or lack of ability, then I'd rather just learn it on a basic level and concentrate on other techniques which I can do efficiently. Just talking from a self defence point of view here.

That aside, I've been doing between 7 and 9 individual classes most weeks, some days 2 or even 3 classes. That's pretty heavy so by the last class in one evening, the brain is full and the body empty!

Ok, so to cut a long story short, I told Kyoshi last night that I will not continue with my Karate training. I told him why. It upset me a bit because I hate endings of any sort. A friend later commented it was fair to be upset because I put emotion into the training so it's an emotional thing to end it, and that's OK. In any case, Kyoshi did laugh and say that I'm a bit unusual, liking all the "gung-ho" stuff (ie: PFS and BJJ), where a lot of people who come for Karate lessons, especially the women, prefer the orderly, no/low contact nature of this Karate school. And yes, that's right, I do like the live training with plenty of sparring, and close contact is fine (otherwise I wouldn't like grappling!).

As I said, I'd been mulling that over for a while. I'm not a believer in doing something for the sake of it, if my heart isn't in it. I'd rather not do it than do it half-heartedly and waste the instructor's time and my time. I'm glad for what I did learn in the time I trained, and what I learned about myself. I'm glad for the solid background in dojo etiquette and mutual respect. I'm glad for the other doors it opened for me, too. I have no regrets about my training. Only I came to a point where I wished to draw a line under it and move onto other things.

So while it was sad, now I'm relieved and I can put all my energy into what I like best - the gung-ho stuff :-)

The rest of last night was fun.

I thoroughly enjoyed a PFS class which was all (no-gi) grappling. Aside from learning a couple of new moves, we did a fair bit of rolling. One of the sweeps I learned in BJJ last week worked sweetly for me. Also, I caught myself using a hook on someone's leg to try and move him off me, which turned into another sweep. I didn't think, it just happened. I remember thinking WOW, how did that happen. As if the foot was self controlled, it hooked and propelled the guy's leg skywards. I've not been using hooks enough, so that was reason for happiness ;-) Right at the end, I wrapped up the last roll with a neat and tight triangle, after lots of positional changes. Something else to feel good about.

In the BJJ class, we worked on a transition from armbar from guard to sweep or from armbar to omoplata. Then another sweep where we attempt an armbar but they lean across.

The rest of the class was rolling. I ended up going non-stop for about 15 minutes. As usual, I was smashed by one of the big guys. I try my best to stay out from under him, but he still gets me every time.

I rolled with one of the newer guys and helped him a bit with escapes and sweeps until I choked him from guard. During a second roll with him later on, I again helped him a little. He did a lovely bridge and roll at one stage and I told him so. The I swept him and ended up in mount. I threated to wrap up one of his arms and while he defended, I took his other arm in a figure four.

I then had an excellent roll with one of our purple belts. He pointed out when I made on major mistake and gave me a chance to go back one step. I had turtled up and was going for a single but had my head outside. Put myself in a beautiful position for a rollover crucifix.... Duh. We went on for a bit and there were lots of positional changes. I made a slick changeover from something to a triangle once ("nice!"), but then he defended in a way that still makes me scratch my head. He somehow extended one of my arms with his foot??? During the roll, he didn't attack mostly, just defended, which gave me a chance to work my attack game. I (think) I ended up armbarring him.

Then my turn was with a big blue belt. I continued working on my new strategy of sprawl, head control, try to get the back. He turtled which I still have trouble with, but I succeeded in turning him over and getting his back. Couldn't sink the choke but maintained back control for a while. Then various things happened (which I can't recall) until I saw an opportunity for another triangle. I didn't have it in really tight, but he said he wanted to try some new defence so I waited. We had a laugh as he couldn't remember all of it. I don't know where it went from there but time was up soon after.

I know I managed several sweeps during the evening's assorted rolls, I escaped several bad positions and I saw and capitalized on several opportunities to attack. And recently I noticed that I can go from one attack to another, because I can see the opening and because I have the other attack in my head. I must be on the right track, and it feels great. It makes up for the frequent DUH moments when I go blank and don't know what to do or something I try results in a heroic failure that lands me in a really crappy position. I know that in the beginning sometimes I was hesitant to try things, because I was worried about failing and landing on the bottom. The difference is that now, if I end up on the bottom, I see that as an opportunity to work my escapes. And undoubtedly, I will have endless opportunities to practice escapes :-))

So that was my Monday evening.

ripping arms off...

Summer has arrived. I think we must have skipped the spring again, as it seems like we only had cold weather so far. Yesterdays' lunchtime class was rather a bit on the hot side. The Monday evening classes hat been quite warm, too, but yesterday's BJJ class really made the sweat run...

I have not been happy with my armbars from mount. Never quite got the hang of those, and therefore never used them while rolling. I know I used to leave too much space, do it too slow. Just felt terrible. And then yesterday, Sensei observed one of my crappy armbars from mount. That was it, armbar practice coming your way, girl. Oh-oh....

Part of me cringed, like I do when I need to do something I'm not good at and know it. The other part said GOODY! Here is my chance to say goodbye to crappy armbars and hallo to decent ones. In any case, I knew I was in for some work.

There were only four of us in the class, a big blue belt, a huge 4-stripe white belt, and a the guy who is often my training partner and fellow 3-striper. Sensei announced that I would be doing armbars on everyone, 20 on each of the guys and they had to say if I did it wrong. With plenty of feedback from Sensei and the respective armbar victim, I found the problems and addressed them.

By the time I had done 60+ armbars I felt hot and tired but things were definitely improving. Interestingly, I've always preferred to do them on someone's right arm. But because I'd been doing them wrong, now it was actually easier to get them right on the other side. My brain wasn't clogged up with incorrect movement patterns I suppose. So I managed several really tight armbars to the left arm of my victims, whereas the other side still needs polishing.

Where I was going wrong was not enough weight on the hands as I stepped over. I didn't lean on my hands enough, and it caused me to take a little step near his head before stepping over, which slowed it down and pushed my body up. The other issue was that I was unaware of the extra step and then it took some work to get out of the habit. Sensei pointed out the truth in the saying "practice doesn't make perfect - perfect practice make perfect!". Having practiced crappy armbars, now I have to first unlearn the crap before I can learn good ones. Sigh.

Anyway, the other thing which caused me problems was a bit of a fear of kicking my partner in the head during the step over. So I was hesitant, which made it slow and awkward. I got into severe trouble over "hesitant" and "careful" ;-). Oh well, I guess I've been accidentally kicked in the head several times myself and lived. It's not that we want to kick each other, but sometimes trying to be "nice" actually ruins good techniques. Ironically, if I do it smooth and fast, there is a lot less chance of kicking my partner. Right!

And finally, my grips weren't good. Once I concentrated on the correct grip near his elbow with both hands, that automatically pulled his arm in tighter for better control. That, combined with aiming to sit on his shoulder before sitting back finally gave me the nice tight control I'd been lacking. Even on the big barrel chested guys this works. All it needed then was to close the knees, pull the heels in and we had armbars that worked.

Success! Now I can successfully rip arms off from mount :-)

The rest of the class was free rolling. Despite the heat, this was pretty enjoyable. I had the bluebelt guy who didn't use all of his weight and he gave me little openings so I work not only on escapes, but on positional changes. I had his back several times but couldn't work any choke because he protected himself well. Sensei walked past and showed me an alternative rear naked choke where you use the knuckle of your thumb to work the hand in. Once the hard base of the thumb is against his windpipe, a little turn of hand will bring it into play. That was interesting, but the best part of the rolling was the opportunity to flow from one position to the next, to recognise openings and submission possibilities. At one point I tried a crucifix, but he grabbed my leg and I ended up in strife. On another occasion, I nearly succeeded in a modified crucifix without looking for it, and he reckoned that might have potential. But to be fair, I was swept, rolled, reversed and controlled a fair bit of the time, and if it hadn't been for the little openings, I would have been mat pizza in due course :-))) All in all, the sort of roll where you walk away happy and with a headful of stuff for next time. Thanks, mate!

An excellent class and well worth the large puddles of sweat I left everywhere!

I'm back!

My arm is better and I couldn't stand staying home another day :-))

We had a relatively easy class. A a senior guy took us two 3-stripers through the 4-stripe syllabus stuff. 3 armlock escapes as well as an escape from side control, escape from mount, escape from knee ride, pass half guard to mount and standing guard pass.

The escape from knee ride we had worked on some months ago, and I can remember that I couldn't get it together at the time. This time, however, it seemed obvious and drilling it gave me no issues whatever. Same for my partner, who commented that we must have learned something in the meantime :-).

I had been reading up on alternative knee ride escapes as I had been convince that this one wouldn't work for me. It's the one where you grab the guy's pant leg near his upright knee with your near hand (supported with the far one if necessary), then push his knee off you belly with your left while you hip escape away and turn into him. You grab his right foot with your left hand and pull it to the inside or outside (depending on where it is) while bracing up on your right arm to get to your knees. Holding on to the foot, you push into him to make him tip over backwards, a bit like a modified single leg from the knees. Anyway, after going through it all again, it works, and I'm pretty pleased about that.

The standing guard pass isn't my thing. I sometimes have a dodgy lower back, and while I can stand up, there is no way I can lift the guy up onto my knees. Just won't happen. Yes, I've started doing squats and I hope to get there some day, but for now I went through the motions with my partner's back on the floor. I found if I jolt around enough, he still opens his guard ;-)

The headlock escapes are reasonably technical, but I think I can work them out. I'm not sure how I would fare in a roll with one of the two really big guys, but the sweep version, while painful with a big guy (ahh, my ribs!!) should work if I get my technique right. And I think I understand the critical parts of it now. The other two escapes will be a challenge against a big guy with big strong arms, when they are clamped around my neck with their weight on my chest. Yes, I know good technique helps, but if they drive their considerable weight onto me, I find all escapes hard going.

Even the vanilla mount escape (elbow to knee, hip escape, go to half guard, hip escape the other way, go to guard) is tough against a big guy, unless I turn into him and get my side to the mat before he establishes his position. Even when he's not attacking me, it's hard. But then I'm talking a guy about twice my size. I think positive here, if I can escape his mount, I can escape anyones!

We had a bit of rolling afterwards. As my partner's neck was a bit sore and my shoulder in recuperation mode, we agreed to go easy. Still ended up in crazy positions. Managed a collar choke from the back. Then had to tap out, just because my left arm screamed, and that was without an actual submission attempt. But other than that, the arm behaved very well and I was pleased. I made some stupid mistake not retrieving my arm from around his neck when I had lost control over him, and it hadn't been time out, that would have been another submission, and well deserved. So good to roll with a considerate partner and we both had several laughs and learned something.

Had an enjoyable class and I'm so happy to be back :-))

and just as I thought things were going well...

Yeah, bang. Injury.

Thankfully nothing too serious. A tear in my left rotator cuff. Some movements hurt, but I can move it in all directions. And it's improving. But it means time off and missed training. The last thing I want is to aggravate it or re-injure it before it's good, because then it will be more down time and more pain.

What really annoys me is that someone did it when he cranked on a figure 4 armlock, and it was so avoidable.

We were doing some no-gi grappling after learning a couple of new sweeps. I'd been working with a new, tall, young guy. I talked him all the way through the sweeps when it was his turn to practice them which was cool. He succeeded with both variation after a little while and plenty of help from me. Then we started grappling. As he was so evidently clueless, I gave him openings and encouragement and basically let him pass my closed guard. I let him get to mount with minimal resistance so that he could work on his transition. I said good, now what subs do you know from here? So he pushed on my left arm with both his to set up a figure 4. All good. I thought of a bridge and roll but thought no, let's see if he knows how to do this. So he put the grips on, goes to side control and starts lifting my elbow. I tapped with my foot as my left hand was busy and my right hand stuck under him. Then he hesitated and before I could say anything else, he cranked the sub on with a yank. Something in my left shoulder said CRACK. About the same time I said SHIT! Oh, he heard the crack and let go. I said that I tapped so why did he crank it on more? Well, he didn't know you could tap with your foot. WHAT?!?!

My shoulder was a bit sore but felt fully functional, so I didn't go ape. I gave him the lecture about tapping and looking after your partners etc. I mentioned it to the instructor who gave the guy another lecture about the issue. Though I iced it of course, next morning was not good.

The bottom line was the guy didn't pay attention, because he was so busy putting on the sub. How on earth he could get an adrenal rush from it after being talked through and encouraged every step of the way, that I don't comprehend. Hell, it's not like we had an all out roll (not that it would be acceptable then..).

In hindsight, I should have done what I normally do, that is go to full survival position and never let him near my arm. Hell, he only ended up in a dominant position because I let him. He only got the arm because I let him. I should have just assumed that a newbie would go all egoistical and careless and put me in danger. I should have been more concerned with my safety than with his learning experience. I guess I'm just not used to people being such Neanderthals.

I've had overzealous guys give me sore elbows from hasty armbars, had elbows to the head, a sore neck etc, but this is the first time I'm having to take time out because of someone's carelessness. I'm not damn well impressed, that's for sure.

And I was having such a good week. I'm certainly not going to be wrestling for a few days, which means I'll be home and sulking (only kidding). Hopefully it'll be ok next week.

Grrrrr....

spot on comments about women training BJJ

Leslie has written some excellent posts about her BJJ experiences in her blog BJJ Grrl.

She has a whole section about women in BJJ which includes links to resources.

There is a new page called Training as Women which is particularly good. It echos a lot of my personal experiences. When I started out in BJJ, I had a lot of doubts about all sorts of things, so I know it could be helpful to other women to read about Leslie's experiences. It may help them and their male training partners to see things in perspective.

I'm all for asking for no special treatment during training, only in terms of size/weight/strength differences. But Leslie addresses some very good points.

BJJ - a year on

It's a year today that I went to my first BJJ class.

Yeah. Well. What can I say???

I suppose to sum it up I will say that I sit here after my Friday/Saturday big double session sporting bruises, mat burn, sore ribs and certain other aches and pains. But I can hardly wait until the next class on Monday!

The truth of the matter is that the minor inconveniences take nothing away from the enjoyment I get from doing BJJ. It's the feeling of full on concentration, being THERE, NOW, especially during rolling, which is one of the addictions to me. Sure I get squashed, and I get frustrated and I tap often. But then there is the feeling of achievement, the momentary high, when a sweep works, when the next movement is happening before I think of it or when a submission works. I will be honest, I'm competitive and I love winning. In the sense that I have bettered myself, not so much in the sense that I 'beat' my opponent. That is why a successful escape or a good sweep is just as joyful as a successful sub. That is also one reason why I don't mind rolling with people more experienced, bigger, faster, stronger (which is nearly everyone, anyway ;-) ). It gives me the opportunity to become better. Even if it's the long, hard way.

I've now been through injuries, had a horrible plateau, overtrained (and paid for it). There was a brief time when I was constantly sore, tired, and started to fear some of the heavier guys, because I hurt every time I even drilled with them, let alone when I wrestled with them. I was always on the bottom, being ground into the mat and escapes didn't work too good. Newbies trashed me. Sometimes I hardly had the energy to get back up, let alone go another round. I've never encountered anything like BJJ for finding weak spots in body or mind. Although I truly hate to admit it and am still ashamed of it, I was so frustrated that I nearly choked holding back tears on a couple of occasions. Hey, this is a tough guy's game, tears are for girls, right? Worst of all was that I felt I as being unfair to my training partners and my Sensei. Unfair and incapable of doing anything useful. Which made it even worse, to the point where I was so angry with myself that I could barely speak. But give up? No. I'm too pig headed for that. I apologised for my "sense-of-humour-failure" and went right back. Determined to get better. Determined to believe that I had to pay my dues on the bottom and prepared to accept it. And determined to not be such a "girl".

To this day sometimes I take the easy route. We roll, I get destroyed. So often, the senior guys are pointing out where I went wrong and we go back to that spot and we go again. That is SO useful. Also, I get in a bad spot and we stop so I get the chance to analyse the situation, see the danger, work out the options and go from there. Now sometimes my inner lazy pigdog whispers in my ear that that's good enough. I'm hot and tired and stuck on the bottom and now that I've had the explanation, we can go get up and be done, have a rest, right? Now lucky for me, these pesky guys then say OK, now work out of it. There's never an easy way out of a bad spot, so it's work, work, work. I can't thank them enough for their explanations, their patience and their pushiness :-). Without good training partners, I would be nothing.

And without a good teacher, I would be nothing. I'm lucky enough to have good teachers and my Sensei in particular is a driving force behind my progress. His sometimes more gentle pushing and sometimes less gentle "toe up the butt" type of motivation is just the right mix. Thank you :-))

So if anyone tells you that BJJ is character building, take my word. It is. It finds and exposes the weak spots. The simple, no BS, in the moment character of live sparring is a bit like a washing machine. It washes away excuses, pretenses, ego, self-deceipt and other worries. It leaves only myself, my wits, my skills, totally focussed on the moment. It brutally shows me my shortcomings. And boy, there are plenty of those!

I think that any martial art which pushes your body and mind to perform beyond previous levels has the potential to to help me recognise myself. Every martial art, if practiced with the right spirit and dedication is a journey of self improvement Those arts where live sparring is included seem to me to be of greater value in that respect. The pressure testing of techniques in a live scenario will give the best feedback of what works well for me and where my weak spots are.

So a year on, I still like BJJ. In fact, I like it even better now. It's an addiction. I'll watch a training DVD over lunch or dinner if I have the time and I take a BJJ book to bed. How bad is that ;-) ?? So I'll gladly put up with the minor pains and all my friends shaking their head in disbelief every time my "weird hobby" comes up in conversation.

So see you back on the mat on Monday!

purple belt wisdom

In BJJ tonight, I was paired with one of the purple belts. First drill: front sweeps.

OMG. I've been having a hard time with those. Combination of less-than-perfect lower back (probably age and abuse related..), making me feel weak in squat-like positions. But also lack of good technique. So although I've done front sweeps during gradings and managed ok, I'd been slowly but surely talking myself into "I can't do this".

So now I'm supposed to drill this sweep, slowly, properly and with no momentum to assist. Luckily my purple belt partner is my size and near my weight. I tell him I'm not good at these and that in rolling I'd never, ever think of using it. In any case, when I had a go, he made the observation that one of my legs felt stronger than the other (the right) which is why I might be having trouble. So he suggested two things. Firstly to sweep over the other shoulder. Secondly, to change the foot placement. Instead of having a foot on each of his hips, to place my right foot closer to his middle, to take a bit more weight. He said he's had a sore ankle once and used that to save it a bit.

I give it a go and I'm surprised about the difference it makes. Several more sweeps later my body has "understood" the adjustment and it's working. Not fabulously well, but I'm getting there. And the last sweep I try feels sweet. I can't help but comment: how smooth was that!!

Now in principle, I should have worked that out for myself. But it took the observation, feel and experience of someone more senior than myself to find and correct the problem.

Such a minor thing, such a large effect. Both in the sense that a small adjustment made the sweep possible for me. And in the sense that it shook me out of thinking "I can't" and put me back on the track of "I can", which is so important.

just another enjoyable Saturday

I have no particular reason for another post :-)

I had a great Saturday with two very enjoyable classes. A PFS class in the morning and a BJJ class after lunch. Shoots, takedowns, sprawling and punching drills in PFS. In BJJ, a new sweep, rehearsal of basic drills and then some free wrestling.

Friday/Saturday are tough two days, as I have a late Friday night BJJ class, followed by open mat. And then the Saturday double. Generally, I'm pretty destroyed by the Saturday afternoon, but it's well worth it ;-). But this time I felt top of the world. Of course I'm glad to have the Sunday off though.

When I came home, my friend decided it was time for a photo. I so hate posing for photos! But ah, it didn't work out too bad - if I may say so myself. It's even hard to make out the black eye. My second black eye in about two weeks! This time it's the right one, and just in time after the left one faded. It did not happen during BJJ, and the guilty party shall remain anonymous. Of course there are matching bruises in a lot of other places, and of late, I'm sporting mat burns, too. But a black eye sort of sticks out like dog's balls. People give you funny looks ;-).

Anyway, all in a day's fun and I'm looking forward to my next class!

BJJ grading - three stripes!!!

We had another grading last night. It wasn't quite as much hard work as the last one, but we were certainly kept moving :-). Actually, I enjoyed myself a lot, both in the drills, and in the wrestling we did throughout the grading.

So I'm now the proud wearer of three stripes on my white belt. And what's best about it is that it entitles me to partake in open mat after class on Friday nights. I said to Sensei some months ago (just after I received my second stripe), that I really was looking forward to my three stripe grading just because I want to be allowed to stay for open mat. So yesterday, when Cal and I became 3rd stipers, we both said oh, goody, open mat - here we come :-))) And of course we stayed after class!

A couple of guys were awarded their first and second stripe also. It's so nice to see how pleased everyone is for everybody who passes a grading. I'm really glad to be part of a school where there is such a good, supportive and sportsmanlike undertone to everything we do.