The first two months were the worst, I used to think, but early March felt like

a replay. The neck and left shoulder hurt, allergy was in rage, energy stayed

low, and recovery took forever. Some nights, it felt as if every bone in the

body were broken. I dragged myself to the gym just to take Tim to the mat.

One good thing coming out of suffering was the discovery that persistent

bar-hanging had steadily improved the left shoulder to the point it started to

feel as good as the right. I blamed the asymmetry again on my first 40

deskbound years. Bar-hanging has become a daily must and I am even more

concious about sitting posture now.

A white belt is often seen as dangerous, to others and himself. But I was still

shocked by the small accidents that I caused and got into. I elbowed Scott on

the head in a turtle reverse and poked Ryan's eye and headbutted Stephan on the

chin in takedowns. I got hurt twice. First I banged the back of my head against

the metal column at the edge of the mat when rolling with John. Second, my right

forehead landed on Stephan's ankle when he turned belly-down with his arm-bar.

Although none prevented us from training the next day, I felt horrible.

After the first week, things turned around. I did well on the mat and kept

learning* and exploring. I was able to sometimes submit Nikolai** and I held my

own with Gell***. But only once I avoided submission by Stephan who had become

more skilled each day. Michael the big bluebelt taught me how to hook-sweep but

it would take some practice. A revelation came when I watched a video where

Henry did a shrimp with a guy pressing down on his far-side shoulder. It made me

realize the importance of the basics, which I heard so often. 

A primitive of the jiu-jitsu language, the shrimp is easy to understand and

execute. It turns out, however, to be an inch wide but a mile deep. For the

bottom guy, the quality of his shrimp decides whether he is able to escape or he

keeps wasting energy and stuck underneath. JJM explained the details of his 

shrimping out of the mount and follow-up attacks in the Mar 5 seminar and in a

video. The ways he positioned his feet and curled up his upper body dramatically

increased the move's range, making it much more effective.

It was at a class by the end of the month where I heard from coach the phrase

"jiu-jitsu muscles," which confirmed my long-time suspicion that aside from the

angle, leverage, and timing, jiu-jitsu demands specialized strength. A guy

strong in weight-lifting might not be as strong on the mat if he doesn't drill

the specific moves. While a high-level guy such as Henry can do a shrimp with

say 200 lbs on his shoulder, a beginner like me would struggle with 50 lbs.

It all made good sense.

Here is a list of the number of training days in each week of each month for the

past nine months.

- Jul/2021: 4, 5, 4, 3

- Aug/2021: 3, 3, 3, 4, 4

- Sep/2021: 3, 3, 4, 4

- Oct/2021: 5, 4, 5, 4, 4

- Nov/2021: 5, 4, 3, 5

- Dec/2021: 4, 4, 3, 0

- Jan/2022: 5, 3, 5, 4, 4

- Feb/2022: 5, 4, 3, 5

- Mar/2022: 4, 5, 5, 5

  * Coach Brenda taught one best combination on Mar 29. She demoed a few

    variations of the cross-collar choke from guard and one clicked. The attack

    starts with breaking the opponent's posture by kicking up and pulling in the

    legs, followed by a deep collar grip with the choking hand (opponent

    defends), a switch to scissor sweep (opponent defends), a knee-shield leg

    kick and bite to swirl my upper body to the side, and the second hand

    shoulder- or collar-grab to finish. It combined at least four primitives

    with transitions to make a good game plan.

 ** Nikolai was awarded two stripes on March 3rd.

*** I had mistaken my good friend's first name as Phil so far!