Day 25: Sweeps

After waking up to a rather lethargic morning in which all I wanted to do was sit at the computer and play Dragon Age: Origins I picked myself up and went to the Dojo. Thank god I packed my bag last night because it was sitting there reminding me to shut up and get training.

We went through a couple of sweeps which was great because it is an aspect I've not yet been shown yet. One thing I got out of it was, keep your arms inside your legs to prevent the opponent from under hooking your armpit, and to use the head more because it really is a 5th limb and great for pushing against people. We used a little X-guard as well which was cool.

Sparring was with 2 white belts, brown and black. One of the white belts hasn't done jiu jitsu much but is a friend of the sensei. He has judo experience so I was careful of throws. I watched him being taught to get out of the Ezekiel choke before sparring and so I tried it on him to see if he could break out of it. I was in full mount when I got the choke and he sweeped me to guard position but by that time the choke was in and I got it for the first time ever. Complete surprise to me. After that he pushed up on me while I was mounted with his arms extended and I got an easy armbar. I was surprised he didn't do better because I expected a tougher fight. Although, it was great to see just how much I've improved against an athletic yet low jiu-jitsu skill level opponent. I also got the reversal that Tete-kun showed me from kesa-gatame which was cool but I needed too much strength so will have to ask him to show me it again.

My ring fingers on both hands still hurt a lot in the mornings. It feels like arthritis or something but it's probably an effect of over gripping.

I saw the results of the competition the sensei and some of the guys from my Dojo entered. Here is a pic of Fukuzumi-sensei in action. This was probably the winning choke. I have a lot of respect for the guy. I feel like a child against him when we spar.