Day 12: Knee on the Belly

Today, as always, was a lazy day. I woke up late, messed around the house, did some Yoga and basic grappling movements until Kai (my son) came home from school then I went for a nap. It was a pretty good recovery day, rest and light exercise.

My foot is still a bit sore but I didn't want to miss the class tonight. So I went. I was in quite a somber mood. Not saying much. Just warming up and using the balance ball. I used to think these things were so gay, but for jiu jitsu they are a great tool. They really help you to position your center of gravity and work on your balance. Not only that, after working on one for 10 minutes my body gets a good warm up. A nice glowing sort of warm feeling.

We worked on Knee on the Belly. Which can be quite uncomfortable if you are the one who is getting the knee pressing against their abdomen and consequently all the sloshy soft stuff and guts under it. It hurts a lot when someone does it right. From there, Fukuzumi-sensei showed us the armbar, choke and kimura. We also did 3 escapes from it. 2 I remember but there was so much he showed us that even when I take notes after the lesson I cannot remember it all.

We started sparring and I went up against a white belt who has only been there for 2 months. He's been longer than me, feels quite strong but still uses lots of power and is tight in his movements. I played with the spider guard on him. I'm a total newb at it, of course...but was amazed when I actually sweeped him with it. He came round my leg like he was supposed to and I thought that I'd lost the sweep but then all of a sudden after I straightened my leg he just went. The shock on his face was great to see. I was shocked too that it worked. Just goes to show that one thing I need to keep doing is "TRY". Not stagnate with the same moves but keep doing different stuff and see what suits me. Anyway, he got my right leg in a half guard (that is my injured foot) and started to crush it with his own legs and feet. I ignored the pain, soldiered on and got an armbar from him. Then nearly a choke later on. But my foot had had enough. The bruising started to sweel on it again and I sat the remainder of the lesson out, bar a few pull ups and rope climbing. I still got my hands right! It felt like I didn't work out and I was bummed because a couple of people came later that I could have sparred with. Oh well.

Anyway, here is the move I used, courtesy of Youtube.



I messed up the right arm underhook but it still worked.