Martial Farts

My buddy Ben Tong, some tough guys, Jeff Lawson, and an idiot.

Some quick thoughts on the No Gi open that have been rattling around my head…

I moved out of my comfort zone and tried the takedown followed by top game. What sucks about this is that I realised I had almost no real experience doing this, especially in training where I have mostly been using my guard to nullify my big strong training partners. Good thing about this is, I suppose, the losses and the lessons learned from them will ultimately help my jiu jitsu. But I kind of feel like a kid does when their parents tell them to clean their teeth at night and the kid is all “but cleaning teeth sucks” and the parents are all “but you really should do it otherwise you’ll have teeth like a Japanese schoolgirl” and you’re all “god I hate you” and they’re all “go to bed” and you’re all “up yours dickbrains I’m going to go and smoke tea rolled up in rizla papers and talk about naked girls and stuff” and… oh, dear. Anyway.  I think I did the right thing ultimately but now that I think about it, it would have been nice to sit back and play some guard for a while, something I have a lot of experience in. Hey ho, live and learn!

I was happy that one of the guys I give some lessons to asked me straight away for a class, so I could continue training just the day after the competition.

On Friday night I went to the Bulldog Gym to do some filming for Jeff Lawson, who wants to send a little intro video to Japan. I brought my kit with me and was grateful when Jeff told me to get changed and have a roll. An MMA class was going on at the time, with some fairly hefty lads smashing seven bells out of each other. As I went into the changing room I heard Jeff telling them not to punch me, which was nice.

I rolled with a couple of people. I think they were a little miffed as to who I was and what I was doing there but when we started rolling it was pretty clear that we all speak the same language. I am very grateful to them for letting me join in, and refraining from punching me in the face. We posed for a picture and I managed to confirm to myself, yet again, that I am the ugliest feckin’ eedjit in Britain. We all had a good laugh at my gangly legs.

Then today we had a nice little group session. If everyone turned up at the same time who I teach during the week, and who has shown an interest in the class, there would be ten people on the mat, easily. As it is, only a handful turn up at a time. Once I get settled and can focus on organising and promoting myself a bit better, the class will start filling up.

We went over the Brabo choke. I had Robert Drysdale’s book Shortcut to Submission Win (only available in Japan, and through me… watch this space!) which devotes an entire chapter to the Brabo. I am going to make that “our choke” and work on it every week.

Here is a highlight video of the open. You can see my disputed armbar tap (I don’t see me tapping anywhere!) and some shots of Andy. Enjoy!

Osu!