Last night I got caught in a submission because I let someone pull the wool over my eyes. This is my public declaration: I won't be letting it happen again!

I'm sure every mat has got them: those people that have an excuse prepared every time they're rolling as to why they might lose a wrestle. They're tired, have a sore [insert arm, elbow, neck, leg, knee... you choose], or just aren't feeling right. What they're saying is that if you manage to beat them it's because they're not rolling at 100%, not because you're doing well.

Our mat's worst offender returned after 15 months off with a blown out knee... or so he claims. It's sad that I'm actually questioning the extent of his injury. He's been a blue belt the entire time I've trained there, which is almost three years. I was awarded my blue a few months back and haven't really had any consistent training since. At the end of the beginner's session last night this particular guy tried to weasel his way off the mat with a whole manner of excuses but Adam wasn't having a bar of it. "Before you leave, you have to roll Matt" was the clear instruction.

He loaded me up with excuses but I just told him "Adam said we have to..." and that I'd go lightly if that's what he wanted.

"Yeah, let's just go light so I can get back into it. It's been 15 months... blah, blah, blah."

I pulled guard and was not really working much, letting him find his posture and not taking the easy sweeps - basic sweep from guard is my bread-and-butter move now. He started to pass using some nasty elbows and before I get a chance to kick it down a gear he's taken my back and I'm protecting from his hooks, but that doesn't stop him from snapping on a massive jaw crank.

He yanked on my lapel with such force that it was pulling my jaw out of its socket. I explained to Aaron that my hearing in one ear was fading in and out as he cranked on it. That's not why I roll, so I tapped for my own safety.

I was really pissed, for two reasons. Firstly, this isn't what we agreed on at the start of the match. If he had've wanted to go hard from the get-go I would have. Secondly, as a new blue, Adam had pitted me against him to see how much skill he's retained and tapping me in the first minute would have made him look better than he really is.

So we get back to our knees ready to start the second roll and he throws out "OK, now we'll go slow" to which I replied "nah, you can't say that and then turn it up - we're rolling full pace now." "Ohh but my knee" he cried and I said I'd leave his legs alone.

I spent a few minutes moving around him from dominant position to dominant position with the intention of annoying him before I locked in the figure 4 and finished the match. I think it's the first time I've tapped him even though I've been close before...

... but he's not feeling 100% at the moment.

I knew I was in for a good day when I caught the 8 minute interview Jimmy Kimmel had with the current Ultimate Fighting Championship light-heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Check it out below:

But the best part (along with the hilarious children's names) was that Jimmy confronted Rampage about playing B.A. Baracus, the character made famous by Mr. T in the upcoming film-length remake of "The A-Team." Rampage was coy about the whole thing, being quick to correct Jimmy that he's only doing a screen test for the part, but that he planned on playing B.A. and not Mr. T, even though though he threw in a highly-accurate "I pity the fool."

Last night our club's latest batch of coloured belts were awarded. I was among five students that received a shiny new blue belt.

Adam has traditionally had his coach, John Will, present the coloured belts every 3-4 months when he's in Western Australia for a jiu jitsu seminar.

When I was in Melbourne last year at the Machado Nationals I talked to Adam about me receiving a blue belt, and how I imagined it happening. I said that whilst I respect John and his skill, to me he's not really an important or influential part of my jiu jitsu. I asked that when the time came (and if it came!) for Adam instead to present me with my blue belt.

Adam's been my coach from the beginning and is immensely influential in my study of the martial arts. Considering the achievement that attaining a blue belt is, I wanted to get all that I could out of the presentation. It might sound corny, but it was Adam that was acknowledging my progress over the last two and half years, so I wanted it to be him that presented my belt. A few weeks ago I gave Adam a gentle reminder that I wanted this, and he let me know that he hadn't forgotten.

I'm not sure if it was this discussion specifically, or if it had any influence at all on Adam, but he decided that he was going to present all the coloured belts from now on. I mean, he's a black belt in his own right, so he doesn't need the "approval" of John when issuing belts.

This meant that I was the second person ever (I should have pushed in front of Joe ;) to have a coloured belt awarded by Adam, and I was among the first group ever. Sure, he's graded people to that level before, but it's never been him actually awarding the belt.

That was really meaningful to me.

To top things off, Phil received his purple belt, which is another first for Adam. In the next 3-6 months I think we'll see a few brown belts being issued at the club too, as there's a few guys that are really close.

Nick's not in this photo because he didn't come to the beginner's class, but he was awarded his belt at the beginning of the advanced class.

The "problem" with getting your blue belt is that now toe, ankle, knee, hip and all other leg locks are available to me. It's a problem because I've never defended these attacks before, so traditionally you're given a nice ass-kicking by one of the senior belts as a "welcome to the big leagues."

My first roll was with Phil, and though he made a few attempts at my legs I was able to keep him at bay and finish the wrestle un-touched. I even managed a really nice figure-four sweep on him from my guard, so I was happy with how that wrestle went.

I had a roll with Adam, which never really counts. He won't ever make you tap, but instead he puts moves on and lets them go before you've even worked out what's going on :)

But it was the roll with Nathan where I consider my "cherry popped." I got out of a few knee-bar attempts, but he ended up catching me with a great leg lock about 60 seconds into the match. His grin, though kind and cheerful, said it all:

"Welcome to the next level."

Today we had three guys from The Academy of Mixed Martial Arts compete in Shooto II, a local MMA event. I checked it out with Aaron and Jacob, and a bunch of other dudes from the club. In all there were 10 fights, though we only stayed until Ian's fight, which I think was 8th or 9th. Entry was only $15 and it was popular, which translated to everyone being crammed in.

On a side note, I'm always surprised that these gyms never had mega-air-condooli... it'd be the first thing I'd install when renovating, in this case, an old church.

Andy was the first fighter up and he suffered a first-round knock out. He is a kickboxer so I don't really know him but he put in a good showing before he was caught with a jab, jab, right-hook combo that sent him to sleep. The other fighter we recognized as having a few fights under his belt so it was a good effort on Andy's part, but an unfortunate outcome.

Our second fighter was Joe, who I train jiu jitsu with. He's a strong grappler who'll be getting his blue on Thursday with me. He has a really good side control which we saw demonstrated in his first round submission. He went for the take down and gained side control, on the left of his opponent. He set up a head-arm choke, jumped to mount, and then jumped off to side control on the right. He sunk the choke in deep and scored the tap out in his first MMA fight.

Last up was Ian, one of our blue belt grapplers. This was his first fight and he was competing against a seasoned fighter (it was class-C but we all recognized this guy from other fights). Ian held his own in the first round, scoring more take downs but I thought his boxing wasn't as good as the other guy's. In the second round we all thought Ian dominated but loose kick at the end of the round was converted into a take down by his opponent, and the two points he gave up as a result ended up being the deciding factor - 19 vs. 20 at the final bell. Ian was in good spirits and was happy with his showing, as were we all. Adam disputed some of the points but it didn't end up changing anything.

The club's got some great talent and it's good to see our guys tested in this kind of environment. A solid performance always does well for the club's moral, which will be soaring after today's efforts.

I took some video on Merv's camera (that's what I get for being 6'2" - I'm the camera man) so hopefully that gets uploaded and I'll link it in.

Tonight we had the Royce Gracie seminar at The Academy of Mixed Martial Arts. It started at 6:00PM and went for three hours. I got to meet and train with many new people, including Royce. Royce's amazing performances at the initial Ultimate Fighting Championship events over a decade ago spurred my initial interest in BJJ back in September 2005.

He's the one on the bottom, breaking the other guy's arm.

The UFC was set up by Royce's half-brother Rorion to be a giant infomercial for Brazilian jiu jitsu. Through the UFC the spectacle of "no rules fighting" as evolved into the sport we now call mixed martial arts. I think initially the Gracie family achieved what was intended in terms of exposing jiu jitsu and ground fighting to the world as a crucial component of the martial arts.

The actual class was interesting because it was accessible. He didn't focus on flashy moves that nobody's ever going to get any use out of in the real world, and instead gave us a progression from one situation to the next. We did some hip-toss warm ups followed by a range of drills, including:

• Bear-hug escape to hip toss
• Block punches in headlock control, hip toss
• Sit-down roll-over escape from side headlock control into cross-body mount
• Cross-body mount escape (swap legs, hip escape, top knee through, grab ankle, pull through) into ankle lock
• Sleeve (ezekiel) choke from mount
• Gi pass choke from mount
• Fake lapel choke to armbar from mount (cupping the shoulder on the way through)
• Holding the mount drill, where the bottom wasn't allowed to escape but could only defend

Afterwards we had some question/answer time which was OK, but we could have used it better. I'd have rather watched a 5 minute roll between Adam and Royce, but that didn't happen.

Royce had seen some guys (there were about 40 people at this seminar and they weren't all from our club) being overly rough on each other - forearms to the face as they're on mount, digging elbows into eyes, that kind of thing. He wasn't impressed and neither was I when he mentioned it. It's not the kind of culture our club has and it's poor jiu jitsu. You won't submit Royce (or me, or anyone) from a forearem to the face but you will piss them off and they will be looking to do the same to you.

People confuse training with competition.

Aaron said he was rolling with a guy, who's a regular at The Academy, that was doing this kind of stuff. Adam apparently had to keep saying to him "not so rough" and "slow down" and come question time Royce gave him both barrels. This guy wouldn't shut up and take his licks and it was embarrassing. He kept trying to find situations in which excessive force was suitable, and the reality is that it's not. The conversation went kinda like this (paraphrased and lines read between):

Fool:         "But can you grind their face?"
Royce:        "No, you shouldn't."
Fool:         "What about hurting someone with a forearm to the nose?"
Royce:        "No, that's bad sportsmanship."
Fool:         "What about elbowing their eyeballs?"
Royce:        "Are you even listening?"
Fool:         "What about hitting them with a fist to the mouth?"
Me (to Fool): "Why don't you try that on Royce?"
Everyone:     *chortle*

The evening wrapped up and we all had some photos with Royce. I got him to sign my copy of "The Gracie Way" which I was happy about. Aaron and I also bought some shirts, but they're for Future Music so I won't spoil the treat :)