Here's my potemkin village, among many that I'm trying to destroy - I developed sight reading during piano lessons from the age of 5 to 11 so now I can hide the fact that I'm an entirely mediocre bass player. The term came from a Russian guy who was trying to impress Catherine the Great on a tour of the Ukraine back in the 18th century by making a bunch of fake villages.
I woke up around 4:45 and couldn't get back to bed - from about 1am until I finally got up, it felt like my thoughts were racing; it was entirely about jiu jitsu, and I figured I'd write down what I learned last night, mostly for me, but also for those who decided they had more important things to do.
It was only me and Joey at class - and Joey was 10 minutes late, so at first I thought it would just be me and Marco, which feels way awkward, and I'm sure he doesn't like it much either. Anyway, we didn't do drills or anything, just straight into techniques, and it was awesome. I feel as comfortable as it's possible to feel (as a white belt with less than a month) with most parts of jiu jitsu right now except submissions. The gi chokes feel very comfortable for me, but I've realized they're a bit tougher to work than they seem on a non-resisting opponent. The triangle and arm bar that we'd worked a few weeks ago still felt clunky; I could tell I didn't quite have the movements on the triangle right, and haven't had a chance to fix it really. So last night, Marco worked with us on 5 specific attacks from the guard (when you are on your back and have your opponent between your legs). And he presented it in a sort of "5-point" plan. If your opponent puts his arm here, then you can do this. And he showed us 5 very specific attacks. An arm bar, an arm lock, kimura, triangle, and omoplata. The arm bar is done with an extended arm directed straight ahead. The arm lock is done with an extended arm across your body. The kimura is done with an extended arm to your side. The triangle is done if your opponent goes for an underhook in your guard. The omoplata is done when he has an arm extended too far back.
I hope I got all those right; anyway, my point is that given the "private lesson" nature of the class along with the amount of time we were able to drill all those positions, I feel very good about all of those (except the omoplata, that one is freakin' complicated). The reason I loved the lesson so much was because it felt so pragmatic - everything felt like "this is something I can use." Also, it was a small boost of confidence as well when I was able to lock in the arm lock while Joey had problems. I'm not rejoicing in his failure, it probably had to do with my stupid lanky limbs, but it felt good to realize that I'm possibly not so far behind him as I feel. Maybe it's me being delusional.
So I woke up at 4:45, cruised the net a bit, checked up on my social networking sites (which, let me tell you, are always chock full of activity; I can't keep up with all of my 23 myspace friends <roll eyes>), read a few articles about politics, and then decided running was a good idea. I've not run in the morning since I was 17, and I remember being creeped out because it was really windy/pre-stormy that morning, so it lasted the one day. I guess it's a good sign that I got bored and decided to go running. I hope this love of jiu jitsu keeps up, because it's inspiring a bunch of other stuff - healthy diet (ok, mostly the elimination of coke and junk food, but it's a start), better sleep (sometimes less, but seems better quality), and actually wanting to work out. If I hadn't started jiu jitsu, that would all go down the drain most likely.
Well, that's it for now - 3 weeks is better than the 4 I went between last posts.
I woke up around 4:45 and couldn't get back to bed - from about 1am until I finally got up, it felt like my thoughts were racing; it was entirely about jiu jitsu, and I figured I'd write down what I learned last night, mostly for me, but also for those who decided they had more important things to do.
It was only me and Joey at class - and Joey was 10 minutes late, so at first I thought it would just be me and Marco, which feels way awkward, and I'm sure he doesn't like it much either. Anyway, we didn't do drills or anything, just straight into techniques, and it was awesome. I feel as comfortable as it's possible to feel (as a white belt with less than a month) with most parts of jiu jitsu right now except submissions. The gi chokes feel very comfortable for me, but I've realized they're a bit tougher to work than they seem on a non-resisting opponent. The triangle and arm bar that we'd worked a few weeks ago still felt clunky; I could tell I didn't quite have the movements on the triangle right, and haven't had a chance to fix it really. So last night, Marco worked with us on 5 specific attacks from the guard (when you are on your back and have your opponent between your legs). And he presented it in a sort of "5-point" plan. If your opponent puts his arm here, then you can do this. And he showed us 5 very specific attacks. An arm bar, an arm lock, kimura, triangle, and omoplata. The arm bar is done with an extended arm directed straight ahead. The arm lock is done with an extended arm across your body. The kimura is done with an extended arm to your side. The triangle is done if your opponent goes for an underhook in your guard. The omoplata is done when he has an arm extended too far back.
I hope I got all those right; anyway, my point is that given the "private lesson" nature of the class along with the amount of time we were able to drill all those positions, I feel very good about all of those (except the omoplata, that one is freakin' complicated). The reason I loved the lesson so much was because it felt so pragmatic - everything felt like "this is something I can use." Also, it was a small boost of confidence as well when I was able to lock in the arm lock while Joey had problems. I'm not rejoicing in his failure, it probably had to do with my stupid lanky limbs, but it felt good to realize that I'm possibly not so far behind him as I feel. Maybe it's me being delusional.
So I woke up at 4:45, cruised the net a bit, checked up on my social networking sites (which, let me tell you, are always chock full of activity; I can't keep up with all of my 23 myspace friends <roll eyes>), read a few articles about politics, and then decided running was a good idea. I've not run in the morning since I was 17, and I remember being creeped out because it was really windy/pre-stormy that morning, so it lasted the one day. I guess it's a good sign that I got bored and decided to go running. I hope this love of jiu jitsu keeps up, because it's inspiring a bunch of other stuff - healthy diet (ok, mostly the elimination of coke and junk food, but it's a start), better sleep (sometimes less, but seems better quality), and actually wanting to work out. If I hadn't started jiu jitsu, that would all go down the drain most likely.
Well, that's it for now - 3 weeks is better than the 4 I went between last posts.
