Thursday, March 7, 2013

Talking smack




When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are *not* the story. -John Gould


Only one sugared/caffeinated pop yesterday, and only one today. Go me.

Danger spot for this: after class. There is just nothing like coming home from class sweaty and bone tired, and cracking open an ice-cold can of REAL pop and taking three or four humongous swigs. It feels like an orgasm, I swear. Yesterday I was at work, and I had my one REAL pop in the morning (time to work off the sugar and caffeine before bed). Today, I knew I would want one after class, so I saved it till then.

Danger spot for overeating/snacking: after working a noon-to-nine-pm shift or a 3pm-to-eleven-thirty shift. I can usually be pretty good in the mornings before work, and once I go to work, I'm stuck with whatever I brought- or didn't bring (there's a vending machine which I have been known to patronize occasionally, but I'm usually too cheap to buy from those overpriced things). However, by the time I get home, I'm tired and grumpy and feeling all deprived- and the urge to eat and have some REAL pop is difficult to resist. This is the worst possible time to do it, too- right before bed.

Another danger spot: the break room at work. Why do hospital staff have such horrible dietary habits??? Too many people are leaving M&M's, girl scout cookies, and other crapola out for communal grazing. I have some little 100-cal bags of popcorn, and I went to the bulk foods place and made a nut mix (cashews, hazlenuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds). Nuts have a lot of good nutrients- and are certainly a better substitution for M&M's or girl scout cookies- but they do have a lot of fat calories, so you can't go to town on them.

Danger spot- crackers and Crispix. I love crackers- but aside from the fact that it's difficult to stop once I start eating them, they have a very visible and dramatic effect on my weight. The Crispix cereal was yummy in the first batch of nut mix, but likewise.

-----------------------------------
Three classes today. It was so nice to be back at Gracie's- I think for only the 2nd time in 4 weeks. Unfortunately, it seems that Cindy had preceded me and was talking smack about me all over the place- I didn't even have my coat off before Casey was ragging me about beating up a little kid!!!

Basics first.  You are in bottom side control. Get the lockdown (this is a bit of a struggle for me; I think partially because of my short legs), push opponent's front half (arms) over to your side on that same side, underhook hir leg, and sweep toward hir head. (Yes, s/he has both arms free and can post over there. You must sweep diagonally. S/he can post for a while, but eventually will be shoved onto hir shoulder.) KEEP THE LEGS. You may now be in top half guard, or in hir open guard with one of hir legs on your shoulder. Pass from here.
------------------
Next: no-gi. The schedule had said women's class, so I was confused. I sat on the wall, but I guess the prof was so happy that I'd shown up at all, he let me in even though I didn't have a GB rash guard *or* shorts.

Standup: hook behind head and on 1 bicep. Step on the hip, on the side that you have the arm. Pull guard, keeping the foot on the hip and wrapping the other leg kind of high on opponent's back. Note that your knee (on the foot-hip side) should be outside opponent's arm, not crushed inside.

Next: you go to step on that hip, opponent steps back with that leg. Keep the head grip, let go of the arm grip, and smoothly (heh) drop to your knee, grabbing opponent's cross heel (the HEEL, not the knee!). Stand up, take down, KOB.

Next technique: You have butterfly guard, opponent is down on your chest. Shove your forearm under hir head (hand on the side where hir face is) till your forearm is across hir throat and you can grip hir shoulder. Push hir torso upright. If you cannot, use your second hand to brace the wrist till you succeed. Scoot your butt out a little. Swim the forearm under hir armpit (keep the elbow glued where it is) and hook your hand firmly over hir same shoulder. Open up your butterfly guard so that one knee is up, one leg on the mat. Use your free hand to control opponent's wrist. Kick your MATWARD foot under yourself as you roll to your belly, while pulling opponent's arm toward you, and using the remaining butterfly hook to lift/push opponent over. Again, you may end up in top side control, but that's okay. Pass, then transition to scarf. (Note: prof tells me to not lean my head/torso backward so far while I am in scarf).

I suck so bad at all things butterfly guard, yet I am continually awed by how effectively short-legged, stubby little Ron uses it. Which means it should also be good for short-legged, stubby little Kitsune. Need to develop this.

I drilled with a nice teen boy, orange belt.

---------------------
"Black belt" class (I think this is for blues two stripes and up?) and basics class were combined. Mock tournament. The Revolution is this weekend.  Big guys at one end (Jamie reffing), little guys at the other (Carlos reffing).

Before we got started, there was some rules discussion. Always helpful. I continue to be baffled by the points system, but am very slowly picking up a little knowledge.

First fight, me and Kelly. Kelly always plows me. I got on top a few times, but she dominated. Didn't see the final score, but I'm pretty sure she won on points. 

As usual, just getting up there and facing off in a "tournament"- even a mock one- gave me that rush of nervousness followed by the feeling of all my strength running down my legs and into the floor, leaving me weak as a kitten.

After watching a few of the guys go at it, me and Crisanne. She's doing well, but is still a white belt, and I have considerable weight on her. I didn't smash her or anything (she even got a nice sweep), but I did get a bunch of points and then tap her with a gi choke. Afterward she was having trouble catching her breath- anxiousness, I think. Then I felt bad and thought I should have gone lighter still. Won't deny that continually getting my clock cleaned by Kelly makes me feel frustrated. I should have made sure to expel that emotion before facing a smaller white belt. I made sure to give her positive feedback afterward.

Me and Ron. Well, you *KNOW* how that's gonna go (I wonder if this was Carlos' revenge for me going a little too hard on Crisanne). He was nice and didn't sub me to death in three seconds. One thing I was happy with- He was on my back at one point, and I got a slightly modified version of the technique that we did two classes ago at Sleeper: I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him into a summersault over my own head, then drove into him. He tried and almost succeeded to gain inverted guard, but I eventually was able to maneuver us into N/S.

All three of my opponents pulled guard on me. I did poorly at defending this, and need to pay attention. I don't like not being able to fight for the takedown, and I don't like being trapped in closed guard.

Open mat- Dave. Having trouble getting out of his closed guard, and getting a bit frustrated. We each tapped each other once (me with the gi-tail baseball bat choke).

1 comment: