BJJ Three Months Later

Well, it's been about 3 months since I started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at Tony's place.  At first it was difficult to go three times a week because my body couldn't take the beating, but lately I am starting to make it Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.  This past week though I could only go on Wednesday so I made it to my second ever Saturday class, which is a two hour ordeal.  I was already tired from being out late Friday for the Evening Parade so the extra 30 minutes of rolling was tough.  Plus, gotta remember not to eat breakfast too soon before class :P  Anyway, dragging my butt out of bed on Saturday morning just made me realize how dedicated I am becoming to BJJ.  I knew I enjoyed it, but didn't think I'd get this hooked.  I am so looking forward to getting better and fitter.  I'm still pretty out of shape.  I think the latest change in warm ups will help.  Now we do rounds of shrimping, bear crawl, frog, and crocodiles across the mat as often as we can in a set period of time.  My muscles aren't used to this so I'm sore all over again like I was when I first started.

I don't know a whole lot of techniques just yet.  I got in couple weeks of arm bars when I started before going into the De La Riva guard and sweeps.  Now we are doing spider guard and sweeps, as well as triangle and oma plata.  When I roll I spend most of the time defending.  Every once in a while someone will let me practice a technique on them, or I'll just happen to end up on the office.  I only recall tapping someone out once or twice.  Yeah, I suck, but I'm supposed to at white belt.  From what coach says, that's about how it goes as a white belt.  When I get to blue belt I should be able to apply more of the techniques.  Hope that is true.

Most of the time I end rolling with someone bigger than me (because there's only 1 other female that goes there on a regular basis and I end up in class with her maybe twice a month).  Therefore I spend a lot of time getting crushed.  When the other person is on top I can barely move usually.  Trying to bump them off takes a lot of energy.  I also end up with bruises all over my body from them pinning me down or what not.  I look like a domestic violence case.  So far no injuries though, which is good.  Tony runs a tight ship.  Although I did roll the other day with a dude who was a bit... er... much.  I only came out of there with a bit lip that didn't turn fat, so I guess it was ok.  I felt pretty man handled though....

Now that I am doing BJJ I'm starting to notice I have quite a few friends from the days who do BJJ as well.  I knew Mike M did, as he had introduced me to it years ago.  Wish I had stuck with it then.  Nikki from NAPS, James from 6th grade, Karen/Glenn from high school, James and Jamie from CGA.  I can see why it's popular though.  Definitely a lot of fun trying to beat people up.

Marine Corps Evening Parade

Marine Band

This past Friday I went to go see the Marine Corps Evening Parade at the Marine Barracks in DC.  It was my second time there, but it has been about 4 or 5 years since I last went.  I almost thought about not going since I hate going into DC with Friday evening traffic, but since a friend from Juneau was in DC that day, I thought it would be something nice for her to see and a good opportunity for us to catch up.  It did end up taking an hour and a half to get there with traffic, but it ended up being totally worth it.  Not only was it nice seeing my friend again, the Evening Parade was much better than I remembered!  Lots of things reminded me of my time at the Coast Guard Academy - the marching songs played by the Marine Band, the drill (left shoulder arms, port arms, order arms, etc.), colors, TAPS, the march, etc.  The Silent Drill Platoon was of course popular and cool to see.  I think I'll have to make this an annual thing....

Silent Drill Platoon