Every so often I take a trip up to the Cleveland area to see my folks. Thankfully there is no shortage of great places to train around there, which also offers me a reasonable excuse to get out of my parents' house. I've already been to a couple local schools in the area, one an affiliate of where I train, and another on the recommendation of my professor. This time, perhaps out of laziness, I just decided to see what was closest. A quick web search revealed a place called 1-Up Jiu-Jitsu just 15 minutes away.
I started by following my own advice from an earlier post of mine. I reached out to the school through their contact link on their website and told them my name, belt rank, school, and professor. They had a posted schedule so I asked if I could attend their 11:00am adult classes on Saturday. It wasn't long before the black belt instructor replied and informed me that instead of class that day, they were having an open mat and a BBQ session afterward. It's only a $5 drop in fee and they'd be more than happy to have me. Even better!
Their school is located inside a large multi-sport training facility. They do everything there from power lifting to WWE style pro-wrestling. When I first walked in, I was a bit concerned. You're greeted by wall-to-wall exercise equipment and a lot of people with biceps bigger around than my thighs. Toward the back is large section of turf and you have to walk all the way around to get to mat.
I arrived a little early, and the instructor was just finishing up the Saturday morning kids class. It looked like it was slightly less difficult than herding cats, but he and the children seemed to be having a good time. It then only took about a minute for someone to recognize me. Someone I'd seen at a few tournaments gave me a nod and asked where I trained. We got to talking until the kids class wrapped up and then the instructor came over and introduced himself. Everyone was super chill beyond my expectations after walking through meathead central.
There's also this, everywhere throughout the gym, which is pretty dope.
The rolling was some of the best sparring I've had since I got my blue belt. Sometimes getting beat up by the same guys over and over again gets old. While these guys certainly beat me up, I managed to pull off a couple slick moves. At least I think they were slick. When rolling with a brown belt or above it's hard to tell if they gave you something or you pulled it off on your own.
The instructor was giving me the kind of gentle ass kicking that only a black belt can. At one point he had me in a heavy side control. As he went to make an adjustment, I somehow managed to reverse him and wind up on top side control myself. I don't even know how or what I did really, but he told me after that he actually just learned that sweep and no one had pulled it off on him yet. Talk about a confidence booster!
After that I rolled with one of their brown belts and I somehow managed to get full mount. I felt he may have given me side control though, just to play around in it. He blocked the usual way to get mount from there, but I've gotten a little sneaky from that spot lately. From side control on his left side, I kept my hips low to the mat and slid my right hip into his left armpit. Then I switched my hips and sat up, taking away a lot of utility from that left arm. He brought his left knee as close to his chest as he could to keep me from stepping over into mount like most people do. But with his left arm out of the equation, I was free to do the "baby foot" technique. I grabbed my own left foot and brought it all the way up to my body. Then I just fed it across his stomach and viola, mount. He was instantly surprised and tried to shake me off but I got my hooks in and stayed on long enough to get points in a tournament. He eventually escaped and tapped me out a couple times, but still, even he was impressed. I rolled with him again later but he didn't fall for that trick twice!
I finally got a tap in at the end with one of their white belts, but not before he got me a couple times. He was quite a bit bigger and he was already using his height very well. We went a second round and once I finally passed his guard he didn't have much of an answer for my side control. Then it was all americanas from there!
Finally, after a good hour or so of fake murdering, they fired up the grill and we cracked a few cold ones. I can't wait to go back and roll with my new friends!
I'm in the back, second from the right (not counting the boxing dummy), where I usually end up for some reason in group jiu-jitsu photos.
TLDR: Took a chance on a random BJJ school and had a great time. Always pack a gi!
Happy rolls.
Oss!