On the Mat Day 331: New Member No Show

Last night was probably the most fun I've had doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in a long time. It seemed like the stars were aligned for my benefit or something because as I drove to the dojo almost every traffic light was green and I had a quick smooth ride to class. During sparring I moved very well, in fact flowed much better than usual and my brain was actually thinking of pathways to go down before I had started the next technique. I sparred with my instructor and was even suprised to hear him breathing heavily.

We studied chokes using the lapel from side control. It started off just me and Terazawa-san but more members joined so we eventually had 6 plus F-sensei. I actually went to Nonami club last night in anticipation of a Canadian guy coming for a trial lesson. He didn't turn up though! I was really hoping that this would be the start of more English speakers coming to the club.

At the end of class I talked to Miura-san who gave me some advice about keeping my wife happy. lol. It was mostly about buying her what she wants and giving it to her when she least expects it. We also briefly talked about him having done Kyokushinkai karate and how Mas Oyama's student wanted to try to kill a bull with just his hands. Apparently Mas Oyama told him not to fight a bull because in fact a human wouldn't be able to kill it. The pupil then chose a pig to test his strength on. Apparently he punched the crap out of a pig but it never even bothered the pig. The owner of the pig saw this and laughed at the guy and brought a baseball bat, hit the pig and the pig took the blow. I can believe it, pigs are tougher than you think.

After that I did some drilling with Kondo-san which was escape from Kesa-gatame when the opponent is underhooking the head and then the armpit. I asked him if Judoka like to use this hold a lot, since he is a 3rd dan and he said that yes they did. F-sensei gave me some tips on the bridging and also what to do when the opponent is underhooking your armpit and keeping their head very low so you cannot use a frame to escape, which is a position many judoka prefer.


Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins