On the Mat Day 206: Triangle Chokes

I've still been feeling a little under the weather lately. The voice of my ego was whispering to me during the day yesterday. "You need to rest," it said. "Take a break from training, it's gonna hurt anyway. You're too old to be rolling around." But by the end of the day, after listening to the nerds I have to work with talk about scripting, machinery and computer related stuff, I had had enough. My ego voice was drown out by their nerdiness. I needed to de-stress no matter how groggy I felt. So I got home played a little guitar then headed off to the dojo.

I was suprised to see Kamiya again. I guess he is making up for lost time. Only the two of us turned up to take K-sensei's lesson. We started off drilling. I'm still working on the high guard, which I really like now. Then K-sensei began to show us the basic triangle then moved onto what to do when the opponent does not let the trapped arm go past your body or he grips his hands behind your backside. I really need to get the notes down for this lesson because it was so good yet basic (or is that fundamental?).

I sparred with Kamiya a couple of times. He put up more resistance than last time. I failed to keep mount with him. It should be obvious to me what he is doing as well. I am far to tense when I take mount. I am not so comfortable in this position as my submissions are not good here. I would probably smack the crap out of the guy in a real fight if I ever got mount anyway but it doesn't hurt to get good at chokes from this position. Just another of the legion of things I need to work on. I caught Kamiya with Sumi-nage and a tripod sweep. Both are pretty much my signature moves now for takedown. I need to move on and work on other things so I have more options. Tsuzuki-san came later at 9.30 and I got to spar with him twice. He chose to go bottom. I actually passed his guard at one point and took his back but he escaped quickly. He seemed slower than usual, perhaps a hard day at work. I know that feeling. He is definately the grinder that sharpens me up. I need to spar with him more.

After class I talked to him about his job as a police officer and asked if he had ever used BJJ at work. He said the only thing he used was knee on the belly because he didn't want to touch them or get too close. He also said he used knee on the neck if they were especially strong. He said that most of them gave up quickly to knee on the belly because most people have no idea about how to shrimp and escape it. They eventually stop struggling and plead with him to move his knee. I asked him about defending myself if someone punched me. His advice was to just call the police. Even if I tackled and took them down or punch them and they were hurt in the process, the Police in Japan just arrest both parties involved and both are blamed regardless of who took the first swing. Without a doubt it does not pay to maul someone here. I know someone who punched a friend and broke his eye socket resulting in him paying a huge fine and spending a week in jail.

Sparring time: 6 x 6 mins = 36 mins

Notable moments: Trying the four finger inside collar choke from side control and almost getting it.