Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Tuesday, November 26

I think my body must have realized tomorrow's a holiday, because it's decided to be very lazy.  Monday night I was exhausted by my second round of rolling, and last night I was breathing so heavy afterwards you would think I just ran a marathon.

I was happy to see two new blue belts at the front of the line.  Obviously, Saturday's test went well (still bummed I couldn't make it...).

Anyway, class started off with some takedowns, which I was glad to see I have made some progress on.  Caleb and Josh went over all the details for the newbies, though honestly it was good for all of us.  I finally managed to set up the shoulder throw without wobbling and/or tripping and/or falling over.  Plus, I successfully completed the shoulder-throw-thingy where you set it up like normal but drop to the ground and roll them instead of throwing them.  And that really surprised me.  Once everyone had the throws/takedowns, we did a drill where you roll to your partner and throw them (we used the second one).  Then they run to the other side of the mat, touch the ground, and repeat the process.  We did this until I was so dizzy I was afraid I would fall over.

The night's groundwork consisted of counters to recomposing guard.  Both of the ones we learned were super simple, but I'm not sure I will be able to remember them quickly enough when rolling unless I'm already thinking about it or I train it as muscle memory.

Five rounds of rolling to end.  First with a white belt who, when I asked, said he hadn't trained BJJ in a year or so, but wrestled fairly often.  Needless to say I was surprised (and impressed) when he didn't try to muscle out of anything (except an arm bar) and I could feel him actually trying to set up a real guard pass.

Finished off with a roll with Josh which left me happy and absolutely exhausted.  Don't get me wrong, I did terrible.  He caught me in a baseball choke from a position I didn't even know you could finish it from.  Not to mention he caught me in two or three other submissions during the six minute round.  Despite that, I could feel how I have improved even in the last few months.  Also, I could see how far I had to go.  And that's just to purple belt!  This'll be fun.

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