F-sensei was away last night because he had to go to Chubu airport to meet Marco Barbosa so K-sensei took the lesson. He taught us spider guard sweeps and added some little details that I was not aware of. We started with the basic sweep then what to do when the opponent posts either his left or right leg and also when he pulls back to not get swept. I enjoyed the lesson but my fingers are really sore today because I also use spider guard in sparring. I've noticed my wrist tendons are sore as they used to be last year. That went away but is now back to some extent because of my spider guard overuse.
The attendees last night were Kondo, Tanizawa and Matt who are all white belts. This was a sharp contrast to getting my arse handed to me on Tuesday night from all the coloured belts. Kondo is recovering from a cold and I was actually worried he would give it to me because of his snuffling but I feel ok this morning. Tanizawa said after class that he only ate a small salad from the convenience store today because he needs to lose some weight for the competition. I'm really suprised he had the energy to train. Last night was his 5th session of the week. That's just crazy to eat so little and train so much. It's totally not worth it to lower a weight class.
The guys showed me the brackets last night for the competition this Sunday. Dmitri, Kondo and Kusanagi will be in the same category and there are a lot of young guys in the same bracket, that will probably take 4 matches to the final. I have a single opponent so far from Nex gym. K-sensei said he knew him and Nomura-sensei who returned later from the airport with F-sensei mentioned that he said the guy was strong. I dislike hearing comments like this because they are not constructive. Saying something like "Oh, yeah that guy is good on top and always looks for armbars" is good advice but "He's strong"....um not much help. My gut instinct was to go look to see if I could find some videos of the guy but I don't care for pre-conceived ideas of how a person fights. A jiu-jitsu match is a battle of your game versus his. I will try to play to my strengths, if it doesn't work out, so be it. It only means I have something to work on. This will be my first competition at purple belt.
At the end of class, we all sat down asking K-sensei questions. Kondo asking about switching to side triangle from top armbar when the leg near his head is under his armpit and not over his head. I asked about bicep slicers because I like those dirty shitty painful moves. Particularly I asked about the top armbar position to locking a figure 4 leg lock over the arms and slicing that bicep. The hand position is crucial. It does not need to be deep like in taking the armbar. In fact you can barely see the thumb sticking out from the back of the elbow. Ah, its too hard to explain in words.
Before going to class I was actually worried about some pain I've had in my lower left abdomen. At first I thought it was the beginning of a hernia because every time I coughed the same point would be painful but I could not find any lumps. It hinders my movement a little and knee on belly would probably hurt a lot. Thankfully it has cleared up a bit this morning.
Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins
P.S. Stephan Kesting posted some good videos on triangle, armbar and kimura defence/escapes.
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