Wednesday evening BJJ. SK and I drove into Seattle, since JB was coming. I was very happy to have both of them (we missed JM, who had a previous commitment), and happy to get to a Rodrigo class. It's been a while.
Since SK didn't get off work till 5, we couldn't make it into the city in time for Rene's takedown class, but JB did- so good for her.
SK and and I got to talk in the car about the sparring yesterday, our impressions and observations. These types of discussions are really interesting and valuable to me, and we hardly ever have them any more these days, since we almost never get any one-on-one time... so that was really good.
He asked me what I was trying to accomplish with all the low kicks. I told him that at full speed and power, I might collapse the knee or compromise his balance- but that they are probably best as a distracting setup for a more violent follow-up move (I hadn't been getting that far last night). I told him that if I thought I could get something better in, I would- but those seem to be what I can make work at the moment. He thinks I should try to close more and do "corner-turn" type footwork right up against the opponent. Intimidating... should probably at least give it a try, though. If my stances and rooting are really as good as he seems to think they are, maybe I am being too paranoid about being knocked down at close range.
SK wanted to hear any observations I had to share about our classmates' sparring. I confessed that I had mostly been watching HIM because I knew I would have to fight him again, and I was looking for patterns and weak spots to exploit!
He had noticed the difference in Nemesis, but commented that Nemesis had not been making use of his long arms to keep distance effectively, as he usually does. He said that the general effectiveness of Nemesis' sparring went way down. Hmm. The objective of CK's working with him was not to DEGRADE his sparring performance.... hopefully he will be able to integrate things successfully with some more practice.
SK laughed when I commented that I'd noticed JaE chasing his Snake strikes around. We both agreed that JaE presents an intimidating sparring partner- at first we both thought that was because he is big and strong, but we decided that it's really because JaE gives off an aura of authority that makes you want to defer to him- often without even realizing it. SK said that he had actually found JaE easier to spar than he'd expected... he specifically mentioned compromising JaE's balance, and how well that sort of thing had been working against JaE as opposed to how it had *not* been working against me. (Whee!)
I also requested that SK give us a tidbit or two of "improvement opportunities" for each warmup form.
The takedown class ran a bit over (I had to smile when I saw Rene being all teacher-ish while wearing a t-shirt that read "Rancid"), and it was unusually warm upstairs, and Rodrigo was in one of his "driving" moods.... so it was a moderately grueling class. Standing rear choke defense to armlock, then two methods of taking the back from guard (one of which also had a sweep variation and an armlock variation that you could elect to do instead of taking the back). They were a bit complex, so there was a certain amount of beginning to drill, then being inturrupted and sent back to the wall to watch more demonstrations.
I drilled with JB, and SK got Sonia. I felt bad for him since the very first drill involved armlocks- Sonia is double-jointed and almost impossible to lock. But at least she's not a spazzy white belt!
JB bailed after drills, unfortunately- I had really wanted to do some free sparring with both her and SK, and some king-of-the-mat. But I was happy that she had come at all. (She claims she is going to be in class tomorrow and Friday- we'll see!)
Short rolls for position only, no subs. First I got Allie. I handed her some openings, but she was doing really well. I haven't seen her in a few weeks, and she has improved markedly. I told her so, and she seemed very surprised.
Then Sonia and I did a roll, and then I got Peter, who was really nice and let me work some stuff. He's always good to work with. He started going for that "old school" half-guard sweep that he taught me and JB and JM several weeks ago- and as soon as he grabbed my foot, I yelped, "Oh no, no, no, no!" and he started laughing.
Then we were cut loose. By then I was pretty tired (heck, I was tired when we STARTED!!!) but I really wanted to roll a little with SK. Again on the bottom a lot, but defending fairly well... including an armbar escape that left him scratching his head in confusion as to how I'd gotten out of that one.... as I was patting myself on that back for that, he segued into a keylock and tapped me out with that instead. Rats. We were both quite wrung out (and everyone else had already left), but I suggested one more... "Come on- we're not done till we have to crawl down the stairs!" I want to push him and try to work him up to staying for open mat more often. A little later, I was just about to get a chicken-wing armbar on him when he rolled over and gasped, "Okay, I'm about ready to throw up." I said, "I'm glad you said it first," because I was getting there as well. When you're both ready to puke, it's about time to wrap it up. But it was really nice to do a little rolling with him, as it has been a while.
I informed Rodrigo that he was still calling JB by JM's name and vice versa. JB is too shy to correct him, but I know he wants to get everybody's name right. It would be embarrassing twelve years from now when he's tying JB's black belt on her and congratulating her by JM's name! He had also called me Allie once tonight, which was new- I *know* he knows *my* name, even if he still can't pronounce the short "i"! He does try really hard with the names, and normally does impressively well- and there are a lot of people, and vast ever-changing herds of white belts coming and going constantly. He's having a rough month. He said, "What's MY name?" I acted like I was thinking hard, and answered, "Carlos!" Then he said that a couple of guys had called him that this week. Another student commented, "Well, you look alike." and we all cracked up.... On-the-shorter-side white middle-aged guy and towering, young very-dark-skinned black guy! They could hardly look more different from each other! Then Rodrigo suggested that he start calling me Bree. I told him that he could call me Angela if he wanted- because then I'd get to be a purple belt! Now the next few times I see him, I'll have to call him some different names just to tease.
Several people today have asked me about the bruises on my face. Leah had kicked me in the face last Thursday in Cindy's class, and it's ben sore all week, but I didn't see any visible marks till yesterday. I guess all of Hostility Boy's grinding at my face for chokes and stiff-arming my face into the mat and such on Monday night further damaged the tissue injury in that area and left me bruised up. What a prince.
There were eight women in class tonight, including 3 colored belts. Wow.
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