journeyjjbluebelt

The instructors aren’t going to like this but I injured my back during lesson 20. I blame myself for the injury. My back was hurting before the class. The day of the class, I arrived late and didn’t fully stretch out. The biggest cause is that I have been sleeping on a bad mattress. The ten days before, I was not exercising like I usually do. Despite what happens in my life I need to always exercise. The good news is that I am improving. I hoping to come back on Wednesday.

Observation, once you become a blue belt, you become a mentor to white belts, not an instructor. So during review, we practice what lessons the white belts know. I have some anxiety that I maybe giving bad advise so I try just to point out the most obvious mistakes in their form. When I feel it’s not going well, I seek help from the instructor or higher belts that I trust.

We learned esquima, re learned, which I find difficult, however, in my opinion, it is a good defense against fist strikes while standing. It is also a good position for a takedown as well. Esquima, is a Portuguese word meaning fencing. It is a locking one of the opponents arms under the arm pit and holding that arm at the elbow. The other arm is grasping the other side back shoulder under their arm holding the shoulder blade. Your head is to one shoulder side. When the opponent switches grips, or swims the shoulder holding arm down, you switch to the other side, sort of like a dance.

As far as distance, esquima grappling, shoulder to shoulder, is the opposite in judo where it’s like a waltz dance distance, arms length. This judo distance is bad for a street attack from fist strikes. Professor Pedro had pointed out the mistake of my judo distance.

Next throwing class, when I am healthy enough to participate, I want to work on getting into the esquima grip and also to work on throwing from the esquima grip. I wonder how it would work in a size mismatch, a bigger opponent.