Ne-Waza Supplement and it's a small, small world...

So Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty much sacrosanct. Those are my judo days and pretty much revolves around those two days. Mondays has become my only Dragon Boating day during the week. This leaves, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays for other things.

I was going to supplement Wednesdays with dragon boating, but there's not enough room on the other teams' boat at times, and the eventuality is that it's going to get COLD in Lake Washington in a few months. So Dragon Boating is out. Running is boring, biking may be okay, although I'd like to go mountain biking, and finding a riding partner is just a pain. Friday/Saturday/Sunday, I would like to leave open for weekend summer trips.

Fast forward to the point, as I've digressed way too much. I've been shopping around for grappling/BJJ schools that fit a Wednesday/Sunday afternoon schedule. This will supplement my weakness in newaza and give me a chance to see judo from a different perspective. I've checked out the Marcelo BJJ School on Aurora Ave. That was a cool school, however it's just wicked expensive. $140 month unless you get the $100 direct deduction, which seems to be the going rate at most BJJ schools. The Rodrigo Lopes School at Tully's is cool. I've taken a class and he gives good instruction; again, it's $100 bucks a month, with direct deposit encouraged. The Ring Sports United School is great as well. I've taken no-gi submission grappling courses there, and it's taught by Joel Burris who is a Black Belt BJJ and has done some grappling internationally. RSU is a cool school and at $100 bucks a month you get BJJ, Wrestling, MMA training, Muay Thai and Western Boxing. The facilities are cool and I trained there for about 4 months. The bad thing is it's on the Eastside and with Gas at 4.20 a gallon, it costs me around 10 bucks for every practice I go to, plus the cost of the gym.

So, I ran across Seattle Jujutsu club from the Bullshido.com forum. Also after talking to the Senior Stankovich, who studied Jujutsu, it's also a good thing to learn. Bert from my dojo has practiced jujutsu as well. I guess all these sports are really inter-related.

I had a long talk with Mr. Aaron Fields by phone from the Seattle Jujutsu club and I like his philosophy. He believes in training and good practice. He was gracious enough to let me watch a class. He was on watch, so he couldn't be there, so I got to meet Matt, his senior student. Matt looked familiar for some reason and couldn't really place it. The class continued on, and Matt would stop by to see if I had any questions. During one of the breaks, we talked about judo competitions. And he competed in the Continental Crown a few years ago, as well as I. I had a match with him! Anyways, he brings out a dojo calendar to April 2009 and sure enough, there's Matt in his white gi and myself in my blue gi at the Continental Crown. Granted it wasn't the most flattering picture, as I was getting thrown. Regardless it was cool to come to a dojo that has a picture of you in their calendar! (I'll post a picture here once I can get a copy and permission to post the picture)

Small Small World.

So, going back to Judo/Jujutsu/Sombo/Mongolian Folk Wrestling. That's what the experience of the school has and has a lot of influence from the Eastern Block. It's cool as everything was very familiar. Everyone uses same judo terms as well as wrestling terms as well.

So here's the class. And this is a bit unusual as Aaron wasn't there, so it was an open mat practice.

1. Warm Ups
2. Uchikomis
3. Practice Throws on crash pad
4. 18 - 2 minute rounds of Standing randori
5. 18 - 2 minute rounds of Newaza randori

It was just amazing to see 36 rounds of randori, with the only real break was in between standing and newaza. It was a grinder. It made me tired just watching it. (I was just watching it) Usually my club has 12 - 3 minute rounds. 6 down/6 up which I usually end up skipping 2-4 rounds due to being odd man out or just simply gassed.

So now, I think I've found something to do on Sunday at 7PM and Wednesday at 7PM. Matt (the senior student) told me to bring my gi next time. So we'll see how it goes this Sunday.

Ah, so no workout today. Thought I was going to roll a bit tonight, but it was good. I'm sore from last night and good to take a day off (I guess). I did eat two crappy unhealthy but oh so delicious meals. One was rice with sweet and sour pork! YUMMY and second was a huge burrito which I couldn't finish. Can you say Flatus!?

Next Wednesday, however, I was invited to a long hike. I'm not really so sure, yet. I'd really like to do jujutsu or judo, but we'll see.

Off to a good night's sleep.