WHY ME?

Last Saturday (13 August), I sent Greg a text and asked him not to drive all the way out for judo since it appeared that it would be just me and Ethan. All others canceled or were out of town, and I'd not heard from Jason as of 5:20 pm. So, again, out of consideration, I did not want Greg to come all the way for just two of us.

This will never happen again.

Jason arrived at 5:25 pm, and the guy that kicked me in the shins back in June (I will call him "Muay Thai" Mike..or MTM) came in at 5:45 pm. I had to tell him four times that Greg was not coming.  I am not sure why he thought that I was lying to him. 

He actually chastised me for not knowing/caring about certain throws as a green belt; I had to smile and say that I can pull off the few throws I know and that Greg is the one who determines what I need to know at this point in my development.

Anyhow, during standing randori, which was supposed to consist only of foot sweeps, he did not thai-kick my shins this time (thank God). I achieved a very, very hard ko-soto-gake on MTM, and the response was him adding other ashi-waza techniques to our session without announcing, such as the well-recognized ashi-waza of tomoe nage and tani-otoshi. In both cases, I ended up in full mount on him.

After trying to get Jason to go standing with him (I would not allow it), MTM wanted some more on the ground. It was not hard. I quickly achieved back mount, prompting him to do a violent, alligator-esque death roll, and I went for a gi choke. He grabbed my fingers and pulled; I responded with the idea that it was illegal in judo to grab fingers. He insisted that it was legal, and so I permitted it and started putting chokes on his face. He bled all over my gi...again.

In addition, he almost had his arm broken by not tapping to my reverse armbar (in fact, he did not tap...I let go when he screamed and I was 2/3 extended), and he insisted that I did not have a choke when I was teaching him something NOT to do. I almost choked him unconscious then.

What the hell? He seems to be a nice man overall, but some of the things that he is doing are very...douchy.  It must be the judo brown belt thing.  I do not get the judo brown belt mentality towards BJJ guys. 

SATURDAY 6 AUGUST

In BJJ, I worked on half-guard replacements again. It seems that I need to become more familiar with Master Gordo's system.

Tom, a Victor Huber blue belt and occasional judo visitor, dropped in for Greg's class. I have never had the opportunity to randori with Tom, but Saturday was a first. I was able to use the techniques that we've learned over the past year and a half to my advantage. I secured two nasty uchi-mata (I landed on him way too hard...sorry Tom), a tani-otoshi (crash landing again...sorry Tom), a counter to a hip throw we practiced this evening, and an o-uchi-gari (good control on my part). I think all of these would have scored ippon. I missed a foot sweep because I did not continue the pull straight down on the gi.

The big learning for the night was on the throw I missed and how to land a bit gentler (Ethan was also on the receiving end of uchi-mata). I have the mentality of not wanting to give up position since, as a BJJ guy and wrestler, the fight continues on the ground even if the throw is an ippon. Also, since I am not that good at judo, my technique is not fluid, so my landings are more like crashes.

WEDNESDAY BJJ

I went over a half-guard bottom escape and quarter-guard sweeps, and also covered ways to thwart an opponent from getting the kimura from the guard.

In addition, we were visited by a man named Josh, another escapee from the fake BJJ instructor from down the road. Josh seems to be a nice guy, and like all others that I have seen and rolled with from the "Master," he was not taught BJJ. He made fatal mistakes that permitted me to tap him at will with minimal effort. However, we can fix this problem if he chooses to become a student.

HANE-GOSHI

Three of our regular members were on vacation on Saturday.

We reviewed hip throws, focusing on hane-goshi.

STRIPE PROMOTIONS

I promoted Andrew Sears and Mike Mach from plain white belt to white belt with one stripe on Wednesday, 20 July.

You have both worked hard and taken some whippings from the more experienced guys in the class. It will get better as your repertoire of moves grows and your timing develops.

Thanks for the opportunity to coach you on the long journey that is BJJ.

CHARLES' SEMINAR = SUCCESS

I'd like to send a special thank you to James Smiley and Combat Athletix for hosting Charles for this past Saturday's seminar. We all appreciate your hospitality.

I learned a good amount from the seminar and look forward to perfecting what we went over that afternoon.

Thanks to Charles for taking the time to come up, as well.

Kris

ALMOST A FULL HOUSE

We looked like a real BJJ academy last evening (13 July). We had nine folks out on the mats. There was one brown (me), one purple, three blues, and four whites. It was really cool to have all of my students in attendance, and it made it easy for people of similar sizes/experience to match up.