Friday, June 6, 2014

That elderly tiny white belt *looked* harmless enough.



The physical part has never been the hard part of self-defense.  Knowing when to act, trusting your judgment, giving yourself permission to do what needs to be done and doing all this from a position of physical and mental disadvantage while surprised-- that's the hard part.  –Rory Miller


Thursday two-fer at Bellevue. I weighed 132 first thing in the morning, naked.

Standing guard pass to KOB.

Same entry, then opponent crosses foot over top and places it on your hip preparatory to replacing guard. Grab the ankle, shove hir sideways, KOB again.

Same as above, only when you KOB, opponent turns on side and shoves at your knee. Twirl around hir head and KOB on the other side. My past dance training tends to allow me to do this type of thing quickly and gracefully (and without kicking my compadre in the head), but it often takes me about three extra foot placements than it takes Carlos.

Lots of drills of these. Exhausting and painful on the knees.

Two spars- Prof Lindsey and Rocky. Lindsey was fun. Rocky was frustrating.

Between classes I went back to Mohlbaks. Why do I do this? I can't afford to go nuts in Mohlbaks right now. Plus, I had told myself firmly that I was NOT buying any more bamboo untill I see if my first batch survives the winter outside. Guess what I walked out with? And horseradish. And two more foxgloves. I was excited to find a yellowish variety. All the volunteers that are coming up in my yard are pink, every last one. I was less excited after I went to Home Depot for dirt, and found yellow foxgloves at 1/3 what I had paid at Mohlbaks.

Evening class. Chrisanne had promised to show up, but she got trapped by the lockdowns at SPU yesterday. This was a bummer because I was feeling pretty damn tired, and I probably would have gone home had I not had a date to bar Chrisanne's arm. Sparring with Rocky had knocked the physical and emotional energy out of me.

You in closed guard- put one foot on floor beside opponent's hip, stand and turn hips exaggeratedly out as if you are standing on a surfboard. Slide knee over opponent's thigh and pass to side control.

Same, only this time you scoop under opponent's thigh and pass the other way. Note that Carlos wants the THUMB in the lapel unless you are trying to do a cross collar choke. This is a bad habit for me, but I did notice that when John did it as instructed, this put the blade of his forearm right in my throat, which was unpleasant.

A few spars. Nadine kicked my ass as usual. Spider guard is really the only thing that wards her off, and only for a little while. That blue belt guy with previous experience in something- he's really good. Kevin, who is always fun and competitive and doesn't smash me, although he always grabs my bad ankle. Blue-belt Peter, always was nice to play with him. For my last spar, I grabbed a tiny little elderly-looking white belt that I've never seen before. That little guy was *SO* tight on top, it was incredible. Nice passes, too. It was a relief when Carlos awarded that guy his blue belt at the end of class.   Even so, I got dominated a lot today and felt kind of demoralized by the time I went home.

Ankle is still a little tender- it's giving me some problems when it's on the mat outside-down (the way it rolled out), shrimping on that side, and of course if anyone grabs it I collapse immediately. 

Friday, first thing in the morning, naked: 132 again. That's not fair. You should get to see at least .5 lb down after doing two classes and watching your diet.

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