WTF?!

Went to class today and paid my monthly dues to Wilson Junior, one of the blackbelts who teaches here. Immediately got changed but was a little early so I watched Atilla's class. Got a nod from one of the students ( I think he remembers me from last week). He was one of those who does striking as well as grappling. As the others trickle in, I noticed only one other without a gi, so I assumed another newbie like me. Dickie Martin started off the class with his brand of warm up and it was a killer! I think I pulled /sprained my left adductor muscle on my left leg during the warm up, which made the warm up a bit harder. Maybe I was more unfit than I thought but then aren't warm ups meant to "warm up" your muscles to training temperature to avoid/reduce injury and/or "muscle shock"? Maybe I need to "warm up" before the actual warm up...

The techniques section started off where my training left off, which was side control. Sort of gravitated towards the other newbie, who shall remain unnamed for the duration of this post, who I found out was a first-timer. Practiced the techniques and he seemed to be an OK training partner - but I was mistaken. I sat out the first sparring session because it was an odd-numbered class but in the second sparring session ( I believe it was called "positional sparring" as we were meant to do the techniques with resistance from the opponent , Dickie paired me off with him, and I thought, "Great! Let me see if I could drill in the techniques better."

As soon as the sparring started, this guy came on to me full on! All he wanted to do was to choke me with all his might! No technique, just cranking my neck. Tsk tsk...I didn't want to use my strength against this and tried to relax so I could think through the escape and positioning but this guy just kept on cranking my neck! It wasn't even a proper choke as the arm wasn't sunk in. I just tapped so we could start again but as soon as we restarted, the guy charged at me again! In my last class, I had the opportunity to spar with Simon (BB) and Jasper (WB) who contained their abilities to submit me to a minimum as they knew they were way ahead of me skills-wise. But this guy was different! Maybe he was still on a high from watching UFC 102 last Saturday and was eager to show his "Skillz". I was really trying hard to restrain myself and go full on with this guy but on the third restart, Dickie asked me to sit it out. He was paired with a white belt and I saw that he was on the business end of the tap this time.

The class ended on a high note, though. During the hand shakes, one of the guys told me that I looked like BJ Penn and that maybe I was as good as him, to my amusement. Little did he know how farthest from his comment were my skills.

As we were changing from our training gear, I overheard Vince ask this guy how old was he and he replied, "15".

That explains a lot.

------------------

Here's what we've learned today. The names could be different from what they are properly called but I'll try to describe the techniques through their names.

Side Control to Knee on Belly
Knee on Belly to Knee on Chest
Knee on Belly to Arm Bar
Knee on Belly to Arm Bar (Stiff arm)
Baseball Choke
Knee on Belly Escape
Knee on Belly Escape with Ankle Sweep