On the Mat Day 226: Early Saturday Training

I got to the dojo in the rain this morning. The door was locked and I thought "Shit, I must have missed the email that said training was cancelled." Then I heard a voice from behnd greeting me and apologizing that he was late. F-sensei came with a newspaper in hand and opened her up. That was a relief because I was looking forward to training again. 3 more guys turned up which was amazing for Saturday morning when most people are either still curled up in bed or sitting watching the crap on TV. White (Kato), Blue (Yoshida) Purple (Tsuzuki).

F-sensei showed us escapes from mount I think with Kato is mind because the rest of us had seen the techniques many times. However, I still managed to pick up some pointers from the lesson. That never fails to amaze me about BJJ. There is always some further detail to learn even if you think you have got the technique down pat.

I was interested to discover that 2 non-Japanese (perhaps Americans) had started training at a local GSB club (Grappling Shoot Boxing). Our club has good relations with this club because the instructors all trained together at one time or another about 10 years ago. F-sensei said these new white belt guys were really strong. I am hoping to get more Westerners to come to our gym and even posted on some message boards with details of our club, so it was a suprise to me that they entered the GSB club. Not that my Japanese is poor and I cannot talk to the guys at my club, but I still long to talk about techniques with either someone from my country or another native English speaker. Even for that person to instruct me during a competition would help. I find it hard to focus on the Japanese when sparring and being shouted at to do something. F-sensei mentioned that most Brazilians who live here often migrate to a club that already has many Brazilians there or the instructor is Brazilian. I understand this.

Sparring was fun. Yoshida and Tsuzuki tooled me. Even though Tsuzuki has hurt his back, he had no problems maintaining top on me. I also went into sparring session with him concerned that I would hurt his injury further but I need not have worried about that at all. He is probably the hardest guy to spar with in our club right now. If anyone newb walked through our door with a "I am a beast" ego, I would throw Tsuzuki at them immediately to deflate their ego. He certainly killed mine long ago. I also learnt that one of our blue belts is moving to teach at a different high school so he will leave our club. The guy was a rough judoka but still I guess I am sad to see him go. Especially because he would bring along his high school judo kids to train sometimes.

Sparring: 6 x 6 mins = 36 mins

Notable moments: Letting the white belt take side control or holding turtle then working escapes effectively. (Need to do this more often). Oh and I got a triangle with my short-ass legs!