Never forget that self defense is about not being there, using awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation to eliminate the need to fight. Fighting is what you do when you’ve totally screwed up your self defense. Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder, The Little Black Book Of Violence
Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Belle. I was relieved to see Justin walk in just before we lined up, because everyone else on the mat was a giant, and I was looking down the line thinking, "Ack, who am I going to work with?" Thursday morning seems to be Big Boys' Class. (Carlos has commented on that as well).
First: Opponent is on hir back and you are kneeling beside hir knees. Overgrip both legs with your arm and hold tight at the thighs. Place forehead on mat. Cartwheel over to the other side. Do not bring both legs up together- one after the other. Try to get some shoulder pressure while you're at it.
Opponent is in your guard with one of your knees pressed to the mat. S/he attempts to scoop your other thigh up on hir shoulder preparatory to passing. You turn, cross your arm over your chest and place it on the mat, circle your leg up and around, and stick it back in there for butterfly guard or closed guard. Amusingly, the guy beside me was turning too much (allowing the opponent to take his back) while I was not turning enough (allowing the opponent to flatten me out). Carlos demoed both errors and instructed us to try to find a happy medium. Note that you really need to turn all the way into inverted guard, but not so far over that you are presenting your back. Also- unglue your hip from the mat.
Same "airplane" that we did yesterday: bottom side control to replace full guard. Slight variation- the arm that we put over the shoulder yesterday, this time we wrapped it around the bicep and tried to catch the belt from there. I couldn't manage that either, but at least now I have two different options to try.
I am still clumsy with this. However, a plus for today: I was able to help Justin with a suggestion. He had done this yesterday as well, yet likewise was still not feeling solid. He was having the most trouble with the lift itself. I pointed out that it was a three-point effort, and turns out he was not utilizing the belt point to its full potential (lucky guy, *he* could reach it). He got lots better after that. Also- we have worked together enough to develop a comfortable shorthand for feedback... if it seems like he is confident with the technique, I'll pick out some little detail that he could tighten up (for instance hug my legs tighter) and wordlessly cue him (for instance, by wiggling my legs a little in a token effort to escape on each rep till he regrips). I did that several times today- and it feels nice to be able to help a teammate improve, as well as feel like I a)have something valuable to give, and b)know how to impart it well.
Also- twice, the prof stopped us to mime the technique with an error in it and ask the class what was wrong. Although in both cases, I had been committing the crime in question (blush), in both cases, I was able to immediately ID it when I saw Carlos perform it. Note that one of these sins was "Clench-n-Cling" (tm)... I'm getting better at that, but I'm still doing it sometimes (esp in bottom half guard), where I am reluctant to release my death grip on the legs long enough to do anything to accomplish getting out.
One roll with Justin. I really wanted to try that baseball bat choke, and I got front mount and top side control repeatedly so that I could try- but he was doing a really good job defending chokes (and everything else, in fact). I complimented him that he is reliably able to recognize what I'm going for and accurately defend it. I couldn't get any subs on him, although I stayed on top quite a bit. I even tried the Technique Of the Day, and *almost* got it.
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Basics class: Adrian began by saying we were going to "take it easy" and had us do just easy stretches for warmup. "Take it easy" took on a new meaning for the rest of the session, as we did rotating spars with everyone in the room. One minute between spars (and not one minute prone and puffing, but you had to fix your clothes and find a new partner in that time; there really wasn't a chance for water- very little rest). For some reason, the pervading mood was just really intense- not bouncing off the walls or maiming people or anything, but we all seemed very focused. By the third round, we were all wilting- but we pushed it.
I was much more experienced than most of the people in the room, and for some reason I was just inspired to be spewing coaching advice at all and sundry today. Everybody's white belt mistakes seemed glaringly spotlit in my mind.
Luiz- Lord, that guy's new nickname in my blog is "Gorilla Glue". He was giving me *NO* space to do anything; plastered up against me all the time like he was trying to meld us into one being. It was very effective.
Ben- I was trying to do ANYTHING but end up in his damned half-guard, which is dreadfully redundant at this point. I did anything to try to get someplace else, ANYPLACE else- including diving willingly right into his closed guard. I'm normally pretty good working in top half guard, and I tend to go there happily with most people, but NOT BEN. No matter how many times I go in there thinking "It's going to turn out different this time," It doesn't.
Dave (yeah, another one... call this one Tall Dave): he's getting very technically good, and he kept setting up subs that made me go, "Oh Sh---," but then I kept getting out. Finally I realized that this was not due to any particular skill on my part, and I told him, "You're doing everything right, but you're giving me too much space. If you just tighten this up and close in, your game is going to improve about 200%." It would be scary if he and Luiz had a love child.
Albert- this is the spazzy white belt who slams subs too hard and hurt JP a couple of weeks ago. When we knelt down and looked at each other, I gave him the Serious Eye Contact and the "I'm old and breakable, you're stronger than me, take it easy, don't slam subs on" lecture. Luckily, he was already wrung out and exhausted to the point that I actually had to keep chivvying him to move.
One of the brown belts peeked in as we were finishing, and made an awed comment about how hard we were working- he said he could hear everybody breathing hard in there.
Competition Class: No fresh meat came in for this class today, except for Casey (who was also tired from rolling with the prof earlier)... so Carlos was trying to bully everybody from the basics class into staying. After I had lain spread-eagled on the changing room floor for five minutes, I was up for it. So were Ben and Tall Dave. Albert wanted to leave. Carlos was like, "How old are you?!" He sometimes rags on the young guys and tells them that they have no excuse to be tired. Albert is 22. Carlos guilted him with "I'm 28, and I did the 6:30am class today, then the morning class...." After everyone bantered about it for a while in the lobby, they filed tiredly back in, and Albert was edging toward the locker room... I pointed at him and yelled, "Hey! I'm FORTY! Get your ass back in here!!" Everyone cracked up, and Ben fist-bumped me. Carlos yelled, "And thees ees her TIRD class today! I can see who I'm going to match up first!" He kept floating around out there indecisively a little longer, and I crooked my finger at him and pointed commandingly to the mat until he slouched in. It was hilarious. It did have a selfish motive, though- Albert's good to work with as long as he's too tired to be spazzy, and he is also learning more/better technique in that state. The more he learns, hopefully the spazz will fade out.
So- more rotating spars, with everyone. We were all too tired to do anything *but* good clean technique. I feel like we all got a lot of good work done today.
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