134.5
Grrrrrrrrr. I'm stuck! Time to slash the portions and snacks even more.
A meal portion is now so small that I can count the BITES. Before kung fu class, my chicken breast meal consisted of six bites. I skipped the cheese, too. Dinner: six bites.
I asked the Jiu Jitsu Forums people about grips. I need to start paying better attention to what one is supposed to be doing- and what one is supposed to NOT do- in a tournament. It would be embarrassing to get DQ'ed for something that I didn't realize was not allowed. Someone posted a nice pic of the "pistol grip", which I've never really used (at least not consciously, on purpose). I like to grab people's sleeves, but I always go for what is being explained to me as "cuff grips". I'm going to try using the pistol grip in my next few classes.
Thursday morning BJJ in Bellevue. I found my cheese-graters in a cubbyhole in the locker room, thank goodness... I'd torn the house apart last night searching for them.
Bree was there, but Carlos paired her up with Beltin. He always does. I know they are buddies and have worked together a lot in their MMA school, but I'm starting to wonder if there's some reason I never get paired up with Bree any more. She's about 35 pounds heavier, but we often worked together in the past. I haven't done anything scuzzy to her that I recall. Anyway, I wound up with Doug this time, which is GREAT for me. Today was Doug's 40th birthday, and he got his 4th stripe on his brown (4th!) belt today. A 40-min match with Professor Carlos was threatened. ;-)
Warmup was particularly vigorous today. Lots of running, which is always difficult for me. Wish I could breathe. I imagine running laps is much easier when you can breathe. More of the pushups with hand-slaps in between. The double-leg-lifts where you hold your standing partner's ankles. Carlos came over and got down on his hands and knees to make sure my heels weren't touching the floor between counts. I can't help being smug over these. Everyone moans and grits their teeth and bends their legs.... But CK used to make us do *TONS* of these in her tai chi classes, and I can do a hundred if I need to. Ten or twenty ain't nothin'. *wink*
Reap with the far arm over opponent's shoulder in a sort of hugging-your-buddy position. I'm fairly good at reaps, but I still keep forgetting to bend over and yank the arm when I do it. I wish my brain did a better job of focussing on more than one thing at once. I have a persistant problem of being able to concentrate ONLY on what the legs are doing, or ONLY on what the arms are doing... when I know darn well that this is a whole-body endeavor and it will be much easier if I include all the pieces. Doug was setting me down on the mat like a china doll after reaping me. I thanked him.
More escapes from mount- we drilled and positional-sparred on the two that we've done this week, plus an upa variation for when the mounted opponent is trying to collar-choke you. I have a little trouble with this one because it is not instinctual to me which hand to use to grab their arm.... nor which way to bridge them. I have to think about it for a minute. I also don't like having to take the extra precious seconds to wriggle up so that my elbows are in before upa'ing the guy- but if you don't, it doesn't work nearly as well.
Short timed spars with Brandon and then Doug. (Rough day today!) I focussed on staying on the move, even though I was pretty tired. I think I was doing okay, and doing fairly well with various escapes, too. Several times, I used my flexibility to place my knee or foot on my opponent's bicep and pry their grip off my arm/ankle. Whenever Doug, in particular, reached for something- anything- I moved. I didn't know what he had in mind, but whatever it was, chances were it would be bad for me. No sitting still and letting them do stuff. One move for them = one move for me, just so I'm not where I was when they formulated whatever plan they were formulating. A change in angle, a shift in weight, a hand moved from here to there.... Hopefully enough to throw a monkey wrench in whatever dastardly plot they were plotting.
Brandon is about 15 and a yellow belt- big, strong, technical. I think I managed to not get subbed by him today, but he had me on the defensive the whole time, and I know he was being careful to go a little light. He's got to be twice my weight- he is going to be a beast in another five years. Brandon was also doing a lot of crossfacing and forearm-against-the-neck (he did it gently, but firmly) which made me unwillingly give up room and grips several times. That's Cindy's influence, I recognize.
Doug, great training partner that he is, was going just hard enough to make me work but not hard enough to kill me. I really enjoy working with him, and made sure to thank him nicely.
More pushups, chokes and triangles in between and after sparring. This is getting to be a routine thing. Don't like it. But I know it's good for me.
I saw John in the locker room with his jacket off and said sadly, "Are you leaving?" "Why, you wanna roll?" "Yeah!" So we had a few fun rolls. I always love rolling with John. He subbed me twice. Both he and Doug complimented me on my half-guard. "Gimmee my leg back!" Doug exclaimed during our spar, after multiple failed escape attempts on his part. I had to laugh, because I hear variations on that a lot... "Let GO of my FOOT, dammit!" I responded, "No! Mine! Mine!" I continue to get stuck under there, though. I know a few more things I can do at this point, but it's hard when the opponent ties up my arms and/or squashes me with his stomach. I sometimes get kimura'ed or keylocked from there, too, or they try to go for an armbar. I'm getting better and better at both defending and escaping these, though.
Bree got another stripe today! Her fourth. She just got her third stripe last week! She said so, and I called, "She doesn't want it!" Doug called, "Don't argue with the professor!" I said to her later in the lobby- "So next week you'll be getting your blue, huh?"
Next time I get a moment alone with Cindy, I am going to ask her to show me how to recognize and defend flying armbars. A few Revolutions ago, a white belt woman got the "Vicious Submission" prize with a flying armbar at eight seconds. That chick is likely a blue belt by now- so I feel like I need to be on my guard against a possible flying armbar right out of the gate. I do *NOT* want to be subbed in the first eight seconds of the match.
Later...................
Kung fu. We started with a few rounds of the build-your-own-form game. One of them turned out pretty Tigery; I like it when we make one in a specific style (and what better one?)
Then a short water break. JB was sitting on the grass texting, and I was strolling along the perimeter sidewalk. As I drew level to her, she gave me a suspicious stare. "You aren't trying to sneak up on me, are you?" "Me?? Would I do that?" She started to put her phone away, never taking her eyes off me, so I rushed her.
My intent had been to take her back, but she got turned around in time and got her legs in beween us. We must have rolled for fifteen minutes (SK didn't stop us, so we just kept going). At some point I was aware that a large group of people had come into the courtyard and were standing around. We ignored them. Only later did I realize that that had to have been one of the U of Washington new-student orientation groups that were wandering around on campus. I wonder what sort of impression of college life we left them with.
She got me with that same razzafrackin' guard pass that she got me with last class- the one where she "seatbelts" my thighs and stacks me. At least she only got it once this time. I got what appeared to be decent guillotines on her two or three times- but apparently they were not quite right, because I couldn't get her to tap. She does not tap easily. "Stubborn little ____" I remarked. She made me let go once by poking me in my extremely ticklish armpit, although she swore up and down that it hadn't been on purpose. I *finally* subbed her with an RNC. Made her gurgle.
We had managed to work our way halfway around the lawn. When we stood up- muddy, sweaty, covered in grass- the others were working apps from a sequence out of Tiger Versus Crane. So we started working multi-attacker apps with JM.
Forms time.... I had wanted to get another piece of the Southern Mantis from JoE, but JB wanted to work tai chi forms- and since CK will be here in five days, we are getting down to the wire. So we worked on Catherine Dao (with SK), the Chen Dao form, and Cannon Fist.
Tonight was one of those times when I should have asked someone else to drive- I found myself piloting the Carnal Carpool yet again. (Lord, give me strength...)
The bo's and swords and things are behind the backseat, and long enough that they have to stick out into the headspace of
the rear seat on the driver's side. This affords Offender A the perfect excuse (as if they needed one) to sit in the MIDDLE seat instead- plastered right up against Offender B. This puts Offender A's head right smack in the center of my rearview mirror. Not only does this impede my vision out the back for safe driving purposes, but it means that however much I try to ignore it, I can see out of the corner of my eye in the rearview mirror everything that that head is doing. The alternative is even worse, though... Sometimes that head disappears.
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