Class 5...

Today, a brief lesson in humility. I felt I was getting somewhere with my 'caging the hips' technique in the last few weeks... and today it was me, a new white belt and a blue belt so I felt pretty confident. Then I got tapped all over the place during sparring. I think I managed one submission in about 20 minutes.

I'd watched the blue belt before and I knew he was very good and very technical and the new white belt was also very strong and also very good. I managed to hold my own with both for a while and even escaped some dodgy positions by rolling out. I even pulled a few reversals by adapting a hip throw when I was rear mounted a couple of times, but I was certainly second best for the entire lesson. I also found myself in several choke positions today and initially couldn't work out why but I clearly wasn't being very careful about defending my neck when I was going into my opponent's guard.

On the plus side I later found out the white belt had trained somewhere else before coming to this school so his white belt status was a bit of a misnomer. Then I realised I was getting caught up in the competitive element of sparring and gave myself a bit of a telling off. I'm here to learn. I can worry about winning later...

We also drilled some basics today, such as arm bars and a mount escape that relies on driving your arms through your opponent's hips then bridging and throwing him off.

But the key lesson for today was to value humility and patience. It was a reminder that I am still the whitest of white belts at this particular martial art.

LESSON FROM TODAY: Tapping people will take time so don't sweat it if you're getting ruined; to make caging the hips work you need to keep your elbows tight to your torso or the opponent has space to pry your arms loose and work all manner of sweeps or go into spider guard; defend your neck when you drop into your opponent's guard.