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Another day of training has come and gone!

Today ended up being a fairly light day. Just went to team training at 10 and then the advanced gi class at 11:30. Tried to roll at 5, but that story comes later.

Coach showed us a bread/butter choke from N/S top.

If left arm has underhook, it swims under shoulder to grab the back of opponent’s collar.

Sprawl on your toes and pivot to the right, driving your shoulder onto their sternum. 3 point pressure here.

Using right hand, grab their right collar and work it deep. If they block with a hand, pivot and pummel around their head.

Switch pressure from shoulder-sternum, to forearm-neck.

Pretty smooth, and not as complicated as it sounds. I just try to write it out as much as I can for my own memory’s sake.

I had some fun rolling today! I think coach enjoys throwing new upper level guys on me, and then laughing when they discover my grip strength. Got to roll with one of the heavyweight pro fighters who declared me to be “wirey” and told me I have really good technique. I told him I’m doing NAGA and he told me I’ll win. Yay kudos!

I went and had some pretty extensive bodywork done this afternoon. Adductors, ribs, and neck. Stupid me (I know better) I decided to go straight to a class afterward. Not just any class, it was the tough class of non-stop rolling with push ups in the place of breaks. I made it through 3 rounds before my mind went into panic mode and I started shaking and freaking out. Never walked off the mat in the middle of class before – made me feel really dumb. I’m a massage therapist: meaning, I know better than to do something that physical after getting that sort of work done.

I’m just thankful that I’m in tune enough that my brain freaked out about being in danger before I got injured! Would have happened too if I’d kept going.

I stayed to watch the end of class and was gonna go home, but I snagged one of the trainers (old ufc heavyweight fighter) and asked him to show me how to do weights to stabilize my shoulders. My rotator cuff is far too loose and weak to do a lot of the moves I would like to do. He showed me several exercises to do with “wimpy girl weights”.

Forward raise w/palm down – anterior

Lateral raise w/palm down – middle

Deltoid extension from incline on bench – posterior deltoid, rhomboids

Cool one for the rotator cuff that know no name for. Sit on bench with one foot planted so knee is up. Place elbow inside of knee and let arm rotate internally as far as it will naturally go. Then slowly rotate it up until right before tension eases then back down.

Shrugs for trapezius. Get to use the 35 pounders for this. I keep a slight bend in the elbow (no hyperextension!) And simply shrug shoulders up and roll forward.

He told me I need to do this every day 10 reps in sets of 3. It’ll take a while (like 6 months), but if I stay consistent, he said it’ll change the way I use my upper body in BJJ.

Only a couple pounds left until I hit lightweight! Yay! Really sucked this evening. A friend treated me to cheesecake factory and what do I order? Chopped chicken salad without the corn, bacon, or blue cheese. Ah well – it’ll be worth it!

Signing off now! 6:30 class comes extremely early sometimes!

I have officially registered for NAGA Nashville! Whoot!

My goal for today was to avoid letting anyone pin me flat on my back. I get flattened a lot (it’s a small person thing) and it really limits my techniques and breathing!

Trained for about 4 hours today. Started with a 6:30 am class and learned how to get a kimura from N/S top position – it’s pretty slick. What we do is drill the moves, then coach sticks a pair in the center to try it live for a minute (longer if it gets interesting). I didn’t get the move live, but I avoided getting flattened!

I did get hollered at by coach for not going flat when someone was trying to toss a kimura at me during free roll time. Sigh! Everything has its place I suppose.

At 8:00ish I had a private lesson with coach. He put me through some guard passing drills then asked what I wanted to work on. I just shrugged and told him “you’re the one watching”.
He taught me how to deal with side control bottom. Option #1 involved opponent with double underhooks controlling head and arm. (Starting with side control from the right)

Bridge into opponent while swinging left arm out to move their head.

Slide right knee in and switch hips.

While switching hips, try to bring arms up to trap opponent’s left arm, holding it between head/neck and right.

Pull left leg up and place foot in opponent’s right hip.

Place right foot on opponent’s left hip and squeeze knee behind shoulder.

Push your butt out and slide right arm down to elbow for ghost arm bar.

If you miss the arm, no worries. You just go into full guard and play from there. Coach said always take the arm if it’s there.

The other option is for if someone has side control and is blocking my hip with an arm so I can’t hip escape. (Again, side control from the right)

Sneak right arm under to your own belly while placing left hand on opponent’s right shoulder

“Bump” and roll away from opponent onto belly then turtle

Sit out from turtle, find grips and get feet in opponent’s hips

Play spider, sweep, etc. I’m back in the game

Coach is into drilling, which is awesome. Can’t wait to get a chance to whip these tricks out of my pack!

The 10:00 class is team training and is pretty laid back rolling (usually doesn’t start until 10:30).
I started out with a 4 stripe white belt and managed to avoid flattening out – which made for a much more interesting roll! Neither of us got a submission – but we sure had fun!
One of the brown belt instructors snagged me for a round. He has been promising me a beating for the last 2 weeks.

What I like about “beatings” from the upper level belts is that it’s all technique. I call it the “kill me gently” method – and a learn a lot from it! I know exactly when I messed up, I know the move is coming, but there’s nothing I can do about it – because it was my own mistake. But I know what not to do for the next time!

11:30 is the into Gi class. We went over the same kimura from N/S as we did at 6:30, but my instructor tossed in a choke to use if you can’t break their grips for the kimura. Since you have them on their side, sitting on their head with a knee on each side; you just lean forward, slide a foot under their head, and roll off onto the mat leaving your knees locked around their neck. Then you just straighten your legs for the choke.

We also went over a bow/arrow choke from N/S top.

Sprawl out the leg that is on the side their face is (good smash time!)

Scoop under one (say left) shoulder from above arm and secure it

Spin and apply pressure sideways to force them onto their right side with pinned arm up – sprawl on toes to keep them in place.

Using right hand, grab their left collar and drive it straight down.

Swim right hand under their head and grab the collar above the left hand.

Left hand goes to opponent’s left pant leg at knee, while right knee slides up behind opponent’s neck, and left knee behind back.

Just sit back on your butt and bend opponent backward with both arms

Pretty awesome choke! I’d so love to use this in competition!

That was it for today. I’m writing techniques out step by step for my own reference – this way I can rehearse mentally.

The numbers are in! I’ve officially been training in BJJ for 6 weeks as of this last Friday! I started in the MMA program in November but decided to focus on grappling.

Seems like I just slipped right into it – bjj just fits me right. Sure I’ve had “I suck” training days, but I get over it and do better next class. I’ve also had those days when I didn’t want to haul my butt out of bed and go to class. But I did it anyhow!

This last week was the toughest. I hadn’t been getting enough sleep and could feel my body falling apart. I was making stupid mistakes and coming close to injuring myself – my mental game was all off.

I talked with one of the trainers about it on Friday and he told me to go home and sleep. “Sleep and nutrition are very important – without both the body will fall apart”. So I slept about 12 hours (through a tornado!) That night, and again last night. Feeling much better! Should be good to go tomorrow morning!

Can’t wait! Since I don’t have to work for the chiro anymore, I won’t have to be running around doing (unpaid) errands, events, etc. I’ll be training more, but oddly enough, I’ll have more time to relax and play with my dogs (they are poodles incidentally!). Aaahhhhh sweet balance!