Since my last post I haven’t trained that much due to my
elbow being popped, however I have being doing stretching and rehabilitation exercises
which seem to be having a positive effect so hopefully It’ll soon be 100%
again.
Before the injury I started doing the 5x5 stronglifts
routine in the gym. For those who are not aware what it is you can find more
information here .
I liked the look of this routine mainly because it focuses on leg strength which
is something I am lacking, especially when I have to get down low to do seoi
nage’s. With my injury I had to stop all upper body training but I have
recently started doing deadlifts and bench press again, albeit with fairly
light weights but I’m already up to 80kg deadlifts, 80kg squats and am pressing
30kg dumbells (Using a bar for bench hurts my shoulders, old injury, long
story)
I’ll update my blog with any gains I make and as I’m still
in the early phases of the routine I expect my gains to be quick especially as
I have, in the past, squatted 130kg and benched 120kg. They do say your muscle
has memory so I’m hoping I can get back to that sort of weight sometime, assuming
my old body holds together.
Last night I trained at Yoshin Ryu (Newaza night) which is a
class I really enjoy. Although I originally injured my elbow in a Juji-gatame I
feel that I’m less likely to re injure it doing groundwork than I would if I
was thrown and had to break fall using my left arm, which less face most people
get thrown by right handed throws so always use their left arm to break fall.
There was a really good mix of experience in the class last
night with plenty of kyu grades from white up to brown and then 6 dan grades from
1st to 4th dan. Last week I had trouble sweeping a heavy
yellow belt from inside my guard so this week I pulled guard again so that I
could try and solve this problem. Again I was not able to sweep him. He seemed
wise to the flower sweep and being strong it was difficult for me to control his
arms. I attacked his neck and got close with a couple of collar strangles but it ended in a stalemate
with no submissions of hold downs to either of us. I complemented him
afterwards for having a good strong base and will try again next week to solve
this problem. Obviously I could refuse to pull guard and push him down but I like
the challenge and besides this a clearly a weak spot in my game that needs working
on.
Next up was another stocky guy, an orange belt, but unlike
the yellow belt before him I was able to sweep and submit on multiple
occasions, changing between playing guard to working on my top game and
passing. So I was feeling good and then Sensei Tim called me over for a roll
and I was made to feel like a beginner as he constantly passed my guard, strangled
and arm locked me at will. I managed to take his back at one point and had both
hooks in but he very calmly and slowly reversed the position and squashed me in
to the mat.
Next up was a young brown belt (anyone under 30 is young in
my book). I’ve rolled with him before and I mentioned in a previous post just
how good his newaza is. I think the biggest compliment I can pay him is that he
moves like a BJJ’er, very light and quick with a good guard. I’m sure he’d beat
the majority of brown belts on the ground. I decided I wanted to play top game
and he seemed happy to play guard and so the chess game begun. Most of this
roll was me trying to pass his guard, all the while being aware of his sweep
attempts and his attempts to choke me. It was a good tactical battle and right
near the end I managed to pass to side control but he quickly escaped. However
in the scramble I found an arm and got the tap with a belly down juji-gatame. I
think I got lucky but will always seek this guy out as he is really technical
and presents me with different problems to some of the others.
Against Sensei Neil and Sensei Paul I faced a familiar
problem. They both like to use the same technique to pass my guard, ie one arm
under my right leg which leaves them open to the san-gaku-jime. However each
time I try this I get stacked, folded in half and eventually passed and subbed
or just held down. To be fair against Paul I’ve been close to getting the
san-gaku-jime but against Neil he never seems in trouble. I need to look in to
ways of either perfecting my san-gaku-jime or defences against that particular guard pass.
Another excellent Wednesday evening at Yoshin Ryu which is
now my favourite class of the week.
