Props to a fellow student.

For those who actually do read this it has been obvious due to my work schedule I have not been able to attend class too much as of late. Well now I have a daytime schedule and will be hopefully getting into class 2-3 nights a week at least. now while most of the guys have caught up to me or are just barely a stripe ahead of me there is one guy in class I want to give a shout out too. Now when I left he was just shy of getting his first stripe.. to describe him he is tiny.. weighs in at a massive 145 pounds and is a good 7 or 8 inches shorter then me. Now he is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a very good athlete plays soccer as well. he has always been quick on the mat and is a natural with ankle locks. David, that is his name, while I was away earned his 3rd stripe not too long ago. which in many ways did not surprise me.. his one glaring weakness was his inability to pass a guard and lack of defense.. man could he attack.. Well he has learned all that. In class tonight it is mainly just a drilling class.. we come in.. do not really go over anything new just practice things we need to go over and want work with. For me I spent most of the night working with Bill (our Blue Belt) working on sweeps. He was able to pick out the one step I kept messing up.. so I am expecting my sweeps to get better. Well at the end of class since I had not rolled with David in about 3 months, we decided to roll. Well I saw right away his game got a lot better. Little set ups I used to do and he went for he did not even think twice about.. we rolled a good 4-5 minutes switching positions going from guards and passing and such. At one point his Gi top came off got bunched up in my face making it hard to breath. he was able to take my back.. and while not able to fully lock in a rear naked choke.. he just had me to the point I could not breathe. At that point I tapped as I could not breath. Being out sick for a whole week did not help.. but no excuse really.. he got great position. After a break and just some BS'ing, me and David rolled again. It was pretty much like before lots of back and forth.. him forcing me to move around at his speeds.. remember He is 145.. I come in at 263. I am almost 2 of him.. yes I am stronger.. but technique is key to BJJ. Well eventually he went back for an ankle lock which I was able to defend against and managed to slip out into side control. David pulled me into half guard where I then went for a modified sort of arm triangle.. I held it pretty tight. Now I do not think it was actually locked in properly it was enough to get him to tap this time. It was great fun and I am glad to see his incredible improvement. Sadly me and my instructor Greg know he is ready for competition he just does not feel he is. I honestly feel sorry for most in his weight class as he is strong has great mat sense is quick as all hell. This guy is really good. I hope we can get him to compete soon. He'll do the school proud.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Well I made class again tonight.. first time in awhile. Well Bill got his Blue belt, Congrats Bill, the day after the TN state championships at Royler's seminar on Sunday. And well I felt off today.

Class was fun.. we practiced some take downs and then a few different side mount escapes. I did well with all that until it came time to roll. Since I have missed so much class as of late everyone has been able to close the gap. Great on them it is just frustrating for me. I am still better in some area's but they are now able to capitalize on my weaknesses unlike before. I was tapped by the only guy in class larger then me who used to be a wrestler he caught me in an Americana, and then Bill our newly minted blue belt caught me in some awkward choke. Then I rolled with one of the other guys we changed position a couple of times mostly I held top positions either side control or mount. He took none of the bait I gave him and finally I had a shat to fall to the side for an arm bar and just as I did time expired.. then after I worked with Greg on a few things things discussed what I need to work on, and then we BS'ed about the MMA world.

TN State BJJ Championships

I just want to give a shout out to one of the guys from my school. Bill Friend. He competed in the Adult 185+ Gi division and took 2nd place. Congrats Bill. you continue to do the school proud.

Sambo & BJJ

Tonight in class was a lot of fun. The first hour was our Sambo session. We went over some neat things. My favorite was a transition from the north south position into a knee bar. and we covered some other legs locks from when you are stuck in half guard. Then we did some rolling Sambo style. Mainly it was just Bill and I rolling. Bill caught me in a submission to end it, but I did a nice take down when we were standing and started off good.. As I said he finally got me but I was glad to get a small victory.. good confidence boost.

Then we went into BJJ.We went over a few more take downs and some guard passes as well as how to defend them.. plus worked on how to defend side control with some neat spin thing.. really hard to describe.
The rolling was fun.. went with one of the other guys. he is a bit faster and lankier then me and we went to a time stoppage. Since no points were kept it was simply fun. Then I went with Bill again.. not once.. but twice.. the first time he caught me in a vicious ankle lock, which still hurts somewhat. The second time we had just a few seconds left before the time was up and he caught me in a position where I just could not breath.. not an actual submission but with how tangled up we were I had a mouth full of Gi and could not get air. Over all that session was good. I was able to work a few things and defended from many more.

Shout outs

this is just some simple shout out to some of the site I like to frequent...

RGDA TN

BJJ Board

MMA Forum

MMA Playground