How I Roll/Home Improvements in New Beginnings

I had an eye opening experience in Jiu Jitsu last week. Every Friday, we have a Reflex Development class after which, we roll (Note: Jiu Jitsu practitioners refer to sparring as “rolling”). I don’t mind rolling with colored belts. I know they’re going to submit me just because they have more experience. Many of them are very nice, though. They’ll feed me opportunities to practice escapes I’ve learned as opposed to merely annihalating me for eight minutes. Rolling with other white belts isn’t so enjoyable. Some of them are hungry for a kill. Once they pair up with someone at the same level, they want to prove their dominance or experiencing something aside from losing, a common occurrence at the beginner level.

For perhaps my third match, I was paired up with a four stripe white belt (I’m a three stripe) who was conspicuously sitting at the far end of the mat by the wall. We shook hands, commenced grappling, and his first move was to topple me into the wall and take top mount. That’s when I realized that such was his plan from the beginning. He picked out a spot near the wall so he could try to pin his opponent against it. The problem with being on the bottom in this case is that the wall prevented me from using any escapes. His plan was just to exhaust me then put on a submission when I was sufficiently tired. I resolved not to let him have it. He wasn’t able to apply any submissions, but he did put a lot of pressure on me in an attempt to wear me out. For instance, he placed his forearm across my neck and bore his weight down on it. It was painful, but I didn’t tap out because it wasn’t an actual choke hold, so I could still fight. After expending a lot of effort, I was able to elbow escape and compose full guard. At least, I would have composed full guard if he didn’t immediately back away. I immediately repositioned myself away from the wall, so we could keep grappling on more even terms. He almost got me in an arm bar, but I escaped that, too. I wasn’t able to submit him, but after exploiting such a cheap tactic, I consider his not being able to submit me an untechnical victory.

What wasn’t an untechnical victory was my tapping out a blue belt with an americana from the guard. I wouldn’t have been able to do it had my opponent not told me I could use that technique from full guard beforehand, but when the opportunity arose, I remembered what he told me and got my first victory. Even more glorious was my tapping out another blue belt yesterday. We began from a standing position and fought for the take down. He tried to hip toss me, but I was able to take his back, and I would have been able to do a rear take down, but my arms weren’t clinched tight enough, and he was able to turn back to face me. We ended up on the ground with him taking dominant position. This guy weighed A LOT! I estimated he weighed at least 230 lbs, and I felt every ounce on my chest. It was a battle just to breathe. However, I was able to get full guard and try an arm bar. He pulled back, and I was able to set up for triangle choke. I honestly didn’t think I would get a victory until much, much later in my training. Some how, I was able to pass his arm over, triangle my legs, and tap him out. I did it! I submitted a larger, more experienced person entirely on my own! I’m still riding the endorphin rush.

I also finished getting set up in my house. My contractor finished resurfacing my cabinets. They look great, but they didn’t rip out the contact paper as the sales person said they would. I don’t know what it is, but something about old shelf paper just grosses me out. I tore it all out yesterday, so now my kitchen is just what I need it to be.

My lawn looks horrible, though. I contacted a lawn service business well over a month ago. The owner said he would drive by my place and send me an estimate, and he never did. When he didn’t get back to me, I sent him an email asking if he was too busy to me on as a client. I wasn’t confrontational, but I wanted to know if I needed to look elsewhere to get my lawn mowed. He said he forgot to put me on his schedule and assured me he wanted my business. I sent me an estimate a few days later, and that’s been the last I’ve heard from him in the last few weeks. I think maybe it’s time to find a new lawn service company. I don’t want to hire someone who very well may forget to service my lawn.