I managed to “puppet” a heavier black belt around in my butterfly guard, almost sweeping him a couple times. Ultimately he pinned me but I think I overheard him telling another black belt that “there’s no messing around” in randori with me, so I’m, like, totally gushing.
I also got to fight against one of the old hat blackbelts. He’s 50 years old and lighter than me but he massacres me. The last time I fought him I was a white belt—this time I was actually cognizant of what was going on, but I didn’t do much better. I have so much respect for the “old” guys: you can’t help but feel a lifetime of experience behind every move they make. A couple interesting things he did:
While trapping me in full mount, he “frogged” his legs up and held my hips with the balls of his feet. It seemed unorthodox but effective.
While he had me in his guard, he grapevined only one of my legs and swept me over that leg. I had to run this through my mind a couple times before I realized what he did.
Standup was pretty good too. I got a couple fireman throws in, one of which was on a black belt. In the face of much practice, my breakfalls are also improving.
And since I’m tooting my own horn, I’ll mention I got 10 sets of 10 with 45 lbs plates on bench on Monday. GET TO THE CHOPPA!
Weighing-in consistently at about 76.5 kilos with my runners on. Pushing towards 45lbs plates on each side for Germans (10 sets of 10), but I’m not quite there yet. A couple weeks ago I felt confident about being able to achieve 20 chin-ups in a row (16 is easy) but my energy levels are suffering due to a cold. I’ve been neglecting cardio—occasional stair-running and judo is all I’ve managed to get in. I special ordered a new pair of runners for my funny feet so maybe those’ll kick me back into high gear. Left ankle is at about 85% and not a concern: e.g., saiza is easy when I’m warmed up.
Starting to get 3D veins in my right biceps (left biceps is already quite prominent), calves, thighs but I’m sure the holidays will help with that. Bruises on my hips and shins from falling and having my legs hacked at in judo never seem to heal. I look like the victim of an unending butt-kickin’. I privately enjoy being one of the people at the gym that actually looks like he applies his fitness.
Groundwork: been developing my butterfly guard since I purchased Marcelo Garcia’s book on the X-Guard. Typically doesn’t work well against larger opponents who instead flatten me, but comparable/lighter opponents are becoming easier to control, sweep, puppet around. I’ve been making poor attendance to jiu jitsu and reasonable attendance to judo, mostly due to the cold weather. Might cancel jiu jitsu til the Spring.
Standing: while I had aspirations of developing my forward throws earlier on, I think I’ve more generally geared myself towards developing “kuzushi” (i.e., off-balancing uke). Pulling up, pulling in. Made a bit of progress last week, as I felt like I was controlling a (quite exhausted) black belt’s weight. Of course I didn’t throw him, and he ragdolled me when he felt like it. These movements involve muscles that aren’t necessarily as developed as I’d like, so even if I don’t manage to perform a throw, I think the repetition is good for me.
Did Germans yesterday (benching 10×10) with 40lbs on each side (120 lbs with bar), the heaviest I’ve ever completed Germans with. My pal said he helped a bit with the ninth, but the tenth was all mine. I feel like I’ve reached a new plateau in strength, probably due to focusing on my upper body lately (and omitting cardio). Weighed in at ~76kg this morning.
In yesterday’s post I anticipated I’d sleep like a baby, which would’ve been nice since I got up at 05:30 for the gym. That didn’t happen, though. Even though I was in bed at ~22:30, I was feeling crappy in general and a conversation started up outside my window ~00:00. Gymming (cable flies, low rows, medicine ball sit-ups, squats, super sevens) suffered accordingly, but I’m happy to report the ankle isn’t bothering me anymore.
Jiu-jitsu was a win. We covered kesa gatame escapes and transitions, which are familiar to me from judo, but it’s always nice to see a familiar subject under a different light. These were (1) stuffing your captor before rolling the other way, (2) hipscaping and hooking your captor’s neck with your leg, and (3) stuffing your non-reacting captor flat into the ground. The only one that’s worked reliably for me in judo are (1) and (2)… (3) just requires too much brute force in practice. I had to tap once from ankle pain (I was transitioning into butterfly guard and it got stuck, heh) but otherwise it actually felt good to test its range of motion.
After JJ I had a few minutes to kill before my bus came so I went to Tim Horton’s to have a turkey sandwich without the dressing. I was proud of myself for skipping the ranch but then I ordered a medium iced cappuccino but goddam it was good.
Germans (9×10 at ~110lbs+1×10 at ~140lbs)—my best to date.
Obliques with 25lbs plate.
Shoulder raises with a horizontal bar attached to two cables.
More chin-ups (2×10).
One-armed triceps extensions.
Then I went climbing with my friend Lonn at 12:30 (after a bit o’ hack), but we didn’t get a lot in because I had to go to class. Tonight I’m planning on going to jiu jitsu—I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.
Woke up at 0530 this morning to meet a good friend for a 0600 workout. I got dressed, heated some water on the stove for my oatmeal and tea, and thieved one of my housemate’s bran muffins. I left the house drinking the tea and stood on the corner where I was going to be picked out, wearing my grey wool cap and my black sweatshirt (it’s starting to get cold). The streets were damp from rain and pitch-black and I couldn’t help but feel happy for the moment.*
Machine flies/pushups circuit, 4 sets.
Wide parallel-grip seated rows, 4 sets; maxed at 160lbs.
Kneeling crunches (what’re these called?), 4 sets.
Narrow grip incline bench, 4 sets; 25lbs plates.
Wide-grip chinups/overhead flies circuit, 4 sets; dumbbells were plenty at 15lbs.
Hamstring curls, 4 sets (this exercise is all I can manage w/ injured ankle).
Buddy curls.
Quick abs circuit.
*I’ve been excited for the last three weeks to take this great girl out for Turkish food, but found out yesterday that she hooked up with someone else two weeks ago. At first I felt dissed, but suddenly I’m over it.
Stairs, ~15 minutes (ended with backwards crawl up the stairs, as usual)
Bicycle, 10 minutes (leisurely, only ~100 kcal)
Circuit, 4 sets of 3 exercises:
Chin-ups (10, 10, 6, barely 6)
Goblet squats (10, 10, 10, 10)
V-sits (20, 20, 20, 20)
Misc. rotator cuffs on the cable stacks
Pullovers (20, 20, 10, 10)
The circuit in particular was very good: it kept my heart-rate up while the different muscle groups recovered. Next time I’ll have more than yogurt for breakfast and squeeze out more sets.
On Saturday I participated in my first Judo tournament. I’m not a complete stranger to competition of this sort, and this was a very small meet, but I am always surprised by the adrenaline rush. For some reason I remember obscure details from certain matches, and almost completely forget others! Fortunately, some of the details I do remember contain important lessons.
This Saturday is the (no-submissions) tournament at Fort Sask. I went to the advanced class tonight, and hopefully came away with something:
Whatever happens, don’t just walk into someone’s full guard, because then you have to get around it. When you’re in someone’s guard, the only thing you can do is try to pass it.
Especially when someone’s on your back, guard your lapel high–close to your neck, and without crossing your hands.
Do something with kuzushi–when you’ve got it is not the time to be loose.
Despite the painful armbar I submitted to tonight, it was really a lot of fun. Here’s hoping I’ll be ready for Saturday…
