Day 21 & 22 - Back in Action

Let me begin with an apology for a lack of updates to the like 3 people that still read this thing. Last week, I embarked on a Ninja Quest through much of my homeland. Unfortunately, this left me unable to work on any Ninja Training which meant that there just wasn't anything to post about. Fear not, loyal reader, as I have returned to my Ninja Place of Residences and resumed Ninja Training. Because I am again taking a Ninja Finance class at night twice a week, I am forced to scale back on my training to two nights a week as well as the Saturday Mega-Lesson. Even though I don't think I'm technically allowed to, I am still going to stay for the double Ninja-Masters/Ninja Basics training, which leads to long nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but counteracts the crappy food I am still eating. One of these days I'm going to have the time and the willpower to put myself on an official Ninja Diet. In the meantime though, I'm just going to complain about it.

So when I showed up for class after my week-long hiatus (or, as Ninja Master has intsructed me to call it, a Training Plateau), I expected to be a little rusty. Ninja Master was continuing a string of lessons on how to submit somebody once you have them in the Side Mount. The Side Mount is a position where your Adversary is laying on top of you on either your right or left side. It is not a new position, but up until fairly recently, not one that I have dealt with much in my Ninja Sparring. You may remember that my priority has been what to do if I find myself in a regular mount or guard position and have been focusing my attention as such. To refresh your memory, those positions both happen when your opponent is directly over you. What I was not privy to, however, was that the Side Mount can be a much crappier position to find yourself in since your Ninja Adversary has more room to get you to tap out. And, perhaps even more worrisome is that you don't have as much room to get yourself out of that position. Think of it like trying to escape if a ladder is pinned on top of you versus if you are stuck under a 3 legged stool. Do not spend time trying to consider how you may have gotten yourself stuck in either of those positions, as it will likely give you a headache.

You also may have remembered that I was recently promoted to yellow belt and hadn't had any subsequent Ninja Training Sessions between my promotion and my first day back. So I felt like I had something to prove by, at the very least, not getting tapped out by any white belts. I was medium-successful in achieving that goal. During Ninja Basic Training, I paired up against a white belt who I found out after the fact was another collegiate wrestler. Apparently Jiu Jitsu is popular with wrestlers because it combines a skill set they are used to with a whole new, exponentially badass set of abilities. But even the newest of Ninja Trainees who have wrestling experience can be dangerous. On the one hand, the stuff they know is similar to what they are learning, but the end goal is different (a pin vs. a submission). That changes their strategy which changes how one must defend against them. Also, these Ninja Newbies think they already know what they're doing when it comes to Jiu Jitsu, so they will twist and yank on limbs that don't need to have that kind of sudden pressure applied. So you have to watch out for that too.

Ok, so sidestory aside, Ninja Wrestler did not get me to tap out, although it was very close a couple times. I'm pretty sure had it not been for my new goal of not getting my ass kicked by white belts, I'd have given up way before I did...

I might have mentioned earlier that Ninja Basic Lessons are on a rotating curriculum. There are 20 or so lessons and Ninja Instructors keep teaching them in a constant rotation. Once we have learned Lesson 20, we start back over with Lesson 1. This week marked my first rotation through the Ninja Basic Curriculum -- the stuff I first started with is now being taught again. Only this time, I actually understand what is going on. Maybe now, I can finally live up to that Ninja Leadership patch I bought and teach these newer folks some Ninja Techniques on my own...