"Don't hurt me- I'm only a white belt."

Spiritual are those who are not satisfied with surviving, but want to turn daily experiences into sources of ecstasy. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Monday lunchtime, Seattle.

Standup- Bad Guy roundhouse kicks to your ribs. You move in the same direction as the kick, but stay square with opponent. Catch leg, make sure knee is bent at least a little, and use heel of hand on inside of thigh just above knee to press while you step back and pull for takedown. Bring your foot on the OPPOSITE side as the trapped leg in and stick your toe right under hir butt. Your other foot goes to her hip (on the trapped leg). Drop onto your side (facing away from foe), reach under the calf and grab your own wrist, side bak so that the top of hir foot is right in your armpit, turn your forearm so that the bone is digging into hir leg, and bow your back like a swaybacked pony.

This reaction to the roundhouse kick is contradicting my Kung Fu training, which has me rushing in to press up against the opponent where the kick has no power.

Next: You are in closed guard. Opponent has deep cross lapel grip. You use the arm on the same side as the one s/he is using to cover hir arm, grab hir lapel, and bend your elbow forcefully to your ribs and downward. This should force hir grip downward on your collar at least a bit. Now grab the pants with your other hand, at top thigh. Take a moment to makes sure that 1)your elbows are both inside, and 2)your knee- the one on the side with all the lapel-gripping- is outside opponent's hip so that s/he can't shrimp. Now: Turn body toward pants-grabbing arm and break guard. Slide lapel grip down, slide pants grip down to knee. Keep your knee on the ground UNTIL you bounce to your toes (plank position- now your feet are too far away for opponent to catch half guard), then tiptoe around the pants-gripping side to side control.
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Somewhere between leaving the mat in Seattle and stepping back on the mat in Bothell, I lost my belt. I think I left it in the locker room at Seattle. Hope to God I didn't drop it in the parking lot or something. Carlos is *NOT* going to be amused. Anyway, I was a virgin white belt in Bothell tonight. I have been rather jealous of Ginger Snaps for getting to start over at white belt. It felt so odd. Less pressure? Even though most of the people in there know what rank I am.

Same techniques as this morning, with the addition of passing top half guard with shoulder pressure, butt in the air, and using free foot to pry yourself loose and go to front mount. Grapevine, hip down, active hands above opponent's head.

Positional training from closed guard. Paper-scissors-rock to decide who's on bottom first. One guy and I did about 10 rounds of ties before my paper finally beat his rock.

I also got a purple belt whom I didn't know. I said, "Don't hurt me- I'm only a white belt." I'm so evil.

A few spars.
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Working on the antlered headdress- sewing garnet strings along the edges of the hide scraps (Ooog, I hate sewing so much. And this is painstaking detail-work-type-sewing), and glueing velcro strips to the headgear to better anchor the antlers as well as to secure the hides. I have enough velcro on there that asteroids are getting sucked out of deep space to stick to the back of my head.