Adolescent boys- that critical window

 

Generally, women are more reluctant to fight than men. And when they do, men tend to focus on the abstract, bullshit social construct of “winning” and women are just there to hurt you.  -Rory Miller


Thursday 8-18: walk 2 miles.

 BJJ in Bellevue. All spars. Got worked over by a few higher belts, and coached a few white belts.

Dave has his black belt!!!!!!! So exciting. He was walking in as I pulled into the parking lot, so I leaned out the window and shrieked, "LOOK AT THAT BLACK BELT!!!!!"  Then I called him "Professor" at every possible opportunity.  As we rolled, he said that he didn't feel like a black belt. He said this *as* he was tapping me out.

Amber and Jacquelin got their blues (yay, more colored belt women), Kara got a stripe, Jim got his black. (I managed to escape yet another promotion cycle unstriped.)  I'm happy for them, but I am conscious of how much less stressful the whole process is for me when I'm not getting promoted any more.


Thursday 8-25: walk 2 miles.

 BJJ in Kirkland. Some guard passes. Having a little trouble distinguishing left from right, as usual... my partner did too.... and then we did another pass that involved the same entry only changing sides for the part we were both having trouble with. Good thing this wasn't a Carlos class, where we would have had to do a bunch of rounds of both at the end..... I think our  heads would have exploded. We ended with head-and-arm chokes. I continue to struggle to remember which side to jump to (it's the side where you have their arm).  Next, swinging around and armbarring the opposite side. It is worth trying to keep in mind that you don't always have to focus on the near arm.

A few spars. I felt like a purple belt today (which is rare). I dominated two FRAMO's who usually dominate me- even tapping each of them once. Then Amber brought me back down to earth by pwn'ing me all over the mat. My goal for the day was to not get caught in her triangle. There were a couple of near misses, but I succeeded in that. She had to tap me with other stuff.   :)  I rolled with her son, which was great fun. He reminds me of Will when he was little. Will got visibly bigger every class. There was a tiny window of about four days when we were the same size, and I could still tap him sometimes.  Then it was all over, ha ha.  Ten is just hitting the point where his legs are starting to sprout, and I told him that in another couple of years when they are twice as long as they are now, he is going to be a monster.  I hope I get to roll with him during the window.

On the whole, I left feeling really good.

Master Worlds, and GB Northwest kicked ass and took names. Carlos, Cindy, Christy, John, Anica.

Having some trouble with motivation these past 2 weeks.... skipped both Fridays. Once because it was really hot; the other Friday I was already on the eastside with the gear, and I just decided I was too fucking tired.

Unsanctioned pants

 

 

Good art is a form of prayer. It’s a way to say what is not sayable. –Frederich Busch

 

 

 

 

Thursday and Friday BJJ in Bellevue.

Thursday: Drills and king-of-the-hill from various positions. I did really poorly at KOTH today.

Someone posted a new pic of Christiano Oliviera (GB NW's child-rapist ex-professor) out of jail, on the mats, smiling, with smiling students (including females and a presumably underage green belt), wearing gi pants with the GB logo. I was.... well, less than thrilled.   The buzz is that he's going to open (or buy) a school in Yakima. How he has the nerve to go right back to Yakima, and right back into the BJJ community, I cannot imagine. Guy has no shame and has obviously learned nothing from his experience with the justice system. Despite what he may want us to infer from his togs, however, he is *NOT* worming his way back into GB- which has denounced him. I am really angry that he's running around wearing our logo, but apparently we can't legally stop him from doing that. Nor can we stop him from opening a jiu jitsu school- although he should not legally be able to have underage students. We (including his victim) would be seeing him at comps, though. Lovely.

So because I had said- er, a few things- on Facebook regarding the matter, Rodrigo pulled me into his office on Friday and we had a really, really long talk. I have mixed feelings about this. He didn't tell me or even ask me to shut up- which I appreciate, since he obviously wishes I would. He did reassure me that this asshole is not coming back to GB NW- that in fact if GB (in a worldly sense) accepts him back into the fold in any capacity, Rodrigo will be out the door. There was much discussion about keeping our mats safe and our communication lines open and so on. We disagree on a few points, but I was left feeling that we were on the same side. There was much hugging and possibly a few teary eyed moments. I appreciated that he took the time and effort to do that- especially as it became apparent that he had spent the entire day hashing this over with multiple parties (including the survivor and legal counsel). I was quite surprised, frankly, that I merited being on his short list of people to pow wow with about this. I'm not sure whether to be flattered or dismayed.

Anyhow, I was in Rodrigo's office for almost the entire class time on Friday, and got out just in time to do a few guard pass drills and a couple of rolls- one with Casey (who showed me a fascinating new choke and some refinements to my armbar from mount) and one with one of the white belt ladies (who seems happy for my hints).

Achievement unlocked- crucifix.

 

A raw reality here, folks, if you have to act in self-defense, life as you know it is over!  But here’s the counterpoint: if you don’t act, life- as you know it- is still over. Finding yourself in a self-defense situation is simple: All your options suck. You need to embrace the suck.  If you act, you’re going to do horrible, hurtful things to another person. If you don’t those horrible, hurtful things are going to be done to you. You’re damned if you do, You’re damned if you don’t. -Marc MacYoung

Thursday lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue.  My broken toe is doing really well, but I am still having trouble with my thumb (of course the one on my smart hand). In light of these, I figured careful drilling would be my best bet, but I was dying to spar. So it was with mixed feelings that I found the class was 100% spars.

Note that the friendly blonde white belt with the English accent is a nice partner right up until you start winning, at which point he Hulks out (and he is stronger than he looks).

I was very excited to get a crucifix (something I rarely try) on a FRAMO (fully-resisting adult male opponent).

I felt pretty good about these spars, and did not seem to aggravate my injuries.



Friday lunchtime BJJ in Kirkland. I usually do Friday evenings in Bellevue,  but I had another appointment on the eastside in the afternoon, so I did this instead. It was a Cindy class!  She has an ugly new warmup which consists of RUNNING a lap around the gym, then doing ten or twenty reps of a warmup exercise, then running another lap, etc.

Double leg takedowns. I knew that I needed to work on stepping close enough… but having resolved to do so, I got a correction from Cindy to step in even CLOSER. Step between opponent’s feet well *past* hir feet, while ramming the shoulder into hir gut. Another two corrections she’s made on me about a zillion times which haven’t stuck yet: placement of the other foot, and failure to stand up again while turning the corner (ouchie, knees….)  I do, however, fully grasp the concept of using my upper body to push the person over instead of actually trying to pick up their legs (and advised my white belt partner on that, after which her double-leg takedown got about a megaton better; better than mine!).

From this takedown, we went to side control, then wrapped the opponent’s arms over hir chest, moved to the other side, and did a kimura. Setting up a kimura from this position was new to me, and there were a lot of steps, so I was distraught when my partner kept asking for instruction. I hate trying to teach things that I don’t fully grasp yet myself! I did the best I could.

One spar with the same girl. She has excellent potential- I hope she sticks. She was thrilled with the few pieces of advice I tossed out. After we were done, she confessed that she had been terrified when she saw that we were the only female students on the mat, because she was afraid I was going to bludgeon her.


I got a few mornings of yard work (practical exercise!) done this week- mostly blackberry-pulling and mowing (with my manual Flintstone mower on waist-high grass…. So it was mostly just flattening the vegetation rather than actually mowing it, but that works for me as long as it stays mostly flat.)  I finally bought a post hole digger so that I can start working on my fence (among other things needing holes). That is going to be some killer exercise, especially considering that my land is mostly composed of rocks with a little bit of dirt scattered among them.

I have been struggling with snacking and extra weight since PSG; but if I get accepted into the volunteer EMS responder program, that will be good incentive to discipline up. Most if not all of the others are late-teens/early-twenties kids, and I am going to have to bust a move to keep up physically.

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Thursday lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue.   All spars again. Not so happy with this set as I was with the ones last week. I can't seem to pass anyone's guard.
Lots of walking and more yard work.