Friday 19 March 2010

On the Mat Day 59: Arm drag from Standing

A groin muscle strain and hay fever prevented me from going on Wednesday, which is my usual training day. Instead, I went last night. The temperature has dropped a little, it was around 10 degrees last night and I've noticed that really affects how well I move.

There were three of us. Two white (incl. me) and a blue belt (Takeuchi). We practices a lot of arm drags to open guard then sweeps or take the back moves. Since I like arm drags, it was a really good thing for me to see again. I actually tried a couple during sparring which mixed success. They're still in my head so I will need to write them down today.

Sparring started with Takeuchi, who has a pretty poor cardio considering he has been away due to injury and goes home early as a rule so doesn't get to spar with many people. He asked me later how many times I get to spar and I told him 6 or 7 and he was like "wow". But to be honest I know I should be doing more though. He kept trying to get a shitty pro wrestler standing leg lock on me. I respect all my club mates but doing that kind of move when you're a blue belt on a white belt is very gay. I escaped all 3 times he tried it anyway and it just means that he doesn't get to work on the basics like guard passing, or fighting in one of the guards. He also tried an ezekiel choke from within my guard! Again, a poor move. Although, I didn't know how to counter it at the time, I was able to muscle out of it. Later, sensei taught me an easy counter by bringing my arms above my head, locking the hands and pulling them forward towards my stomach. This forces the opponents hands to push together and cause pain unless he releases the choke. I just don't know what he is thinking when he does those moves. I can only assume that he is frustrated.

The other guy, white belt seems like a great guy. Humble and very pleasant to talk to. I wish I could recall his name. He works for Toyota is all I remember. He is stronger than he looks and almost caught me in a triangle from standing position. I postured up to get out of it though. I had him in a north-south pin and worked an arm triangle choke on him. It worked too for the first time! I was chuffed.

I think I'm getting better at escaping. Just by always looking for that under hook makes a big difference.

I was just looking up the calorie burn for a class of BJJ. Some estimates are around 600 calories and I would say that's right. My heart rate was way up last night when I had a break between sparring. Would be cool if I could measure my heart rate but I think the monitor would break.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 minutes = 42 minutes

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