I have been training for a month and a half now.  I feel like I have learned so much, but still don’t know anything.  Does that make sense? My cardio is getting better.  My instructor even noticed today.  I feel like it is slowly getting better.  I am no longer half dead after warm up…I am only about a quarter dead.

I went to train today.  It was stand up day.  Vlad and I worked together at first.  We worked on some different combinations.  Then everyone started to spar.  However, I do not have the proper equipment to really go at it, so I had to sit out.  I did order headgear and shin guards today.  This is what I got:

I should have them by next week, so I can spar for real.  I have officially spent a lot of money now.  LOL.

Happy New Year!

I went to an open mat class on Monday, and it ended up being a pretty bad class.  We had the choice of gi or no gi, so I chose gi.  It started out OK.  Vlad showed me 4 submissions; Rear-Naked choke, Cross-Collar choke, Americana and Kimora.  Then he went to roll with someone else.  I was just sitting there, and our instructor asked me to roll with him.  I literally forgot everything I know and could not do anything.  I got too nervous.   I felt like an idiot for the rest of the class, and now I feel like I really suck.  I feel like I do better when I roll with Vlad, and he says that I don’t suck, but I still feel like I am not doing very well.  I hear this is part of the cycle that people go through.

Vlad and I are trying to get some mats for at home.  We started bidding on some on ebay, but did not win.  We will keep trying though, because I think it would be awesome to have mats at home.  I would love to be able to practice.

I know this is a couple days late, but I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Not much to report on the training front.  Last class was a stand up class, so more kick boxing.  I feel so out of my element doing it.  But it is great cardio, which is awesome as I am trying to improve my stamina.

I am going to try to practice some of my jiu-jitsu tomorrow, and Vlad says that he is going to teach me 4 or 5 submissions, since I really only know one right now.

Today marked 4 weeks training for me.  It was also the first day that I was allowed to roll!  When the class first started, I was not asked to go with the new students this time.   I was allowed to participate in the actual class! Vlad and I worked on two half-guard sweeps, then everyone started sparring.  I just sat there for a minute not knowing what to do.  I had never be allowed to stay.

Let me just say, I pretty much sucked.  This is what I expected.  I am still too scared that I am going to hurt someone, and found myself appologizing constantly.  I’ve got to get over it.  Also, I had a really hard time remembering what I had learned, and what I can do.  I felt like a retard.  After class, Vlad and I worked together a bit, which is always fun!  The good thing is that even though I sucked hard, I am not discouraged.  And I still love it!

Today was the first day since I started, that I felt that I actually made an improvement in my cardio.  The warm up still kicked my ass, but I was able to go longer than I had before.  I really needed this.  It is encouraging.  I was beginning to think that I was never going to be able to survive the warm up.

Today was stand-up day, which is really fun.  I really enjoy the bag work.  I am still not allowed to spar yet, but Vlad and I kind played aroung a little bit so he could show me some blocks.   Anyway…had fun today…great workout!