The blue and white Borg

If you teach self defense as primarily a physical skill, you limit the chances for success for the less-physical students, who are far more likely to be victimized anyway.- Rory Miller




Well, it's finally come to a head. They've segued from telling to me to not wear my green and brown gi's to Gracie's any more to _TELLING_ me to _NOT_ wear my green and brown gi's any more. I am so annoyed. This is such a dumb rule, perpetrated for the sole cause of shaking students (I mean PROFIT GENERATING UNITS) down for more money. I don't really blame my teachers; I blame the Borg-esque GB marketing machine juggernaut. Casey was as nice about delivering the news as he could be.  But the fact remains, I'd rather juggle skunks than buy a GB gi, solely on principle. Which leaves me with a bare 2 acceptable uniforms, one of which fits so crappily that it is a distinct and very irritating tactical handicap.   Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Lunchtime BJJ at GB Belle. Happy Birthday Nelson!

All sparring. Doug, Prof Carlos, Casey, Ross.

I tried a footlock on Carlos; I am *still* not getting the job done. Today, choked too far up on the leg. I was also reprimanded for trying to escape same by rolling onto my stomach. As I have been told numerous times before, grab the lapel and put the foot on the mat. Also: beware the wristlock when trying to do gi chokes from guard. There really was no permutation of gi choke that I could come up with, which the prof could not wristlock me from.

Another thing he did today that he has done before- leave himself open for a triangle from guard, which I totally did not even see, because I never try triangles. He wants me to stop trying the same selection of tricks that I always do. He pretty much knew what I was going to do in every situation- and he doesn't even work with me nearly as often as a lot of other people do.

At least when he got to his feet, I tried to jump guard instead of fighting fruitlessly for the takedown. Not that that worked either, har har. But at least I failed in a DIFFERENT matter this time.

Note: trying to do de la Riva, esp on *HIM*- pull my elbow in. Otherwise he will jointlock me. Elbow in, then pull lapel so that opponent's head is DOWN.

He discussed the "work smarter, not harder" principle- he wants me to work harder on seeing and going for opportunities that are presented. In fact he had a lot of advice today, and I'm not sure I absorbed even half of it.

Ross is improving by leaps and bounds. His pressure from the top is very good. I praised the way he uses even the side of his face to press me down hard. I also caught him pulling out a nice underhook- "Wait! Don't do that! You always do that. Keep that underhook."