A fierce pixie

Many people train and prepare by walking along the way of the warrior, but never discover- or maybe just forget- what battle they have been training for. The battle rages in front of their eyes and they don’t realize it. The small psychodramas of daily life distract them to the point of taking away their global vision and making them forget why they set out walking the warrior’s path in the first place. Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



Evening BJJ in Bellevue. It has been a long time since I did a Too-fer. It makes Carlos so happy. He made a huge deal out of it.

Jumped on Daniel before class and rolled around with him a little, then Ross.

Same things we were doing this morning. Unfortunately, as I started to get tired on Round Deux of the rapid fancy footwork, I got sloppy (as so often happens). As I dodged to the left and put my foot down, the ankle rolled out. I have done exactly this before. I really need to pay good conscious attention to my tendency to do these things when I get tired.

I have done worse, but it hurts. I had to stop and writhe around on the mat for a while, holding my foot, while Carlos jumped in to finish the drill set with my partner. I was then able to continue, but had to opt out of sparring at the end. I was annoyed at having driven all the way back into Bellevue and not being able to spar, especially when I am trying to drop a couple pounds. I had also been hoping to get in some more hiking this weekend. Now I'm not sure if I'll even be able to do any classes tomorrow. I won't really know how bad it is till morning.

I was drilling with a little bitty blue belt that I have never seen before- Nadine. She can't be any bigger than Chrisanne. But what a fierce little pixie. She was kicking my ass. I gave up three or four taps to her during the positional sparring. I was being careful to not use weight or strength on her; her technique was (mostly) good, and I just didn't feel like escalating. My ego only whined a little bit... and only because it seemed like Carlos and Herbert were both standing right there watching us much of the time. Carlos actually stopped us at one point to tell her to back off on the elbow/forearm grinding into my ear and face.

I got this note from Chrisanne:

"You are a very thoughtful, aware training partner. You teach me, you push me, you make me work to be the best I can. That's why I like working with you."

Wow. That feels great.