On the Mat Day 636: Scramble Kimono

We are now into July in Japan and it is still raining. In fact it has intensified. It's very easy to become depressed in this weather. The rainy season lasts around a month and should be over in a couple of weeks, after which it will be very humid. It's not a fun time to train in Japan so if you plan on visiting come before June or after September.

I bought a Scramble Athlete kimono because I was so impressed with the feel of the Rebel that Furukawa-san gave me. It's a little long in the arms and legs but that because I haven't washed it yet. It does feel good against the skin and doesn't rub like some of my old gis. My first white gi feels like cardboard but I've now had to retire it because it has holes in it. I should probably get the wife to make it into some type of apparatus for pull ups and grip strength.

Training started at 10 am this morning with James. We worked on collar stiff arming to prevent the bullfighter pass. I've been looking for a foolproof method to stop this pass but haven't come up with anything great against extremely strong passers. Then I stumbled on Firas Zahabi's method of stiff arming and really like how it's done. I messed around with it a little today during sparring and it hurts the collarbone of the opponent if they push in hard. When done on K-sensei he was a little wise and repositioned the collar of his kimono to get my fist over his chest to try for a wrist lock, which he used to make me let go. I suppose the stiff arm is susceptible to a flying triangle so you have to decide on whether to use it based on your opponent.



James and I are also working on self-defense techniques a lot now. Today we continue to do o-goshi after stuffing a haymaker. I actually tweaked my inside knee ligament when breakfalling (old injury) so am icing and using ibuprofren right now. Such is the life of a jiu-jitsuka.

Very humid and sweaty today during training but it was fun training as always.