Tonight was my 6th class. Every class I'm feeling better and better - not only is my conditioning improving a bit since I started regular exercise a few weeks ago, but I'm getting the hang of picking up the techniques. Of course they're all basic moves, but I'm getting the concept of the leverage need to pull off the moves. It makes it easier than just trying to copy exactly what the instructor shows us if you can think of how it works.

Tonight the class was pretty slim; only for students (we're all white belts) and the instructor. A lot of the guys were deployed for the week, so it was a smaller class than usual. Tuesday and Thursday are on the U.S. Navy base here in Naples, Italy, and Marco has a gym, Eagle Gym, that he gives classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday at. Apparently a few Americans have opted to go to the gym because there is more sparring, but Marco says he prefers if white belts stay at the base, since the classes are smaller and he has more time to teach us the skills we need. I agree, so I'm not going to move to the gym as was my original plan. Instead, I'm going to buy a bunch of mats and build a grappling room in my house (the houses in Italy are huge and we have tons of room).

My best friend is one of the deployed guys, so tonight I paired up with a guy I hadn't worked with before. He asked me to please take it easy and go slow, which I agreed to, since I always am extremely careful with my partners when learning new techniques. So I practiced the technique we learned (a wrist lock), then got on my back to let him practice the move. He immediately torques the shit out of my wrist with quite a bit of speed and power, and I shouted out "Damn dude! Chill out with that!" Wrist locks hurt like hell and it doesn't take very much to get the sub, either. I'm learning that some students are dangerous to train with, that's for sure. Next time I have to train with that guy we're gonna have a talk before he practices anything on me. I'm not being a giant vagina, but I don't want to get injured on some bullshit and miss weeks of training because my training partner didn't use good judgment learning a technique he's never done before.

So, at the end of class, we got to fight in 5 minute chunks, Marco's standard for white belts. As I mentioned in the previous post, I am excited to get a chance to put some of this stuff to use in a live sparring match with a resisting opponent. Got my wish tonight, but it was against Marco. I knew he was way better than us (of course), but I never had a decent idea of how much better until tonight. He let me in his guard to start, and I tried to pass, but couldn't do anything. He didn't even have his guard closed and I couldn't pass it. I tried to push down on his knee and squirt around, but every time I did he swept me. And when he was on top I almost wanted to tap from the pressure he brought - his body just crushed mine. When I watch grappling on TV or in an MMA match I never realized the physicality of it - I mean, I know it's physical, but just the guy on top of you is stifling. Every time he got on me it was a matter of seconds before he got me in something I had no idea how to defend. On time, I tapped but then realized that he didn't have what I thought he had and said to him "Never mind, I take that back." He laughed and tossed something new and equally painful on me. It may have been the longest 5 minutes of my life - I was gassed completely. He must have tapped me 10 times.

I've been reading grappling sites non-stop for weeks, and I told myself "Breathe, relax, work for position before submission, don't extend your arms, and don't push with your hands (the wrist lock I mentioned comes form that if you're on the bottom). Well, I tensed up, didn't breathe well, extended my arms all over the place, and he wrist locked me twice. I'll get better though.

I guess I did well though. He asked me afterwards if I had ever rolled before, and I told him I had not. He said "Well, you must have watched a lot of videos, because you did some things I didn't teach you." I told him I've been watching MMA for years, and in recent months have developed an interest in watching videos of grappling tournaments as well. That felt good, anyway - I guess I must have done some good things. But there was just nothing available for me in the way of attempting a submission. As soon as I started working for a position in which to find one, he would sweep me. I'm banged up and exhausted, but that was some of the most fun I've ever had. I plan on hitting the competitions in a few months - I told Marco to just let me know when he thought I was ready. The day he tells me I'm ready I'm packing my shit to go to one, I don't care if I get destroyed. It's just too much fun. Tomorrow, I'm off to pick up some mats for my grappling room, and I'll post photos if I can figure out how. Thanks for reading.