On the Mat Day 179: Using the Belt of Turtle Opponents

So I got to class and the room was packed. I was really shocked. Maybe 9 high school kids from a judo club came to join the class. I think they have some relation with one of the guys who comes to do BJJ and is a blue belt at our school. There were about 4 black belt, 3 white and 1 of each that were girls. They all looked young but all I could think was oh crap I'm gonna get thrown all over the place. That didn't happen though.

During sparring they all felt fairly strong on standup and once they had the grips they looked comfortable but if I stopped or changed level or shot in for a single leg they seemed to be lost what to do. Only one of them managed to throw me from a single leg but I'm always ready to post the inside leg to stop me being rolled over. Their base was fairly weak against my guard (closed or open) which shocked me because I've always thought judo/BJJ guys were really good in any position but now I see that was because they had been doing BJJ for a while. It was fairly easy to catch them in triangle, omoplata or armbars. Their arm placement and safe posture was just not there. They felt like fish out of water. I got a little used to their movements and tried sumi-gaeshi which I usually do from a collar grip break--worked suprisngly well.

I think I was most impressed by the girl who had a black belt. When she came up to me and asked me to roll I almost fell over backwards in shock. That never usually happens here. She wore a black belt with a white stripe through it and I asked her what belt it was. She said it was the women's version of the black belt. huh? I had no idea there was a difference and why?

All in all it was a great day because I sparred with some new folks, tried to be really nice, asked them all their names, said they did well (which some of them did) while rolling. I always look at these type of folks and hope that they will join the club eventually or even in the future start BJJ.

I also wore my gi for rolling and it felt amazing. Loose and light. It smells a bit of incense for some reason but I guess that's because it came from Brazil. I picture some women sewing it together with incense burning in the background. No idea why. Also, I received my Fightworks Podcast patch from Caleb in the post. Thanks mate. The podcast has really kept me going when I've been down.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins

Apparently, the Kodokan says that girls must wear this type of belt.