Too much Facebook and Twitter causes blogging to slow. The need to communicate thoughts on various jujitsu topics is easy to do with an iPhone or Droid while sitting on the couch watching MMA. Still I also find myself limited by the 140 characters on Twitter or the fact that most of my Facebook friends could care less about jujitsu. So back to the blog I go for a journey into my odd assortment of thoughts.
They keep getting better: When I first began rolling with Sempai Sadist and Sempai Prodigy, I was often satisfied with just not getting submitted. Or not getting submitted too easily or too often. Eventually I began to give them a run for their money and, at least, made them earn my taps. I envisioned a day when I'd catch up. When we'd be on an even plane. Of course, this isn't happening as they continue to progress and widen the gap. I've made my way to a new brown belt but they are now 2nd degree black belts. The fact is that my chances or dealing with them successfully has regressed over the years. Interesting that the higher belts continue to move forward and the lower belts present a growing threat. There's no safe haven.
Body Maintenance: My right knee has been achy of late and I've been concerned that I had an injury. I don't recall a specific incident so I've been hoping it was a bit of tenderness from a summer of running the track. Still, I scribbled a note to myself to consider a trip to my orthopedic surgeon. Late last week, I saw a Facebook post from Micro Dan at Omoplata BJJ in Rhode Island that he'd torn his meniscus. Shihan has mentioned to me the need to stay healthy for the next year or so. After hearing news of Micro's injury, I thought that maybe a slowed pace of training brought on by soccer season might be a blessing in disguise.
To start this Saturday's training, we went into the large parking lot behind the dojo. I was curious to see how my knee would stand up to the running we had in store. We did jogs, sprints, firemen's carries, three-man carries and even running with a partner holding us back with their belts. I was pleased that my knee had no pain from any of this after nearly thirty minutes of running on pavement strewn with broken glass.
We went back inside to begin practicing techniques and I was paired with a fellow brown belt, Joelbow. We were working hard but things were uneventful until late in the class. We were practicing having one person attempt an ippon seoi nage while their partner attempted to counter by taking their back. Joelbow and I had been doing this for several minutes when I jumped onto his back and he collapsed in pain. His knee had buckled and he was in lots of pain. I immediately felt sick to my stomach. Joelbow had been my primary training partner during preparation for our brown belt test in February. It was a horrible feeling to think that he might have a serious injury and even more so that I had been his partner when the injury occurred.
I'd imagined that it might be my knee that would collapse (and that might be the case eventually). It was an odd week when I was worried about the potential of an injury only to see a couple training partners go down. I'm hoping that both of them don't have serious injuries and that their recoveries are swift. It does give one pause whenever you hear of or see these issues.
Class Make-up: Since moving to the new dojo location at the beginning of the year, we've seen the size of the classes grow quickly. A large class of ten at the old school is now frequently 20 or more at the new place. The mat is flooded with white belts in all sizes and shapes. We've even had a few women join the adult class. It has made for any interesting mix as you go from working with a five-foot, 100-pound scrappy woman to a 200-pound dudes of various shapes. Some of the new students are mature and confident and others are young and uncertain.
It has meant that I've had the chance to teach more and to roll with strong wrestlers, wiry ladies and young guys. It's far different than years ago when every night was a matter of survival and applying the three techniques that I then knew.
Maybe the oddest thing I've run across when grappling with a woman was one that was wearing a Silly Bandz on her wrist. There's no Silly Bandz in jujitsu. Then again, I've seen a woman student give one of the guys a black eye. Being only one hundred pounds equals having fairly pointy elbows.
Omoplata BJJ: During my vacation this summer, I had the chance to train again at Micro Dan's school in Warwick. He had lots of new students and, again, I was able to spend a fair amount of time helping with the newbies. Working with someone that has only been to a few classes is lots of fun as they're blown away by what jujitsu has to offer. There's nothing like the expression on someone's face when they are feeling their first submissions.
On one side, I wasn't surprised by the fact that Omoplata offered lots of sport jiu-jitsu techniques that I don't see during my typical training. We worked on De La Riva guard, half-guard passes and how to recapture underhooks. On the other side, Micro brought in a trainer from the University of Rhode Island to put us through cross-fit training. I had been expecting a leisurely experience at 'Club Omo' and, instead, I was running sprints and doing push-ups in the parking lot.
That making of a nickname: We're standing outside the dojo before class on an evening when we're going for a run. It's drizzling just a bit but nothing much. Up walks a new student, Sri. He's wearing black socks with his running shoes. He's carrying a little umbrella to protect his head from the lightest of rain. There are no umbrellas in jujitsu and he looks nothing like Rhianna who sang 'Umbrella'.
New nickname: Shrianna.
Special Ed can hardly swim. This earned him the secondary nickname of 'Spitz'. He's also throws dainty punches when 'attacking' during self-defense drills. This earned him the nickname 'Patty Cake Bandit'. He also wants to police other student's behavior earning him the nickname 'Sheriff".
Special Ed's newest nickname: Sheriff PCB.
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