Class #1185
BJJ Globetrotter Camp (Olympiastützpunkt Rhein-Neckar) Open Mat, Heidelberg, Germany, 03/08/2019
Amazing camp, that's going to be tough to beat! I thought Winter Camp could not be bettered, but I think Heidelcamp 2019 managed it. Especially moments like this, not sure I'll ever forget this little ditty. :P
I'll combine all the rolling to this one post. As with every camp, I held off on sparring until Thursday, to make sure I didn't pick up any annoying bumps and bruises that might have made it harder to train. First up was Thursday, then about an hour on Friday, with another hour and a bit on the Saturday.
As I missed out on rolling with her last time, I made a point of getting in spar as soon as I could. Last time we rolled, Lilo had been awake and sparring for several hours at the Hamburg GrappleThon. This time, unsurprisingly, she had a lot more energy, so I spent most of it defending from running man. I'm clearly still leaving gaps, as a number of times I was getting my back taken. Possibly I'm not blocking with the bottom arm properly, I also don't think I was twisting down towards the mat enough (the 'nipple to mat' thing Chris P talked about a while ago). She was looking to toehold me from there too, my response was generally to try and strip and grips.
I also got in rolls with Sabine, Natalie, Sara, Vera, Lisia, Katya, Anna and Mina. Most of them are smaller and less experienced than me, so I was trying to move (unsuccessfully) into that lapel guard position I learned earlier in the week. I was finding people generally just sat back down when I did that. Katya made for an interesting challenge, as she has injured shoulders and neck: that meant I didn't go for kimuras (which is normally my main goal) or chokes. Instead I just focused on control. It's always cool when you have to work inside parameters, reminds me of studying poetry. ;)
Anna is stronger than me, plus we also rolled nogi (very rare! I'll do it for Anna, but not many other people ;D). I was therefore again mostly defensive, though I did manage to get into top side control later, IIRC. Fun roll as always, Anna keeps a relaxed pace and friendly attitude, which is why I will always seek her out to spar when we're both at camps. :D
Last roll of camp for me was with Neufang, who is both bigger and a black belt. I've been curious to roll with him for a while, as not only is he a chilled out kind of guy, he has an extremely unusual game. Very flexible and creative, his legs suddenly appear from unexpected angles. I'd be trying my A game, north south to kimura approach, then I'd found myself caught in some weird submission. Entertaining! Followed that up with a matside tattoo, courtesy of Alex (as I've been wanting to both get inked at a camp and try out bottom of the foot tattoos. Likely to fade, but only one way to find out ;D).
