Ola!
I was so busy last week that I completely forgot to post and I had such a busy week this week that now I can’t remember what we worked on. I think it’s a sign for an extended vacation from work. Not a bad idea, right?
Going forward I’m going to format my posts to contain two subjects: knee status and bjj training. This will be at least until I’m discharged from PT, which I think will happen in another two to three weeks.
Knee Status:
Knees are doing well. The right one hasn’t pinched in a while now. I think it had to do with the increased weight and exercises I was doing that helped it get back in line. I definitely think the one-legged squats contributed the most to its rehab. The left knee had a little trouble with its bursa sack. Got a little swollen and painful. However, some PT has gotten it back in shape and everything seems fine.
The only soreness I feel right now is left over from Thursday night’s U2 concert in Philly. I’ll post more about that below. Basically, the knees are feeling really good. I think over the long term I’ll back to training on my normal schedule without any issues.
In order to keep my knees healthy I decided to start wearing knee pads, which I bought at the local Dick’s sporting goods. They are heavily padded volleyball pads and so far so great! I’ve used them twice now and my knees feel fine; no issues. I had been thinking of getting them anyway. I don’t think the skin on my knees appreciated the abuse of the mat; it always felt sore and raw after a medium to heavy training session.
BJJ Training:
Today I walked into my academy and put in a request to go over basic mount escapes. As you know, escaping the mount is something I’m always trying to improve and since it’s been a while since I’ve trained I was itching to work on that.
The result was a very good class. We worked on the bump and roll for about 20 minutes and then the elbow escape for the next 30 minutes. We spent more time on the elbow escape because there’s more movement involved and several of us (especially me) were doing it wrong. I violated the rule of “elbow escaping” by using my right hand on my partner’s knee when completely the escape in order to bring my other leg around to close my guard. Whoops!
My instructor caught me doing that and busted my stones something fierce. There’s no excuse. I’ve been training BJJ for just north of 4 years. I should’ve known better. Once I corrected myself (and my classmates did the same) we worked on escaping should your attacker post out his arm. It involves bumping your hips far away from him, bringing your knee in between you and him, using that knee to push away and get into the position to apply an ankle lock or heel hook.
Despite my little flub it felt like I remembered everything I knew. Still good to review though. I’m going to spend the week thinking of more basic stuff to go over at the next class. Maybe we can work on something off of the knees like back mount escapes or just applying submissions from the back like a collar choke or a Mata Leão.
Our instructor called for 3-minute mount escape drills, but my training partner had to go so I was the odd man out. I’m going to make sure to work on that before and after class over the next few weeks.
U2:
So I mentioned above that I saw the U2 concert in Philly on Thursday. While it wasn’t their best concert, it was really, really good. Performing in a stadium setting is an art in of itself besides being able to perform and U2 is one of two bands that can do it really well. They really took advantage of the 360 degree stage they had built and played the majority of their hits.
While it wasn’t U2’s best concert it was my best concert experience and here’s why: I was in the inner circle, which put me about 10 feet away from the band. At one point Bono was singing “Beautiful Day” right over my head! The stage set up includes bridges that the band can use to walk to an outer circle so they can get closer to the seated audience. Those bridges moved so at one point Bono moved right above me while he was singing “Elevation.” So awesome! You can’t beat an experience like that.
I also got back stage and while I didn’t meet the band it was really cool to walk past their dressing room and see their buses and all the stuff going. The best part was that me and my wife didn’t pay a dime for the experience. Our friend owns the catering company that is on the tour so he got us “family” passes and showed us around and got us into the inner circle. It really pays to know people, doesn’t it?
Chau e bom dia!