How to torque off your training partner.

The personality of those who know how to come in contact with this dimension changes even in everyday life, during the ordinary state of consciousness. It changes the way we move. It changes the way we speak. It changes the way we face life. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Monday- gi night- at Cindy's.

Killer warmups tonight- we did almost an hour of warmups. Okay, we are WARM now.

Twisting armlock from guard. Still have to pause and try to figure out the left vs right dilemma. Then transitioning to armbar. Then opponent stacks and pulls hir arm out- you transition to triangle. I was working with Leah's younger sister Alisha, who used to go to Gracie's, but disappeared. Pat had told me that she got a new boyfriend who didn't like her doing BJJ. Grrrr. I hope her reappearance means that she grew a spine and kicked that jerk to the curb.

Cindy had a swollen eye, scratch on her nose, and various other hurts that she complained were Lamont's work. She griped that she was an ugly sight in the mirror today- and I responded loudly that she was still prettier than Lamont. ;)

I had a few frustrating rolls tonight. Today was obviously run-a-clinic-on-Kitsune-day, and nobody warned me about it so that I could stay home in bed.

Alecia, who aggressively and quickly moved to put me underneath her to start. Good plan on her part, I guess, since once I'm down there I tend to stay down there. Part of my problem is that I'm afraid to even stick my head up out of my hunched hedgehog posture to get a look around and see where her limbs are and where the openings might be- because the moment I stick my head up, she painfully crossfaces me. I spent almost the entire roll trapped underneath her front mount or mounted triangle, with the exception of a brief respite where I somehow got out while she was trying for a sub. I got north-south and held her there for a bit before getting reversed. I need some subs from north-south. I could hold her down, but I couldn't do anything useful. She's not dumb enough to let me get a bicep grip for an armbar. She didn't finish a tap on me- she couldn't figure out how to pry off the grips I had on my own gi and/or hers- but it was a frustrating roll for me.

Then Lamont. Back to leglock land. After he tapped me several times in a row, he leglockd me again with the same sub and put it on slowly. I flailed helplessly, then asked in frustration, "What can I do?" "Tap." I did so, now ticked off enough to spit acid. I know I've told him this before, so this time I told him with more volume, more punctuation, and more direct eye contact. "I don't know ANY. Leglocks. Or Defenses. To leglocks. At all." "You're scared of them." "Yes, I am. I don't know anything to do against them, and I have bad knees." So then he starts telling me about how he used to do eight thousand squat reps with eight thousand pound barbells and now his knees are all messed up. I countered with my congenital knee deformity. Not that a whose-knees-are-worse contest is the point.

You know, if you want to work on X, just ask me if I will let you work some X. I am happy to do a roll or few solely for the benefit of my training partner. But without that stated parameter, I normally go into a roll with the idea that we are both supposed to learn something; we are both supposed to get something out of it. Don't just run a clinic on me and then when I ask you a question, refuse to help and instruct me to just tap out. That is just disrespectful and condescending. That is exactly what Bryan did to me that one time I ended up crying in the locker room. I DO NOT NEED A LESSON IN HOW TO TAP. God dammit. The next person who says that to me is going to get a dramatic reaction.

"I am not LEARNING anything while I am being tapped out twenty times in a row with leglocks when I don't know any defenses for them." Loud enough and snappy enough to have Cindy veering over to intervene. She showed me a few defenses for the leglocks, which is good, although I am not going to retain them unless I get a chance to drill them. Additionally, I was angry and frustrated enough at that point that I couldn't focus very well.


(pic- Dex, on the left)