"You're Kanye"

Amateurs ask, “Could I take him?” Professionals ask, “How would I take him?” Campfire Tales From Hell 


There will be a Northwest Grapplethon at Gracie Barra EdmondsDec 6 and 7, to fundraise for victims of the Philippines storm.  You can sponsor me!     https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/adiC8
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Kelly sent me the vids of my matches. The only thing she missed was my sweet takedown (!) There wasn't much to see. Me on the floor and the other ladies riding me like a hobbyhorse.

I said to Kelly:
"As usual, I need to learn how to get the hell out of bottom half guard. Both of those girls were REALLY strong and had mucho face pressure on the whole time, which was making it really hard to do anything. But I have to start taking risks and trying to scramble near the end, because I have nothing to lose, even if if opens me up to subs. I knew they'd been on top the whole time and were surely up on points.

It's hard to shift from thinking "survival" (ie, don't get subbed) to "competition" (ie, pay attention to points).  I feel like I've accomplished something if I avoid the sub, but that's not really where my full focus should be in this situation."
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Sunday BJJ in Seattle.  There were two guys who weighed in at around 180/185. The rest were all well over 200. And then there was me. Peter apologized to me. I told him that he needs to recruit some smaller guys for his Sunday class. But it's okay. I don't mind working with the big guys as long as they're not going to put me in the hospital- and they were all colored belts, so I figured they'd be fine.

Kitsune: "I just have to sublimate my ego and realize that I'm not going to be doing a lot of winning today, that's all."
Peter: "And you have such a big ego, Kitsune. You're like Kanye."

Peter likes to run this class as KOTH from multiple positions, so that's what we did.

Cindy came in about halfway through. After class, she and I did about 15 straight minutes of no-gi takedowns. She wants me to COMMIT to the livestock takedown. She wants me to drive my headlocking armpit down like I'm spiking a football, and kick that foot out really hard and wide.  I'm still having hesitancies. I still feel like it's not going to work, and the failure will leave me with my back to my foe and my arm twisted behind me (which would suck mightily).  If it does work, I'm completely paranoid that I'm going to break my opponent's neck. (Cindy: "They teach this takedown to three-year-olds! This isn't mean!!")
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On top of sleeping poorly at the best of times, I normally have nightmares when I'm too stressed out (usually work-related). Since Autumn '11, I have had runs of nightmares from August through November. Had a dilly the night before the comp, and I thought it was comp nerves... nope, they are still coming. There's no place to run when one's own brain is acting as your enemy.  "Whatever you do.... DON'T...FALL....ASLEEP!!!"
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Holy crap. If you see a guy named Kevin Thompson running around, don't piss him off. He won the Revolution prize for "vicious submission" in gi (15 seconds) **AND** in no-gi (5 seconds)!!!!