bushido_man96

5/16/2026 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: 10:00 - 11:00 am. Open mat. It felt good to get back in, and I hope I don't have so many more interruptions. We rolled a few rounds to start out and I felt pretty good about them. I almost got a triangle choke set, and I worked a sweep once. We spent the rest of the class time working on stand-up. We focused on getting behind the opponent, using arm drags, duck-unders, etc. The coach/blue belt was really good about not offering a lot of excess forward pressure, so I tried to attack in spots with some extra forward pressure to try to get him to pressure back some. There were times where I felt him starting to come around my back and all I felt I could do was throw an underhook around his body to block him. I had some success with the other white belt that was there. Between rounds I stretched my legs. Back did ok today.

5/13/2026 Another morning Aikido video review session. 5th, 6th, and 7th kyu material, doing walk-thrus along the way. Aikido Testing: 6:15 - 7:20 pm. Testing is finally here. I'll do another testing reflection post that will go more in-depth on my thoughts, along with the evaluation review I got from the testing panel. I sat with sensei after testing, though, and got the evaluation right there. He gave me some things to work on, and congratulated me on a clean pass.

Congratulations, @Drew, and congrats on 15 years being a member! Awesome!

Excellent work, @aurik, and good luck on the upcoming test as well!

5/10/2026 Aikido: Video review of 7th, 6th, and 5th kyu material. 5/11/2026 Aikido: Video review again, same stuff. 5/12/2026 Aikido: Video review again, same stuff, along with walk-thrus of the techniques.

Make sure to keep up on your mental health, too.

Those were affects I wasn't really aware of. I usually only take some Flonase at night before I go to bed to help me breath better and snore less.

You hang in there, Bob. Keep fighting the fight!

Angles figure in to an extent, but not in the same way they would in standup. Instead of thinking in the terms of angles when I'm grappling, I think more in terms of position and positional improvement. Most of the time, though, I'm just trying not to die.

5/7/2026 Aikido: 9:00 - 10:00 am. Morning Class. Finally back to a class! And not too soon, as this is the only class I'll get before the testing. We did pre-test, which covers material from the previous ranks, 7th and 6th kyu, and getting things cleaned up there. We did lots of 7th and 6th kyu material review. Most of it I got through ok, just have a few things to hopefully clean up. Some of them will be called on for the test. Then we finished reviewing some of the more challenging 5th kyu techniques, to include the sokumen iriminage variations, kaitenage ura, and shionage ura. My back didn't bother me too much doing the breakfalls and getting pinned.

4/29/2026 Aikido Video Review: 5th kyu material. 5/4/2026 Aikido Video Review: 5th kyu material.

It's when trying to pass guard, and you have a knee slice on one of their legs with the inside leg and the outside leg is posted out to the side for balance. Then if you beat their knee shield you can pass to side control. Hope that makes sense.

There's a lot in here that I work with my guys and gals at work on recognizing: This can be a good indicator of which side is their favored or strong side. I tell my students to pay attention to this, especially the deputies and jailers. Watch their actions, for sure. Do they have the thousand-yard stare? Rocking back and forth can be an indication that they are getting ready to bounce, so take the initiative. Excited breathing might be a good indicator that it is time to go hands-on, or make space to use other force options. This is a big one. We do drills in slow-motion to learn to read the body's pre-contact cues. Being able to discern the very slightest weight shift (and being able to articulate how you recognized it) can be the few seconds needed to avoid getting surprised. Another key point. I would say to check the eyes here and there, but don't fixate on them, as they can deceive as well. But checking them along with the other physical factors in play will provide important information about what their plans may be. Is a suspect looking at your partner's gun? Might be time to act. Again, another huge pre-contact cue. Seeing the shoulders hunch or roll is a good indicator that something is about to happen, so time to pre-empt. Good stuff, @sensei8. I'll probably have more reactions to the later chunks of the post.

That would be a fun time!

I'd be 9 and holding...