Wednesday

Soooo....I broke down and got a Kindle. It was an amazing deal (over half off) that I couldn't refuse. I feel a bit like a traitor. I took the dog for a walk on the ridge after work, but otherwise shrugged off yard work in favor of messing with the Kindle. I'm going to try out a couple of newspaper subscriptions, including a Brazilian one to help with my Portuguese. 

In other news, my grappling cardio appears to be back. Praise be.

Started off with my favorite sweep from half guard (93 guard). I pulled it off in rolling on Monday, mostly b/c I caught the guy by surprise. Great details to brush up on.

Did some variations, including a knee-bar mid-sweep, coming up to all fours before diving under and a triangle from the all fours position. The triangle felt very slick, but there are a lot of moving parts to it that would take a significant amount of drilling to get smooth.

Speaking of drilling, I noticed a big difference in how I've approached this sweep b/c I've drilled it more than anyone else at the school. It's like the guys who bolo all day long. They can hit it at all will b/c of the muscle memory and subsequent confidence that it builds. I'm having a fair amount of success with the movements that I've focused on during the Sunday classes.

Rolls with Sarah, Savannah, Ryan and Jason (b). I primarily dominated the first three rolls. I had top position on Sarah and eventually got her back. I stayed out of the 50/50 nonsense.

I had top position when rolling with Savannah for most of the roll as well. I had a high mount at one point and went for several attacks and finally settled on an americana. I didn't quite have her noodle arm at the correct angle though and she eventually escaped. 

I was able to get mount on Ryan as well, and threatened a number of submissions. He did a good job of not letting me get a high mount. He escaped and I was working to his back as time ran out.

Jason (b) mauled me as usual. It started off fairly neutral, but he got that damned bottom-of-jacket-lapel grip and it was pretty much over from there. He had a bow and arrow that I defended well until he switched hands and some other tomfoolery and got the choke. 

Monday

It occurred to me that since James is competing in May, that the uptick in warm-ups is probably competition training. Today we did two minute rounds of knee-cut through pass, sprawl, knee-cut through pass, etc. Got a little gassed toward the end but overall was pretty happy with my cardio. Especially since I didn't sleep well last night due to a fussy dog.

We did half guard passes. First was defending the lock-down and proceeding with a knee slice pass. After that it was passing the knee shield by breaking their feet apart (if they're together), sprawling back and then moving to side-control. Last was transitioning to a kimura or arm-bar if you're able to suck them into you while they're on their side.

Rolls with Sarah, Dennis, Julio and Sean. 

Fun roll with Sarah. Lots of 50/50, and lots of me doing 50/50 way wrong. I keep getting confused as to which side I want my leg and which side I want their leg. The confusion usually clears up when Sarah initiates a pass. :(

Seems like I haven't rolled with Dennis in quite awhile. We had a competitive roll, and I passed his guard not once but TWICE. We had quite a few sweeps and passes between the two of us. I had him worried about a loop choke at one point, but I only had half guard and couldn't quite get the angle that I needed.

Julio stayed heavy, but worked from both top position and from within my guard. He gave me a great tip for when I'm trying for an arm-bar and my opponent is low and trying to suck everything in. Do a sortof flower sweep over to the side that you're attacking.

Sean is great for me to roll with b/c he's about my size and skill level. We have fairly even battles. I was able to pull off my half guard sweep that I've tried but haven't completed since I was sick. He promptly got me into an inverted triangle, but he has the same problem that I do of not being able to finish it. We had a good back-and-forth roll.

Invariably, since I wore my white gi for the first time in months, someone bled on it. :(

Sunday Advanced Class

I was really looking forward to this, as it's been a month since I've done an advanced class. However, a few rotations in and I was already feeling tired. I was drilling primarily side-control escapes at a pretty good clip. Being under good-sized guys will probably tucker you fairly quickly. Jason (p) gave me a very helpful tip on the basic bridge up and slide the knee in escape. I haven't been shrimping back after bridging into them, which is one of the reasons why I've been failing so miserably at that escape. Can't believe that I've missed that basic element.

I also drilled defending the knee cut pass. I'm really not a fan of getting both arms under and bellying down as they complete the pass. I can do it, but there just seems like a lot of room for error. I was going to throw in a DLR pass but never got there. 

Rolled with Manny twice, Kelly, Kasey and Russ. Had fun rolls with Manny. I could tell that he was trying to work different techniques, including 50/50, so it took our roll out of the norm. 

Kelly was trying to do some bottom lapel control Keenan style, but he didn't have it quite right and I was able to thwart him. He did get my back at one point, but otherwise it was a pretty good roll for me. 

Kasey is a biiiig dude, probably 220lb+ and strong as an ox. He's a 3 or 4 stripe purple. It's the first time I rolled with him, and he prefaced the roll by saying that he doesn't smash or spaz. That was a relief to hear. In fact, he let me have top position and I worked from mount and top side control for most of the roll. He escaped and at several points looked like he was going for foot locks, which would have been super scary coming from him.

Russ was trying to work some new stuff too, but I knew what was coming and countered pretty successfully. I even got pretty close to his back at one point.

Overall, I think this is the best day of rolling since I've been back. It was partly due to guys trying new things and letting me work, but I was still doing enough of the right things for me to feel good about how I did.

Saturday

Fundamentals class went pretty well, except that I'm not especially happy with how I did the arm-bar instruction. I started off with a collar choke from mount, then arm-bar, then finished with americana. People seem to be fairly happy with the class, so as long as they like it I'm thrilled to do it. I'm barely able to get through three techniques in the hour that we have. It's probably for the best though, b/c that's a lot for people to absorb with the regular Saturday class following this one.

Big Mike wanted to roll after class, and it was all I could do to keep him at bay. He had top side control for awhile which was just miserable for me. I was finally able to regain guard and do some good work from there. I was gassed after about a 10min roll. So of course James decides to have hardcore warm-ups for the next class. :(

Regular class was transitioning from top deep-half to an arm-bar and americanas. We went over a grip break for the arm-bar that I can never quite remember. 

Rolled with Ryan, Nando, Sarah and Nick. Ryan did well, and very deservedly got his second stripe on his white belt today. Nando wanted to flow roll b/c his neck hurt and then sortof forgot that we were flow rolling. Sarah and I had a fun roll and ended up in several stalemate positions. Nick is definitely getting better, but I swear he tried to berimbolo me today. He's got the jiu jitsu bug bad, but he seems to want to fast forward progress. He got the Jiu Jitsu University book, but didn't think the first section ("Survival") was that useful and went right to escapes. I mean, to each his own, but I don't think he's doing himself any favors. He comes to the Fundamentals class though, so I can't complain too much. 

Friday Morning

I woke up, for absolutely no reason, a half hour before the alarm. This was not desired behavior, b/c it took me awhile to wind down last night, so I was cutting into my sleep as it was. Groggy this morning, but got into work by 7am.

Both Jason (b) and Dennis were out, so I was the only one of the three amigos attending today. One of the smaller classes I've been to in awhile with ~8 ppl. The request was for opening the guard, so we went over the classic knee-in-butt, surfer and standing. The surfer was crazy hard for me b/c to initiate the break by stepping my back leg up instead of turning my front leg in. Once James fixed that it went a little bit easier, but that's something I need to drill. 

Rolls with Sarah, Kayla, Ryan and Roberto. I feel like my grappling cardio is coming back, and I'm very happy for it. Still had to take a small pause here and there mid-roll, but it was unnoticeable to my rolling partners and I felt like I could be more scrambly. I decided to live dangerously and pulled Sarah into 50/50 near the end of our roll. We stalemated out, probably b/c I caught her unawares with such a bold move. :p

I don't remember much about my roll with Kayla, other than I was able to control fairly well from guard and the top position. I tried a couple of times for submissions, but was more interested in positions. 

Ryan gave me fits and was able to pass my guard, but I did better with him than I have since I've been back. Several times I was in a 93 guard (half guard variant) position and was trying to noodle my sweeps from there but couldn't hit them. It's been quite awhile since I've drilled them and he wasn't staying in one spot quite long enough for me to think it out. He's good. If he sticks with it he's going to be a beast by mid-blue belt.

First time I've rolled with Roberto. He has quite a weight advantage, so of course the goal was to keep him off the top. He was also pretty tired by the last round. I made a massive tactical error by trying to go right for a head-arm choke instead of establishing position. Tbh, I'm not entirely sure that I could have completed a head-arm choke on him anyway, as he has a pretty big frame. James was watching us off and on and I felt like I was making one blunder after another. :( 

Looking forward to teaching submissions from mount tomorrow. Collar choke, americana and arm-bar. 

Thursday Night

I'm not 100%, but I'm definitely getting better every day. I felt more competitive in rolls, and breathing wasn't much of an issue.

I'm getting asked on a daily basis when I'm going to get my purple belt. Walter isn't scheduled to come out as far as I know, but apparently everyone is in a big rush for the blue belts to get promoted. Not a one of us seems to be in the same hurry that everyone else is.

Russ taught tonight, and what else but guard passing. Starting from his control center, we went over what to do if they put a foot on your hip to create distance or if they start to establish DLR. After that we combined them into a super pass. Kelly went over a rolling back attack from the torreando pass.

Rolls with Tien, Russ, Grant, Clayton and Aaron. Tien seemed to be rolling controlled, but I couldn't tell if he was giving me positions or not. I'm fairly certain that I was getting there legitimately, but sometimes it's hard to tell. I worked primarily from guard, although I did pass his guard once or twice.

Russ said something about going light, and then he proceeded to not go very light. I think he was a bit on edge as we had a visiting brown belt and purple belt MMA guys. I don't remember much about the roll, other than he was kicking my ass.

Grant and I had a good roll, and again I couldn't tell if I was getting to positions legitimately or not. I think he was taking it relatively easy b/c he has a fight next week. I did get him with a head and arm triangle, and when he used the telephone defense I finished with an americana. I did quite a bit more guard passing with him. James had shown up around this time, and to be honest, we were both paying more attention to James and the visiting brown belt than we were with each other.

Clayton pretty much wrecked me. Both in my guard and in his guard. He'd get a death grip on one of my sleeves when I was trying to pass and there wasn't anything I could do. I tried to create distance which was probably the wrong answer when I couldn't break the grip. I couldn't get his legs where I wanted them though, so I didn't feel like I had many options. 

I went pretty light with Aaron and worked from several different positions. I was in his guard and he had the start of an omoplata, which I let him keep and rotate through. He got ahold of my far arm and was able to get a good finish. Was very proud of him for the progress that he's made over how ever many months he's been coming.

Wednesday Morning

Instead of doing technique, we did slew of 2min rounds of positional sparring. Mount, back-mount, side-control, half guard and guard. After that it was full rounds of rolling, but to "win" you had to get mount or back-mount.

I was feeling ok to start, but either I'm still rusty, or my lungs are inhibiting me more than I realized, or my jiu jitsu isn't that great. Although, the areas that I was having problems with are in the same areas that I usually have problems (maintaining top control and escape side-control). My side-control escapes are godawful. As much time as I've spent there, I'd expect that it would be better. My next private with James is going to be side-control escapes.

White belts with less than six months experience were able to escape my mount and keep me from passing top half guard. That was dispiriting. Especially when I was getting swept.

I was having several moments during the later rolls when I had to catch my breath, especially when I rolled with big purple belt Jason and Sol back-to-back. They were both putting down considerable side-control pressure. Ugh. I know that I'm going to get my cardio back, but it's hard to be patient. At least I didn't have to tap b/c I couldn't catch my breath today. Progress.

Monday Morning

Feeling better every day, but not 100%. Normal activities don't tire me out, but I still get pretty winded deep into a roll. I feel like that is improving each class, but I'm impatient. 

After a very light warm-up, James asked us what we wanted to work on. No one said anything for awhile, and I finally popped up with "Anything but KOB". After that, Sol asked for leg locks b/c apparently the Five tournaments allow most leg locks for purple belt and up. The idea of doing knee-bars right after Rachael bombed her knee was very unappealing. 

We did a knee-bar from the half-guard pass to backstep, a calf slicer from inside the DLR and a foot-lock from inside DLR. 

Rolled with Sarah, Joyce, Jason (b), Tyrone and Sol. Sarah and I had a good roll. I really worked to not use mass, although there were a couple of times where I was using my weight to finish a pass by pinning the legs. I had her back at one point but wasn't going all out for submissions. She got a nice deep half sweep.

Joyce has really come a long way technically in the ~3 weeks that I've been out. I focused even more on not using mass when rolling with her. She was working hard, but was doing a lot of stuff right. I transitioned through a lot of positions and was really happy when she used the elbow escape from mount that I went over on Saturday. 

Jason ran a clinic on me. I was attempting a pass and it immediately went to hell. He transitioned through a bunch of submissions and positions. I was defending but just barely keeping my head above water. He got to a mounted triangle which I was able to stave off for a bit. I think I made a mistake trying to take him to his side, as that made it worse and I had to tap. We reset and it was a lot more of me in bad spots.

Tyrone got some standing guard passes on me b/c he had grips on my legs that I couldn't break. When I was able to regain guard though, I threatened repeatedly with the arm-bar/omoplata/triangle trifecta. He was doing a good job of defending, but I eventually caught him with a triangle. We reset and I think he passed my guard again and I was in the midst of an inverted triangle when time was called.

Sol pretty much ran on a clinic on me too. It was also my fifth roll, and in addition to just breathing normally I'm still trying to get my cardio back. He didn't exert much top pressure except for once in side-control. He let me try to set things up from guard before shooting them down. I had a nice arm-wrap at one point but couldn't quite figure out what to do with it.

I'm really looking forward to getting my cardio back. Gassing out is not cool.

First Fundamentals Class and Saturday Class

I pulled up to the gym today, a bit nervous about teaching. As I drove around the corner to park, I noticed at least 20 people standing outside. My first thought was that I was late. The second thought was "oh crap, this is going to be a HUGE class". It turns out the record store that's a couple of doors down was having a sale, and everyone was in line for that. Phew.

I did have 12ppl, including two blue belts. Sean is new to our gym, but has been training at the other gym for awhile and is a 3 or 4 stripe blue. Rachael was there with her husband. He was taking the class and she was along for the ride. It was perfect, as I was able to use someone I was comfortable with as the demo dummy. 

Other than that, it was all white belts and most of them were pretty new.

I had planned on going over three mount escapes, but only got to the first two. That was fine by me, because the third was where you hip up, lock your arms and get them into a butterfly guard. I've never been a particularly big fan of that one, and wasn't too sad when it got left behind. 

I went into pretty in depth detail on the trap and roll and elbow escapes, with a couple variations of each. I showed everything at least 3-4 times. I walked around and tried to watch everyone while they were drilling. There were times when I definitely over-corrected people, but I tried to keep it to a minimum. It's a fine line between providing detail to do it correctly and providing too much detail where people probably just get confused.

Overall, I'm really happy with how the class went. 

A half hour break, and then the Saturday class. We had 25 people, which is a pretty big turnout. James decided to make the entire class KOTH. For awhile the losers had to stay down, and then after 45min the winners had to stay down. Back-mount or submission counted as a win. I had pretty long rolls for the most part. I'm still getting back into my rhythm and I'm trying to convince my lungs that everything is ok. I eventually got to back-mount on a couple of people. Nando got me with a choke. I rolled with a big white belt guy (Mike) and when he got on top I was very sad. He wasn't deliberately trying to crush me, but there were a couple of times when my lungs protested. I think I eventually got his back and a RNC. I had two rolls with Sarah. The first one I was having problems breathing and tapped due to that. The second time I got a RNC. Also rolled with white belt Joe, and after awhile I had to tap due to breathing again. I wasn't in any sort of respiratory distress, but I couldn't get my respiratory rate down mid-roll like usual and it seemed like backing off was the smart thing to do. 

Sadly, when rolling with Russ, Rachael felt a pop in her knee and is pretty sure it was her ACL. That is going to be a huge bummer if she's going to be out for awhile. :(  We had just been talking this morning about doing Master's Worlds this fall.  

No Puffer

I went out on a limb this morning and decided not to use my inhaler for class. I had a hunch that it might have made things worse instead of better for the last class. I was a little more coughy for this class, but felt like I wasn't losing my breath as quite much.

Today we worked sweeps from bottom half guard, both when your opponent is facing away from you and when they backstep to the other side. I've seen all but one of the techniques before, so it was a good second class back. I also got to work with Sarah, which was really nice. I struggled a bit with the no gi version of taking the back, I think b/c I was leaving too much space between us during the transition. 

Rolled with Sarah, Kayla, Jason (b) and then Sarah again after class. Same feeling of rust as Wednesday night, but a little bit less. Sarah and I transitioned quite a bit in and out of guard. I don't remember much more about the roll. 

I worked from guard with Kayla until I starting working an omoplata. I didn't try especially hard to finish it, she escaped and got to side control. Top pressure was not especially pleasing on my lungs, and I could feel the wheezing. I tried some half-hearted escapes, but she finished with a americana. 

Jason (b) came over for a roll and I thought that it might be curtains for me since he's 200+lb. However, he was really considerate and didn't apply heavy top pressure and didn't take a KOB opportunity when he had it. I thanked him later. He let me work from guard when he wasn't in top position. I got a sortof legitimate pass at one point. 

We were at odd numbers so I happily sat out the last round. 

After class Sarah and I rolled again. Don't remember much about that roll either, other than it was great to roll with her again.

Back on the Mats

Last night I decided to do a light lift session and pull-ups to see how my body would fair with a bit of exertion. It felt ok, but taking a deep breath and holding it for the squats wasn't much fun. There's still a fair amount of crap in my lungs. I was worried about how it would go in class tonight. I was terrified that I'd have a massive coughing fit over someone.

Fortunately, I coughed very little and managed to do it when no one was in my space. Big class tonight, probably over 20 people. Several new guys that I didn't recognize that must have joined since I've been gone. The team was great and really made me feel welcomed back. 

I was going to sit out the warm-ups if they involved running or any significant movement, but it was just a lot of pummeling so I figured I could handle that. I took a couple of hits from my inhaler at the last second because just by doing my own warm-up and stretching I was feeling like coughing fits would be imminent. The pummeling went fine, although it winded me more than usual. Also, the albuterol makes me super jittery. We did some sprawls and wrestling shots which took easy b/c it was wearing me out. Stretched after that and then technique.

Did some movements from seated mount when your opponent is trying to pass or dive in and stall. I was rusty but cut myself some slack. Worked with Rachael who was patient and tried to take it easy on movements that required pressure on my legs, like a sweep that resulted in mount. 

After technique, James lined everyone up for KOTH. Initially I thought there's no way I was going to participate, but Rachael was one of the first ones down and said that we could go. I knew it wasn't going to be a flow roll, but that she wasn't going to spaz out on me either. I spent a fair amount of time trying to unsuccessfully pass her guard. She eventually got a top position, then passed my guard with a knee slice (apparently she's picking up bad habits from Savannah). She had north/south for awhile, then I escaped but ended up in a triangle in her guard that she eventually finished. It was probably a less than 10min roll, but it felt like forever. I had to take small pauses where I was in a position to do so, but otherwise it went much better than I anticipated. I wasn't dying after the roll and didn't end up rolling again. I did feel incredibly rusty, but I have to trust that I'll get my groove back in a couple of weeks.

After class I practiced some mount escapes in preparation for the basics class that I'm going to be teaching on Saturday.

The Day Before

That wasn't fun at all. As best I can tell, I had bronchitis followed by full-blown pneumonia. The pneumonia went undiagnosed the first time I visited a doctor, which resulted in me getting pretty damned sick. I went to the doc for a second time b/c breathing was starting to become an issue (shallow, increased rate, extreme fatigue).

I'm 8 days out from antibiotics and feeling pretty close to normal. No nebulizer and no inhaler necessary today (which is good, b/c I ran out of the meds for the nebulizer yesterday). I get winded quicker than normal, but O2 intake is no longer an issue and coughing is minimal. 

I have never been so unwell in my life. I was out of the office (and off the mats) for 3 weeks. I had to talk myself into doing basic things like going to the bathroom. I was just getting through each day, unable to focus on anything other than how crappy I felt. I had raging headaches for a portion of that time and spent a week or two unable to sleep much due to a cough that codeine syrup couldn't touch. My appetite was non-existent and I lost 5-10lb. I got an idea of how miserable COPD must be and hope that I never experience something like that again. 

That said, I'm going to go to class tomorrow night. Goal is to just get through technique. If I'm feeling good, I might try to flow roll. I told James that I'd be up for teaching the basics class on Saturday. 

A pretty aggressive return, but I am DONE with sitting on the couch.

My jiu jitsu friends were really supportive, offering to shop for me and bring me books (sadly, I couldn't even focus on reading). One person even offered to do yardwork, which was an awesome gesture.