Tiny class today, only 5 of us. And 2 newbies too. It was a fun group.

I was first done with our warm up, primarily because Joe and Derrick were teaching the other two guys the elbow escape and thread the needle warmup. Damian asked me if I had any requests for lessons. “Defense!” was my answer. Didn’t matter to me what.

We ended up doing “Jiu-Jitsu 101” It’s a set routine that we use to warm up. Start mounted, upa out, break the guard, use the double underhook pass, mount, repeat. Something we’ve done a hundred times. Joe and I got to be the demonstration dummies. Damian broke down each step of the routine, and filled in a couple of details here and there for us. Stuff he hasn’t mentioned before. I asked him about it later, and he said that while I’m still a mostly a “broad stroke” guy, he can add some details, like the mountains in the background. It really is a good analogy he’s used before. Other guys are onto the trees, branches, or leaves. Eventually I’ll be there too.

After class, I rolled with Joe a bit. Nothing serious, more just fooling around than anything. I did get him in the clamp position, and went for the oomaplata, but he rolled out. Had him mounted at one point, but he upa’d a just the right time when I was applying the cross-collar choke, and then defended it well within my guard.

I switched out and sat chatting with Damian awhile about a bunch of stuff. My membership runs out on Tuesday, so I re-upped. This time for a whole year. Kinda crazy!

He’s mentioned to me a few times about giving Crossfit a try. It’s the other end of his business. Crossfit strives towards general physical fitness through intense, varied workouts. One day you may be doing Olympic style weight lifting and rowing on a machine. The next pull ups and tire flipping. The next, throwing a medicine ball up on a wall and doing burpees. Twice now, he suggested I lookup and read an essay by Henry Rollins (yes, the punk singer) called “Iron”.

So I did. Henry Rollins on Iron It’s short, but interesting. I can see the appeal. I’m thinking about taking Damian up on the suggestion. Two things are holding me back. The first is the potential time commitment. The workouts are short, but I don’t know when I’d do them. The second is my own insecurity. I know that the workouts scale to the participant’s own abilities, but…it just scares me. On the other hand, I felt similarly about starting jiu-jitsu, and that has turned out wonderfully.

Guess we’ll see.