Squirming, twisting, squirreling, and squirting

Your body is not designed to improve under conditions of comfort. It improves under stress. –Rory Miller


Lunchtime BJJ in Edmonds.

This is my first visit to the Edmonds GB pod. It is a nice space with a wall of windows lighting it up. No shower, though.  :(  Griff was a very nice host. He rolled with me (and some standup, too), and as always he is full of good advice and lots of personal attention.

Unfortunately, it's a bitch of a drive, so this will not be a regular occurrance. But I wanted to get a chance to get choked by Georgette at least once before I die.  It was also nice (as it always is) to see and roll with Griff, and I also got to finally meet Dandelion. I have been hearing about her for a long time, and now I know why. Geez, is she ever good. Tiny little thing, but very strong and with a TIGHT, technical game.

Likewise Georgette. That was really fun. I spent too much time trapped under her, and she tapped me repeatedly, but I managed to stave her off for a while. I got one nice hip throw. Of course, when I went for it again, she was like, Hellz to the no, you are not doing to that me a second time. Unfortunately, I could not meathook behind her neck because she has an injury, so that hampered my standup game. But it's great to be able to work standup, and she wants to work it too, so that's perfect.

Working with someone closer to my size being a relatively rare thing, I was struck by a few points that are not new revelations, but more of "You know this is an issue, and here's a glaring spotlight on why".

1)It does not even occur to me to try sweeps, pretty much EVER. We worked on a couple of sweeps today, and I was able to pull them off on Georgette, and they felt very nice.

2)I continue to stick one arm up over my head and allow it to get trapped. Georgette tapped me at least four times with this, and yet I continue to do it.

3)As Griff points out (and Georgette and I both heartily agreed), at the purple belt level you have to really do an overhaul of your game because the sloppy shit you managed to make work up till now, it is not working so hot against your purple-belt-and-up opponents. You have to unlearn a crap ton of bad habits and clean up sloppy technique. In particular, I was noticing today how heavily I tend to rely on compressing my tiny, flexible body and simply squirming, twisting, squirreling, and squirting out of everything without employing any actual TECHNIQUE. That stuff was not flying AT ALL today with Georgette or Dandelion, who were very very tight and did not give me enough room to pull those tricks.

4)I continue to reflexively do a number of things- as well as reflexively avoiding certain things- simply because I assume I will get crushed, manhandled or otherwise overwhelmed. Most of these things are so instinctive by now that I don't realize I am doing them, much less why. With an opponent closer to my own size, some of those things WERE actually possible. Or at least I should TRY them. I'm feeling kind of dismayed at how different my game really *needs* to be in- say- tournament environs with a female in my weight class, as opposed to my everyday game with larger young men.

I am really exhausted and sore right now. It feels great. I am going to be hurting in the morning.