SATURDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2024

Today was me, Nick, Jason, Josh M., Sam, Chad, Brady, and Abner.

Perhaps Josh's request, we went over head and arm (kesa gatame) escapes, both gi and no gi versions, and one kuzure kesa escape without the gi. Nick added two regular kesa escape variants for fun.  We got a number of free rolls in, though limited space required one group at a time.

Sam's Recap:

Recap- in order of rank, Prof, Nick, Jason, Josh, me, Chad, Brady and Abner all met at Dojo Compton today. 

First off, thank you Jason for allowing us to use your garage to train. 

Random observations from today. First time I think I have had the pleasure of learning from three black belts on the same day. Everywhere I looked there was either a technique I hadn't seen or a nuance on one I already know being demonstrated. My head was spinning. 

Chad is clearly in the victim weight class now while I still teeter on the edge depending on what I had for breakfast that morning. 

Brady, Abner and Josh all move so much better than I do. Very impressed with how the three of them do BJJ. 

Nick lived up to billing. The only reason why he didn't thrash me today is we didn't roll. 

Finally, I will no longer feel bad about being a willing participant in Prof's joke on Josh Moss on his first day back from an injury on a knee slice pass.  I won't retell the story since most of you know it already, but I will say what Josh did to me today made me no longer feel bad about that day.  It was surprising, effective and made me laugh. As he was passing my guard, he put his knee on my ankle, which was very painful. It was surprising because it wasn't something I expected from Josh but I liked seeing that competitiveness and I told him so.

In other news, Prof applied yet ANOTHER bread cutter and Nick told me that one day I will be able to defend it because of the frequent exposure and me developing my defenses,... or something encouraging like that. 

All and all another good day of BJJ.

Tony (purple) = 4

Josh M. (blue-2) = 24

Duy (white-3) = 28

Sam (white-3) = 22

Eddie (white-1) = 27

Chad (white-1) = 26

Brady (white-1) = 10

Abner (white) = 9

Caleb (white) = 6

THURSDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2024

Nick is in town.

We trained at Jason's, with the lone non-black belt being young Brady.

Tony (purple) = 4

Josh M. (blue-2) = 23

Duy (white-3) = 28

Sam (white-3) = 21

Eddie (white-1) = 27

Chad (white-1) = 25

Brady (white-1) = 9

Abner (white) = 8

Caleb (white) = 6

SUNDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2024

Today was a training session with me, Jason, and Josh M.  I almost ripped Jason's foot off, and I screamed as it popped.  It truly scared me.

Tony (purple) = 4

Josh M. (blue-2) = 23

Duy (white-3) = 28

Sam (white-3) = 21

Eddie (white-1) = 27

Chad (white-1) = 25

Brady (white-1) = 8

Abner (white) = 8

Caleb (white) = 6

SUNDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2024

I taught how to open the closed guard and the "Williams" smash pass.

Sam's Recap:

Abbreviated recap- the author is tired. 

Impromptu class held tonight at Dojo Compton with Prof, Jason, Brady, Abner and myself. 

Few take aways. Both Brady and I showed up beltless. Prof supplied me with the one that has blood stains on it (his old white belt) which is my favorite belt to wear. Brady had to roll sans belt.

Escapes from closed guard were taught.

Two- three rolls were given and Abner impressed me tonight with his grit and determination because I ran out of gas and basically just dropped my weight on him to keep him still and he took it like a champ and even made light of it later. 

Prof picked up where he left off on Saturday and that's all I will say about that and Jason submitted me with a wicked reverse arm bar that was both creative and effective. 

All and all another good day of BJJ.

Tony (purple) = 4

Josh M. (blue-2) = 22

Duy (white-3) = 28

Sam (white-3) = 21

Eddie (white-1) = 27

Chad (white-1) = 25

Brady (white-1) = 8

Abner (white) = 8

Caleb (white) = 6

SATURDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2024

Today was an actual TAUGHT class with me, Jason, Josh M., Sam, and Brady.

I covered the cross collar choke from guard, Kimura, a modified arm wrap choke, and reverse arm bar.

We got in 12 total rounds.  Jason got a very cool reverse arm bar on me.  Also, I replaced the earned stripes on Sam's belt and places that first stripe on Brady's that was earned a while back.

Sam's Recap:

Recap-Prof. Jason, Josh Moss, young Brady and I all participated at Dojo Compton today. 

The day started with everyone's thoughts on Statistics courses in college and ended with my charmed BJJ existence of a life without Bread cutter chokes coming to a rather abrupt end. 

We started innocently enough with chokes and arm bars from guard being taught. Prof even threw in a Kimura. Then rolling began.

 

Jason, Josh and Brady all rolled rather athletically. I remember thinking how graceful they all looked. Then Prof and I rolled and it looked more like the Spartan army methodically sacking a small defenseless village manned by peasants who hadn't even bothered to beat their plows and shepherd hooks into spears or swords. 

Prof executed not one, not two, but three (THREE!) bread cutters on me in a span of five minutes. He even added insult to injury by applying a wrist lock. I wasn't going to admit to the wrist lock since the rest of the group had lost interest in watching me get pummeled and had their heads turned, but for the sake of the integrity of the recap, I have to note that it happened. 

At the end of the day, prof re-taped our belts and I couldn't help but wonder if he was putting three stripes on my belt to signify my rank or the aforementioned chokes I had just suffered under his hands. 

All and all another good day of BJJ.

Tony (purple) = 4

Josh M. (blue-2) = 22

Duy (white-3) = 28

Sam (white-3) = 20

Eddie (white-1) = 27

Chad (white-1) = 25

Brady (white-1) = 7

Abner (white) = 7

Caleb (white) = 6

TUESDAY, 1 OCTOBER 2024

 Today was an open mat with me, Jason, Brady, and Abner 

"AbCap" 

Recap- Prof, Jason, Brady, and I had an open mat day.

We had already started the day off strong when Prof got word that Brady and I supposedly threatened to bring the SmackDown to the black belts. However, I was clearly not involved and it was Brady who was found guilty. The jury will decide his sentencing at a later date. 

Prof and Jason had their usual rolls where it's 60% bickering and 40% BJJ, but at least it was entertaining. Brady and I tried our best against them today and both got our own victories.

Brady was able to get a "well-earned" submission on Jason, and I was able to avoid getting submitted by Jason in one instance. 

At a certain point today, Jason decided to point out that I had female qualities, which I decided to take as a compliment. I hope to use these features to my benefit at some point of my BJJ journey. Lastly, Prof and I stayed and conversed about the realities of Martial Arts training. 

All and all another good day of BJJ.

Tony (purple) = 4

Josh M. (blue-2) = 21

Duy (white-3) = 28

Sam (white-3) = 19

Eddie (white-1) = 27

Chad (white-1) = 25

Brady (white-1) = 6

Abner (white) = 7

Caleb (white) = 6

SATURDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2024

Today was a training session with me, Jason, Josh M., Sam, and Chad.  We had a total of 15 rounds.

Sam's Recap:

Recap- Prof, Jason, Josh, Chad and I all participated in simulated murder. 

As a back drop to understanding the recap, I would ask everyone to watch the Cannonball Run and observe the character Dom Deluise plays and his transformation to "Him," super hero cape and all as "Captain Chaos."

The pain train (my FJ with me in it) arrived promptly at 9:50 am with high hopes. I had been utilizing physiological warfare against Prof since Monday in the control room when I told him that it was possible that I was actually good at BJJ and expert even, but had been holding back for a whole year and that it was time for me to really let the beast out. He was visibly shaken at that thought as I walked out that night.  

Then the countdown started as has become our custom on Friday night with the hours until 10:00 am when doom would be unleashed. 

I am sure he didn't sleep well. 

 

Well 10:00 am rolled around and the fun started. Jason and Prof did the typical "Black Belt target practice" stuff they normally do.  However, Chad, Josh, and I tried our best to hold them off on behalf of ourselves and lower belts every where. 

A steady diet of arm bars, attempted wrist locks, leg locks and a sweet rear naked choke by Jason were applied to me. 

In my next to last round, Prof decided that I wasn't worthy of him giving me his full attention, so he began to banter back and forth and carry on an in-depth conversation with Jason and Josh Moss while rolling with me. Well, I took umbrage and even demanded during the roll that he focus on the BJJ instead of Jason's Chemical Engineering test. Then prof rolled again with Jason and we were seemingly done. 

I didn't like the way things had panned out in my last roll, so I tapped Prof on the shoulder to see if his dance card was open. I admit that I didn't really think that through. Jason immediately piled on with a few comments to get Prof even more frothy and then Prof turned into "Him".  (Again, pls watch the cannonball run because explaining it would ruin everything).

So to summarize: I had five BJJ rolls and a division one wrestling match today. I didn't fare well in the BJJ rolls, and the wrestling match was awful. I did, however, have his full attention. 

All and all another good day of BJJ.

Chad's Recap:

It was really great to get back at it with live murder demos with the crew after a 4 weeks layoff.

1. Today's roll time really proved to me that BJJ training is a life style, not a hobby.... meaning you have to keep up on conditioning & strength training 24/7 or regression of skills & muscle memory will abandon you quickly.

2. No Gi rolls really showcase how awful I am at both securing my defensive position and how non- existent my offensive positioning skills are.

3. On a positive take away, after losing every roll multiple times (including a 10 sec warning roll with Jason where he ramped to a higher gear the last 10 sec to crank an arm bar tap on me).... I got to roll a 2nd time with Prof who took the time to teach me some astrophysics on why it is impossible for anything to go the "speed of light" while I struggled to advance past his butterfly guard..... so at least I was able take something knowledgeable away from that.

But I agree another great day of BJJ.

Tony (purple) = 4

Josh M. (blue-2) = 21

Duy (white-3) = 28

Sam (white-3) = 19

Eddie (white-1) = 27

Chad (white-1) = 25

Brady (white-1) = 5

Caleb (white) = 6

Abner (white) = 6