The energy is always there within reach. It is a fire that doesn’t always burn in the open, but under the skin the coals are always lit. Anyone sensitive enough can feel the vibration. As soon as you enter a room, right away you perceive who is an individual from head to toe and who has never listened to the voice of the body. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path
Thursday and Friday: walk to work and back.
Friday evening "Study Hall" at Bellevue with Doug. It was "purple belt nite"!
Fun with spider guard.
Begin in closed guard, transition to spider guard. Work a little from side to side... one leg straight, one bent...fluid hip movement. John advises that I try to get my butt a little closer to opponent.
Let left leg slide past bicep and yank opponent's arm diagonally across your chest. Swing hips out so that your right ear is toward your opponent. Drop that outside leg to the floor and bring it back against opponent's leg as you lift to the ceiling with the other foot (still in spider guard position). Sweep. Take KOB (I actually preferred to front mount instead, as it seemed that attempting KOB was opening myself up to the half guard).
Closed guard to Spider guard again. Side to Side. Now drop right shin horizontally across opponent's chest. S/he will try to pass. Underhook hir lead leg and use it- along with your remaining spider guard side- to sweep.
Two 10 minute rolls with Daniel and one with Doug. Daniel wants armbars. I'm good at jerking my stubby arms out of those, but he got close a few times... then I started being more careful. Doug kept putting me in back mount, but he was being nice and letting me escape (although he did not make it easy by any means).
GB Bellevue has a grill sitting out front. They were already starting steaks during the open mat. I had to leave, as I am dieting.
I have survived all week on portion sizes that would not nourish an infant fieldmouse. I am down from 139 (at PSG) to 134.5 (this morning).
I have decided to cut down to 128 (still in the "overweight" category by the Bullshit Mass Index standards) and then take a bikini pic. I will hold a paper over my face that says "This is what an "overweight" BMI looks like". I will use this as a visual aid if I have to file a grievance with my workplace. I might get a body fat percentage done too, just for shits and giggles, as I'm sure that will be crazy low and will make the BMI Patrol look even more retarded.
Ah, so there are other GB clubs who do the 'study hall' thing. I was wondering if the head coach at my Gracie Barra had made it up. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat's the format of yours, out of interest? We've been doing ours like this, so far.
When Carlos does it, he goes around the room and asks what people would like to work on- then picks one or three and we explore them in a bit greater depth and creativity level than we do in a normal class.
ReplyDeleteWhen Doug does it, he watches a video in the lobby before class and picks a few related techniques out of it to teach.
I haven't taken Study Hall from any of the other teachers as of yet, so I don't know how they do it.
Interesting: that sounds a lot less flexible than the way we've been doing it. I always come in with specific techniques I want to drill, so treat it pretty much like an open mat but with a 100% focus on drilling.
ReplyDeleteEverybody has the option of drilling whatever they want, sparring, or they can ask a senior belt for something to work on. Then again, so far it has been the purple belts running it, as the head coach left it to us (which is cool).
It's immediately become my favourite class of the week: I'm a big fan of focused drilling.