On The Mat Day 981: Eiji Mitsuoka Visits Our Club

I really feel beat all over today. Yesterday was a national holiday, Greenery Day (緑の日）. I've no idea what it celebrates, but it means a crap-ton of people turn up at the club. Every sparring round was with either a black or brown belt for me and I feel like I've been driven over with a truck several times today. It's rare that I get a high level of folks to roll with since I go mostly in the day time.

Eiji Mitsuoka, MMA fighter, came to visit us since his relatives live in Handa. He is a friend of Tani who trains at our club. I think they used to wrestle together. He was a very strong purple belt. Not knowing how he would move, I kept him in closed guard for a while, nearly had my back taken, escaped, re-guarded, tried some things, ended up in the dog-fight position but was slow at blocking the knee and got returned to the mat with an uchi-mata then the round ended. I guess he felt like rolling with a strong judo guy. They usually have a strong base and favour the top position most.

It was good training and a much needed peek into how much I need to improve to catch up to the other guys.