You Shall Not Pass

In combat, neither a knife nor a gun is used for winning fights. Get over that. They are used for killing people. That is a profound difference. –Rory Miller



Sun: 129.5

Sunday lunchtime BJJ in Seattle. I had e-mailed Kelly and also posted on the GB Sea FB page trawling for some Fun-size people to come to this class, but again it was a bunch of huge guys and me. Then later on, Casey and Cindy came in- so that was a little better!

I ate a huge carb-heavy breakfast this morning, so I wanted to work.

I spent about 40 min rolling no-gi with Peter before class. He's so huge and muscley, but he's really good about letting me work without being *too* condescendingly nice. He was leaving me just enough room to get out of stuff, *IF* I was really squirmy- so that was good practice, since I need to be more squirmy.

As usual, positional KOTH. Today, two purple belts and a brown belt literally just threw up their hands and surrendered to my bottom half guard. They simply could not pass (without Hulk-smashing), and finally just gave up trying and conceded defeat. Casey complimented me after class on my game, which is flattering, but I don't really consider this a positive. I said to Peter, "One of these days I'm going to be able to actually *DO* something with this bottom half guard instead of just lock it on and throw away the key.... and then you're all going to be screwed."

After class, Cindy was kind enough to work no-gi takedowns with me. We did 50 each.

Double leg: Lower level. Then step almost between opponent's feet with right foot. drop to right knee. Place hands on BACKS OF SHINS. Just place them there, don't clench. (Cindy doesn't like where I'm grabbing nor how I'm grabbing.) Prop left leg out to side, foot on mat. DO NOT BEND OVER AT THE WAIST! Place body right against opponent. Turn into opponent- you're not facing right into hir, but getting close. Stand up. DO NOT REMAIN ON BOTH KNEES! Place head against opponent's armpit. Odd as it seems, this feel like the key pivot point. Don't fixate on trying to lift the legs. It's about that erect body posture pressing at the right angle.

There are a lot of counterintuitive details in this. I don't know how Cindy keeps her patience. She must have explained to me about sixty times, and she still didn't slap me when I kept doing it wrong.

I crunched my right big toe on her shin. After hopping around and cursing for a few minutes,  I was able to finish the takedowns session, but when I got home, I iced it and then put jow on it. I hate injuring toes. They're so little and stupid, but it's really impossible to do martial arts with injured toes- especially the large ones. I hope this is not going to bench me. I have several days off this coming week, and I want to train a lot.