2 Strips: Holding on for Dear Life

"There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, 

the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it"

~ Napoleon HIll

It's been six long days since I've been to the gym so it felt good to get back. Today was the first day of the new schedule at Renzo's. They added all of these extra classes and made attendance and uniform requirements a lot more strict. I was worried I would only be able to take one class because now white belts need permission to attend the more advanced classes. Rich (the owner) gave me permission before I even had to ask which was a relief.

Today in the advanced class we went over moves from cross eye. For once, I was able to shed my normally confused disposition because I knew exactly what we were drilling. I've gotten a lot better in the month that I've been training up here, and today it finally paid off. At the end of class, me and two other white belts got strips. I got two strips and one of the others guys got three. They told him that he needed to work on his grips more.

Speaking of grips..


I found it kind of ironic he should mention that because I'm going through a phase where all I want to do is hold on! I'll grab onto anything in hopes that I won't get swept (as easily). I'm generally not sure what I'm doing, but either way I'd say works about 60% of the time. Whether it works or not, it definitely allows for better positioning.

Grips are not only good for grabbing onto your opponents gi, when it doubt, curling up into a ball and holding onto yourself is apparently good for defense as well. Seriously, this has kept me from being swept, kept people from getting hooks in on my back, and saved me from numerous chokes, and arm bars. Since training at Renzo's a feel like some of the guys are prepping me for a Ronda Rousey fight.

In the last month I think I've defended about 500 arm bars, so, needless to say I've become very adept at arm bar defense.  I'm pretty sure that it is a flaw in the arm bar technique (mainly that they are not squeezing their legs together as they fall back) and not my own Jiu Jits prowess that makes this escape so successful. Either way it works for me and every time I successfully escape from a higher belt it feels just as good as a submission.