Day 10&11: You don't take a day off from Jiu Jitsu

Woke up Sunday. Still very achy. Didnt have much to do today, so saw it as a day to get a nice bit of rest and recovery, maybe try and get a massage to loosen up my neck/back. Spent a few hours chilling downstairs, chatted to Mauricio for a bit, GSP came in and Roger was late once again. By the time they got on the mat I was hungry so left to get some food. Went to pick up my laundry, it was closed, they had a sign up on the door (same sign that was on there yesterday), it read: "Closed early today - 5:00pm. Closed all day Sept 5th" (tomorrow). It was 3.00....... I was starting to get pissed off with them as its a long arse walk (for a knackered body) to get to. I had gone there yesterday, today (ended up going back again later, to no avail) and they were closed the next day. And I was running out of training clothes !!!! I made a mental note to myself to find a different place to go next time. I returned to the gym and started asking around if anyone knew a sports masseuse or if the gym had a "go to" masseuse for the fighters. The general reply I got was; there are lots of massage parlours and lots of "massage" parlours.... I was intent on getting an innocent sports massage to help a bit with recovery, promise! So to make sure I didnt walk into the some dodgy place I looked online for a sports massage clinic close by. Found one and went on my way, and I managed to find the only street in Manhatten that seems abandoned and all the buildings shut down/boarded up, including where this place was meant to be, so I head back to the gym to look for another place. When I get back, with it being a Sunday, the security guard had left, meaning I couldn't get back inside the gym! I waited for about 10 mins, trying to ring some people who were still inside training to come let me in but to no avail. And it was scorching hot outside, so I went looking, knowledge free, for a massage (MASSAGE!). There was a place a few buildings down for the academy, at the end of the street. It was above a pizza place.... I ignored this and went in. When I got in I saw the name; "The Relax Center"...... ok.... Il have faith. Anyway I wait a bit and a chinese lady comes out. She doesn't speak a word of English, however I try and make very clear that I want a "S.P.O.R.T.S....M.A.S.S.A.G.E" as I wasnt aware that "sports massage" was code for "happy ending" in any country. So I laid there half worried, half trying to relax, she actually wasnt to bad. It was relaxing and think it helped to relive some soreness in my back. However there was one "WTF moment" whhere all of a sudden this 4 foot 10 little chinese lady seemed to effortlessly leap 4 feet onto the massage table to stand on my back. After the massage she asked if I wanted any extra time to which I swiftly replied "No thank you!".

I went back to the gym to see if I could sneak in as someone left and luckily after a few mins I managed to do just that. Set up camp for the night, had some protein bars for dinner (as I couldn't go out for food), watched some Dragon Ball and went to bed.

Monday I woke up later as had been told that only Johns 1 oclock nogi class would be on today (it was a bank holiday here). When out for a really breakfast(!) and got back in time to train. I had a bad pain in the side/back of my knee that had been bothering me since saturday morning so was intending to use this session to gauge the severity. Big class again about 35-40 people (massive considering its a holiday) a included not only a host of black belts, but George St Pierre and Frankie Edgar, thats TWO UFC champions on the mat. John began again with standing techniques; a single leg entry, the guy steps back to protect the leg so you switch to the other leg, and take him down. The second technique the opponent is controlling both wrists, you do a nice maneuver to strip a grip and shoot on the leg, when the opponent defends you switch to a hip throw. Next its onto the ground, and a we doing passing the butterfly guard. John shows a very nice technique to pass called "the elbow slip" which kills the a knee without endangering an arm. Its a extremely tight pass, and doesn't allow for any space from underneath. Next is another pass from butterfly using double under-hooks, this is so tight it makes the last technique look as loose as an essex girls underwear. And can be combined with the elbow slip for people with short arms or weaker wrists. Next is a open guard pass from standing, it uses the angles to get into the guard at an angle and kill the hips, the guy underneath then has the choice to turn in, securing himself underside control, or turn away, which the person passing would then use to sink a hook on the back. From there if the guy defending does nothing the attacker secures the second hook and attacks the neck, if he defends traditionally by trying to get his back on the ground he falls into a twister (spine lock).

Next it was sparring. I went with the guy I was training techniques with, a purple belt around my weight. I had to go extremely light to not put my knee into positions where it would hurt/ be injured more. After the roll it felt tender so I decided to sit and watch for the rest of the session. After the sparring, normall the class would end, but John let everyone know that as many people decided not to show up today because it was a holiday; the rest of us would suffer. So we did 3 min rounds of drilling. I paired up with a big black belt who was also injured. The drills were designed to help movement and coordination and included (the ones I can remember): double shins under thighs to heel hook position to x guard, to sweep. Then guillotine defense from guard, and butterfly guard. And then turtle to crucifix position. At the end of the class John congratulates everyone for coming on whats meant to be a day off. He says that you will walk out here today knowing more than you did when you walked in, and this is the aim. And for fighter, that you were getting stronger and better while your opponents were getting weaker. He said "You don't take a day off from breathing. You don't take a day off from eating. You don't take a day off from Jiu Jitsu."

After the class I went for some food and returned, finding out I would once again be locked in from around 4 or 5 (as it was a holiday). Upon hearing this my parents very kindly found a nice hotel with massively reduced rates; about 4 times cheaper (YES FOUR TIMES!!), and paid for me to stay there for the night. I cannot explain how nice it was to sit on a real bed, with air con and a tv. I had a very pleasant evening in and went to sleep in my nice COOL room.

Ape out.