I'll ditch him.

Almost everyone I have met who has been in the situation reflexively checks weapons when they get tense. It’s a tell, and a great way to pick out who is armed.  –Rory Miller



Thurs: Lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue.

Allergies have been suicide-inducing these past few days. I have been taking buckets of drugs, which has accomplished exactly nothing, except that now I am congested, headachy and exhausted ALONG WITH  antihistimine/decongestant daze.

None of my usual favorite drill partners was there, but there were a lot of big guys and some visiting blue belts. Especially in my sinus-skewed state, I was in no mood to deal with visiting blue belt men, which tend to be a real crapshoot. A lot of the time, they either try to kill you because you're a purple belt and they figure that means they can go as hard as they want even though you're half their weight and old enough to be their mom, or they try to kill you because you're a purple belt and they want to prove  they can kick your ass.

I just didn't feel like taking that on, so I sidled up to Justin before class.

Me: "Will you please drill with me today, so I don't get stuck with any of these big guys?"
Justin: "Uh, I already told Alex I'd drill with him."
Me: (dismayed expression)
Justin: "I'll ditch him."
Me: "It's tough being Mr. Popular, huh?"

I felt a little bad, but it was a matter of survival.

Standup: double leg setups, failed double-leg to rear clinch.

Tripod sweep. I was happy to see this, as it's one of those techniques that involves doing something different with each of your four limbs, and thus I always struggle with it- but I would like to get proficient at it, since that would possible allow me to set it up from spider guard (which I use a lot but can't sweep very well from).

Opponent stands up in your guard, you place feet on hir hips, grab hir ankles, and dump. I use this a lot, but have a vast amount of trouble recovering from the subsequent scramble and capitalizing before s/he gets up and capitalizes on me first. Carlos had us KEEP ONE PANTLEG, swing both legs to that same side. Slam your other elbow on the mat outside of hir far thigh. Hopefully you are not so slow that you fail to get hir hips controlled so that you can get in side control. As usual, retaining that pant grip was a challenge for me.

Note that if you try the double-ankle drop and they grab your lapels to defend it, you can lift hir in the air with your feet on hir hips and try to dump hir over your head or to the side. if that fails, next go to the tripod sweep.

These techniques were more get-up-get-down-get-up-get-down work, as I was grousing about the other day.... and with the sinus crap, I got tired very quickly.

Me: (beginning the technique standing hunched over in Justin's open guard)
Justin:  (after long expectant pause) "Get in my closed guard."
Me: "Urrrrrrrghh... I didn't want to have to get back up again." The only thing more exhausting that get-up-get-down-get-up-get-down is get-up-get-down with someone hanging around your waist.

Many drills, after which I was too wiped to spar.

Friday: Can't go to class because I got tattooed last night, but I took a 2 mile walk.