"Mr. Funner's Ten Pound Kimono..."

Just a quick post tonight. Got back from my third BJJ class tonight and wanted to write about what we covered. That's me after class on the left: "Mr. Nothing-Left-In-The-Tank".

We did our standard warmup for about 20 minutes of running, rolling, skipping, cartwheels, 'shrimping', 'supermans' and 'butt slides. (It's still kicking my ass, but I feel if I keep it up, in a few weeks I'll be more accustomed to it) "Mr. Sulley" kept us moving the entire time and finally had us circle around and he paired us up with a partner. Tonight I got "Alex" who's about 6'2" and 250lbs...and I'm not.

We started by working on "bullying" technique to take the other person's balance. Basically, you grab their lapel on your strong side and their sleeve with your other hand. You step off the line to the weak side and tug downward with the strong side, kind of like a bully threatening someone on the street.

Pretty effective, but just a taste of what was coming next. We then practiced "bullying" with the last tug pulling your partner down to the mat and ending up in side control on top of them. [The throw is very much like a judo throw we've taught the kids at our dojo called "Hiza Garuma" where you place your foot on the outside of your partner's knee on the side you're throwing him on...only this throw is more of a 'suicide throw' where you lead them down to the mat and roll over onto them at the end.]

The final technique we went over was from the open guard with your partner standing and leaning over, holding your sleeves with both hands. Hard to explain, but the next move is to place your feet on your partners waist, scoot yourself closer to your partner and then push with your feet and pull him over and behind you, and you do a backward roll and end up mounted on top of him! (Had a bunch of trouble with this one! But I'll get it eventually...) Lots of fun, although EXTREMELY exhausting. (It was 92 degrees and very humid this evening...you can't really tell from the picture, but my kimono is soaked and weighs about 10 pounds!)

Cool stuff! Much more tiring than you might think, though. I was GASSED by the end of class...

I stayed to watch the next class which was Blue Belt testing, so I hung out for the next hour and saw what they go through to test for Advanced White Belt and Blue Belt. Whoa. They each do three 5-minute rounds of grappling with a higher belt level (Purple, Brown and Black), one after the other, each round with a new, fresh partner. Fifteen solid minutes of fighting! Can't even imagine surviving that at this point...but you never know, right? Need to have goals...

Stay tuned for more to come.

F.