Paul Tom and the Safe Place

Class was much better today than yesterday. There were two different types of chokes that I learned. One was from knee on mount. I put my far hand with four fingers inside the lapel and the other hand on the other side of the neck with only the thumb inside. Then, I twist around in north south position making sure that my elbows and my chest is on him. Then, I drive forward to finish off the choke. That was pretty easy. The next one is from north south position, but on bottom. I put my hands like the way I had in the previous choke. Four fingers in one hand and one thumb in the other hand. Then, we follow the thumb that's on the outside, twist around, and check the leg so the guy won't twist around you from top. A variation for the move is to put either leg on the neck while still having the choke. I liked to check the leg and put the other leg on the neck. It seemed like that I can choke the guy faster and didn't use as much strength. The last move I did was from knee on stomach. I get to that position by grabbing the lapel just under the guy's neck and then, the obi. Then, I lean forward and side my knee on the inside of my arm, so my arm is on the outside of my thigh. I can cross choke from here. When the guy pushes on my knee, I can grab under his bicep to pull him onto his side. Ack. I give up explain this move. I was having a horrible time learning it. Plus, I accidentally put my hand on Sid's groin. That was embarrassing. I've never done that before. It felt pretty squishy. Ha, ha. This video is a similar version of the move that I gave up explaining.



Then, I grappled with Sid. I did will with him. He submitted me once with a Darce choke. When we were grappling, professor wanted us to switch partners. So, I went up to Dave and grappled with him. Paul Tom noticed that I feel really comfortable rolling with him. He's lots of fun and softer which is good. He's not that aggressive with his strength. I think that he's also weaker than the young guys that I have grappled with since he's older. Paul Tom helped me when grappling with him by telling me what to do. That was pretty cool. One way to help me support my base while trying to break guard is put one of my legs in a forty five angle with my foot on the ground instead of having both knees on the ground. Somehow, Dave was throwing off my balance when I was trying to break his guard by putting my get against his butt and pushing back. One way to get someone from mount is when he i sitting up right, your feet on his armpits, and go out the back door. I think that's correct.

Afterwards, Dave said that I want to control him energetically instead of just using technique. I still don't know what he meant by that. Then, he said I sort of freak out when I'm mounted. I don't know. I just don't want to be submitted. Well, I told Paul Tom that he talks to much because he wanted to know what I didn't like about him. He said it's alright that I think that way. I agree with him that his students are very technical. He agrees that his students goof around a little to much. He said that he likes to talk to that they won't get too serious and hurt themselves or each other. He said that he wants to enrich his students by talking about things other than BJJ. He knows a lot about what's going on in his students lives and their issues. He certainly knows about my issues. He said that I love to take out my beating stick and beat myself with it. I know that I'm too hard on myself in certain aspects in my life. I think that in others I'm not hard enough, like doing homework and not watching video game reviews. He said that he wants his school to be as safe place where his students can be themselves. He said that Bishops aren't really prepared to take on the issues of the ward members. However, I think that they are still good to talk to because they have the power of discernment.

One another thing, he said that he has to hop when rolling over at night because he's overweight. He was making fun of himself in class. Then, he told us one time how he woke up to have a hand near his face. He thought it was some guys because it was obviously was one and when he touched it, he didn't feel anything. It turned out that he was sleeping on his arm and it fell asleep. I though that was really, really funny.