Day: December 6, 2018

Monday 3/12

Our former teammate Jimmy is visiting us for the week. Jimmy started with us when I was a blue belt, and from a very early stage it was clear he was a special talent- I remember telling him when he was a white belt that he could go far with jiu-jitsu if he wanted. Now he’s based in Australia, training full time and mopping up in competitions. I fully expect him to be part of the current boom of Aussie talent making names for themselves on the world stage. 

Here’s a short Instagram video HL of us rolling. As you can see, he’s just a step too sharp for me to keep up. I haven’t been tapped so many times in a round by a non-black in a long time. I couldn’t get into my half guard game at all other than reversing that guillotine attempt at the very start, very happy about this! (I wrote about that technique in my previous post).  His heel hook and X guard game is so sharp, definitely inspired- and a little jealous! 

Coach Jonathan was watching our roll and gave me some feedback about the angle of my knee slice needing to be more close to the hip when going for that explosive Marcelo Garcia version. I’ll work on this pass for the next couple of training sessions. 

Tues 4/12

Another S&C session with Tash today before class. Posterior chain was the focus today, prepping me for deadlifts, which I haven’t done in maybe a year. I’ve never felt right doing deadlifts, so it was nice to have a coach looking at my form and giving me proper technique guidance. Worked up to 75 KG x 5, which is of course very light, but gotta start somewhere on the first day back into it! I’m a zero stripe white belt when it comes to lifting.

I have a little long-term goal, which I  never achieved even back when I was lifting regularly, which is to deadlift 3 plates (140KG). I want to get there by the end of 2019.  

Training jiu-jitsu straight after deadlifting is tough. Doubly so when coach makes the purple belts roll for 20 minutes from closed guard (10 bottom, 10 top). My closed guard is pretty bad as it is (my best move from closed guard is to open it), but that night I was a gassed mess with no legs left, had my closed guard passed twice by white belts in the 10 minutes and really struggled to get the sweeps/submissions. On top was only slightly less torturous.

Fatigue makes white belts of us all. This is actually a really good way to make a mixed level class more valuable to everyone; gassed purples versus fresh, enthusiastic white belts means a lot more opportunities for the white belts to be on the offensive, and for us to test our technique when there’s nothing in the tank. Something to file away in my coaching toolbox. 

Afterwards got to roll with Ryan, newly minted purple belt. Almost hit the rollover sweep but he managed to base his hands out. Should have gone for the back from there.  Managed to escape some bad spots (back, under sprawl) into half guard, but he got me with a very nice armbar from top turtle at the end. Really glad he is enthusiastic about engaging my half guard, my sweeps and his passing are getting better which he is noticing too.