I’ve just randomly been going to BJJ, but I think I’m going to plan to go on Sunday, Monday, Wends and Thursday. It’s a montly rate for as many classes as you want, so why not? And at the pace I’m going I need as much as possible. I think if I just do this and focus on flexibility and balance, I’ll be set for a while. I’m not too worried about losing strength, I feel like I already have a pretty good foundation there.
Wednesday’s BJJ
I got there a little early and watched the Aikido class. Man it’s so pretty, it really looks like flying. Oh, and it turns out that Aikido guy is Sensei Aikido guy.
Wendnsday’s class is always basic self defense. Coach feels that it’s an important part of BJJ, and it’s also nice to learn.
We warmed up with ‘a game children play.’ Apparently I was not a normal child. We play punched each other then took a fall and stood up in base. Aikido guy took about two second to do this, I had to think about each step of each movement and it took me about a minute, he actually started laughing at me. I’m going to make a point of always standing up in base now, regardless of what I’m doing.
Next, we did wrist locks if the guy’s got him arm straight, and then if it’s bent. I need to remember to always step into how the joint doesn’t want to move.
Next it was what to do if you’re being choked from behind. It was kinda cool to be able to lift him onto my back and flip him over. Coach also reinforces the idea that you need to follow through and not just stand there excited to have flipped someone (my initial reaction) so once he was on the ground we transitioned into an arm bar.
Standing gullitione chokes, ugh. Sprawl? Why does it seem as though everyone else instinctually does these things and I don’t? I kept landing on my knees, fine in a padded room, not fine anywhere else. Then when I was taking the falls Aikido guy kept hitting me with all his weight in the sternum, then he’d just lay on me. I can’t breathe when he puts all of his weight on me, that alone had me tapping. Is that something that’ll come with practice, or do you just never allow yourself to be in that situation when rolling?
We then did x-chokes with the gi again, but this time the guy blocks it and you transition to an arm bar.
Random questions were then answered and then we rolled. I actually stayed for the rolling and will describe my utter failure later.
