The first two months were the worst, I used to think, but early March felt like
a replay. The neck and left shoulder hurt, allergy was in rage, energy stayed
low, and recovery took forever. Some nights, it felt as if every bone in the
body were broken. I dragged myself to the gym just to take Tim to the mat.
One good thing coming out of suffering was the discovery that persistent
bar-hanging had steadily improved the left shoulder to the point it started to
feel as good as the right. I blamed the asymmetry again on my first 40
deskbound years. Bar-hanging has become a daily must and I am even more
concious about sitting posture now.
A white belt is often seen as dangerous, to others and himself. But I was still
shocked by the small accidents that I caused and got into. I elbowed Scott on
the head in a turtle reverse and poked Ryan's eye and headbutted Stephan on the
chin in takedowns. I got hurt twice. First I banged the back of my head against
the metal column at the edge of the mat when rolling with John. Second, my right
forehead landed on Stephan's ankle when he turned belly-down with his arm-bar.
Although none prevented us from training the next day, I felt horrible.
After the first week, things turned around. I did well on the mat and kept
learning* and exploring. I was able to sometimes submit Nikolai** and I held my
own with Gell***. But only once I avoided submission by Stephan who had become
more skilled each day. Michael the big bluebelt taught me how to hook-sweep but
it would take some practice. A revelation came when I watched a video where
Henry did a shrimp with a guy pressing down on his far-side shoulder. It made me
realize the importance of the basics, which I heard so often.
A primitive of the jiu-jitsu language, the shrimp is easy to understand and
execute. It turns out, however, to be an inch wide but a mile deep. For the
bottom guy, the quality of his shrimp decides whether he is able to escape or he
keeps wasting energy and stuck underneath. JJM explained the details of his
shrimping out of the mount and follow-up attacks in the Mar 5 seminar and in a
video. The ways he positioned his feet and curled up his upper body dramatically
increased the move's range, making it much more effective.
It was at a class by the end of the month where I heard from coach the phrase
"jiu-jitsu muscles," which confirmed my long-time suspicion that aside from the
angle, leverage, and timing, jiu-jitsu demands specialized strength. A guy
strong in weight-lifting might not be as strong on the mat if he doesn't drill
the specific moves. While a high-level guy such as Henry can do a shrimp with
say 200 lbs on his shoulder, a beginner like me would struggle with 50 lbs.
It all made good sense.
Here is a list of the number of training days in each week of each month for the
past nine months.
- Jul/2021: 4, 5, 4, 3
- Aug/2021: 3, 3, 3, 4, 4
- Sep/2021: 3, 3, 4, 4
- Oct/2021: 5, 4, 5, 4, 4
- Nov/2021: 5, 4, 3, 5
- Dec/2021: 4, 4, 3, 0
- Jan/2022: 5, 3, 5, 4, 4
- Feb/2022: 5, 4, 3, 5
- Mar/2022: 4, 5, 5, 5
* Coach Brenda taught one best combination on Mar 29. She demoed a few
variations of the cross-collar choke from guard and one clicked. The attack
starts with breaking the opponent's posture by kicking up and pulling in the
legs, followed by a deep collar grip with the choking hand (opponent
defends), a switch to scissor sweep (opponent defends), a knee-shield leg
kick and bite to swirl my upper body to the side, and the second hand
shoulder- or collar-grab to finish. It combined at least four primitives
with transitions to make a good game plan.
** Nikolai was awarded two stripes on March 3rd.
*** I had mistaken my good friend's first name as Phil so far!
