Choose Strong
For Tim.
1. Accept
The four-day a week routine has suited me well. I grapple two days and take a
break. Often I feel I could do more, sometimes I feel I could take another day
off, but I choose to stick to the plan. The muscles and joints hurt more or less
every night but by noon, I would have recovered. The hardest is to get up and
right away do sun salutations and toe-to-the-bar ab curls. Before 40, I could
never imagine such a life--daily pains from training--as I studied and worked
hard in academics to stay away from manual labor. 10 years later, my art
stresses every part of the body and I don't regret one bit.
I used to feel ashamed when someone pointed out my flaws or I couldn't perform
as I expected. The other day, Adam said in front of all, half-jokingly, that I was
stubborn and rigid and needed to relax when he used me to demo in his class. I was
one step behind when he asked me to call the reps in warm-up. I could have
instantly retreated to my pet excuse: I was not born here. But I no longer felt
the need to defend, justify, or explain myself. I even felt amused.
I read a tagline the other day on Facebook: "I'll never fit in. That's my best
qualities." But it seems my gym has already accepted me. Most folks are friendly
and gladly spar with me. Some even said they loved my patched gi. Besides the
occasional superficial bumps, I never hurt a partner. I struggle longer before
tapping but that provides accurate feedback. I'm rigid and that's why I come
to train.
I've accepted who I am. I actually feel proud.
2. Canadian Chris Taught
A few half-guard bottom moves taught by Canadian Chris left an impression.
Simply by inserting the hook opens up options depending on the opponent's move.
If he's cross-facing, I can redirect, insert the hook, block the knee, and
sweep. If he's under-hooking, I can overhook, get on my elbows, insert the foot
hook, bait, trap his other arm, and sweep. With Aikido Chris, I drilled all these
moves and the hitchhiker escape.
When we sparred a week later, he choked me from bottom. I thought it was a
cross-collar choke and tried to defend with my push-and-pull choke. But it was
different and I passed out for one or two seconds! It was amazing. I asked a
couple of days later and he showed me how it was done: with one thumb-in grip
deep in the collar and another so-so grip on the other lapel. It was like a
paper-cutter choke only from the bottom.
3. Ups and Downs
I took the early train, on Apr 11, the day Weichi moved the class to 11:30am,
and had a "tall" coffee before gym. I did really well passing the butterfly
guard--just tap on my partner's left shin and switch my hip at almost the same
time to pass on his right. My von flu choke was getting better because of two
adjustments: choking arm palm down and digging the shoulder underneath his chin.
I even tricked Pablo by faking a north-south kimura and finishing with clamping
his neck between my knees. It felt so good that day. It must be the caffeine.
More ups and downs in "The Fourth Week."
4. Teachings from Henry and Rickson
I re-watched Henry's videos on sweeps, especially the push-and-pull and sickle
sweeps, and armlock defenses, gained a better understanding, and felt eager to
drill, especially swinging the legs to get out of cross-side americana and
kimura grip armbar from mount.
Connection: I followed an email from Henry to a Web page and watched the video
at the bottom where he showed the concept of connection to one Chris. It is not
a specific technique but the key to make or break one.
Everyone knows the importance of sparring. Instructions are important but we
realized that there is more to the story. As long as I train consistently, I
make progress even if I still cannot execute what I'm taught. This feel was what
Rickson talked about in the video "Choke."
The most interesting aspect of jiu-jitsu is the, of course the techniques
are great, but the sensibility of the opponent, sense of touch, the weight,
the momentum, the transition from one movement to another. That's the
amazing thing about it. You must allow yourself to go as on an automatic
pilot. You don't know exactly where you go until the movement happens
because you cannot anticipate what's gonna happen. You must allow yourself
be in a zero point, a neutral point, and be relaxed and connected with the
variations. So you pretty much flow with the go and this is the point beyond
the knowledge. It's years and years of playing around gives you this kind of
sensibility.
5. Another Chris
The third Chris joined us. A young blue-belt with three stripes, he was bigger
than me and liked the wrist lock. Like me, he often just tried to keep
side-control and wait for opportunities. I hurt my elbow sparring with him,
which took one week to recover.
6. The Fourth Week
I felt a virus for a couple of days. Lack of sleep and over-training left me
tired as the fourth week of the month came. Tuesday Apr 23 was no-gi and my
energy was so low that every partner submitted me. They were higher belts but
usually I could hold my own. I felt a bit depressed.
Rob, in particular, did two heel hooks and one wrist lock on me. I need to talk
with him about the latter because I could usually get out of cross-side wrist
locks, but not his on that day.
Apr 25. What prompted the decision to push the bike 2.3 miles back to the train
station instead of 1.4 miles toward the gym for the noon class, after I got a
flat tire from a one-inch finishing nail near Marsh and Bay Rd? I had no answer
but that said something about my attitude: I am not in a hurry--if I miss it
today, I can always come back tomorrow.
Fri Apr 26, after the two-day break, I came to the open-mat and did very well:
passed Joe's guard, twice reversed and tried the super-chill position on Pete,
and had great fun escaping Michael's attacks and coming back on top. More
importantly, I felt I was starting to implement the key idea of Jiu-jitsu, i.e.,
using angle and leverage against force. When they put up a frame or insisted on
one move, I let them do it and sometimes even helped them but I cut off their
connection at least or find space to escape. It was so much fun!
I attended class on Sat when Jason showed some de la riva guard sweeps. I
drilled it with Tim, a 30-something strong white dude. Afterwards, I rolled with
Tim, Will, Mike, Canadian Chris, and Nikolai. Chris finished me with a nice
thumb-in collar choke which I mistook for a standard cross-collar and tried to
defend. I went out for a second or two. It was scary and I had it a couple of
times before. He was showing me the details of this choke when we were called to
line up. I later came back to this one with him. At cross-side top, Will doesn't
leave much chance for me to escape and he almost finished me with the baseball
bat choke. I think I could defend better.
7. More Cross-side Bottom Escapes
Apr 30. Weichi taught escapes with near-side underhook, far-side underhook, and
shrimping to reverse AS they transition to kesa gatame. I saw the first two
before. Henry also taught a technique similar to the near-side underhook escape.
Henry's version uses the elbow and shoulder push and leg swings, which is
safer than sticking the arm out because there are an armbar and a paper-cutter
choke setups.
