Throwdown

Throwdown the nicest facility I’ve seen for martial arts. I’ve never seen a ring before like that. It’s almost a year old. I went to the Combat Jiu-Jitsu Level 1 class. From the name, I thought there would be striking involved. However, it was just Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu without the gi. We first started class by stretching. Then, the instructor told us to pair up to do some drills. At first, I was really intimidated because I was the only girl out of a whole bunch of guys. At first, I didn’t ask any of the guys to roll with me. As time went on, I started asking. At first, we worked on the guy on top submitting and the guy on the bottom working on a better position and submit from there. We worked on a few more things, but I forget. A few times, I stood out because I didn’t know whether anyone wanted to roll with me.

Then, the instructor divided the beginners from the advanced telling them to do 100 submissions. The beginners had to work on getting a better position. I teamed up with a teen. At first, he was in my guard. He just pushed my stomach. So, I swept him. When I was his guard, it was really easy to pass it. I asked him how long he’d been in BJJ. He said that this was his first class. So, I taught him the sweep and guard pass. Then, the instructor said for all of us to do 100 push-ups. I did about 10 because my arms are pretty weak. I did some on my knees too, but stopped doing them because everyone else was doing regular push-ups. I didn’t want to look like a pansy. Then, class was over.

I was going to leave, but the white belt that worked with me invited me to stay for the next class. It was BJJ Level two. I really liked it because we worked from the X guard where I have never seen before. We worked on five sweeps from X guard the whole class. At first, I had no clue what I was doing. Then, X guard became somewhat comfortable with both sides. I have no clue how to use this move when I roll with people, but it was a good practice where I learned a guard that I haven’t seen before. All the different sweeps and throws were for how the person moved relative to your position. It reminded me of bunkai because of all the different variations.

After class, I drilled some more with a different person where I furthered my understanding of those sweeps and throws from X guard in the big ring. Then, I had a match up against the white belt who invited to the class. I got his back really quickly. However, he won because I locked my ankles. So, he did an ankle lock on me. The second time we rolled, I got his back but he got out of it because I couldn’t tighten it. So, we worked on tightening it. He was telling me that I had to tighten that my V that I had around his neck. I couldn’t figure out why nothing was working. Then, I tried leaning back while doing the rear naked choke. That worked!!! Probably, with all the people that I have done the choke sitting down were smaller than me so I didn’t need to lean back.

Afterwards, I watched the boxers. I thought it was really cool because they were really slugging each other in the face. There were a few kicks and take downs. I couldn’t do that because I don’t have the reflexes of a puma. I wanted to stay as long as possible because I knew I wouldn’t be back. I talked to the guy at the front desk. He said for students, the sign up fee is 50 dollars and 1 year contract is 49 dollars a month, two years is 39 dollars, and three years is 34 dollars. It’s the nicest facility I have ever seen in my life; however, I stay away from contracts. I know it’s very good for the company. However, it’s not good for the consumer because what if one decides they don’t like the teacher or the style. What if one gets hurt? Would they care? I wouldn’t be surprised that they wouldn’t. I’m going to stick with Roberto’s dojo and the BYU class. I found out that Sensei Pease doesn’t even teach in Throwdown. He just runs the tournaments. So, Roberto doesn’t even need to worry about him not liking competition.