Flu season was upon us. I felt it the last week of Jan. I sneezed more, my eyes

itched for two days, but my sleep was good, energy high, head cool, and I

trained as usual. I had to take a short nap after training on Feb 2. I had a

good sleep but woke up with a congested nose which cleared up after my morning

routine.

Jan 30, I felt a pins-and-needles sensation shooting from hip to foot on the

right side. It matched in my mind the symptom of sciatica, which AHD5 defines as

"pain along the sciatic nerve usually caused by a herniated disk of the lumbar

region of the spine and radiating to the buttocks and to the back of the thigh,"

and the NOAD describes as "pain affecting the back, hip, and outer side of the

leg, caused by compression of a spinal nerve root in the lower back, often owing

to degeneration of an intervertebral disk."

So my suspicion was correct. Andreas had the problem. Maybe Peter had it worse.

But they were much younger. I should talk to them. Meanwhile, I should lift

weight and maybe go back to the S&S kettlebell program.

Also I should sit half-lotus on the chair instead of slouching on the club chair

when I read and write.

Jan 31. Except for a couple of times at noon during my 40min walk, the sciatic

pain stopped. I paid close attention for a week and it did not strike again for

the rest of the month. It would let me know, I guess, when it comes again.

Feb 2. It's de la riva week. Machine showed a few moves which I was not eager to

practice. In positional sparring, I was able to sweep guys with the simple

tripod sweep: my left hand was already cupping my partner's right heel and my

right leg on his left thigh. I only needed to slide my right leg and hook below

his left knee and bring the left foot to the front of his hip and push, a fast

move that even caught Oscar off guard.

There is another trick I wanted to try when I have a grip on my opponent's upper

body, i.e., to drop my right foot and let go of his heel and base out on the

foot and left hand and do a standard getup. My left leg would trip his right

foot and make him fall.

Feb 3. I thought of taking the day off for my mild flu but went anyway. Trains

were late and dozens milled around the station. The weather was great and a

gentle breeze blew southeast. I waited about two minutes and rode down Central

Expr on my ebike.

Among the heel hook options Darren showed from the saddle, I remembered one

well: when my opponent tries to hide his (say right) heel by clamping his

trapped lower leg behind my butt, I'll lean sideways on my right elbow which

blocks his right foot (close to the toes), lean my head toward the ground as I

raise my hips to elevate his lower leg to expose his heel. Once his foot's off

the ground, my right forearm would windshield-wipe back to catch the heel. I

gable-grip my two hands to finish the heel hook.

Justin came and did a few toe holds on me and I rolled out of most of them,

following Darren's insns. This made me very happy. Rolling with Jose was fun as

always and I made an attempt to counter his darce by wrapping above his elbow

and trying to break the lock for an armbar.

We discussed options in the bad position when my guard is about to be passed.

I'm facing to my left on the mat, my right leg is on top and my opponent has his

right knee between my legs. My suspicion was confirmed as one option was to get

to my knees and try to attack the legs. But once I turned from belly-down to

face him, I actually should be able to sweep him as his right leg is now trapped

and he has no base on his right if I control his hand. At least, I would have

the space to retract my legs for a better guard.

Kevin stopped in the middle of an armbar as he had a cramp on the quad muscle of

his right leg. It turned out okay.

Mon Feb 9. After positional training, I was awarded my fourth stripe! I felt I

deserve it as I was making good progress in the half-guard and guard-recovery

games. For example, I was getting better at executing the ankle trap and

knee-tort sweep.

I do have big holes in my game. At the moment, I was barely able to dodge

Justin's toe hold, still struggling with Brian's back attacks, and got darce'd

or anaconda'd by Ayoup every time.

Brian showed me that to attack the far-side arm from cross-side (right), I must

have the forearm trapped between my head and right-arm, and keeping pressure was

the key. (I realized this was Henry's "Spinning armbar with overhook.")

He was good at the stiff-arm each time I tried to assume my favorite (Henry's)

cross-side holding position, and we discussed counters. Maybe I should set the

door-stop with my right arm BEFORE my left arm crosses to the other side of his

head. It helps to block him from scooting.

Feb 10. It's a Tuesday and, in the morning, I sneezed > 8 times in a row, which

got me rattled. Given that I had no other symptoms, should I do bjj today? I

finally went on the mat and rolled a bunch of guys. Howard got me in a

rear-naked choke and showed me how to peel away the arms starting by grabbing

the fingers. Darren showed a few reverse de la riva guard passes. I took down

Ricky by an outside trip while he was holding a collar tie on me. Darren showed

after class a sweep from cross side bottom where the top guy faces the legs and

pushing his back upward: my right hand blocks his top leg at the ankle or lower

leg, my left hand grab his right hip and just do a bridge over my left shoulder.

It was effortless with the right timing.

Alex demo'ed and Darren showed both in live sparring, how I can do limp arm

against the vizer.

Darren showed how to counter the "dragon eye," which was a common invert but

different from Imanari: as the far-side (say left) leg comes in, I hold his

thigh near the knee with my left forearm and my right hand cup his hip in the

air. My right knee circles and goes under his left thigh and the knee stays up.

My hip inserts into the space below his hips. My left leg is above his left

knee. I kick out my left leg down on his left thigh. As it tilts him, I can take

his back. I need more drills with this one.

A few raindrops hit me as I left the gym. I reached the Sunnyvale station just

as the train pulled in and the rain picked up. Very lucky.

This round of flu started early as my eyes began to itch by the end of Jan.

Quite a few of my training mates were sick since.  When it finally hit home for

me this week, however, it felt like allergy: I kept sneezing and it was annoying

like hell but otherwise harmless. I have been training regularly with no

problem.

Feb 13. Machine showed a nice inside trip from the collar-tie-underhook

position: from the square position, use the underhook hand on his back to drag

so that his left foot steps forward and my right leg is between his legs. Go for

the inside trip. We revisited the de-la-riva and headquarter position and the

guard-pass variations from there.

In free sparring, I survived Ayoup's darces and tried coach Peterson's counter!

I rolled with Abel and Brian, both came from the UFC gym which, from what I

heard, had recently shut down their BJJ program. Their loss is our gain, it

looks like, as I saw half a dozen new faces in the past two weeks and they were

great training partners.

Tue Feb 17. Darren showed a few 50/50 moves. To attack the trapped heel, we

have to isolate it from the free one which can lay on top cross-ankle(CA), in a

loose or tight figure 4 (L4 or T4), or foot to foot(F2F). F2F is easy to open

but the challenge is to keep the free foot from coming back to defend. To open

the CA (say I've trapped the right leg), I need to hold the right heel which is

at the bottom with my left hand, and grab the top (left) foot with my right hand

to open them. The loose saddle I could pry open with my (right) elbow. For the

T4, I can switch to attack the top ankle.

Had a great time rolling with Justin, Howard, Lina, and Kevin.

They gave me a nickname: donatello, the name of one of the servers at my last

job. It's from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I knew nothing about. The

reason was that I turned onto my knees a lot in rolling.

Andres gave me a box of goodies for the Chinese New Year. His wife was from

Shanghai and he and I were good training mates on the mat. I plan to give him

some kimchi, which I've re-discovered.

Kevin said about the Chinese: "They went through so much suffering in the old

country and they couldn't let it (their masichist frugality) go once they landed

in America." I said: "That's comfort creep you've got here. You've got those

Chinese genes and use them!" He made some reference to a show Dawson Creek which

didn't look very appealing when I looked it up at home.

Feb 19. Trained to the gym again and Darren showed back attacks. The two stood

out are the back triangle and the lapel choke, both start from seatbelt grip and

falling on the weak side.

To my record of 5 blackouts over 5 years, Darren said during all his years of

training, he had zero. Let that be my goal for the future.

Feb 22. I got restless and went to Open Mat at 10:00am. Less people showed up

because of, I suppose, the 12:00pm seminar. I warmed up with Justin, no gi, and

went four or five rounds with Alex the purple belt. He took my back three times

and trap my arm from there before choking me, just like Brian used to do. I was

too confident in my defense.  Meanwhile, we traded tricks. I showed him the

backdoor escape and the Dan Camarilo armbar and he showed me the cross-face and

counter to his underhook and how to trap the near-side arm and go for the

triangle.

I went with Louis, a strong dude looking his 30s, and did a good job controlling

him from cross-side. Then I gave up and we reset. At one point, he took my back

and controlled my upper body. I tried to get to my knees and twist my lower body

toward the left and that was when it happened. I heard a slight pop and it was

the lowest rib on the left. I tapped right away: "I think I just popped a rib."

   "Does it hurt?"

   "Not much. But I suppose it will later. Have you had it before?"

   "Yes. Sure."

   "What did you do?"

   "Just rest and let it heal."

We shook hands and I called it a day. There were a slight pain and a small bump

and I could feel the rib's head underneath. I heard about it from time to time

since I started bjj but this was a first for me.

I rode the seven miles back, careful to leave the bone alone. The Ebike's peddal

assistance was a life-savor. At home, I hoisted the gym bag full of sweaty bjj

attire to the washing machine and came back down to read and catch up on the

news. The dull ache stayed. Sitting was tricky as I had to lean back conciously

as if trying to fix my forward head. Coughing, burps, sharp inhaling hurt but

sneezing felt okay. I have to Lift the rucksack with my left hand and change to

the right at chest level. The Web says a popped rib is "business as usual" in

the sport. Despite the wealth of knowledge to speed up the healing and drugs to

quell the nagging pain, I'd simply let my body work it out.

(reddit/bjj Popped rib - how long did it take you to recover?)

From what I read, the down time varied from one jiuji-deiro to another. I

wondered what exercises I should do in the coming weeks. I'd stay away from the

mat and I have to give up my beloved morning and evening routines for a few

days. I winced at the thought of Asian squats, v-sit, sun salutation, leg raises

on the pull up bar, and cossack squats.

Too bad I just saw a wonderful vid showing a 5min daily routine to fix the

forward head and dowager's hump. I was only too aware of the former and the

image of my dad's curled back in his last few years still haunted me and I was

keen to take some action. The girl in the vid rested in a sphinx position and a

brick provided three levels under her chin, my kind of solution. And RJ

Navarette just showed this incredibly simply double-attack against big buys from

butterfly of the guilotine and the kimura. Well. They had to wait.

To my pleasant surprise, I could still ruck. The load bore down on the back and

legs and left the ribs alone. Rucking actually felt better than sitting where I

felt the injury all the time.

This is a message from above, I decided. Otherwise how do I explain the rib pops

two weeks after I received the last stripe before purple belt? I need to fight

less and train more. And Darren's a great example as he told me that all these

years he had never blacked out.

Feb 23. Last night was better than expected. Lying on my back, I barely felt it.

Diagphram breathing felt easy. I even got some shut-eye early morning.

Turning, however, demanded full attention. Any compression of the abdomen or

twist of the upper body could smart. Getting up took a major effort.

Toward the end of the day, I felt much better. I did the V-sit and the 90/90 but

the Asian squat still hurt.

Feb 24. My rib was getting noticeably better but still couldn't bear weight. I

wondered how long it would take to heal and a guy posted he was 90% better after

three months. I hope for a sooner recovery as I acted right away and mine was

not as bad (His was "clicking loudly and painful in the beginning").

Some of the replies were scary. One said once a rib popped, it would keep

happening. Some said it'd never fully heal. A few took a couple of weeks off and

come back to flow-roll. Others took as long as a year.

I think the thorn's going to be in my side the rest of my life. Maybe this is

the final lesson to tell me to give up ego.

Feb 26. Morning routines are still off limits. Nightly stretches, however, were

only interrupted twice.

Rucking has been great. Today I did 30lbs/80min and felt strong.