Victory, kinda

Last night at Jiu-Jitsu I had my first sense of progress. The past couple of times I've been there, I've had to roll (that's our word for fight, since fighting looks a lot like rolling on the ground) this monster of a man, who weighs at least one hundred pounds more than me, and is easily stronger than me. He uses his weight to his advantage, often positioning himself on top of his opponent and dropping on the diaphragm, thus making it extremely difficult to breathe.

I don't have a problem with him, except that we are matched up by size each night, and since I'm frequently the second largest guy at class, I get to roll with the biggest. It takes a lot of work, a lot of effort, and it wipes me out. Still, a very good workout.

Last night, then, he and I were rolling. He'd done his usual attack to push me on my back, and straddled my chest. I was able to swing my legs over his back, hook them under his armpits, and while pushing him forward I pulled myself between his legs. But before I could grab one of his legs to attack (I was going to break his fucking toes), he was at me again, and this time lay across my chest as though he was reclining on an elbow.

But he was sloppy with his arms.

Usually when you pin somebody in a cross-body hold, you need to use one of your arms to block your opponent's legs and the other to control the arm near your head. Instead of blocking, he leaned up on his side (putting his weight on my diaphragm - his second favorite technique) and tried attacking my right arm, which was by his legs.

While he was occupied with that arm, I raised up my left arm and jammed him in the chin, pushing his face away from me and toward the mat. Then I swung my left leg back, hooked it over his head, and pulled him off me, locking my legs around his neck. He put his right arm out to try and pry my legs apart, and I snatched that, pulled it back across my body (towards my chin) and over my hip, and bent it back while choking him with my legs.

He tapped out.

It was the only success I had against him, as after that he went into full beast mode, basically tossing me around with his muscle and dominating me as a bigger person can. But it felt good to know I'd gotten to him. The defeat clearly bothered him, and frankly, it was worth getting tossed around like a rag doll to have that one small victory.

I also tore part of my big toenail away while performing the initial escape, when I hooked under his armpits. Oh well.