Being one hundred percent present here and now is the talent of a true martial artist. Through the practice of martial arts, we can learn to feel this presence, call upon it, cultivate it, make it a part of ourselves. When we can enter this dimension at will, it becomes possible to have free access to an enormous source of power. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path
Friday lunchtime in Seattle. Cornelia, to my dismay, was not there. She is in town right now, and I really want to get some time to work with her. Must get to Seattle pod more often in the next few weeks. Found out that she is also the guilty party regarding that photo of Cindy's Mickey-Mouse-glove swollen hand. I warned Cindy about doing standup with Cornelia! She is a Judo black belt!
One of the white belts made a crack because pre-class, as we were all waiting along the wall, and all the blue belts were standing around while all the purple belts were sitting on our asses leaning on the wall. I replied that we were saving our strength. Added Dave: "To tap YOU later," It was funny, though. It really was a good analogy for the way you get more conscious- as you move up- about conserving every morsel of strength.
Opponent is in your closed guard. S/he grabs same side sleeve cuff, crosses other hand over wrist to grab your belt (imprisoning that hand). S/he stands up, pushes your hips to the floor (that was the detail I missed the first time- get their hips on the floor). Now s/he lets go and grabs both of your pantlegs at the insides of the knees. You grab behind hir left ankle. S/he steps right foot back, kicks hir left foot across to dislodge grip, then steps waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay you to the side with it. Now: bullfight pass.
Before s/he gets that shoulder pressure down on you, you want to roll AWAY (yeah, weird) and sweep your arm around in a big circle. Get your shoulder blade against opponent and try to pressure down as you turn the corner. Ideally, this has you pressuring on the back of hir shoulder (and using hir as a post to get your bod around). At the very least, collapsing that shoulder and ideally forcing opponent down into a face plant. Now take the back. Placement must be precise and you can't skimp on the pressure. But I like it. It seems like one that my agility would play into.
Two rolls with an unfamiliar blue belt. He plays deep half guard like Casey does, catching me in it again and again. He schooled me, tapped me several times. Smooth, technical, lovely transitions.
Crisanne: continuing to get better. Constantly moving, nice and agressive, doesn't just lie there like a lot of the girls do on the bottom. Great KOB. Not like my sneaky one; she did the full pin-you-and-bow-you-painfully thing.
A visiting green belt was there- Hailey. Tiny little thing. Triggered an immediate defensive reaction in me. (ha ha) Carlos: "She's fourteen, and she's won (redacted lengthy list of titles, medals, and awards)." Kitsune: "I'm glad you told me that *before* she tapped me out twenty times, instead of after." I prepared to have my butt handed to me by by this prepubescent green belt. Deep breaths: Ego, begone. Ego, begone. Ego, begone. She couldn't be more than 110lb. You have to be careful about underestimating these little squirts, though- it's terribly embarrassing when you go in thinking "I'll go light on this person" and they triangle your ass in eight seconds while your teachers and teammates all sit there and hoot.
So I tried to avoid using weight/strength (again, an unfamiliar exercise for me); I didn't go 100%, didn't get tapped, tapped her twice (chokes). Her game is chokes as well, and my choke defense is very good. Great technical rolls, though. I hope she didn't think I was a big mean bully.
No BJJ classes this Saturday due to tournament. Also: No Friday evening class at Bothell. Bothell pod has blown off the map. It appears that I will next be chasing Cindy to a new Kirkland GB pod.
Isn't ego nuts? We had a 16y/o blue belt kid come in last night and I could immediately tell he was one of those aggressive spazzy types. I couldn't help it, my first thought is if we rolled, I did NOT want to tap to that kid. We never ended up rolling, but there is something especially humbling to be tapping to adolescents.
ReplyDeleteI'm usually fairly serene about it. I regularly get tapped by Jalen and Will. It does feel like the stakes have gone up since getting my purple belt, though.
ReplyDeleteThe teens that I tap to are GOOD. I can acknowledge that ungrudgingly. Well, most of the time I can. What bugs me a lot worse than tapping to skilled teens is tapping to assholes. Someone that I can't respect as an opponent.
"It really was a good analogy for the way you get more conscious- as you move up- about conserving every morsel of strength."
ReplyDeleteSo you're working on your relaxation and not trying to muscle through things, then ;-)
Ha ha... well, in BJJ, it is simply im-physically-possible to go full-bore for more than a few minutes, and one must look at how much time is left in the class and try to reserve enough juice to not collapse before the bow-out. I haven't been good lately about working on my other MA's, but I hope it will translate to some degree eventually.
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