On the Mat Day 873: Private Lesson

Yup, I'd try it if it cut down the Cicada population

So I haven't been able to get to training much during the latter half of this month. I've been swamped with work. There have been other factors that have kept me away as well such as not enough sleep, my poor beaten up knee and lack of motivation. Now that we are deep into summer, each morning I am woken up around 5.30am by the sound of cicada. The sound is just overwhelming and I often wonder if it will make me crazy someday, just like the Chinese water torture. I hate the sound, not only does it make me feel hot, it makes me want to go outside and cut or burn down the trees near my house - maybe I am going crazy after all.

I went to train on Thursday morning since it was unusually cool after some passing storms. Unfortunately I was the only person who turned up. Wednesday seems to have a good turnout and means lower numbers on Thursday. This might have actually been good luck because F-sensei asked me what I wanted to work on. I told him I am really into butterfly guard right now and he promptly went on to show me how he operates in the guard he uses all the time during sparring. He went over getting a standing opponent into butterfly guard (something I have problems with), dealing with close passing using the butterfly hook and reverse shrimping, John Wayne sweep (why is it called this? anyone?). He went on to tell me he actually doesn't mind if someone underhooks his far arm when they are passing him, as long as they don't control his head he has no problems sweeping or getting out of trouble. He showed me a few tricks from half-bottom to recover from being underhooked.

Because I love leglocks and am interested in learning a system, I just ordered the Moden Leglock Formula DVD from Stephan Kesting's grapplearts. In the past I have ordered the Spider Guard Masterclass and enjoyed it, although I don't focus on it right now. Hopefully this DVD has a few tricks and great drills I can work on. I will honestly devote a year of entirely doing leglocks if I find it has the material to help me do that. Can't wait till it arrives.