The last couple of weeks have been a perfect storm of work, life, laziness, and other things, all taking priority over going to class.  But now the skies have cleared, and I’m (hopefully!) back to my normal routine.

Six months ago today, I took my first jiu-jitsu class.   Maybe it’s a milestone, maybe not.  But I made it.  I struggled during some classes, but never quit.  I’ve tapped more times than I can count, but I’ve succeeded too.  I know enough now that I realize I’ve forgotten things.  And it’s been a wonderful experience, despite the effort, soreness, and occasional injury.   Who knows what the next six months will bring?  The next year?

I think I’m back on the 100 Pushups bandwagon.  I did W3D1(b) last night with no signs of the pounding headache that I ran into before.   I wasn’t totally lazy last week, I did pound out a few sessions on the treadmill.   I’ve been doing either the 300 calorie/40 minute run, and one the  400 calorie/40 minute run.   Doing either  a year ago would have been probably impossible.  The top 100 UFC fights countdown provided excellent motivational viewing while doing it too!

I’m down about 15 pounds since my back surgery last October.  A noticeable percentage of that has been converted to muscle, I’ve noticed myself leaning out.  I’m close enough to a NAGA/Submission hunt weight class break that I could consider cutting a few pounds to move down a class too.   It’s a nice change, and one that not only I have noticed.  I don’t anticipate loosing much more, though I may continue loosing the fat and building muscle as time passes.

Class tonight was takedowns.  Ironically enough, we were working the same take down I learned on about my third class.  I like doing takedowns, it’s something we don’t do very often and it’s something we don’t usually do in sparring.  There’s just not enough mat to support it.  We also did some hip throws.   Damian’s original instructor, Dave Camarillo, is also a black belt in judo.  He’s well known for his throws and flying submissions.

After class Damian paired me up with Jeff the giant (who’s about 6′ 7″ or so).  Things were going good, I was working my guard, trying to armlock those long limbs, and going for a triangle here and there.  Then he stacked me, rolling me up on my shoulders, which is uncomfortable, but not horrible.   But he kept going, and I did a backwards somersault with him on top of me, so I heard about 18 vertebra in my neck pop.  I yelped, he stopped.  That’s going to be sore tomorrow!

I took a breather, then paired up with Alex, who I don’t think I’ve rolled with before.  We went a couple of times. He’s a white/blue belt, but I think I did okay. I defended an armbar for a long time, and escaped his back control once. And defended my neck the next time he got my back a LONG time. Afterward he told me he was nervous about switching grips because of the way I escaped the first time.

Tim taught the fundamentals since Luke was gone. Armlock from guard. We reviewed the basic way of doing it, then experimented with different setups, grips, and some combo attacks.