Grading night ...

... was absolutely nuts. I didn't count, but if there wasn't 50 people in the room then it would have been pretty close. The concept of grading night appears to be pretty much random rolling with as many people as you can manage. The down side is that there is mat space for about 8 pairs and there was a fair few more than that going most of the time. Chaos!

In an ideal world I wouldn't have trained. My back has been doing that thing it does where it goes all wonky and I can hardly stand up straight. That's not entirely unusual and I do know how to mostly fix it with stretches and freeing up the muscles responsible, but it normally takes a week or so before I'm good to go again.

Grading night however is a special occasion, so I went anyway and ended up managing 3 different rolls that all went 7-8 minutes or so with Dale, a guy called Adam and last with Lee.

These were all pretty fun too despite me pretty much nursing my back through them. Dale let me play and prodded me in the right direction when I forgot things that I'm supposed to know. He's going to be a good coach one day. So I spent some time on top in side control, messed up a Kimura, managed to get his back when he escaped, spent some time there trying to choke him and eventually ended up losing that too. A little while under mount (don't remember how we got there) and he was prodding me to do the escape (singular) that I know, which I'm having problems getting to actually work. Note to self, practice mount escapes. Finished when he tried to apply a triangle from mount (which I don't know how to defend properly) and my solution was to roll him off me (which I don't know how I managed) but that really just ended up with me falling into a triangle anyway. A little bit of struggle ensued with me trying to not get triangled. Which obviously didn't work. Fun! Tired already! Took a break to stretch my back out and Dale found someone else to roll with anyway.

Adam is a 2-stripe white belt who's only a few inches taller than me but rather more solidly built. This one was pretty good too. He pulled guard to start with and I did a reasonable job of not waving my arms around and eventually getting decent posture. Attempted to pass a couple of times and then somehow ended up in half guard. He rolled me over, and then we ended up having to move 3 or 4 times in the next minute to avoid other pairs. He eventually passed to knee on belly which was an interesting first for me, if solidly uncomfortable. He tried to get arms out of me a couple of times and failed, then decided he was going to make me tap my squishing me with his knee. That's pretty mean but also didn't work. I think his knee was down a fair bit too low to be really doing the damage he wanted. I somehow managed to sneak out and ended up under side control. He was trying to Kimura me when I managed to jam my own thumb in my eye (ow! how clumsy am I?) and that was the end of that. Good fun though. Thanks Adam.

Lee last up, and this was the most interrupted roll I've ever had. It was also pretty back and forth. I seem to be getting a handle on getting to the mat in reasonable positions. Started on top with side control. Hunted some armlocks for a bit, then managed to find my way to mount(!) where I was able to stay for a little while without actually achieving much. He eventually escaped when I tried to armbar him and ended up in my guard. At this point I got kicked in the head. Then I got elbowed in the head. Then I got kicked in the head again. We finally found some free space on the mat and I tried a sweep which didn't work, and briefly a guillotine which also didn't work. There was an armbar floating around that I only noticed after it was gone, and then he finally managed to posture up and was halfway through passing when a halt was called.

The official part of the evening was four blue belts spending the next 50 minutes getting beat up. They started with other blue belts and got rotated through fresh opponents for 5 rounds of 4 minutes, then ended up with the 3 senior purples and Matt who worked them over good for the next 5 rounds. One of the guys in particular was rolling like a complete dick, slapping ears, poking them in the ribs. I can't say I really approve, but who am I to complain?

After the 50 minutes of watching guys get beat up it was speech time and then they handed stuff out. All the guys from fundamentals get a stripe. Hey wait, that's me. I have a stripe. I must admit it's kind of silly to be putting a stripe on a belt I haven't actually worn yet (I bought a gi last week and we're still regarding each other with an uneasy distrust..) but that doesn't mean I'm going to be giving it back or anything. The little blue stripe apparently means we're qualified unlikely to explode and are now allowed to train with the big kids. Sweet.

This was followed with lots of more experienced white belts collecting more stripes, a few blue belts getting some stripes then by another little speech and the several purple belts collecting two stripes of their own. I wouldn't have a clue who got what because I'm short and was standing near the back of the group. Damn tall people.

One more speech and the rather tired looking blue belts were presented with their well-earned purple belts, along with a fifth guy who couldn't participate tonight because his arm was in a sling. Well done guys!

That wrapped stuff up, apart from some photos and announcements. There's no classes until the 4th of January (boo!). This is probably a good thing, because today I'm practically a cripple. Note to self, no rolling when my back is all screwed up. Liberal applications of deep heat and my stretches should have me up and about in no time.

I do not understand...

Really I don't understand a lot of things. But the one I don't understand the most is how I seem to end up bleeding at some stage during every class. This time I was fine right until the end and at some stage during my last roll I apparently ended up with a split lip. I have no idea how this occurred. I really think I should notice how I end up bleeding. Oh well!

Fun Wednesday night. I think we drilled just about every technique I know roughly 2 times each. I'm not entirely sure how useful that is, but at least I managed to capture John to walk me through the second set of guard techniques, so I now actually know how to do an armbar from guard, how to sneakily get to the back from guard and some weird hookey sweep thing that I will maybe learn correctly sometime in the next 3 years. It's progress I say!

At the end of drilling, John stands everyone up and says "I've got 2 things to show you but you can only have one today. One escape and one submission. Vote on which one you want today."

I want the escape. Naturally everyone else wants the submission. John is amused about how the little guy always wants the escape and says that he also wanted the escape when he was learning. John is a little guy too. So we learn the submission. It turns out to be a triangle choke which is interesting and I'm perfectly happy to learn it. Unfortunately, learning it in this case amounts to being shown it twice, practicing it 3 times each and then getting ready for rolling. My goal for triangles is to correctly apply one to a resisting opponent sometime in the next 3 years. Aiming high!

Rolling was 3 rounds of 3 minutes. My stated goal was to not wave my arms around as much so I don't get armbarred / triangled / arm triangled so easily. And tonight, I sucked. Granted I'm supposed to suck, but I was rather unamused with 2 of the 3 rounds, and completely amused (bemused?) by the other one. First was Lee. (Lee is really Leyden, but Ley looks dumb, so he's getting Lee for all eternity I say).

Started well, landing on top in half guard of some kind. Note to self, learn good ways to get to ground from knees. Stupid! Second note should be 'learn to pass half guard' because that wasn't working again. As I attempted to do so he rolled me over. Underneath is rather less fun. Some weird scramble ensued and somehow I ended up under mount. No idea how, but it happened. This is where the frustrating bit came in, because he couldn't submit me and I couldn't escape. Note to self, practice escaping mount. blah. Boring!

Round 2 was a blue belt guy called Tim. Naturally Tim is easily capable of pulling my arms off and / or choking me whenever he wants to, but he was nice enough to not do either of those things. This was great fun though. He apparently wanted to play some butterfly guard (how is that fair? I don't know what to do with that?!) and pretty much swept me whenever he felt like. Spent some time under side control, bottom half guard and eventually ended up in his guard.

I won a victory against my instincts at this point as he was hunting a triangle and my brain apparently really REALLY wanted to get us triangled, but I managed to not extract the arm it wanted me to pull out. Yay me. Got some coaching at this point as John said "Watch your arm, he's looking for an armbar.." and funnily enough I actually already knew that. Somehow I even managed to keep my arm and very briefly ended up on top in side control. Hooray! Naturally that didn't last long, but still entertaining. Another fun moment later as he tried some kind of roll to an armbar that he whiffed on completely because I pulled my arm back and it just totally slipped through his grip. Tim said "Damn slippery little..." and everyone laughed. Fun times, thanks Tim.

Last up was a fairly newish guy (I think, I've never seen him before) called Luke. Luke is about 8 inches taller than me I reckon. Anyway, this one started very badly as I somehow gave up my back while trying to get to the mat and practically invited him to choke me, which he did after 40 seconds or so of struggle. Good job. Restart and I end up under side control, promptly escape and end up with him in my guard (hooray!) and then another pair lands on top of me. Ow. Possibly this is the bit where I ended up bleeding? No idea. One more restart and he pulls guard and spends the next minute and a half hanging on for dear life. That's kind of annoying, but I have to admit I was kinda tired too. Threatened to pass a couple of times but he just dragged me back down on top. Oh well.

In reflection, maybe I didn't suck quite that much, but I didn't actually successfully achieve much either. Mission for next week is to find some time in good positions instead of spending the whole time in bad ones.

Apparently grading night is Wednesday night next week. From what I gather, the purpose of this is for people to just randomly roll with each other for a couple of hours, then they tell us we're allowed to go train with the big kids. Should be fun, especially seeing as the big kids in question will also be there, so I should be able to find lots of rolling partners who can rip my arms off but hopefully won't.

tap, tap, tap, ha! .. doh! tap!

So that's what this 'rolling' thing is all about?! I like it! Now I just gotta learn to not get my ass kicked!

Turns out I missed three different techniques from guard while I was doing way too much work. One armbar, how to take your opponents back and also another sweep. It doesn't work to well being taught how to do these by a training partner who also isn't clear on the details. I did however get one decent look at all of them. And completely don't remember a single thing about them. I could probably replicate the armbar if it was waved around in front of me for roughly half an hour.

We spent a while doing pummeling drills and a little bit of competitive pummeling with the goal of getting double underhooks. Fun stuff. Then we drilled lots of double leg takedowns. For something like 15 minutes. That's a lot of double legs.

Then, we got to do some rolling. 3 minute rounds. First up is Lee and the first round is no submissions. Lee wants to play guard first, but after we start he gives absolutely no resistance as I pass. Amusing. I point out that he's supposed to fight back, then mount while he's still puzzling out this rolling thing. Hang around on mount for a little bit and then let him Upa me off. Then spent the rest of the round generally being a pain in the butt and not letting him pass my guard. I really did want a sweep, but every time I had one looking like it might work there was a wall in the way. Funny how that works.

Round 2 we're allowed submissions too. We actually started on our knees this time and the resulting scramble (neither of us know what we're doing) ended up with me almost taking his back, then ending up in top half guard. That's just great seeing as neither of us know anything about half guard. And there we stayed. I had a nice tight crossface and I'm pretty sure that couldn't have been comfortable, but I couldn't find an arm to do anything to and also couldn't find a way to get my leg out. Bummer

Next up was a guy far far bigger than me. Naturally this didn't go entirely to plan. I don't know exactly how but I ended up under side control, then under mount. There we stayed for a fair while. I had a perfect Upa set up, but there was a wall in the way, so I didn't go for it. Situational awareness hooray. I know I eventually escaped when he tried to armbar me (by grabbing my arm, yanking it up off my chest, then trying for the armbar.. guess what, I might have seen that coming) and I did some kind of stack / give me my arm back thing and got to side control. Where I stayed for all of 5 seconds before he did a really nice hip escape back to guard. He swept me more by just tackling me than doing anything specific and eventually tapped me out with a Kimura from side control. Good fun.

Round 3 and I'm already mostly dead. I find a guy roughly my own size who's also far far better. I did find out his name briefly, but it escapes me now. He trains with the big kids class, and while he only wears one stripe on his belt, I suspect he possibly deserves at least one more. Obviously this didn't go well either, although I did have a couple of moments.

I really quite clearly need to learn how to do the bit where we get from our knees to the mat without me ending up in a bad spot. I do know I go guillotined almost immediately. I also know I probably should have tapped around 2 seconds quicker. Dizzy. Rematch! Tried to get to the ground in decent shape this time. Ended up in his guard and he tried to triangle me. While both my arms were still in. I managed to do a reasonable job of that not working for a little while, then while trying to work out what to do I made the genius move of taking my other arm out. Well done me.

Again! He pulls guard and tries to guillotine me again and I achieve something by popping my head out immediately. Yay me! Guy says "nice" and then promptly armbars me 5 seconds later. Gah. One more time. He grabs the back of my head and drags me forwards into what I guess amounts to turtle. And I can just feel that he's going to try to take my back. He tries to take my back, and I roll and manage to get him into half guard. Woo hoo. I achieved something. Sadly I know no half guard and promptly get choked in what I gather is an arm triangle. Crap!

I couldn't go again. My head was absolutely spinning. I'm not sure if this is a result of being really unfit still or whether all the getting choked was messing with my head. Probably both. Class wrapped up 30 seconds later anyway.

Great fun! I wanna go again! Gah. Must study. Exam tomorrow. Joy.

I'm baaaaaaaack!

So for the next three months I'm a University student again. That means no going to work, and full time study. That means morning classes and absolutely no trouble getting to BJJ classes! Hooray! Looks like I missed some stuff.

It's amazing how much better you feel training when you haven't spent all day at work. Great stuff.

Very abbreviated warmup because the kids ran overtime. Bad kids bad. Running in circles waving our arms around, running in circles touching the floor, sprawls, then burpee-sprawls. Hip escapes down the mat x 2 and switchout / standupy things.

Grabbed Lee for drilling fun. First up is a side control escape circuit. Hip escape, regain your guard, switchout (escape your own guard!) and then shoot for a single leg to side control. Then go around in circles. Did I mention it's crowded? Many many collisions just for entertainment value.

After that we switched to a guard pass drill. Do my one and only guard pass (knee in butt, step out to the other side to break the guard, hook the leg up onto your shoulder, stack up and slide to the side into side control..), move to mount, guy underneath escapes with a bridging rolling upa thing, passes guard etc.

Then, new stuff! (How excitement!). A different guard pass! Breaking the guard in the same way, but instead of going up and stacking, continue to shove that leg down, then stick your knee through, pin it down with your shin and hook your foot under to make sure it's stuck. Hook the other leg with one arm, crossface with the other. Roll onto your hip next to victim (partner? heh) and swing-kick your leg across, then switch legs to normal side control.

I think I might have gotten to drill that twice. Maybe 3 times. Handy stuff. Just to prove we're completely random, we then go and try our three submissions from mount. Once each. That's repetition for you! Once! Happy to notice that I did a not completely hopeless armbar to the side I normally do hopeless ones. Go me.

John breaks us up to see another couple of neat tricks. Like how you can armbar someone when they don't wave their arm around asking for it. Mostly by digging your hip under their arm to pop it up for you. I got to do this twice. Go me. Also, how to react if you try figure 4 from mount and they roll towards their arm to defend it. This one I already really suspected, but as they roll you get halfway to their back and set up for either an armbar if they don't continue to roll or taking their back if they do.

I promptly kicked Lee in the head trying to secure an armbar. Ooops. Sorry.

Next up, we stand up for some fun. Did I mention it's really stupidly hot? I'm melting! Anyway. We're doing takedowns. Specifically, shooting for double-leg takedowns. Basic pointers about this one seem to be that you don't want to put your head down as might seem natural. That would just get you sprawled on. Anyway, drop your level, shoot in so your knee is between their legs, your head generally in their stomach, wrap arms around the back of their knees, drive forwards and turn to the side where your leg isn't. Hopefully get out from their guard before they notice!

We did these for quite a while. I might have even done 10. Then we switched to stand up pummeling drills. Slow at first, then competitively with the goal of getting double underhooks. I'm pretty sure I got the best of this but I also don't think I managed to get a good secure grip.

Suddenly it was the end of class. Which kind of caught everyone by surprise, including John, who apologized because apparently the guys who've been around a while now were supposed to spend the last 15 minutes of class rolling. We'll be doing that Wednesday. Score!

Long time no Jits..

Yeah. Not happy Jan. Work moved offices which has transport implications. Then our biggest client promised one of their clients they could have something that they really can't. So we're doing that. Overtime and stuff. At least it pays well.

Riding the train is way better than driving to work if you have a long way to go. So much less stressful. I get to read. Books. It's great! I did have an interesting visit from a lady the other day who insisted on telling the entire train carriage that God loves them / her / everyone, God this, God that.. and eventually she sat next to me and declared that my book, The third of the Wheel of Time (The Dragon reborn) was 'sinful'. Apparently I should only read the Bible.

Right.

Class tomorrow. I reckon I've worked out a train that will get me there. And Hopefully one will get me home too.

Work is not as much fun as BJJ

So I missed Wednesday night having to stay back late at work and salvage some things that went bad. Boo. I hates it when that happens.

Chances are I'm going to miss Monday night too as that will be my first day trying out the adventures of public transport (train style) to and from work. It's going to be very inconvenient trying to get to class, but on the up side it's only 2 weeks until I get 10 weeks off work for university. University will mean that I have afternoons off and I can go to any BJJ classes I like. Hooray!

Monday night means ... Guillotines?

My toe is still a little sore (especially because I'm clumsy and managed to kick a chair with it last night) but I'm not about to be missing two classes in a row. So I attempted a very elaborate tape job. Worked great. For about 20 minutes. Then it just came off. Bummer.

Warmups were John style again. Running in circles, Burpees, sprawls. It's really hard to do Burpees and sprawls when you're doing your level best not to land on your left foot. It's also far harder work. One legged-burpee-sprawls. Yay. Bridging exercises, hip escapes, switchouts. Lines down the mat. Looking after my toe. It's all good.

My partner for the night is an older guy called Randall. He's about my height, but probably a fair bit heavier. I've seen him around before but he's missed the last couple of weeks with dodgy ribs / sickness. Seems like a really nice guy. And I remembered his name. I'm getting a little worried about this... maybe I'm losing my ability to immediately forget any name?

We start with a little combination circuit type thing. One person starts under side control, escapes back to guard, escapes his own guard (sheesh) then shoots, does a single leg and gets to side control. Neato. Wait.. you're not going to show us how to actually do the single leg? Sweet! I'll just make it up! We went around in circles for about 5 minutes I think.

After that, John demonstrates a combination of three techniques from guard. Kimura, Sitting rollover sweep for when they defend the Kimura, then a Guillotine for if they jam forwards to defend the sweep. Fun.

Randall hasn't been around for two weeks and I missed the Guillotine on Wednesday last week, so we end up in the "new guys" end of the mat for a more detailed look at each technique.
I discovered (again) that I'm great at doing the Kimura one way, and absolutely suck at doing it the other way. How frustrating. Lots of practice on the bad side.

Then the sweep, which I can do either way, which is nice. Randall is amusing me. He talks to himself constantly when doing techniques, then talks to ME constantly when I'm doing them. If I do one well, he giggles. If I do one not so well he insists I do it again. Very funny.

We learned Guillotines from failing the sweep. Release the overhook you have on his arm (which you were also using to try for a Kimura at some stage) and wrap your arm over the back of his neck. Ideally it seems that you want to be as low down his neck as possible. Scoot your butt out on the opposite side to whichever arm you're holding his neck with to create space to get your other arm in, grab your own wrist. Make sure you go OVER his shoulder, not under it so that you don't trap his arm in there. Roll onto your hip towards his head, close your guard up and squeeze everything together to finish.

Randall complained this was hurting his neck. Whether that means I was doing it wrong or not I'm not sure. My neck didn't give me any dramas when he was doing them.

John also showed us a variation that he's recently picked up that he doesn't really understand. He didn't explain it very good and it definitely didn't make sense to me. Hopefully we get another look at it.

Time for some one minute rounds. Side control first up. Top guy has to just stay there, bottom guy has to escape to guard. Top to start with. This was quite fun. Randall is clearly stronger than me, but for the most part I was able to stay on top quite well. At one stage he just rolled me over. I have to think about how exactly he managed that, but it didn't matter because I pretty much managed to roll him back over.

Underneath I was a little squished to start with, but managed to get him low enough to bridge and hip escape. Got my leg right in under him but couldn't get all the way back through to guard. I probably needed to put my foot on his hip, but I was feeling a little protective of my no-longer-taped toe.

Immediately afterwards we go again, except this time the top guy is allowed to do submissions. Randall is clearly gassing out completely by now. We did the roll over thing a couple more times but I was able to roll him back much easier. Got a look at a figure 4 briefly but his arm was way too slippery to get a good grip on. Another look at the up-and-crush Kimura, but same deal. Brief intermission for a 3-way collision between groups. Colin kicked me in the chest. Damn you Colin, last week you break my toe, this week you kick me? heh. After we re-set Randall tapped just from being too tired. Bummer.

Started my round underneath a little late after giving him some time to recover. Very similar to round 1. Almost escaping the entire time. Randall muttered something about me giving him my back, but I'm 100% sure there was no time I was close to giving him my back. Got flattened out right near the end of the minute and right in the corner of the mat with walls in the way I had nowhere to go at all, but he didn't have access to my arms anyway. Oh well.

We're not finished! one minute drills from guard. Randall asks to sit out because he's wrecked. So we sit out for a little while before he decides he wants to go again. He starts in my guard. In theory we're supposed to start with an overhook but we didn't bother. Broke his posture down but couldn't do much more with it. Every time I grab his arm is just slides loose. Very amusing. Towards the end of this round he finally gets back upright and starts trying to break my guard with one hand.

My brain immediately yells "TRIANGLE!" ... (I don't know those. Shut up.) and soon after it yells "ARMBAR" ... (I don't know those from guard either dammit!). Then Randall decides that instead of breaking my guard he's just going to stand up. And lift me up with him. My brain got this one right picking something we know how to do (Let go and get down without hurting yourself).

Randall needs a break again but eventually we try with me in his guard. He actually started with the overhook, but I just slipped out no worries. It's humid, everybody is slippery-sweaty. I imagine that wearing a Gi makes it far easier to hold onto someone right? I didn't have any trouble keeping good posture in his guard. I was thinking vaguely about the one and only guard break / pass that I know, but the idea wasn't to be passing anyway.

That was the end of class. Good fun even if I missed a bit of time at the end. My toe survived, although it's pretty sore and has swelled up a little bit again. Fun class. I know guillotines. Kinda.

My first injury! How cool!

My left little toe is twice normal size, and a lovely shade of purple. Still. I'm assuming it's not broken, it doesn't hurt enough to be broken. I'm going to be very grumpy if I miss class tomorrow night because my toe hurts!

I might just be stubborn enough to try anyway. You don't need to be able to walk properly to do BJJ right?

Monday night means... squish!

Paging the little people support network!

Tonight was the first time I felt completely like I couldn't do much with a guy because he was simply too big and strong. He's a newish guy called Colin, and actually a really cool guy, but he's half a foot taller than me (not unusal) and his upper arms are roughly as far around as my thighs. Fun times!

Warmups were pretty standard again. And rushed, because the kids class ran overtime. Boo kids, boo! They're still entertaining to watch though.

Starting out with drilling the same side control escape. Colin hasn't seen it before, so I did it once or twice and then let him go for the rest of the time while trying to coach him through the movement, which is a good test for my ability to remember and explain stuff. He was doing them ok by the time we stopped.

More drilling. Side control escape to guard, then escape-your-own-guard. Same deal. Helping Colin out with escaping his own guard. Meh. Then we go with one minute rounds of escape your own guard. Started on my back. He pretty much just plants his hands on my shoulders and pins me in place. I wriggle around and try to use my legs to move him a bit. Open my guard up and get my feet on his hips, but even when I shove off I really can't move him much. Bummer.

Swap places, and he's trying to escape his guard. I'm having a whole lot of trouble taking this too seriously, because posturing up is a bad plan if you're actually trying to stay in there. The basic flow of this drill was him shoving me up with his arms, shoving me backwards with his legs, putting his feet on my chest and kicking me away. I'm nowhere near heavy enough to stop him doing that, but really why would I want to? I don't want to be in his guard, and if he's going to kick me away, I'm going to go AROUND his legs, or just straight backwards and stand up? Whatever.

One minute rounds of side control after that, which I wasn't particularly expecting to enjoy much, because I'm fairly sure that side control is just about the 'heaviest' position you can manage. Turns out this was probably the most I accomplished all night. Despite how heavy / strong he is, I seemed to be able to bridge to create space and got onto my side perfectly comfortably. Maintained the decent posture nearly the whole minute without actually managing to get back to guard. I jammed the little toe on my left foot during this round, but it didn't seem too bad.

On top of side control, and Colin can quite clearly throw me away if he wants, but he's a smart guy and wants to do his technique properly. Started out slow while he talked his way through it, but didn't let him actually get back to guard. Tried to flatten him out which worked briefly, then scooted to North-South when he tried to do it again. Nearly took his back, but lost my balance as a random scramble ensued. Reset but time ran out.

Brief break, then we get the demo of the Kimura from guard. Then I discover my knee is bleeding and stop a little more to patch that up. I have no idea when or how that happened, but it looks like a fingernail scratch to me. Owie. Practiced my Kimura a couple of times each side then let Colin go nuts on them. He got the hang of it fairly quickly, but seemed pretty gun-shy about actually bending my arm far enough.

Then drilling the same sweep as last week We give it a name this week. Apparently it's a sitting rollover sweep. Once again I only took a couple of goes at it before letting Colin do it the rest of the time.

Last up we finished with 1 minute rounds from guard, with the bottom guy starting with the Kimura grip. This was definitely a frustrating experience. I started with the attacking, but he pretty much just wrenched his arm out as he sat up, then planted his hands on my shoulders, from which position I couldn't break him back down at all. Scoop his arms off me? Nope, not even moving them. Gah. We re-set, and I bait like I want the Kimura, then try to sweep him as he sits up. Got some movement but then he pretty much just smashed me flat again. Gah.

Defending from in his guard didn't go particularly well either. Immediately tuck my arm in as tight as I can, then try to sit up a little. He tries to sweep me and I plant a foot backwards to block it until we're both pretty much upright, at which point he just muscled me over anyway. Doh. Re-set and he goes for the Kimura this time. Defended it for a little bit until he pried my arm loose at which point I really couldn't do much about it again. He was pretty reluctant to actually apply any pressure again, but I figured he had it and tapped so we could start over. One more sweep just as time got called. Gah.

I guess that's pretty predictable at this stage. He's probably at least 30kgs heavier than me, so it's not likely to ever be easy, and my technique isn't good enough to deal with that so far. Add in the fact that we're starting from set positions that don't really allow me much wriggle room and that results in me being frustrated for the night. I guess I should get used to it, because I'm pretty much always going to be the smaller guy. I'm pretty sure I managed to help him out plenty though, so I guess that's worth something.

I am absolutely covered in massive welts and bruises tonight, which hasn't happened pretty much since my first class. Also, my little toe is rather large and purple. Ow. I didn't think I jammed it that bad. Ice! Hopefully it'll be fine in the morning.

Gah.

Shoulderlocks and sweeps..

Class is shrinking back to a more normal size I think. You almost have enough room around on on the mat that you can stretch your arms out to the sides without poking someone in the eye. Or poking someone in the neck as would most likely happen if you're as short as me.

Warmups! No Dale again. It's a John warmup. Running in circles, touching the floor, sprawls and burpees. I do not like sprawls or burpees. Far too much like exercise, and I keep telling people that exercise is definitely bad for you. Hip escapes and switchouts down the mat just like every class.

Intro to the side control escape we did Monday. No Dale. Demonstration dummy of choice this week is a blue belt (in blue gi) called Tim. I'm getting good at this remembering names thing.

Drilling the side control escape, which I'm doing very nicely with not much resistance. Now just have to work out how to make it work when the other guy doesn't want to let me. Lee is the other guy again tonight.

After drilling that for a while we get the 'escape your own guard' demo again. John insists this should be your go-to move when you're on your back and the other guy is in your guard. Really? Ok, if you say so.

Drilling escape your own guard. For all of about 30 seconds before John apparently gets bored with drilling and decides we're going to do it competitively in 1 minute rounds. It's still amusing, especially when you're the top guy and the best way to stay in there is to do roughly everything wrong. Oh well. It's good exercise. By definition that means it's bad for you right?

Breaking posture drill. For about 30 seconds each. Zipping through things tonight.

One minute rounds from side control. Guy on top is allowed to mount and go for submissions. Guy on the bottom has to escape to guard. I started on the bottom. Bridging and onto my side. Around in circles scramble. Somehow end up sitting up with him pretty much on my legs. Ended up pretty much tackling him onto his back from there. Weird, but I'll take it. Re-set and manage to get to something like half guard briefly before we run out of time.

On top. Managing to keep him flat for the most part. Once he got up onto his side while I was trying to nab his top arm for a figure 4 and I scooted around and took his back while has was being confused about what the next step of the escape is. Reset and go again. Ended up with my hips switched over in a position which I don't know what to do with. Fun fun.

Drilling Kimuras just like Monday. Nice tip from John on getting myself more side-on as I roll back to finish, and also on the angle needed for the arm (parallel with his back, not twisting up behind it).

New stuff time. A sweep to do if he decides to be difficult and tuck his arm in / sit back instead of nicely letting us submit him. Let go with the hand that's on his wrist while keeping hold of the overhook. Plant that hand back to post (not on your elbow, all the way up). Bump up with your hip and then over to the side where you have his arm trapped. I don't think we gave it a name.

Drilling the Kimura and the sweep at the same time, one after the other.

Finishing up with one minute rounds from guard, but starting with the bottom guy already holding the Kimura grip. That's genuinely not a good start for the guy on top hey. I'm the guy on top for starters.

Trying to come up with a way to get my arm out, which I wasn't able to do. Always keeping my arm tucked in tight, and alternating between sitting up while he's trying for the Kimura. Got swept right near the end of the round, but I guess that's better than getting tapped.

On the bottom to finish. Immediately went for the Kimura when he gave me a little too much space to work on his arm. He sounded surprised as he tapped. We did just drill this you know, you should be expecting that... He kept his arm tucked nicely after that. Worked for the Kimura again, then when he rocked backwards did the sweep. Well. That's just like magic. It works! Anybody would almost think they teach us those two moves together for a reason!

Good class. Fun. Learning things.

I can escape my own guard...

Monday night hooray! Rain and thunderstorms hooray! Rain coming in the windows. Hooray?

There's a girl in class. How unusual. That'd be the first time for fundamentals, although I believe there's been 2 or 3 different girls lined up for the big kids class afterwards a few times. My first impression is that this girl is not new. Turns out that I'm right, because she knows some of the guys from the big kids class who are hanging around.

Warmups. No Dale. Who stole Dale? John runs his own warmup, which is actually mildly like exercise tonight. Running around the mat. Running around the mat while touching the mat with your hands. My back disapproves. Running on the spot, with sprawls. Burpee-sprawls. Whoo. It's hot in here with all the windows closed and 90% humidity. Hip escapes and switchouts down the mat to finish warming up.

John has a 4-stripe white belt in a purple gi as a grappling dummy tonight. His name is Liam. I don't know why I remember that, I usually forget names instantly. It could be because he's a 4-stripe white belt in a purple gi. We don't exactly have many of those in fundamentals.

To side control, where we drill Figure 4s, Up-and-crush Kimuras and the other-Kimura-that-I-suck-at. Paired up with Lee, who still had a dodgy shoulder. Did I mention I suck at that other Kimura? Really. Got a 'good' from John while doing the up-and-crush version though. I'm sure I remember being crap at that one last week, but it worked great this week.

I've worked out the terminology too. There's no such thing as an Americana. An Americana is a figure 4. A Kimura is actually still a Kimura. It only took a couple of months....

Side control escape, same as last week. Seem to have this one working nicely in drills too. Lee messes his up a few times before working it out again.

1-minute rounds from side control. Underneath first, and I still don't think I'm getting my hips out far enough. Interrupted once by proximity to a wall while I was reasonably close to getting a leg through. Half-managed the escape and ended up in a weird semi-scramble position which most definitely wasn't me under side control because I was sitting up. Re-set and the round ends.

On top. The exposed arm is Lee's dodgy shoulder, so no trying to rip it off, although I did try to get the set-up for the figure 4 just for entertainment value. Lee is getting coaching from John.. "bridge!".. and at one stage I end up with my foot on the wall using it for bonus leverage. Amusing. Lee gets up on his side near the end of the round, and I zip around to north-south, which he doesn't react to, so I got the rest of the way around to his back. Time.


Drinks break, and then we're doing more drills. Side-control escape to guard, then the escape-your-own-guard drill. Amusing. We only do this for about 2 minutes before John decides we're going to do 1 minute rounds of escape-your-own-guard drill. This is particularly silly for the guy on top, because having just been told that it's ideal to posture up when you're in guard, the only option to prevent your partner escaping his own guard is to keep your head jammed onto his chest. Clever. Still good exercise though.

Drills from guard on how to break your partners posture, assuming that they're up straight with their hands high on your chest. Basically scoop your arms under theirs and scoop them off your chest to the side while pulling them forwards with your legs. End up ideally with one hand on the back of the neck, and the other over their arm and gripping at just above the elbow. Lee kept ending up with his arm under mine, and I actually have no idea how.


Time for a new technique. A technique from guard.....? Hooray! How excitement! The technique in question is another Kimura. Starting with opponent postured up in your closed guard, break their posture. Use your legs to push them lower down your body, then open your guard and wriggle backwards until you can sit up a bit. Turn a little bit onto your side towards the side where you're gripping their arm, while sliding your arm down to their wrist. Sit up more while reaching over with your other arm, shove their head the other way as you reach over to get the normal Kimura grip. Roll back onto your other hip, bring your top leg (same side as the arm you're attacking) up onto their back as you roll them forward while bending their arm back.

That's a relatively crap description, but I know what I mean and it actually felt pretty natural. No time for anything else tonight after we finished drilling. Class seemed really short, and definitely nowhere near as strenuous as Wednesday last week, but damn is it warm with the windows closed!

More guard stuff on Wednesday. Sweet.

Wednesday. And learning new things.

Far smaller class than Monday. Maybe 16? 18? not sure, didn't bother to count. My back is bothering me tonight, which isn't altogether unusual, but it's worse than normal. Feels like a line of muscles down the right side of my spine is all bunched up being difficult. Grr.

Very abbreviated warmup. We didn't do any stretches, so I scoot to the front of the line for hip escapes down the mat so that I can stretch my legs and my back while everybody finishes theirs.

Pairing up. No small guys. Gah. End up with a guy called Tynan (spelling? oh well) who is pretty much the image of the type of person I've been doing my best to avoid. Hair chopped to stubble, only a few inches taller than me, but probably 15kgs heavier (in muscle), loads of tattoos. Some of them are actually pretty cool. I've been avoiding guys like this, because stereotypically they just seem more likely to be gung-ho about it, and more likely to hurt me as a result. Oh well. We shall see if I die.

Drilling the same three moves from Side control that we did on Monday while John and Dale teach them to the new guys. First shoulderlock Tynan does on me is cranked rather quickly. Ow. My shoulder sounds like bubble-wrap, which isn't entirely unusual, but it was reasonably loud. It's gonna be a long night huh? I'm really not looking forward to doing sparring stuff with this guy.

When it's my turn to do techniques, I'm having a little difficulty getting enough pressure to finish them, as he's resisting fairly solidly, and my back is limiting how much I can turn my body to finish the twisty ones, specifically the one that comes after 'up and crush'. Oh well.

Sparring rounds! ... huh what? It's only been about 25 minutes? Well, OK. 1 minute rounds of side control. Didn't I mention that I wasn't looking forward to that? Starting underneath.

First round: My goal for this round is to not die. Immediately up onto my side, and he flattens me back out. Then up onto my side again and there is absolutely all kinds of space for me to sneak a leg through. Half guard. Re-set. He learns, nowhere near as much space, but he can't keep me flat enough to try anything. Round in circles. That went rather better than I expected.

On top. He's really pretty strong, and pretty much just disposes of me with upper body strength. 3 times. Meh.

I kind of feel like we did another two rounds here, but if we did they really weren't very interesting.

Ok. Time to learn something new. Like how to escape from under side control. I like that. Make a frame with your forearms to get partner as low down your body as you can, then bridge. Use space underneath you to get onto your side facing your partner as you drop back to the mat. Hip escape out backwards. Bring near-side knee up to your elbow, so it now should be underneath your partner. Pivot your body to line back up, get that leg the rest of the way through and secure your guard.

Neato. Drilling. We both seemed to be ending up with one arm in and one arm out when our partner did the escape. Wasn't sure whether this was a problem or not, but after a little bit of thinking it's pretty obvious that this is more because of the guy on top leaving his arm there. It's probably also bad for the guy on top, because I see triangles floating around there. I don't know HOW to do a triangle, but I'm fairly sure that one arm in and one arm out is triangle land.

More 1 minute drills, this time with the goal of actually accomplishing the escape. Which I didn't actually manage to do right. I believe my problem was not getting my hips out far enough, and constantly finding my hip / leg / knee blocked off when I tried to scoot it through. Once again never really threatened, but disappointed I couldn't manage the escape.

On top, and credit Tynan, because even though he knows he can throw me away, he actually tries to work the escape. Which he didn't make work either. Better pressure this time on top and I only lose top spot once, although we did have to stop a couple of times for crashing into other pairs.

John says we're adding something to it for after you get back to guard. That'd be a technique from guard. Woo hoo! Lets see what it is? A sweep right.... wrong. It's an escape. That you do while the other guy is in your guard. Well OK. Basically, you're in guard with one hand on the back of his neck and the other on his other arm. His head will be roughly on your chest. Use your legs to push him lower down your body, then open your guard up and wriggle backwards further. Now he should be right down near your stomach. Straighten your leg on the side where you have his arm, bring the other one up as high as possible, then post back with the hand that was on his arm. Scoot backwards and get to your feet / knees / whatever. Just like the stand up drill we do in warmup.

Drilling that a bit. Then a one minute drill that was vaguely amusing. Start on one side of the mat, in guard. Person on the bottom has to try to do the escape (why are we escaping our own guard again?) while the other person has to stay in guard (why are we trying to stay in our opponents guard again?). If you get to the other side of the mat, go back to the other side and start again. Amusing stuff. Basically laps across the mat with the person on the bottom wriggling backwards and the guy on top staying there. Good exercise, but not a whole lot of escaping going on.

Drink break, then more side control sparring to finish up. I'm really tired you know. First time that's happened for a fair few weeks. Hard work being underneath, but I'm spending most of my time on my side, so the pressure isn't too bad. He hasn't seemed to work out how to flatten me effectively. Definitely not getting my hips out far enough and finding myself blocked off as a result.

On top. He's getting a little tired, and a whole lot less explosive as a result. I think I managed to not lose the position at all this round, but we did have to reset about 3 times due to finding ourselves off the mat / in a wall / in another pair. Kinda scary ending to the round, because we ran into another pair and one of them rolled onto the back of my neck, which also did an imitation of bubble-wrap popping. Apparently no serious damage.

One more time, but this time you're allowed to try to mount (although you just reset if someone gets mount).

Underneath again, and I'm really pretty wrecked now. He suddenly feels a whole lot heavier. He immediately gets mount. Oh, yeah gotta stop him doing that. Still doing a reasonable job staying on my side, but never really looked like getting out. He tried for mount again, but this time my legs were in the way. Ha. I learn. He tried to isolate my arm right near the end, but he didn't have anywhere near good enough position, and even the size difference wasn't enough for him to get it.

On top one more time, and we're absolutely all over the mat as he tries to wriggle out and I just try to stay on top. Crashing into people, crashing off the mats. I think we re-set 4 times just because of obstacles. Amusing.

Really tired. My back hurts. My shoulders hurt (from drilling). Great class, really happy. I think we might have done 10 minutes worth of sparring stuff spread out over the last half hour of class, and considering I was with a guy as solid as he was, I'm pretty happy with how it went.

Great success. Hope my back isn't too bad in the morning. Heat packs tonight, as that's what my physio says should be good for it.

Oh. Just for entertainment value, while we were drilling the basics, Dale and another 4 stripe white belt were drilling flying armbars in the middle of the mat. Because that's what you do in the middle of a class full of beginners right?

Monday night means... Side control!

Holy massive class Batman. 34 peoples. I think this mat has room for roughly 20 to roll about without fear of running into your neighbours. It's VERY crowded. No running around the mat for warmups. Instead we do pushups / situps / squats, bridging, hip escapes, switchouts, then rows of hip escapes and switchouts down the mat. Just like every week. Slow progress with this many people, and especially with another collection of new people.

Standard side control intro. I'm tempted to write out the speech, but that's just too much effort. Grab a partner for circle drills. Side control > North / South > Side control on the other side > mount > dismount off the other side. Paired up with the small guy from some of my earlier classes who I thought had quit. Instead he's got himself a natty-looking black gi and has been attending the big kids class. He's doing a double tonight. Finding it very difficult to get all the way around without kicking someone nearby. Wow it's crowded.

After a few minutes of that, we get to see an Americana (Kimura? Figure 4? Whatever..) from side control. And then drill that. About 25 times each while the new people learn it.

Then we go to the other option for if you lose their arm over your low-side shoulder (The one furthest away from their head). I was actually looking forward to getting to practice this because I was fairly gumby at it last week. Apparently we're calling the movement an "up and crush" to figure 4. Basically underhook the arm you're attacking with your low-side arm, plant your other hand and pull up, then pull their arm tight to your body and jam your forearm into their ribs (this would be the crush). Step over their head into North South and basically sit on their head, use your legs to trap their upper body. Switch arms while keeping their arm pinned to your chest, find their wrist, get your figure-4 grip and bend it backwards for the tap.

I did them much better tonight. Not entirely sure what I was doing differently, but the final part of the motion felt more natural. Good.

Then we (shock horror) got to see something new. Basically it's an option for if that far-side arm is across their stomach instead of tucked in up near their chin. Apparently to get their arm to be available, you want to be square on to it so you can shove it off their body. This we achieve by scooting around towards North south, but stopping half way (like North-west / South-east? heh), then jackhammering their arm off like you normally would for. This leaves their arm exactly the other way up to how it would normally be. Get your figure-4 grip, scoot back towards normal side control, then switch your legs out towards their head. Swing your other leg over their head, to hold it down then crank the arm for the tap. Must hold their head down else they just sit up with the pressure.

Drilling these. Feeling like I'm better at one side than the other, and having a little problem getting my leg in the proper position, but not bad for a first time.

Then it's time for one minute rounds of side control specific sparring. I guess technically this is my first time rolling with one of the 'big kids'. Even though he's actually only my size, he's not really in the fundamentals class anymore, that makes him one of the big kids. So that means I get my ass kicked right?

Underneath first. Immediately up onto my side and generally making myself difficult. Nearly straight away snuck a leg through and got half guard. Success! Re-set, and he's doing a far better job of blocking off my hip this time. We basically go around in circles to end the round, although the last ten seconds were pretty hilarious, as 4 pairs all managed to collide. Damn it's crowded.

On top next. Immediately noticed that he likes to shove up with his forearms under side control. While that made him a little bit of space, I'm not entirely sure whether it's a great idea, as it seems to expose his arms a bit. About halfway through I spotted a good look at the up-and-crush, which I promptly screwed up, getting way too much up and not nearly enough crush and allowing him an easy escape. Boo. Re-set and nothing much happens for the rest of the round.

Hopefully someone who knows more than me can provide insight on whether shoving up with your arms under side control is sensible!?

Swap positions again. We're getting 4 rounds tonight. How excitement. I don't really think anything interesting happened in this round. I think I almost got out a couple of times, but he managed to scramble around, resulting in us going in circles a whole lot more. No real looks at subs for him either.

One more round with me on top. Lots more going around in circles to start with, then he locks his arms around me from underneath. Settled down and had a little think about how I could pop that far arm loose, and then tried, but missed. Around a little more until I got trapped with nowhere to go to with my legs by another pair. Didn't block his legs off enough and he got through to guard. Boo.

That's it, class finished. Quite pleased. Picked up a new technique for the first time in a few weeks, refined one I was screwing up and spotted a good chance to try one in live sparring, although I did screw it up when I tried. No problem, it was there, so knowing is worth something. Also got (a tiny bit) of sparring time with someone who knows more than me, which is a nice change for fundamentals.

Wednesday should be exciting. Apparently we're learning escapes from side control. Defence? In fundamentals? Whee!

Randomness...

I just randomly recalled that there was a guy in class last Wednesday who trained in jeans. I'm pretty sure it was his first night, and I'm also pretty sure he's a guy who spends too much time on the internet (Shut up, I build websites, I HAVE to spend too much time on the internet), but seriously.. jeans? Especially ones that don't fit so your boxershorts are hanging out the top? This just doesn't seem like sensible planning for going to your first martial arts class!?

I don't understand people.

10 lessons in! Musings!

So I have reached a miniature milestone, with that being 10 lessons of BJJ in the fundamentals class. I must admit to feeling a tiny bit frustrated just at the moment, mostly because I feel like I'm doing the same thing every week. This is partly due to the structure of the class, and also related to the bit where I missed a few weeks getting the flu and tonsillitis and missed an entire 'section' of the fundamentals program, where the basics of guard were taught. The fact that fundamentals has gone back to the 'start' of the three month program is bad too, because it means the class is designed for people to be starting now, which means the physical difficulty level is lower.

With that said, when I stop to think about it, I've actually learned a fair bit about mount and side control, and I'm reasonably comfortable holding those positions now against someone who isn't capable of throwing me across the room (and someone who doesn't really know how to escape from those positions). I might even find a submission somewhere if I stay there long enough. I'm also fairly confident that if someone is going to give me their back, I'm going to do a reasonable job of taking advantage of that too. I've also noticed that my fitness levels have improved greatly, which is good because as a programmer sitting at a computer all day, I really don't get a whole lot of exercise. I've even gained weight (which is probably a little surprising) mostly from gaining a bit of muscle instead of being a skinny weedy little IT guy.

I must admit I'm not a massive fan of the fundamentals class setup. Any BJJ class where you can go 10 lessons and not learn a single technique from guard has to have problems right? Yes I know it's my own fault, but still!?

Fundamentals seems to focus almost entirely on the guy doing the attacking. We've not learned escapes from mount or side control at all, nor how to defend the various submissions we know. I guess this is for a reason, specifically people are going to find attacking more fun than defending. The good thing about that is that it's forced me to think about it, look stuff up and try to apply it by myself, which has met with mild success.

The worst thing I've found about fundamentals is the complete lack of rolling. The extent of the sparring in recent classes has been 4-6 rounds of 1 minute staying in a specific position. That's useful, but it's not likely to be challenging my fitness all that much at this point. It also doesn't let me learn anything about transitions between various positions, which I'm guessing is actually important, and it's really not a whole lot of time to actually work on creating an opportunity to make someone tap. I have not been tapped out in these miniature rolls in the last 5 classes I don't think. I can come up with a few possible reasons for this:

1. A minute is really not very long.
2. My training partners are beginners just like me.
3. I've actually paid a little attention to learning some defence and some escapes.
4. I am the greatest.

1 and 2 are clearly the important ones here and I'm quite willing to admit that number 4 is actually very very unlikely, but it brings me to my other point.

In most cases when you start BJJ, you're the new person and you know nothing, so everyone in the room can kick your butt if they want to. Especially if you're a little guy like me and you can't make up for being useless by being a big strong gorilla of the type that nobody actually wants to train with. So you start out by getting whupped, and you learn from there.

This doesn't happen in fundamentals class because nobody knows anything that you don't know and you only roll for a minute at a time. So I'm 10 lessons in, and I haven't rolled at all, let alone with someone who knows stuff. For some of the guys getting to the end of fundamentals I suspect it suddenly comes as a bit of a culture shock when you find out that the big kids in the 'normal' classs can still kill you whenever they like. Luckily I'm sensible enough to realise that just because a beginner can't tap me out quickly doesn't mean that everyone else won't be able to. I'm actually looking forward to it.

I'm guessing fundamentals will hit guard in roughly 2 weeks. After that I'm definitely going to move up and train with the big kids. And even buy a gi and stuff. Excitement! Then work will move offices and class will be far far away from work (and further away from home) and I don't know what I'm going to do then, because I'll be on public transport. Bleah.

Enough random ramblings. Better go study.

Oh the pain! (and class)

My 8 year old pair of shoes died. I have new shoes. My new shoes do not like my feet. My feet do not like my new shoes. There is much pain.

Enough whining. I got to go to class! And we learnt... side control.

Warmups! Same old stuff, with additional running around the mats and sprawls. My calves disapprove today. I think I blame the shoes.

Immediately back to mount for drilling armbars, shoulderlocks and rear naked chokes. Did my best to do them on my weaker side more, and to actually think about it a bit. It worked much better tonight. Then I found myself laying on the mat slightly dazed and confused. Apparently the guys next to me didn't quite get the concept of 'drilling' and decided to get into a full on wrestling match, which ended up in one of them headbutting me. Ouch. Luckily I have a hard head.

Off to side side control, where we learn Shoulderlocks of various types (2 types) that I already know. More drilling is good. Managed to pick up a tip on the north/south Kimura thing on how to use the legs a little more effectively to hold your partner down and in place.

Finished with 4 x 1 minute rounds of side-control sparring. Pretty evenly matched with my partner, and neither of us managed to escape or even really threaten a submission, although I think I did almost manage to sneak through to guard near the end of the round both times.

My head hurts.

Sickness!

I missed class on Monday night through being sick. Very sad! Will be even more sad when someone inevitably tells me that we learned guard. Wednesday class here I come!

Wedneday night ... More mount.

If you read the Monday post you probably don't really need to read the start of this one.

Warmup -> Intro to mount -> Armbars from mount.

I noticed that I'm really good at armbars on my partners right arm and absolutely horrible at doing them the other way. Mental note, practice armbars the other way!

Rear naked chokes, then how to get your opponents back if they roll when you're in mount. More Rear naked chokes. Focused sparring from the back. Fun fun. I'm paired up with Lee again, starting out attacking. Managed to somehow lose the position once, but ended up in mount, so that's not so bad. Re-set and I was working my arm under his chin when he tapped. That's kind of annoying. Heh.

Defending.. He was way way more difficult this time around. I couldn't get my legs out at all, and really had to work to not get choked. I do know that he had his ankles crossed at one stage, but I don't know what to do with that anyway. Points for knowing it's there?

Shoulderlocks from mount. Lee really does have a dodgy shoulder. He got me to try it on that arm and then tapped before I actually did anything. Anyway. Drilling these is kind of fun.

Focused sparring from mount. I elected not to worry too much about submissions the first time - I need practice at staying on mount anyway. Stayed there for a minute, and was getting comfortable enough to try a shoulderlock on the non-dodgy arm before time ran out.

Defending from under mount. Wasn't trying too hard to escape because apparently this is for the guy on top more than the guy on the bottom. Still couldn't help it. Had to try a knee-elbow sort of thing and popped out to half guard. Nothing else of note happened.

We still have time left! Hooray! Another round each from mount. Attacking first.. And Lee gives me his back after about 25 seconds. Couldn't get him finished off but he wasn't getting away anyway.

Defending! No real threat, and I couldn't help but wriggle out once, and 'upa' out the other way once.

I really want to learn guard basics so I can step up and roll about in the big kids class soon...

Monday night. (more) Mount.

I Wasn't really revved up for class today. Work was generally no fun because the websites were fighting back. Websites are not supposed to fight back.

Arrived at the gym about 20 minutes early. I was expecting a relatively small class this week because they threw a 'grading' night last week which I didn't attend, but presumably had a fair few people moving up from fundamentals to play with the big kids. Nobody in sight when I arrived, although there was a kids MMA class going on.

The kids are fun to watch. Two of them in particular amuse me greatly. There's a tiny little girl (8 maybe? I'm horrible at guessing kids ages) who absolutely terrorizes the boys and generally should be named "little miss Armbar". The other one is a boy who appears to be made completely of rubber. His arms seem to bend to completely cringe-worthy angles with no apparent discomfort. I hope I'm not there the first day one of them breaks.

On to class. My mood was way better by the time we got started, and people seemed to appear from nowhere right at start time. 24 people? Where the.. what the... ? We're going to need a bigger gym. We also have a 3-stripe white belt (Dale.. I figured he knew what he was talking about a bit) and a 4-stripe white belt who are apparently using the class as a warmup.

Standard warmup. Not even remotely tired this time. Cool! I'm not completely wimpy anymore. Intro to class. Seems this is now the 'start' of the 3 month fundamentals cycle. Guess what that means? We start with... mount. Yay. I bet we learn armbars and shoulderlocks and how to take your partners back and apply a RNC if they roll.

Site note. Apparently what we've been calling a "Kimura" is really an "Americana". In class today it was referred to as a "Figure 4" so I guess we'll stick with that for now. It probably doesn't matter what you call it, it still hurts.

Paired up with Lee for drills again. Armbars from mount. All on one arm because Lee says he has a dodgy left shoulder. Sloppy, horrible, dreadful, decent, decent, decent, good. I guess I need practice on this mount stuff.

Rear naked chokes, first with opponent sitting up, then starting from mount and getting them to roll. I like these. Lee does not like these. Drilling goes for a very long time. I don't think we're getting to the ... Figure 4 shoulderlock (That's painful to type) tonight.

10 minutes left. Positional sparring time (Hooray). 1 minute rounds (boo!). First one is interesting because I've only done it once. One person starts sitting down, the other person starts on his back with hooks in and a "Seatbelt" grip. One person has to defend / escape, the other has to stay on / submit them. Good fun.

Starting out attacking. Plans? Actually it's not very complicated. Keep hooks, stay on his back, work for choke if I can manage it. This plan actually worked very well. Lee doesn't know how to defend from this position (neither do I. Apparently defending still isn't fundamental around here) and I was able to stay in place rather handily. Sunk a quite decent choke about 20 seconds in for a tap. Yay. Reset, start again. Was working to try and get my arm in under his chin again when he tapped. I guess my bony forearm against your throat isn't very comfortable. No time for a third go.

Defending! Plans... well.. don't let him choke me? Try to figure out how to get rid of his legs? I actually felt rather comfortable in defending my neck from here. Lee never really got his arm around my neck. Couldn't work out of the hooks very well though, he has pretty long legs. I did manage to pop one leg free just as we finished up.

Next up.. focussed sparring from mount! Also 1 minute rounds. Attacking first. So what am I working on? Get a nice high mount, stay there and see what I can get Lee to give me. Oh and don't shoulderlock his sore arm. That'd be mean.

This was the first time I've felt really comfortable on mount. I was up nice and high under his arms and he wasn't really going anywhere fast. After about 30 seconds he actually rolled to his right.

Brain and body have a little conversation:
Brain: Wait.. wait we know this one!
Body: Shut up, we've already got one hook, leave us alone.

I'm doing things without thinking. I like it. Managed to get my second hook in and was working towards a choke when time ran out. I want 2 minute rounds at least dammit!

Defending? Well this mat is really really crowded and we don't have much room, so I'm just going to work on an escape the kids were drilling before class (roll onto your side a little, straighten out your bottom leg and wriggle backwards until you can get it through). Started out quite well. Almost had a leg out when my head came into contact with a wall. Ow. Reset. Restart. Manage to wiggle a leg free for half guard almost immediately. Fun! Reset. Time!

Not tired! I want more class! Class is over. Sad. I wish I knew guard so I could train with the big kids. I might just do it anyway next week. I pay my money, they're not going to kick me out right?

Great success! (AKA baby steps)

So tonight I worked something out for myself. Well, not really, I worked out something from reading stuff any applying it myself. I still think that counts. Success story further down! Read on!

Warmups! Warmup run by Dale, who wears a white belt but appears to know what he's about. He also gets to play training dummy for John (who runs the class). Anyway, a few brisk laps around the mat, 20 pushups / situps / squats. Stretches. Bridging. Hip escapes (Dale forgot the single leg ones.) Stand ups. Laps down the mat of hip escapes / standups.

Not tired yet. Good. I must be getting just a little bit tougher. Make a point of stretching troublesome left calf while we break for water.

Standing up stuff? What up with that?! Pummelling drill (basically swapping underhooks). Awkward. Partner's shoulder is approximately level with my nose. Spend most of drill trying to get him to get a bit lower so he's not smashing my face.

Takedown? ooh ah! Simple one, get double underhooks, get good grip behind his back, yank his hips towards you and drive forwards to take down. Partner is trying not to get taken down. How inconvenient.

Another takedown? Get one underhook, shuck his arm upwards with it, duck under to his side / back, lock arms, lift with your hips and take him down. Partner is starting to relax. Hooray.

... Live takedowns? Seriously? Have you seen how crowded this mat is? Well Ok! This was actually pretty fun. Partner is a few inches taller and probably 10kgs heavier, but I managed to keep one underhook at least pretty much the whole time, and while I couldn't get anything going myself, I managed to stay off my back until the very end of the round when there was a 3 group collision and everyone fell down.

Intro to SIDE CONTROL. Woohoo. That's not mount! I don't even know the speech. Although I'm sure it'll be identical on Wednesday. Position drill (Person on top walks around through North/South, into side control on opposite side, switches base and mounts, then dismounts off the other side).

Kimura from side control? Not much new here, it's just like the one from mount, except not on mount. Training partner is on his first lesson, so I have to talk him through actually doing the Kimura because he doesn't know how, and nobody helpful is nearby. Eventually he does a couple of good ones.

What to do if they hook the arm you're trying to Kimura over your low side shoulder? Underhook with that arm, yank them up onto their side, step over and sit on their head, use your other arm to hold the arm you have while you find their wrist with that hand, form Kimura grip and fold it backwards. A little more complicated and neither of us managed to do a good one.

Specific position sparring. Yay. I elect to start underneath side control, because last time I tried that I ended up mostly dead. So. Goals.

• Try to not stay flat on my back.

Nobody told me this yet, but I've read it, and it makes sense.

• See what happens if I bridge. See if I can create enough space to get a leg under partner for guard or something.

Same deal. I'm thinking for myself if they won't tell me anything.

Goal number 1 went good with first partner, but I wasn't able to get enough space to do anything except survive. Can't say he ever looked like getting the Kimura. Switching to on top I figured I just wanted to try and hold the position. That proved quite difficult with partner who pretty much bench pressed me. Gotta work out what to do with that.

Swap partners. Found an Asian guy called Lee (wow I remembered a name) who's a bit taller, but probably not much heavier. Started underneath again. Much easier to get up on my side with Lee. Pop my hips out a bit, and damn look! Space! Slip a leg through and manage to capture one of his for what I gather is half-guard. Woot. Now what do I do with it? Oh wait, we stop and re-set. Second time out and I almost manage to sneak a leg through again before we run out of time.

On top for the last bit of class. Controlled this position pretty well, and eventually started to push his arm off towards the Kimura as time runs out.. and then at the last moment I suddenly find myself on top of mount. Wha... ? how did that happen? Kinda happened without me thinking about it, and it wasn't one of the things we were going for, but I'm going to assume that automatically taking a good position isn't a bad thing.

Really happy with class tonight. Some things seem to be sinking in.

Lessons 5 and 6

I missed 4 weeks - two with the flu, then with tonsillitis. How very inconvenient.

Worse than inconvenient. Turns out that while I was gone, the class went through "side control" and "guard" phases and now we're back to mount. Argh. John gives the same speech about mount. John suggests I've been around long enough to head down the other end of the mat with the slightly more advanced individuals. I note that I missed all of side control and all of guard. John retracts previous statement. Looks like I'm doing mount.

Vaguely frustrated, but getting the hang of Kimuras and RNCs and Armbars. Less so with armbars. I'm so clumsy. Obviously still not 100% because class 5 pretty much wrecked me. Class 6 was better. Actually got a tap with an armbar during 2 minute drills. Yay me. I know what to do if my partner waves his arm around. Escaping mount is a problem. We still haven't actually been 'taught' any ways to do that, which disturbs me. Also having difficulties getting sufficient height on the bridge against the bigger guys to get them to lose balance. Gotta think about that. Good enough underneath mount that complete newbies can't submit me in 2 minutes. That's not exactly a recommendation I guess, especially if I can't get out from underneath.

Current mission: Investigate ways to escape from mount. If I'm not being shown, I'll find out myself.

Office is moving away from this gym. How inconvenient. Current plan has me using up the rest of my 10 class pass and then switching to the gym that will be near the new office. They don't have a beginners class, so I'll be straight in with the big kids. That should be fun.

Lesson 2 (and 3, and 4)

Lesson 2!

This lesson bore a remarkable similarity to lesson 1. Warmup was identical.

Introduction to mount. John gives speech that seems eerily familiar. Class separates into two groups tonight and people who have been around 2 months or more run off to do other things. We do, in order, Armbars, Kimuras, and RNCs. Drilling with small guy again. Much cleaner, especially on armbars.

Reaction drill - person on the bottom randomly provides the setup for one of the moves, person on top has to do it correctly. Slow, but reasonably clean. Brain slowly working up to speed on this sort of thing.

1 minute rounds tonight. Still no escape. Come on, really, escaping mount is fundamental I say! I achieved very little while on mount. Small guy likes to bait armbars and then pull his arm back down. Interesting. Somehow gave up my back while on the bottom. Small guy had one hook in as time expired. Stopped, he sank the choke anyway. Bastard. Haha.

Find a new partner. Somehow selected Godzilla as partner. Guy says he has been here 2 weeks. Guy is larger and heavier than I originally thought. Started on top. Guy bench presses. Oh look, an armbar. Messed it up and he threw me halfway across the room. Oops. Re-set. Guy bench-presses. Oh look.. an Armbar. Better this time. Godzilla starts thrashing around like psycho. Time apparently? That didn't seem like very long.

On the bottom. Godzilla pries my arm up off my chest, gets one hand just below my elbow, the other just below my wrist, pulls up with one, pushes down with the other. My brain has a conversation with itself:

"What is THAT supposed to be? That doesn't hurt you know. Oh look he's doing it harder. I know, lets get rid of him!" *bridge* "shit, did he move at all? Hmm. I wonder if he can actually break my forearm like that? I really dont' think so, but lets not find out" *tap*.

Repeat twice more. Suggest guy actually tries to do the techniques we're learning in class. He grunts and says "why, I'm stronger than you?". Genius! Mental note, not training with this guy again.

Left calf cramped really badly during this round. Ow. Must sort that out.

Lesson 3!

Read lesson 2. Lesson 3 was identical. Almost tempted to give say John's speech along with him. It really was the same. Exactly.

Drilling same three moves from mount.
1 minute rounds with small guy. Still no escape. Really. Started on top. Small guy rolled onto his side after 10 seconds or so. Side mount. Tried to encourage him to go all the way over so I could take his back. He didn't want to. Felt like I should be able to armbar him, tried to get hold of his near side arm. 1 minute really isn't very long. Time. Doh.
On the bottom. Still no escape! Except I've read stuff. Like if I can trap an arm, hook his leg then bridge and roll to that side, he has nothing there to post on. Genius! It even worked twice. Left calf cramped really badly on the second one. Again. I might have to look at that.

Class over without a second partner. What? Already? Probably good. My leg hurts.

Lesson 4:

... Actually just read lesson 3, but add this bit first:

Guard! how exciting! Demonstration of simple closed guard. Demonstration of a way to break this guard and pass by stacking your partner up and slipping by to this arcane position called side control that we don't know yet. Brief drilling. Small guy is nowhere in sight. Found a guy on his first night who was probably only 10kgs heavier than me.

Looking forward to learning lots of guard stuff right? Wrong! It's mount time. Yay. Armbars. Kimuras. Rear naked chokes. Partner freaks out and taps instantly when choked. Mildly amusing. We did 1 minute rounds. I don't remember them. Left calf cramped. Really a problem. Note to self. Stretch left calf thoroughly from now on.

Lesson 5:

Was absolutely dead after warmup, which was the same as all the others. I don't get it. Mount stuff. 1 minute rounds. Small guy first, then the biggest guy in the room. How did that happen? Completely wrecked already. Big guy didn't manage to tap me. I think it was his first night. Grabbed John for quick hints on how to actually deal with the fact that other guy has arms about 5 inches longer than mine, and I can't get my weight down on his chest if he bench presses me. Get mount higher up his body, right under his armpits if possible. Good plan. Then I can just sit up, and pivot for the armbar.

Why am I so tired? Side control? What is this side control you speak of? 1 minute rounds? Don't you want to actually show us something first? No? Ok then!
On the bottom first. Can't. Breathe. Under. Huge. Guy. Seriously wanted to tap, could hardly move. Didn't, but only because 1 minute finished. Didn't take my turn on top. Legs wobbly, head spinning. What the?

Class finishes. Good.

Found out why the next day. I got the flu. Yay.

Starting a blog / starting BJJ

Hi! My name is Neil, I'm 28 years old and I live in Brisbane, Australia.

So here we are. I've been inspired to start a blog detailing my attempts to learn Brazilian Jiujitsu. The culprit for this is the blog of bjjgrrl which can be found here: http://bjjgrrl.wordpress.com - should be required reading for anyone starting out in BJJ, especially for little people like me. I'm around five foot six tall, and weigh around 60kgs, or roughly 130 pounds.

I'm bad at blogging and I'm bad with sticking with the things that catch my attention like BJJ has, so this should be an interesting and likely failed experiment. BJJ is more likely to stick than blogging, because I've definitely enjoyed my early classes.

So what are the threats to my continued BJJ-ness?

• I'm a lazy individual.

That has to stop, and it's perfectly within my capabilities to fix. Good.

• I don't live ANYWHERE near the gym.

Brisbane is not the easiest place in the world to find a class, I have to drive at least 40 minutes to find one. There is a pretty simple fix for that too. My current gym is on the same street as my office. Problem solved. Unfortunately my boss clearly hates my BJJ-ness, and the office is moving to Fortitude valley. That can be fixed too, as that should put me within about 3km of another gym.

• Full time work, Part time university.

This is an excuse. Shouldn't stop me. At the very least I can spare one night a week until I graduate. Aiming for two nights. Who needs sleep anyway?

So what have I done so far? I'm 6 or 7 classes into my journey, taking BJJ Fundamentals. Hour long classes, a pretty large group of people who have all been training less than 3 months, supervised by one purple belt named John. I like John, he's small like me and he seems like he knows his stuff. Unfortunately there's one of him, and there's lots of us. Not so conducive to actually getting help if you need it. That's ok, I've been in fundamentals class before a few years ago (was working nights, couldn't stick with it) and I've seen the absolute basics before. Headstart. Nice.

Vague recollections of lessons so far:

Lesson 1.

Warmup. 20 pushups / situps / squats. Not so bad, my fitness levels suck, but I can do those.
Bridging exercises.
Minor stretching.
Hip escapes (bring feet up to butt, bridge hips, roll to side onto shoulder, extend legs to shove hips out backwards)
Single leg hip escapes (same as above, but bring up only one foot. Roll away from that foot)
More stretching, then line up and do hip escapes, single leg hip escapes down the mat. These are probably useful for something right? Care to tell us what for? no? Ok then.
Ok, kinda tired, but not bad.

Grab a partner. Find the only guy about my size (possibly even smaller). He looks happy to have someone not 15 kgs heavier in class. Apparently he's been training 4 nights a week (2 beginners MMA classes) for the last 4 weeks. Good. He should know stuff.

Introduction to mount. John does a spiel on why mount is good. That's reasonably obvious. Demonstration of armbar from mount, specifically when partner sticks his arm up in the air, either to bench-press, choke or attack your face. I have seen this before. Hands on either side of target arm, then together in center of partners chest to lift weight up, Up onto your feet without lifting your weight off opponent, pivot to put your legs across your opponent, pin arm to chest and sit back, bridge hips to finish if necessary. This is a crap description of the armbar, but I know what I mean. Note that it's ideal if partners thumb is pointing upwards, otherwise it really doesn't work so good.

Drilling armbars. Small guy is helpful. My balance sucks. Eventually get a few decent ones.

Demonstration of Kimura from mount. Pick an arm, pin it down next to partners head, far side arm holds partners wrist, other arm slips under his arm to grab my own wrist, pull everything closer to partner's ribs, paint his wrist down the mat while slowly lifting his elbow. Pretty simple. Also a bad description.

Drilling Kimuras. Ow. Those hurt. Mental note, avoid being Kimura'd. Small guy has one very flexy shoulder and one that doesn't move at all. Good to know.

Demonstration of Rear naked choke. I've seen this before, but it's still impressive how effective this is. Basically, wrap arm around partners neck under their chin, grab your own shoulder. Other hand on back of opponent's head and pushing forwards, Squeeze.

Drilling those with partner sitting up.

Demonstration of how to take partners back from mount if they choose to roll. We're stopping at a position I believe John described as "side mount" (partner on side, one knee behind his head, other heel tight into his stomach). Sinking far side hook in as they continue to roll, sinking the other as they get up to hands and knees, then flatten them out. Apply RNC from the side which they didn't turn their head to.

Drilling those too. Awkward, but got the hang of it fairly quickly.

Next up, some position drills with resistance. One person starts on mount and has to try and stay on, or submit opponent. Person on the bottom has to escape. I'm starting on the bottom. Wait what? Wouldn't it be a good idea to learn how to escape mount first? No? Well ok then. Small guy says that he hasn't learnt to escape mount yet either. In four weeks. I would have thought that was kinda fundamental.

2 minutes is a fairly long time. Smaller guy likes Kimuras, mostly because I wasn't planning on waving my arms around for armbars, nor turning my back and getting choked. Plan is to keep arms close to chest, elbows close to ribs, and generally try and be as difficult as possible. Small guy managed to bully my arms off to the side for Kimuras several times, but every time he tried to actually lock it in, I bridged and he almost fell over, so I got my arm back. Nobody achieved much.

2 minutes on top. Small guy seems convinced that he can get his legs wrapped around me while I'm on mount. No. Lean forwards and shuffle as high up as possible. Working for a kimura, just generally trying to be heavy on top and see if I can get him to do something silly. Had an arm for an armbar, missed it badly. Eventually got a decent Kimura on the flexy arm. Small guy seems very gassed. Glad it's not just me. Slowly crank Kimura, hear a tap and slack it off a little to see if it was actually him. He says it was, I suggest maybe he's best of tapping me rather than the floor with so much noise and chaos going on.

Time. Find a new partner, someone roughly your own size. Hmm. I'm actually really small. This shouldn't really be such a revelation. Next partner is half a foot taller and probably 20 kgs heavier. We did 1 minute rounds this time, and I don't really remember much of it. I do know neither of us actually achieved anything while on mount. I couldn't get rid of this guy at all, and had some difficulties holding mount myself.

Wrapping up the lesson. Good and tired. Survived. Excellent.