Jiu Jitsu Returns

Now that Governor Whitner was slapped for her arbitrary and capricious ruling closing gyms, our Jiu Jitsu center opened back up.

It was fantastic to see jitsu friends in person again. It's been far, far too long.

Unfortunately, it's not quite the same as before, not yet anyways - class is reduced to 40 minutes in time, a maximum of 12 people in a room that holds many many more during normal times, no change-room usage, you show up in uniform and everyone has to wear masks and be 10 feet apart. Temperatures were checked and everyone showing up was healthy and hand sanitizer was copiously dispensed before entering the room.

Doing Jitsu while wearing a mask is a bit of an extra workout, and yes you do get noticeable carbon dioxide buildup and much more rapid breathing, and harder breathing, while wearing a mask.

One could go solo in your ten foot space or you could opt to partner up with another person for practice but there was no switching partners.

Since we're starting leg locks, doing them solo is akin to, and looks a lot like, a monkey being intimate with a football.

In short, solo leg lock practice is really not conducive to learning the technique.

So I paired up with Trevor and both in masks we worked on the foot lock. Much better with a partner as you can actually do the technique and it makes a lot more sense and you can learn it.

The class ended and there was an option to roll afterwards but not required or demanded in any way.

Everyone stayed to roll anyways as its been far too long since we had gotten any rolling time in and we've all been healthy throughout. Rolling again was limited in partners you had paired up with and there was a maximum of 4 rolling pairs on the floor at any one time with 10 feet of space in between rolling pairs, time was short and then the next set of 4 pairs would go.

So I was paired up with Trevor who is a solid head taller than me and a far (not fair bit, but far) stronger fellow. Oh Boy.

A great roll.

I was able to hold him off and block some attacks, did end up getting crushed a lot, but I managed to slip in the trap cross collar choke from guard - in short it ends up in a standard cross collar choke but doesn't start as one and as the attacker tries to avoid what they think is an impending choke they actually slip into it. Very fun when it works.

After the tap, we started again and I actually got a solid trap and roll on him which was great and held him off for the rest of the roll, including stopping a really good Kimura arm bar attempt. Lots of fun and it was great to get rolling again. Heckuva workout after all this time off.

A great short roll and a great back to it class.