On the Mat Day 344: Who's Been Drinking My Piss

Are these the words Lyoto Machida utters as he discovers that somebody has been sipping on his chilled beverage during training? This has happened many times to me during training. I've returned to my bottle of Calpis (non-Japanese read this as Cow Piss) only to see it half full. I'm also guilty of supping on other guys drinks thinking it's my own - everything looks the same in Japan! It's a good job that the waiver we sign when entering the club mentions that you can't join if you have an infectious disease such as Hepatitis. Thank god for that clause because jiu-jitsu is a germaphobes and viralphobes nightmare. I am a stickler about eating or drinking after other people, I never do it. But as I consider the guys I train with an extended part of my family, it doesn't bother me. So as Dmitri sat swigging my 2 liter bottle of Aquarius water last night I just smiled and thought how nice it was that my dying cold had a new host to explore.

So, on to training. I got to Tsurumai last night early to drill a few things with Dmitri. It's good to have a training partner who is enthusiastic about drilling. I know it's the only way I am going to get better at grappling. Throwing techniques at me and hoping they will stick after a few reps does not work for me. I should probably be proactive and record the shown technique on my tablet PC. I may even have to get nerdy like Mark Laimon and categorize the techniques in a library so I have a better idea of what to do in specific situations. I will start with making a library of escapes to improve since that is a big weakness for me. Before that though, I want to prepare a specific drill set. Something like a 10 min continous BJJ orientated drill to both warm up the body and increase muscle memory for technique.

Since I was recoverying from a cold I did not expect my stamina to be high. It wasn't but I did ok though but was not engaging my brain enough to get correct grips and move smoothly to the best technique for that moment. Some errors I made:

• Riding too high in top side control so was easily reversed by Yuuki
• Not keeping my elbows in enough so got triangled by Akira
• I should have used the leg trap escape from the armbar attempt from Yuuki
• Not having an answer to berimbolo sweep, when things go upside down its hard to work out where best to move
• I need more ideas when triangling a strong opponent and they defend with a frame and tuck their head to stack pass me on one side. This often happens with Fuji, Miura, Yuuki and as it did last night with Dmitri.

I see a lot of guys at the gym use the same move over and over again, caught in side control? ok no problem, I'll make the guy move this way then I will use this escape. Yuuki shrimps makes you move forward to catch up then pushes you over on the momentum, Akira does the same but prefers to switch to half-guard with a butterfly hook and then sweep, I need something like this. I have a lot of technique in my head but have yet to sort it into "go-to-moves". The only thing I have down concrete now are spider guard with lasoo hook, sitting guard with a front hook and knee shield sweeps. I'm very proficient with many of these but don't seem to force the roll to end up in these positions. Maybe I should. It's best to stick with what you know. But I like to try other things. I wish I was more like water and less like stone or even mud. Maybe I need to relax more during rolls to achieve this.

Sparring time: 7 x 6 mins = 42 mins