Things to *NOT* say to the ref.

Sheep can be controlled by the sheepdog for the same reason they fear the wolf -- they are both predators. The same relationships hold with the general population, the police, and the criminals. Most people are sheep, but you don't have to be. If you have the skills and attitude of a predator the criminals will leave you alone -- because they will recognize you as a predator and there is easier game available. -Greg Hamilton



Turkey Day open mat in Seattle.

Lindsay, Chrisanne, Terry (whom I haven't seen in a really, really long time), Vic. There were tons of people there that I would have loved to roll with, but by the time I got done with these four, all the others were gone or going.   :(

No-gi with the two ladies and Terry. Found myself huddling on the bottom a few times with Lindsay- mostly when I started getting really tired- but I tried hard to minimize that. With Terry, same thing. He is very dynamic- which can be intimidating, and even more reason I want to slow down and cling- to try to slow the action down a bit. I trust him enough that I attempted to resist this urge, although if it had been with a random person, I would have worked hard to try to immobilize hir.

I found out that Terry got DQ'ed from the last Revolution. The pair fighting on the next mat rolled off their mat and crashed into Terry and his opponent in the middle of the match. Terry disentangled himself, stood up, looked at the ref and cried, "What the fuck?!?" The ref said, "You're out."

This was the first time I've rolled with Vic. He's the same weight as me, and flexible. A little spazzy and strengthy. I gave him a monologue about not slamming subs- not that he was slamming any- but while I was walking him through keylocks, I emphasized that this is one of those subs that we want to be particularly careful about putting on slowly and carefully.  Apparently no one had given him that little tutorial yet, so I'm very happy to stop another white belt from developing dangerous habits before he starts. He also saw Terry yanking me backward from my knees into his back mount, and was like, "Woah, that was so rad!" And I stopped immediately and looked at him and said, "DON'T you try that on anyone until you're more experienced, and here's why..."

He expressed frustration at always finding himself on the bottom. I told him that at his weight, he'd better get used to it, because he was going to be there for the next three years straight.

Somebody mistook me for Cindy today. It was quite a thrill. I must confess, though, that it was in the parking lot and not on the mat.