Working with Chris

Hi. I love BJJ!!!! Today was such a great training day. It was really nice that we started an hour earlier because everyone warmed up as a group instead of separately. We ran, army crawled, and shrimped. In between those, we did push ups and front and back rolls. Then, we watched Cory test for his blue belt. He went up against Tazz, Pinky, and Chuck for easy matches. Then, he spared with the army guy who sparred with Dan when he tested a couple weeks ago. After that, we got to whip him with our belts. Roberto says that it's a tradition in Brazil whenever anyone gets promoted. We stand into two lines and fold our belts in fourths. The person has to run through the line four times as we whip him or her with our belts. When I did it with my testing, it wasn't bad at all. I didn't really hurt. I thought it would hurt because it sure looks like it. However, I don't know if everyone was going hard on me because when it was my turn, Roberto said for everyone to go medium. As I went through, I told them it wasn't bad at all. So, they might have hit me harder.

At the start of class, I got to work with Chris (I think that's his name) who just started. He's a friend of Pink. When working with him, I found out he's a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He got it when he was fourteen years old. He hasn't done much with it since he acquired it. I found out he's seventeen years old and 123 pounds. He doesn't have a gi yet. When working with him, I we switched by sweeping each other off mount and getting into a more dominant position which is pretty much guard. I'm really glad that we got to practice that because I get into that position a lot. That what happened last Saturday when I sparred with Vanessa in the tournament. I lasted the whole five minutes with her because I didn't expose my arms when in mount. However, I couldn't sweep her. Thus, I was stuck. I did pretty well because she had a year of experience and I have a few months.

Then, we worked on sweeps from guard. I learned one that I shrimp and put my foot on the inside of their thigh and knee. I block the other leg by wrapping my other leg on the outside of theirs and putting my foot on the inside of their calf. Then, I sweep them. I did that pretty well against Chris. However, when I practiced resistance with him, I didn't know how to prevent him jumping my guard while trying to sweep him. So, I asked Roberto. I tried to do it with Cory. It ended up that Roberto said that I don't have to use my body to sweep, just my legs. However, I couldn't do it because I wasn't strong enough. Cory says that it requires a strong core. I was just feeling it in my legs.

We all spared against each other so what we learned. I sparred with Chuck who tried to choke me from the guard. So, I stood up and prevented that. I knew that if I went down, I'd be toast. Then, we all got in a circle and did real sparring. When it was my turn, I chose Roberto. I thought that he'd be a little easy with me like he was with little Nick. However, he started slapping me when we started. Then, he grabbed my hand and forced me to the ground. He has done that to me before. However, this time I got out of that armbar. Instead, he did a triangle. I tried so hard to get out of that doing what Cory told me to do by standing. I was getting a little air at that point. When Roberto knocked me back down, I tapped out because I ran out of air. After that, I started breathing fast to catch my breath. When I talked to Roberto about our match, he asked me if I almost passed out. I said no. It was like holding my breath and running out of air. He said that my face turned red when I was in that triangle. Afterwards, Cory taught me how to get out of that triangle by standing up, grabbing on to their gi, putting my foot cross my chest, and then sitting down. However, Roberto says that doesn't work because they can just sweep me from that position. Roberto said to grab their head and make them tap out instead.

Then, we all did human chess. I went with Chris again. I won every single one of them. I just takes me a minute to think about what I can do next like chess. However, I shouldn't take that long because we only should have five seconds. When Chris went to have a water break, I watched Roberto and Cory play. It was really cool because I could see a lot easier. It was cool watching them take turns. Then, I played with Cory. During the match, I ended up with his arm between my legs. I had a difficult time trying to figure out what to do with it. I finally tried a wrist lock again. It worked. The second time, Cory choked out in guard. I didn't know how to get out of it. He said that I need to extend my hips and abs to get him away from me. I wanted to continue in that position, but Roberto said that we needed to spar for five minutes. Cory was being nice to me by working and giving me pointers while we sparred instead of trying to beat me right away.

I was proud of myself that I didn't get upset when Roberto started talking about Gold's Gym. On Monday, I was a mess. I'm very happy because I didn't feel the slightest twinge of sadness. He said that classes will start on the first of August. He said that eventually it will be free for members of the team. He said it might take one to three months. He doesn't know. I talked to Roberto about yesterday's swim. He said to do 20 lengths with freestyle. I'll try that tomorrow. I'm so glad I don't have school on Friday so I can focus on catching up with stats. I asked him about strength training. He said to ask any of the guys there in the weight room at BYU. He said he knows that BYU has free programs. However, I doubt that. I don't know where it's even located. When I asked Sarah about strength training, she said I need a gym to do that. She said that the one at BYU is probably only for athletes.

Tonight when I got home, I found that Dr. Mercola's personal trainer posted a video about training with bands. I think that I'll do that. I just want to keep up with the guys who will train at the gym. They'll get ahead of me with the BJJ. Hopefully not with the strength and cardio. Important points in this video is to do go slow for three seconds. Plus, he said to do two to three sets max with 15 to 20 repetitions.