JUDO AT OMAR'S

Jason, Ethan, and I went with Greg to Omar's Judo Sport Academy on Monday, 15 August. Overall, it was not a bad time. Greg coached us, and they have a nice crashpad. It is small, and it was hot, though not as hot as Greg made it out to be.

Again, though, I had an issue with a "brown belt" from the same club as "Muay Thai" Mike (see previous posts) who goes there to get additional practice time. This guy, BH, has been into First Coast Kodokan before (more than a year ago), and he looked at us, who were yellow belts at the time, like fresh meat. There was no problem then, and there really was not a problem now.

So, I had BH on the ground, and I swept and armbarred him pretty quickly; I also choked him when I had his back. I went to show him what he did wrong (basic error of trying to bench press me off when I had mount), and I allowed him to full mount me and proceeded to teach what I teach my guys. While talking to him and, of course, off guard, he jumped into a loop-choke on me!

I pulled guard and put my hand on his elbow to relieve pressure, but decided not to and swept him. I had the full mount and he kept the attempted loop choke. I touched the elbow again to stop the choke, but decided against it since (1) He went for a choke when I was undefended and trying to teach him, (2) this "choke" had turned into a crush on my Adam's apple, (3) he had grabbed my fingers when I went for the earlier choke. I did a pure BJJ thing and pressed his face, thereby stopping the choke and permitting me to get the armbar. i did on both.

Once he tapped, he had this condescending smile and complained "I didn't know that BJJ allowed you to push the face." I said "It is legal in BJJ. I didn't know that grabbing fingers and taking a fist and pressing the Adam's apple was legal in judo." No complaints registered at that point.

Again, W-T-F? I thought BJJ folks were supposed to be dirty, but the dirtiest folks I've seen recently are judoka. The new rule is GO FULL BLAST AGAINST JUDOKA ON THE GROUND FROM NOW ON. No teaching, no goofing. Just full blast (like they do).