On the Mat Day 266: It's Full of Blue Belts

Two blue belts who used to train at the Nagoya BJJ Club attended class last night. I heard they quit the other club because they could not get in enough sparring time. Apparently they only had a 30 minute period for sparring which wasn't enough. Our sparring session usually runs from just before 9 until 10 pm and after sometimes. They were both really nice guys. I only got to spar with one of them but he was really strong, beastly strong. I think he has a judo background.

Akira and Yoshida, who are also blue, turned up and I got to spar with them a couple of times. Yoshida is an example of an intelligent BJJ player. You can tell he analyzes moves and has definately worked out his "routes" and plays his game. I constantly went to deep half guard with him but he stuffed it each time by pulling me into an armbar even after I hid the inside arm. I talked about it with him later and he suggested I either remove and insert the arm or escape my head under his armpit, hook off his leg and come to all fours for a top Darce choke. I'll try to drill this move. During sparring I found my stamina was low. I've been only doing 2 sessions per week recently because of DIY work so that has hit me bad.

After class with K-sensei I was lucky to get some extra instruction in deep-half and x-guard. To escape x-guard, it is not good to keep standing facing 90 degrees to the guy playing x-guard. You need to swivel your hips to look at him. Use your hand to pull back on the knee of the top hooking leg and flip your leg over back towards you to come close to a KOB position. Unitl now I have simply been pulling his knee towards me instead of pushing it away from his head (which resists with a weaker muscle group).

I also got the results of my health check. My cholesterol is still high at 264, hdl at 72 and ldl at 166. Both have increased. I'll change my diet to see if it has any effect. I also have a high a/g ratio, high euric acid (think gout) and maybe an enlarge spleen. Jesus, I think I am gonna fall apart right now. I think I should do a round of p90X. That usually brings the bad numbers down.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins

Notable moments: Drop seio-nage on purple belt, getting caught in a banana split after defending twister