Day 26

Although I still couldn't fall or stay asleep the night before, I made it to morning training and did mma takedowns with Gaz. We learned single leg takedown from a jab, passing the guard to sidemount, and then from standing clinch to taking the back to takedown. We sparred the techniques for awhile and after class I showed Oh some more jiu jitsu. After that I took care of laundry and met up with with Aussie Adam, Gaz, Lana and Linda in Kata. We all had massages at the place I had gone to before. Everyone else got full body oil massages but I just got foot because I had some specific kinks that needed to be worked out. After that we did a little shopping and we ended up in another back room DVD warehouse. Adam got about 40 for around 2 bucks each. He tested them on their player while the rest of us walked around outside occasionally meeting each other in shops. Once while I was passing a bar this Thai girl ran out and wouldn't let me pass and kept trying to hug me. She stank of booze and I kept saying "No touch!" and jumping back. After that I went back to my bike and put my shirt on and stayed with the group. It rained a bit on the way back but not terribly, and I hit the open air market by our place for some bananas and shorts. It rained really heavily during class and we were lucky to have made it back in time. Tonight was ground and pound and its still as fun as the name implies. Alot more technique than you would think though. We learned side control to knee on stomach to full mount with punching combos the whole way through. We then sparred with our partner from both the top and bottom positions and then had a tournament. I won my first match with a side mount to scarf hold to an armbar with my legs. Not sure what the official name for this armbar is. I won my second match from the guard with a punch deflection into side choke which I had just shown Oh earlier. I forgot to ask if he recognized it. As long as you don't panic or get knocked out its alot of fun working submissions and strikes at the same time. Striking can open up opportunities for submissions, but can also be capitalized on, such as that side choke. In the championship match I almost had an armbar but got mounted and couldn't escape. He had a head and 60 lbs of muscle on me though so it was a good workout. I had been planning on getting a 2 week membership to the gym and lifting weights after class but decided just to hit the internet cafe and make it an early night and so I can make sure I train tomorrow.