MONDAY MORNING CLASS

We had a productive class this morning. Though we did nothing truly ground shaking with techniques (we focused on how to open a closed guard), I think that the review was necessary.

I also taught a "new" escape from mount and learned a transition to a sweep from my youngest blue belt. For that, I say thanks.

Kris

ANOTHER YONKYU AT FIRST COAST KODOKAN

With all of the muay thai and newaza thumping we did on Saturday night, 25 June, with the two folks from outside of our club, I forgot to mention that Greg DiFranza promoted Nicholas Nix to yonkyu and Jacqui Zahralban to gokyu.

We have five people ranked at yonkyu and three ranked at gokyu at First Coast Kodokan. All of these are "home-grown" rankings, and I am proud of our mutual progress.

MUAY THAI?

So I practiced muay thai last night. Let me rephrase that; the judo brown belt that I practiced against practiced muay thai against me last night. That dude kicked me in the left shin over and over, and it's not as if he was really trying a foot sweep. He just kept hauling off and kicking me in the damn shin with his heel. No kazushi at all. It perturbed me. I finally had enough and foot swept him (really hard...Greg can testify). He seemd to be extremely angry when we stood up, and he tried slinging me all over the place (he outweighed me by at least 50 lbs), and then he got thrown again.  The addage that anger makes you do bad things worked here.

And when it was on the ground, I had no mercy. I moved all over him, took his back, choked him, swept him, armbarred him. Worse, it seemed that he tried to be "sneaky" and do very light single touches as a tap. I did not accept these since, from the shin kicks, I suspected they were meant to make me let go and permit him to claim that he did not tap.  I could be wrong, but it is what I thought at the time.  He asked for instruction rather than free rolling during what was supposed to be our second session of ground-work.  I complied since, overall, he seems like a nice guy, but he seems to suffer from judo brown belt disease.

Dave Sullins got to roll the black belt from Montana, who bypassed my sign and walked across the mats with his street shoes on.  I have to admit that it is strange for a 3rd dan judoka not to remove his shoes when on a mat, especially someone else's.  Anyhow, Dave worked him, and the guy was actually claiming to "coach" him; he even claimed to go light on Dave. HA! Dave is now an experienced BJJ blue belt; he even announced to the guy (whom he had fat-boy mounted at the time he was being "coached" to get an armbar) that he was a BJJ guy and he was getting a choke. Dave got the choke. During their later sessions, the guy was tapping as soon as Dave got position.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALLEN TATE

Our Nebraska connection, Allen Tate, passed his test and received the coveted BJJ blue belt from Rodrigo Vaghi, a 4th degree black belt under Rickson Gracie, on Saturday, 18 June. Along the way, Allen lost 50 lbs in preparation for the test.

Great job Allen. We look forward to your return in January.

Kris

O-GOSHI AND FOOT SWEEPS

This past Saturday (18 June), we covered o-goshi and worked foot sweeps in judo.

VISIT BY ROBERT WATSON

Robert Watson, a BJJ blue belt who works at UPS with me and Marcus, dropped in on Saturday night (11 June) and trained with us for the BJJ class only. Unfortunately, he wore himself out grappling and did not stay for judo.

Thanks for dropping by.

CHARLES DOS ANJOS SEMINAR: JULY 16

My instructor, Charles Dos Anjos, will be in town on Saturday, 16 July, for a seminar.

Our friend and owner of Combat Athletix, James Smiley, who is a black belt in BJJ under Edson Diniz, has graciously agreed to host the event. For this, I thank him, and I believe it will be beneficial for both of our academies.

Here are the details:

PLACE: Smiley's Combat Athletix
ADDRESS: 3600 Peoria Road, Suite #203, Orange Park, FL 32065
DATE: Saturday, 16 July 2011
TIME: 12:00 pm
COST: $25