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Just sent our team off to Pan Ams. We’re sending about 15 from our school and they all promised to kill everyone (go team Lloyd Irvin!)

Coach said I’ll be going next year for sure – just have spend the next year getting my feet wet with other tournaments.

I’m gonna start some light training next Monday. I’m able to do forward, and back rolls, handstands, side planks, etc – all without pain. I can do a pull up, but it does make me feel a bit poked in the side – skipping that for a while. All in all, I think I’m healing up pretty quickly.

So next week I think I’ll just be doing light drill work and see how it feels. If I feel good with a week of that, I may try some light rolling the next week. I definitely don’t want to re-injure and put myself out again! If all goes well – I hope to be back to 100 percent by the end of April.

I was talking with one of my team mates earlier today and he helped me see this time out as a good thing. Since all I can do is watch and visualize, I’ll probably come back even better – since I’m learning to think through a match.

I did a massage on coach after class tonight – so when he gets back from Pan Ams he’s going to give me another private lesson. Yay for trade outs!

It’s been ten days of down time. I’m back to work and feeling pretty good for the most part.

I have been going to all of my regular classes this last week – not participating – but watching and taking videos. Okay, so I’m doing my share of smack talk and heckling from the sidelines. Everyone is cutting weight for tournament season so I’ve been telling them that with less of them to smash me, I’ll kick their butts easily when I get back on the mats.

I decided that I’m not going to risk competing on the 31st. I emailed NAGA and they let me transfer my pre-registration to a team mate. No sense going into my first tournament after 2 weeks of off time.

I’ve gotten the chance to talk with a lot of the “old timers” around the gym. They tell me that in the grand scheme of it all, a few weeks or even a month out doesn’t make that much difference.

I’ll be getting back on the mats after the 31st. I asked coach if he’d do the honors and give me my first beating when I get back. He promised to be really good and thorough. Oddly enough, I look forward to it.

I’ve had plenty of time to think these last couple days of staring at the ceiling. What I’ve been asking myself is, why am I doing this?

Do I have something to prove? Am I just a glutton for punishment? Is this just me looking for attention? What is my purpose in beating myself up like this?

Then I stopped myself. I realized, I’m just trying to answer everyone else’s questions. People seem to think that getting an injury will “snap me out of it”. Like I’m off on a mad, foolish quest – and I’ll figure it out eventually.

I can’t wait to get back on the mats! I love my team, I love my coaches, and I love to kick butt!

See, I’ve accomplished a lot in my life so far. Everything I’ve ever tried to do – I’ve done it. But I’ve never really thrown everything I have at something. I’ve always given it just enough effort to make it “above average”. When I knew I could have done better.

I’ve been curious to see what I could do if I gave something 100 percent. And I’ve chosen Jiu Jitsu for that experiment. Why? Because it seems to have no limits for what you can learn. And it’s awesome fun!

So let’s see where this takes me shall we?

And now for something (somewhat) completely different:

I think I’m healing pretty quickly. X-rays on wed showed a pretty wide crack halfway through my right 10th rib. I’ve been taking some prescription strength anti-inflammatories since then.

As of Friday morning, I could sit up fairly easily from lying down. On Saturday I found I can get in and out of the car fairly normally. It hasn’t been outright painful since thursday night. It’s more uncomfortable/annoying – like someone keeps poking me with a broomstick.

I have been getting short of breath easily – have to take more breaths when talking. Wearing a bra is a pain as well (more so than usual that is). My only other complaint is not being able to sleep on my side. Sucks!

I’m wondering if I actually broke it a while back. The doc I went to said something about how my flinching when applied pressure told him it was probably broken even before he did the x-ray. I’d been flinching like that for about a week. It might be that I broke it a while ago, and the hit I took on wed just pushed my body over the edge. In sparring on tues, it was so painful I hollered a few times and it limited my movements.

This could also explain why it seems to be healing faster than I was told it would.

We shall see.

Well 24 hours post break I’m feeling a lot better than I thought I would. Can take a deep breath and cough lightly without shooting pains.

My plan is to lie still until monday. Only getting up to pee as necessary. The psychological pain is the worst – I am not wired to lie still! Cabin Fever!!!

At any rate, my meds just arrived so I’m gonna go dope up on NSAIDs and muscle relaxers.

I went in for an x-ray and turns out I cracked one of my lower ribs almost exactly halfway through. This puts me out of training for a while – I’m hoping if I’m REALLY good with my rest, ice, do absolutely nothing, that I might be able to make the tournament (that’s 2 1/2) weeks away.

I’m gonna take it real easy and then try getting another x-ray done a couple days before to see how it’s looking.

Time for another ice pack! Yay!

6:30 am
Someone else showed up for class this morning! Wheeeee!

Working on attacks from mount again, we drilled a straight arm lock (with option for kimura if opponent so desires)

Plant hands on mat right above your knees and swim right arm up, under their left triceps. Use your fingers to walk it up when they resist (as opposed to muscling it).

Use your shoulder to drive it down and grab their wrist with your left hand to straighten it out.

Apply pressure to snap their arm off at the elbow.

If they try to tuck their arm in, they’ll chicken wing themselves and then you go for the kimura.

Another guy showed up for class at around 7, so the guys drilled together and coach worked with me some more. We did some guard pass to knee on belly drills for a bit, then we started adding to it. Instead of stopping at knee on belly, slide the knee over into full mount, they stiff-arm, then you arm bar.

Did that for a bit, then coach started changing it up for me – switching into fat boy/bow choke, etc. Then he showed me a slick re-mount. Say for whatever reason, I lose their right arm while trying to armbar:

Both legs go up – like the start of a back roll.

Left leg swings/kicks back to the mat by their right hip while right foot comes down to the mat by their left hip – they pinch together.

Push up with hands to re-mount.

Coach told me to practice this with the grappling dummy until it becomes automatic.

11:30 am
Highlight of this class was rolling a guy over my midsection and completely twisting up my rib cartilage. Quite painful. Took me over an hour to stand up.

Right now I’m dosed up on Lortab and am gonna be chilling at home for the next little bit. Good news is that I can take a full breath in, and cough lightly without tearing up – so it could have been worse I think.

Busy day today!

10:00 am
Drilled this awesome leg drag pass that I learned at the seminar I went to on saturday. You can use it any time that you want to pass someone’s guard. I tried writing it out, but I can’t seem to describe it well.

The guys were drilling so I was left out for a bit. Although I did finally get to go a round with one of the black belts. He’s known for playing dirty and is huge. He was very nice to me though (he tore up the next guy). He told me I have really good defense and was guarding my wrists well. He was going for wrist locks, but I remembered someone telling me that making a fist will help protect you from that.

11:30 am
Did some knee on belly escape drills. We did the same one I learned yesterday, as well as a new one for use when they’re sunk really low and you can’t sweep them. Say they’re on your right side:

Grab their ankle with your right hand and the knee with your left hand.

Bump your hips up, and slightly toward the left, so as to get your hips under them. While doing this, push the ankle up and over your right leg.

Switch to your left hip and trap their foot in your quarter guard.

Depending on what they do, you can sweep, take the back, or half guard.

Useful!

5:00 pm
I probably should not have done this class – but I wanted to anyhow. Stupid stubborn me. My floating rib got dislocated on saturday and it’s still fairly inflamed

Did all right my first couple rolls, although I couldn’t move the way I wanted to – so frustrating. Then I got stuck with a new white belt who has 60 lbs on me, and is a high school wrestler. I almost got him! But I couldn’t switch my hips to get the kimura I had locked in. Then I tried for a deep half guard surprise back take, and wasn’t able to complete it due to mobility issues – got me yelled at by coach. Grrrr!

Anyhow, ended up spending the rest of class drilling with one of the blue belts who was nursing a knee injury. Us broken people have to stick together! Still sucked! But not as bad.

7:15 pm
We drilled the mount techniques that coach had me work on during monday’s am class. There were only 5 of us in class and everyone else was huge. So I drilled, but sat out from rolling. Not in the mood to be squished.

Rib! Hurry up and heal already!

I went in to the gym at 6 this morning – wanted to get in a really good warm up and get mobilized before class started at 6:30. The group warm ups that we do never seem to get my hips mobilized enough. Tis the doom of hypermobility I suppose – just takes more to work my entire range of motion.

So I hung upside down from the thai bags for a bit, then spent 45 minutes getting everything moving because no one else showed up for class! I was very sad because I was so ready to roll (literally!).

This ended up working to my favor though because coach came over and gave me some one on one training in maintaining mount control. Some of the things I learned:

Never posture up unless you already have a cross grip and are going for it. Easier to get rolled that way.

Keep hands/elbows on mat while low. If they try to shrimp out, swim the hand under the head to prevent movement. “Control the head, control the movement”.

If they try to bridge out, tuck your feet under their butt and hip down to control.

Welcome anyone who tries to grab your collar. This leaves them open to an armbar: their right hand goes up, place your palms on their chest (right under, left over their right arm). Do a push up and swing your left leg over their face and land your hips on the mat to their right, then rip their arm out.

If they try to go on their side, let them. Pop into fat boy and start going for the collar or arm lock. If they pop down, they’re either gonna give you mount or their back.

Can’t wait to try out some of this stuff!

The 10:00 class consisted of myself, 2 black belts, 2 purple belts, and 2 other white belts. Guess who got left out of the mix? I understand though. It’s the competition team training class and the upper level belts wanna have at it. And the white belts were big new guys – and I don’t wanna get hurt.

I enjoyed watching, but then a brown belt I hadn’t met showed up and sat down to watch. So I asked him if he wanted to play and he said “sure”.

Twas a fun couple of rolls. He told me I have great grips and hip movements. And I almost got him by sliding out the back of a deep half guard – need to get a little faster at that one.

This guy actually ended up teaching my 11:30 class. We went over a knee on belly escape drill that works really well. Say they’re at your right side with their right knee in your gut:

Pendulum swing your legs to the right.

Left hand reaches under their right knee (on belly) and grabs your own left leg.

Right hand grabs their left pant leg while left leg swings up toward their left leg.

Simply load them up, then pitch them to your left – without letting go of their left pant leg.

Left hand pushes their other knee down and you have side control.

Sounds complicated – isn’t really.

I managed to tweak a rib and had to sit out of rolling. But I got it back in pretty easily, kinesiotaped it, and am doped up on anti-inflammatories. Should be all good for tomorrow.

Well I weighed in this morning and I made the cut to lightweight! Now I’m gonna get a little below then just maintain it – even after NAGA. I’ve emailed a guy who works in the hospital fitness center about getting a body fat analysis to make sure I’m in an okay range. Waiting to hear back.

I skipped the 10:00 team training class this morning. Since I trained so hard core yesterday, I’m gonna go lighter today.

At 11:30 we drilled two take down options from a single leg grab. Option 1:

Pass their leg to the outside, step in behind their standing leg.

Toss/walk/drop them on their butt while remaining standing.

Option 2:

If you can’t get their leg to the outside, switch hand grip on leg, come to their side, and slide free hand behind their back under their shoulders.

Squat a bit, lift with your hips, and toss them onto the matt.

Option 2 looks like you’re just gonna carry them like a big baby – before you throw them that is. It made me feel really big and tough because when you lift from your hips, they feel like 10 pounds of weight.

We reviewed that bravo choke again, then rolled for a bit. Got tapped a few times, crushed a bit… The usual beatings.

Picked a fight with one of the blue belts after class. I jabbed at him and he lunged for the single leg. I sprawled and he picked me up over his shoulders instead. I went for a guillotine choke so he tried to put me down and I locked in a triangle. Then we just had fun – he was a technical fighter so it was a good match with lots of movement. His sleeve hem was falling off and I managed to rip it off the rest of the way. It’s now tied around my belt as a trophy.

Went easy at the 5:00 rolling class. Did 3 rounds and then another guy showed up so I sat out to watch since that put the numbers uneven. All three rounds were with big guys so I felt I’d had enough crushing anyhow. Coach must have agreed because he didn’t yell at me to get back on the mat like he usually does for the 5:00 class.

Ran out and refueled myself before coming back for advanced gi training at 7:15. We drilled that kimura from N/S again with a slight variation. Instead of forcing/tricking your opponent onto their side, you work off of a possible escape they might use if you have over/under grips. Say your overhook is on the right side…

Opponent slides their right hand to rest on top of their hip bone and bridges to the left for the escape/leg entrapment.

As they bridge, jump on their head with a knee on each side and trap their right arm with your left.

Apply kimura.

I was with a purple belt who showed me how to turn it into an armbar if I couldn’t lock in the kimura for whatever reason. Pretty sweet!

I’ve gotta work a full shift tomorrow so I’ll only be training in the morning for two classes. Of course, the 5 massages I have booked should keep me moving!

So this morning I told coach that I have a problem in that I think I’m invincible and will push myself harder than I should sometimes because of that. He kinda chuckled and nodded.

Learned a cool bravo choke from N/S top today.

Slide left (underhook) arm to peel their right arm up over their head – most people would try to roll on their side to defend the arm.

As they roll, pivot 90 degrees into side control while swimming right arm under their head until the hand is just past the back of their neck (head and lower neck of radius against artery).

Left arm comes to their back and right hand sneekily grabs left sleeve.

left arm hugs shoulder blade, elbow walks up, and then crunch straight up for choke.

Took me a second to get it since I was diving under the neck with the wrong hand to start. Felt awkward doing it right the first few times but then it clicked and it’s a pretty slick move.

We rolled for a bit at the end of class. I managed to lock in a cross gi choke from guard. Then things got a bit interesting. I went from a spider guard, to locking in a triangle while my partner was trying to stack and cross choke me. I knew I had my triangle set better than they had the choke so I just waited until the opportune moment and then nailed it. Oorah!

After taking some chill/feed my face time, I went back for team training at 10. Everyone basically was doing whatever drills we wanted for about an hour. Got to partner with one of my instructors and he showed me a cool back take from a butterfly guard.

Get sleeve grips and kick right leg out to break their grip on your knee – return leg to starting position.

Pull their left arm across your body and grab the triceps with your left hand while basing out with right hand.

While doing an arm drag on their left arm, pull/pivot yourself up and around to take their back.

Sounds complicated when I’m trying to write it out, but it was felt pretty smooth in practice. I thought of it as climbing up their arm to their back.

Learned something called “the monster”. It was really simple. Starting N/S top:

Swim left arm behind neck to parallel with floor while right arm blocks the hip.

Sprawl down and to the right side of their head, trapping their chin in your armpit.

If they haven’t tapped yet, crunch shoulder toward floor and left hand.

Think I got gi burn from this one.

Went over a funky key lock move from N/S top as well (for when they have both underhooks):

Right arm slides back to pull their right arm to your side, cup fingers behind triceps.

Shoot legs under their right arm to isolate, still gripping the triceps and pulling to tuck it “in your back pocket”. You’re basically sitting next to their head with feet out in front of you and their arm across your lap.

Keep pressure on their head and shoulder with your body, bend your left knee next to their hip, and hook your right leg over their torso (or right leg).

Just lay back and hip up for the key lock on their right arm.

Sweet smooth move! What I like is that once it’s locked in, it’s REALLY solid. The guy I was working with tried a bunch of different escapes and couldn’t figure one out – I’ll have to ask coach.

Fun transition drill from N/S top!

Reach right arm across to their left hip and plant left hand on mat midway down their torso.

Lift up onto hands and toes

Swing right foot under your body and plant it on the left side of your face (your body should be facing the ceiling)

Sit down on their chest, stretch your legs out straight, and grab behind their head with both hands. He called it rodeo guard and showed us how to tuck your feet in at the sides and play it, but the drill moves on…

They then try to swim to one side to get you off (say they go left).

As they swim toward the left (onto their side), you straighten your right leg, and allow yourself to slide off onto your butt – staying upright. (Lots of options to play here as well!)

Right arm comes down to their hip as you pivot back into N/S top position.

You feel really slippery once you get a rhythm going with this! It feels like break dancing with another person!

Got to roll in coach’s tough class again today. Actually got in a position that coach said he’d never seen before. Don’t even know how to describe it really… Best try is that we both locked in reverse triangles at the same time except that I got both my arms through, so if I’d let go with my legs, my partner would be in a backward mount position on me. Really weird!

I made it through 6 classes today – 3 of them back to back. Finally got tired in the last class – skipped on rolling.

So sleepy…