[FIGHT] Strapple: Tales from the Mat (Gi and No-Gi)
The Fall of 2005
Three to four months into my jiu-jitsu experience, I was attending classes at a good pace. But then my back went screwy. I guess it all started sometime in early September when I sparred Mizuno-san, one of the blue belts and also a very experienced judo practitioner, so he likes the rough stuff and is strong as hell. By the way, it didn't help that he is considering going pro. Among the several things he tapped me with in our two minutes of rolling, he caught me in an omoplata (from our knees!) so fast that I didn't have time to tap before I felt that bad twinging, the one that accompanies that high-pitched crescendo in the brain. At the time, I thought that only my shoulder was messed up from that so I iced it, but only long after sucking it up and staying at practice for two hours. That turned out OK but I developed an increasingly worsening upper back pain, right down the middle of the top half of my spine, like between my shoulder blades. The Kawasaki Witch Doctor called it at around "D-4," if I recall correctly.
The pain peaked over the first succeeding weekend but subsided enough that I thought I could go to no-gi practice on September the 13th [dum-Dum-DUM]. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake. My back already felt a nagging little pain during stretching, but that quickly changed into the pulsing, sharp kind, especially since we sparred starting from our feet for a while, and my tackle defense already sucks ass. Pretty soon I had zero power. Couldn't bridge, couldn't get off my back, couldn't do pretty much jack. Even got tapped by a beginner. That pissed me off royally, but in my back's condition I couldn't do much about it. (What's worse, I thought I had a kata-gatame on pretty tight, but the dude is a famous non-tapper. I'll get him some time.)
The only highlight was that I triangled a much more experienced guy after getting tapped by that beginner. But to be honest, I must have just surprised him with it, since he probably couldn't imagine that I could pull it off. After all, in the first 3 minutes of our roll, I was essentially showing him that I had nothing because of my crippled ass.
Christmas Eve: Night of Tapping
I sparred blue belt, Tsuyoshi plus alpha. I took his back (or rather, he let me take it) but only had shallow hooks in. Luckily, my right hand had cleanly fed his right lapel to my left hand, which crept in over his left shoulder undeterred just outside his neck. He shook me off to his right side but I kept my grip on his lapel. I ended up three-quarters at rest on my right backside, not flush to the floor, keeping my left hand insistently tight right behind the left side of his throat, my left forearm across the back of his neck. With my free right hand, I took a modest hold of some loose fabric on his left shoulder and scrunched it toward me. Tsuyoshi +a tapped, eliciting noise from some observers from the MMA team.
Admittedly, this account isn't entirely fair. I probably caught Tsuyoshi +a in a rare spell of carelessness that was precipitated, again, by my less-than-compelling performance up to that point. Several months ago I put a tight triangle on Tsuyoshi +a, and I recall thinking at that time that he mostly let me have it. Anyway, in our last couple of rolls I suspect that I was as good as dead on two occasions, including one triangle, and then Tsuyoshi +a kindly let go. But what the hell, I still tapped a blue.
I sparred Yogi, a reasonably advanced white belt but one who frequently gives up a compromising position. I scored my first RNC. Not tight around the throat but I secured a good enough hold around his jaw. That was followed by a few minutes with Tall Chicken Little -- lots of huffing and puffing, Herculean effort in a tall but skinny frame. I caught him twice. Once with an armbar from guard, and a little over a minute later with a V1 from sidemount. There were a lot of firsts on that night.
January
I was a good student in January. I even made it to the first session of the year. And there was some good sparring in that first month of 2006.
For example, I put two guillotines on Yogi. Believe it or not, the first one I got was with both of us on our knees. He also had one arm in but I guess I still managed to tighten the hold. I had such little expectation for that guillotine that I didn't hear or feel him tapping for a few seconds. Sorry about that.
The second came a couple of minutes later and Yogi had no arms in. I tried to pull him into guard but he passed one leg on the way down. But I had the other leg (my left) high up on his back and the guillotine was pretty tight (under my right armpit) so he tapped. I suppose that when I settled for the beer paunch, the Creator gave me thin forearms as compensation.
I sparred Graybeard Twinspawn, and although I failed to get him to tap, I am pleased to say that it was an unexpectedly dominating performance. "Did you get fatter? From eating too much ramen?" No, dude, I weigh the same as I did last month, and the month before that. It's just that I am still better and stronger than you are. I realize that, the first time we sparred, I tried all kinds of stupid shit from the guard and got tapped in the last minute for my troubles, but just think of that as a gift.
And finally on Saturday, January 7, I was able to finish my sometimes rival from the July 1, 2005 account (hint: foppish hair and a hi-NRG style) from kesagatame position, with a V1 on his left arm with my legs.
Three to four months into my jiu-jitsu experience, I was attending classes at a good pace. But then my back went screwy. I guess it all started sometime in early September when I sparred Mizuno-san, one of the blue belts and also a very experienced judo practitioner, so he likes the rough stuff and is strong as hell. By the way, it didn't help that he is considering going pro. Among the several things he tapped me with in our two minutes of rolling, he caught me in an omoplata (from our knees!) so fast that I didn't have time to tap before I felt that bad twinging, the one that accompanies that high-pitched crescendo in the brain. At the time, I thought that only my shoulder was messed up from that so I iced it, but only long after sucking it up and staying at practice for two hours. That turned out OK but I developed an increasingly worsening upper back pain, right down the middle of the top half of my spine, like between my shoulder blades. The Kawasaki Witch Doctor called it at around "D-4," if I recall correctly.
The pain peaked over the first succeeding weekend but subsided enough that I thought I could go to no-gi practice on September the 13th [dum-Dum-DUM]. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake. My back already felt a nagging little pain during stretching, but that quickly changed into the pulsing, sharp kind, especially since we sparred starting from our feet for a while, and my tackle defense already sucks ass. Pretty soon I had zero power. Couldn't bridge, couldn't get off my back, couldn't do pretty much jack. Even got tapped by a beginner. That pissed me off royally, but in my back's condition I couldn't do much about it. (What's worse, I thought I had a kata-gatame on pretty tight, but the dude is a famous non-tapper. I'll get him some time.)
The only highlight was that I triangled a much more experienced guy after getting tapped by that beginner. But to be honest, I must have just surprised him with it, since he probably couldn't imagine that I could pull it off. After all, in the first 3 minutes of our roll, I was essentially showing him that I had nothing because of my crippled ass.
Christmas Eve: Night of Tapping
I sparred blue belt, Tsuyoshi plus alpha. I took his back (or rather, he let me take it) but only had shallow hooks in. Luckily, my right hand had cleanly fed his right lapel to my left hand, which crept in over his left shoulder undeterred just outside his neck. He shook me off to his right side but I kept my grip on his lapel. I ended up three-quarters at rest on my right backside, not flush to the floor, keeping my left hand insistently tight right behind the left side of his throat, my left forearm across the back of his neck. With my free right hand, I took a modest hold of some loose fabric on his left shoulder and scrunched it toward me. Tsuyoshi +a tapped, eliciting noise from some observers from the MMA team.
Admittedly, this account isn't entirely fair. I probably caught Tsuyoshi +a in a rare spell of carelessness that was precipitated, again, by my less-than-compelling performance up to that point. Several months ago I put a tight triangle on Tsuyoshi +a, and I recall thinking at that time that he mostly let me have it. Anyway, in our last couple of rolls I suspect that I was as good as dead on two occasions, including one triangle, and then Tsuyoshi +a kindly let go. But what the hell, I still tapped a blue.
I sparred Yogi, a reasonably advanced white belt but one who frequently gives up a compromising position. I scored my first RNC. Not tight around the throat but I secured a good enough hold around his jaw. That was followed by a few minutes with Tall Chicken Little -- lots of huffing and puffing, Herculean effort in a tall but skinny frame. I caught him twice. Once with an armbar from guard, and a little over a minute later with a V1 from sidemount. There were a lot of firsts on that night.
January
I was a good student in January. I even made it to the first session of the year. And there was some good sparring in that first month of 2006.
For example, I put two guillotines on Yogi. Believe it or not, the first one I got was with both of us on our knees. He also had one arm in but I guess I still managed to tighten the hold. I had such little expectation for that guillotine that I didn't hear or feel him tapping for a few seconds. Sorry about that.
The second came a couple of minutes later and Yogi had no arms in. I tried to pull him into guard but he passed one leg on the way down. But I had the other leg (my left) high up on his back and the guillotine was pretty tight (under my right armpit) so he tapped. I suppose that when I settled for the beer paunch, the Creator gave me thin forearms as compensation.
I sparred Graybeard Twinspawn, and although I failed to get him to tap, I am pleased to say that it was an unexpectedly dominating performance. "Did you get fatter? From eating too much ramen?" No, dude, I weigh the same as I did last month, and the month before that. It's just that I am still better and stronger than you are. I realize that, the first time we sparred, I tried all kinds of stupid shit from the guard and got tapped in the last minute for my troubles, but just think of that as a gift.
And finally on Saturday, January 7, I was able to finish my sometimes rival from the July 1, 2005 account (hint: foppish hair and a hi-NRG style) from kesagatame position, with a V1 on his left arm with my legs.
posted by hamu86 at 12:12 PM
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