On the Mat Day 255: Blue Belts Only

Fridays are weird nights. There are either no other attendees at class or quite a few. Last night, perhaps because it was the 13th, saw only myself turn up for class. I talked a little with K-sensei and then he helped me practice some seio-nage and gave me a few pointers about my arm position let me do some uchikomi on him. We moved on to closed guard drills then passing by feeding the opponent's legs between my own and shifting his knees to the side.

Just as we were about to spar Yuki turned up which was cool because I was hoping he would be there. He is a really strong guy, blue belt and about 78 kg. He is getting very good at passing and judo throws. His pressure is also good when passing so it is hard to escape although he does leave space at times for me to escape. We had some really good rounds. I mostly tried sitting guard sweeps but failed (still a work in progress on this) and established mount a couple of times which he failed to escape. I am getting very good at maintaining mount and using my knees under the opponents armpits to force an entry to a submission. Atsushi, the school champ, also a blue belt, turned up a little bit later on. Again, a tough opponent at 98 kg! I mean shit, I hardly ever meet a Japanese person who weighs that much. He is extremely strong, good at using pressure and is very technical. I basically defend all the time. He likes to use closed guard. I stupidly dropped my knee from combat base to allow him closed guard.

Sparring with K-sensei, I got the sense he was letting me work my game. I got an armbar and kimura on him. I think he was working some escapes but I have the armbar break down pat although I was pissing about way too much re-inserting my arms.

It was a really good night. Some hard sparring from which I feel that I really did improve. At the end I did about half an hour of seio-nage and single leg takedown with Yuki. Getting thrown by him was good practice for my ukemi. I also used the kettlebells to get a feel for them because I am thinking of buying a set after seeing how well the movements can relate to grappling. I've been using creatine and feel a little bit stronger than normal but I usually take it in the morning because if I take it at night it wakes me up to go pee.

Sparring time: 6 x 6 mins = 36 mins

Notable moments: Rear mount escapes, trying hard to get on my side while in side mount