Two and a half good practices

Many people receive the answer to their prayers, but ignore them- or deny them, because the answers didn’t come in the expected form. –Sophy Burnham


Thursday: SORE today. Upper back mostly. Rt shoulder. Well, both shoulders actually. Tired as well. That was really a vast amount of strenuous exercise yesterday, and my conditioning is not at its best right now. Just couldn't seem to get in gear for class at all today.

Friday FOD: Tai chi short form. Special attention to weight shifts, and also the hand-spreading correction CK gave me while she was here.

Sat FOD: Five Points Of the Star (standard version only). Shoulder aches... wish I knew what the heck was going on with that.

Sun FOD: Bung Bo Kuen (standard version only).

Mon FOD: White Crane- Walking the Path. Note that the kneel at the end is on the LEFT knee, the following snap kick also with the left. This is indeed a snap kick, not ball-of-the-foot. Wrap right hand around knee at the kneel.

Tuesday: for some reason this morning, Angry Snake Defends Its Lair popped into my head- in the manner of, "OMG, I haven't done that form in forever, do I even remember it at all?!!?!" I went so far as to dump out my bowl of FOD stones and make sure there was a token for Angry Snake. There was. That night, guess what I randomly drew for the FOD? Note that after the first stab, there is a scissor step with the right leg in front as you turn. The first run-through, I forgot that step, although I somehow ended up on the correct leg by the time I did the next turn. Pleasing discovery- the small broom in the coagulation department- which is the *only* object in the whole place which is stick-like and longer than a ruler- you can unscrew the brush and remove it. This makes it a short but acceptable sword, dao and bo substitute in a pinch.

Note to self- I need to start analyzing the repetitive motions I'm doing at work, as I'm beginning to wonder if it has something to do with my rt shoulder issues. It's been a week without any workout aside from FOD, and my shoulder still aches fiercely. Last time this happened, I mimed my workday for an ergonomics guy, and we realized that my shoulder ached because I was repeatedly reaching my right arm across my body in order to stick the micro loop in the burn tunnel. Switched the flame to the right side of the counter, and all was well. This may be a similar issue.


Friday: One of the things I like least about Seattle is that the entire region is paralyzed by the slightest dusting of snow. Everything closes, all your classes are cancelled, you don't get your mail, your trash isn't picked up, your electricity and internet are shut off. This week, they were ANTICIPATING snow on Wednesday, so everything shut down on Monday so that we could all get a jump on the hand-wringing and stocking up of canned goods (assuming you could find a store that was open). Both BJJ schools have been closed all week, and my silk class on Thursday was cancelled.


Saturday: An excellent two and a half classes today.

Morning at Gracie Seattle. John and I did a few armbar drills together to warm up.

One person on hir back, one person standing. Bottom person sits up and wraps around one leg of standing person, then try to take standing person down. Unfortunately, within the first couple of minutes of doing this, I heard/felt my busted finger pop again. Grrrrrrrrr.

Side control. Bottom person frames, pushes, reaches one arm under top person's armpit, tries to roll to belly. Top person whizzers the arm, shoves hand a little further to prop behind partner's neck. TAKE FAR KNEE OFF MAT, scuttle around to the other side, take side control. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's a good (and exhausting) flow drill even at a modest pace. You could also attack that arm- being on the bottom is a good place to find your shoulder popped if partner is not careful. The class was full of high school wrestlers today- one of our blue belts is their coach, and he brought them in. Luckily I had pounced on John, one of my fave classmates. I wouldn't have wanted to do that particular drill with a spazzy high school boy. At one point I told him he felt a little loose, and suggested he tighten it up a bit. UUURK! Yup, yup, now it's perfect. Ow.

I attacked Ron during the break, and got my butt kicked by him.

I was waffling about staying for hour #2.... basics followed by competition class is a daunting prospect at the best of times, and I'm out of shape & I'd also promised Cindy I'd come in today. I decided to do 1/2 of the competition class.

King of the hill relays, pass guard vs sweep. I actually seemed to be holding my own here. I passed several guards, and put up a decent fight against the people I didn't pass. I even got a compliment from black-belt Dave (SIDE CONTROL). Passing guard is one of my strong areas, though. Of course I was useless whan it came my turn on the bottom. But whoo-hoo, I PASSED RON'S GUARD!!!!!! I'm so excited. I can't remember the last time I passed Ron's guard, or for that matter accomplished ANYTHING against Ron. He's that good. So that was a very happy moment for me.

I notice we have a lot of 4-stripe white belts on the mat right now. I think we are going to have a very blue spring coming up.

Angela came in just as I was leaving... bummer. It would be nice to get a chance to work with her again soon. I also was disappointed to not get a chance to work with Z this time, even though he was in my relay group (the "Short Guys" group).

I got a hug from Rodrigo when I came in, and a second one when I left! Part of me is really not wanting to trust- much less hero-worship- teachers right now, after some of my bad experiences. But it's hard to resist Rodrigo. He's got *SO* many students, but he goes out of his way to make you feel like you matter to him as an individual, and I really appreciate that. Like Georgette, I confess to "daddy issues"... I keep wanting to cast Rodrigo as the supportive daddy I always wished I had.

Left class with a weird and rather severe palm-sized abrasion on my chest. It looks and feels like a burn. I don't remember how it happened. I felt really good, though. It was a great practice.


From there, I headed to Sleeper. No-gi. I had gi pants, because I've got some scrapes on my shins that I didn't want to expose to other people's sweat and MRSA. Unfortunately, as usually happens, I had to keep reminding people to not grab my pants!

A couple of guard passes- basic ones, but some of the ones that I tend to get mixed up as regards the correct foot/hand/knee to use.

Then a more complex one, where you're standing, and the sitting opponent wraps around one leg. You pull your other leg back, get down real low, wrap your arm around hir neck/head like s/he's your buddy, grab hir ankle, and sit back. Crush hir head under your shoulder. Peel hir opposite leg off your ankle and kick leg back and out, turn to belly, take side control.

Then some king of the hill relays, pass guard vs whatever. I don't know if it was because I was already warmed up and practiced from doing the same thing earlier, or if the other students were too new (they seemed newer than me, but not clueless-new), but again I was doing fairly well. I passed everybody's guard, and even finished a triangle from the bottom- a *very* rare occurance for me- so I was very happy again. I tried another triangle later, but the guy defended well, and I couldn't _quite_ finish that one. Good for me, though, for trying- as I usually don't even try those. They just presented themselves, and I went for it without making a conscious decision on the matter. Yay.

A little sparring, and again I was on fire- didn't get tapped, got several taps... again, a rarity for me, as my subs are still fairly poor as a rule. I was especially pleased to do well in no-gi- in which I tend to be less skilled than in gi.

Cindy's better; her headaches and mental disturbances from the accidents are improving, which is a relief. Her back still needs some more healing time, but she's almost at the point of being able to get back on the mat. It was very nice to see her again, too.