Day 19: Chokes

I wore ear guards today at the dojo. My right ear has swollen up a lot and it hurts like hell. I thought about getting some insulin needles and draining it but those things are impossible to find over here. They would probably think I'm a junkie when I went to buy them anyway. The ear guards helped a little but they kept getting knocked to the side and I felt like I had a bra on my head. Not that I ever do that sort of thing, of course *cough*

We practices chokes today. It's something I always get caught in. These are the chokes involving you getting pulled back and turned over then ending up tapping from the intense pressure on your neck created by the lapels of the gi. Fukuzumi-sensei showed us a lot of variation. The only other guy training with me was another white belt. He has trained for a year but only gets there once a week. I was strong in the guard, breaking me down often but I passed and almost got an americana on him. I need to learn a transition from that and have been looking into it, maybe an armbar on the protecting arm. Koyama (brown belt) said I am better at passing the guard. This was the first praise I've received from anyone and thanked him for saying so. I am getting a bit more fluid but often get bogged down by other white belts who keep pulling me back to guard.

I did P90X+ Abs yesterday. 22 minutes of total abs. It was actually not very difficult. The original P90X is much harder at 16 mins. I do like the plus because it works the muscle on different planes. Vertical, horizontal, on your back and facing the floor. I'll add another ab routine this week as per my goals.