Thursday, December 17, 2009

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.

Friday, December 11, 2009

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.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

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.