There was a lot of good energy on the mat last night. Lots of people came for the lesson and a Judo pal of Dmitri. K-sensei did not make it because his father recently passed away from liver problems, that left Yoshida and I as the highest belts, while Kawai (brown) sat out due to an injury but still came to watch us. He must really love jiu-jitsu. I asked him where he was injured and he pointed all over. He also mentioned how so many young guys had turned up tonight and it was hard on us older guys.
F-sensei taught us the correct method for pulling to guard and then moved onto closed guard chokes using the lapels. He basically emphasized the bending of the wrists to intensify the choke. I like practising chokes but don't find them particularly useful from closed guard except to set up the 2nd technique as part of a combination.
I sparred with Dmitri's judo friend, and as is typical of judo players, he quickly turtled and I locked on a body triangle to slow him down. He did really well to protect his neck so that I was unable to sink in a choke while the body triangle meant I could not switch to armbar. I was thinking about a twister but time ran out. I then went on to take a few breaks here and there to dry off the sweat and spar with the other guys, I think I went for around 8 rounds. I've started to notice that many of the guys my age do less rounds than me. One of the guys mentioned that he thinks I just keep going but this is not true. Sparring is really tiring for me but I try to push myself even when tired to go up against younger, stronger, faster guys. I try not to think of it as a win-lose situation. If I can successfully block the attempts of a big strong younger blue belt who wants to submit me, then I consider it a success.
I've been watching Robson Moura's 93 guard today. I've known it as Z-guard from when I used to do it as a white and blue belt. It is probably my strongest position but to see so many techniques from this guard that I only knew about 6 for is amazing. See it below.
No comments:
Post a Comment