IX

I had no prior plans on Tuesday so instead of staying at home playing on the X-Box 360 I decided to travel to Gracie Barra Birmingham for the first time. I wanted to take up the Basic and Advanced No Gi Class, however I didn't arrive until after the class had started, so I just did the Advanced Gi Class to get back into the swing of things.

I reasoned that I would need a Gi if I wanted to practice Jiu-jitsu in the long term, for many reasons, so after trying on both an A3 and an A4 Gi to see what would be an appropriate choice, and a brief chat between Romulo, Norby and myself, I bought an A3 Blue BJJ Gi.

Former multiple time Jiu Jitsu World Champion Romulo Barral took the class. My fitness isn't what it used to be, so I felt disappointed that I wasn't able to completely the warm up properly, or that I couldn't just participate fully as I am used to.

We began with takedown drilling, then he showed a reverse armlock technique from the bottom, which was a good one, which we then drilled but I wasn't able to grasp all the steps right away; we then started to do a drill where one guy was on their back with the intention of keeping their opponent in their guard, and their opponents intention was to pass the guard.

I wasn't surprised that my guard retention was awful and my ability to stop people from passing was worse, however I probably got the worst of it when my first partner was a guy listed as the No Gi Instructor on the Academy's website. During these drills I was surprised that I was able to escape some positions i.e. an armlock, but I think it was mostly a combination of partners going light and me just doing the right stuff at the right time. I tapped once at the end of the session because I was caught in a head and arm triangle choke and, I am not sure how to escape it, so rather than struggle to escape, I tapped my partner.

I got to test out the Gi at Thursday's Foundation class. The class begin with snaking drills, which I have no problem in saying I am horrific at. I'm out of practice and even when I was doing them regularly I was never very good at them. I just need to practice them and when I've got it right, keep doing it exactly. The class then moved to doing drills which involved breaking one's fall when going to the mat.

There was then instruction on how to take the back from the mount, hold it and how to just relax and go with the flow. I asked a total 'n00b' question that I knew the answer to re: crossing one's legs when securing the back mount. I know that if you do it, you leave yourself open to embarassing leglocks. However I saw that there were some students who might not know it, so asked the question, that they might understand what not to do. Then the class was shown the rear naked choke.

I don't think my partner was used to doing the techniques as I think he was struggling to keep up with doing the techniques because he would have to have a rest period after he had taken my back, worked a choke and then it became my time to do the same. It's fine, though, we all have to start somewhere and it's not going to hurt me if I am patient and considerate of my training partners. I wasn't sure if I was doing the technique right, but I couldn't realistically check because my partner seemed to have a sensitive neck; either that, or I put it on a bit too tight the first time and it hurt his windpipe, which meant that when I would go for it, I wouldn't get it all the way on and he would tap.

Beyond that there was a lot of introducing myself to people who were already familiar with my brother, who also trains there; some of the guys then took opportunities to say "Look who's back", wait for them to say "Hello" and then tell them "It's not who you think it is". It was quite amusing to see Braulio (and others') reaction when I said "I'm not my brother".

I can't train next week because I need to be conservative with money however as soon as I get the Student Loan that I've requested, the first item on the agenda is to sort out a month by month contract which will allow me to train twice a week at Foundation Classes, in order to give me the skills that I will need in the Basic and Advanced Gi Classes, and then pick classes to attend during the week that I can regularly commit to, in order to help increase my proficiency as a grappler, jitsuka and person who doesn't want to be attacked in the streets.