Some old guy already taught me that one.

Ultimately your mind and intellect are what save you, your body is the tool they use. So keep the tool in good working order, but tune up the engine. Campfire Tales From Hell


Friday BJJ in Bellevue.

Bullfight passing of spider guard. After bringing foe's feet together and planting them on the mat, grab hir right wrist with your left hand (the WRIST, not the gi sleeve). Keep the pants cuff on the other side. Step beside hir right hip with your near foot and give a good ceilingward yank at both wrist and pants cuff before moving to KOB.  You may then be able to transition to an armbar- but make sure you FIRST trap the arm firmly between your knees and THEN clear opponent's grip on your sleeve cuff before re-grabbing the wrist and applying the armbar (one foot over hir neck and the other knee folded with your toe under hir ribs). Unsurprisingly, my biggest problem proved to be remembering to grab the leg (ideally both legs, although with my stubby arms I'm not going to count on that) before dropping back into the armbar. Also, as soon as I tried to speed up, I started getting sloppy about clearing the sleeve grip. I asked why it was necessary to clear the sleeve grip at all... it seemed to me that clearing it is just an invitation for the opponent to try to yank hir arm down in an attempt to get out of the armbar. Carlos explained that it may be difficult to maneuver the hand into position at the apex of the armbar if s/he still has your sleeve. (I think you could probably muscle that.... if you've got them well and truly trapped in the armbar, that cuff grip is not going to save them except in cases of extreme muscle disparity... but even in a comp I would prefer to not muscle that.)

Opponent bearhugs you from behind. Lower stance, bring your hands up to your chest to free forearms, and cover hir hands on your chest with your own hands. Step slightly to the right and stick your left foot behind hir feet. Kneel on right knee and plant right shoulder on the mat, making sure to drive downward forcefully enough and hold tight enough that opponent can't free hir hands before getting tossed over your shoulder. Go with the roll and end in a T shape with your shoulder blades on opponent's chest. Keep butt off the mat and apply as much weight as possible as you roll toward hir feet and move to side control, then KOB.

I have done both of these before, and felt comfortable enough to go decently fast *and* work them both sides. Armbar portion turned out to be much tighter on the Stupid Side, although my brain was very slow to grasp the guard pass from the Stupid Side.

A little KOTH, open guard pass vs defend the pass, me down in open guard the entire time. Lots of white belts- so I spent some time explaining what a guard pass is, some time telling a small woman to try to experiment with different positions and movements instead of trying to simply muscle out of spider guard, and some time getting Captain Cavemanned by muscley spazzy male white belts.

A roll with 2 white belts and one with Doug.

First white belt was strong and spazzy, so I was mostly just trying to control him. Let him have an upa, since he performed it correctly.

Hip-threw and then subbed the second white belt several times, explained about turning and shrimping out from under KOB, and explained about keeping the chin to the chest while I was groping for chokes.

I have rolled with Doug enough that I am recognizing a lot of his sneaky little traps and refusing to fall into them.  (freezing in the middle of a guard pass that I know is going to result in a sweep) "Gee, I think I'll slide right into side control LIKE AN IDIOT. Some old guy taught me that one. You're going to need to come up with some new tricks, Doug."  He also let me get that same one on HIM... I was excited that I 1)remembered it, and 2)was able to make it work, as it's kind of complicated and not at all intuitive.

Bullfight

There is an incredible difference between those who experience their power only though the mind and those who also feel it in the body. A person who knows there is a wild wolf living under the skin has less reason to be intimidated by reality. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




(Wednesday)
Carlos had us run laps and do sideways shuffles during warmups on Tues; I had been worried about what that would do to my plantar fasciitis. Now I know. My right heel in particular hurt pretty bad that evening, when I got up in the morning and took one step, I nearly did a face plant. It felt like stepping on a knife. I too 2 ibuprofen immediately. I  had to walk to work, and I limped all the way. It actually hurt too much to grit my teeth, ignore it and walk normally... and I did try.... which was humbling and scary. After a day on my feet at work, it was still painful but I was able to walk almost normally back to the car. I don't know what I'm going to do about this, but it seems that it is 1)not going to just go away, and 2)serious enough that I am not going to be able to ignore it forever.

I had planned to go to class Wednesday evening, but it appears that I may be catching Dana's cold. Between the exhaustion and the possibility of being contagious, I decided against it. I completely forgot that Thursday is a "holiday" and there will be no classes at any BG pod- dang it.
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(Friday)
Evening BJJ at Bothell.

Bullfight guard pass.

Passing spider guard by grabbing insides of pants at ankles, slamming opponent's ankles together, and finishing as with the bullfight pass.

Standing guard pass: push opponent's legs to hir chest and see if s/he is so foolish as to push back. If so, you slam hir feet to the floor, leap over them and take front mount. This is one of Cindy's favorite moves. Simple but effective.

Open guard pass drills; cross grip, pull the leg, go to side, KOB.

King of The Hill from open guard.

Then a few spars.

There's a really good blue belt there who ran a clinic on me, then ran one on Will too (after which I didn't feel quite so bad).

James got his first stripe! I did some KOTH with him tonight, and he has been working hard and improving.
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I made a concoction with wild rice, mushrooms, cheese, a cubic buttload of onion and garlic, and occasional random chicken breast and/or bacon snippets. Got out my little  baby-size tupperware cups, portioned, froze. That OD of onion and garlic does seem to help curb the munchies a bit. I also saw an interesting idea involving egg (and possible mushrooms, onions, cheese, etc) baked in a cupcake tin to make little muffin-shaped portions. I will do that next. The Safeway Bargain Bin has yielded me a goldslide of turkey breast slices that may work well in the egguffins.

I was kinda chagrined at how I looked photographed beside my Evil Twin- who is a personal trainer (dietician? Something like that) and in PERFECT shape. It is basically staring at exactly what I look like when I'm *not* carrying a spare 13.5 lb- so that's actually a good motivation. We'll look even more alike next year when I have my act together a little better. She was eating very healthy and clean even at the festival. I'll do the daily pushups with her next year as well.

I had eaten at an onsite vendor 3 times this year- which I have formerly NEVER done. I am way too cheap; and my hours (and thus hungry times) are too weird; and with no fridge or microwave, I can't control portions. One of my 3 splurges was a hot dog, and that was one **GROSS* hot dog- I won't do that again! The other two were chicken wraps at Phil's Grill. Not a vast amount of chicken, but plenty of garlic, rice, black beans, onion, mushrooms, I'm not sure what else. It was delicious- but truly, had I been at home, I would have divided that wrap into at *least* two portions and maybe as many as 4. It was huge. So yeah, that's not really a good idea for me.

I need to advance-plan a better dietary situation for next year's trip. I wonder if I can just walk up and down the road heralding for two volunteers to come split a chicken wrap with me.
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Read through the problem portions of my WIP last night, and I'm still not having any lightning-strike notions on how to improve it. So I went ahead and worked a little on the next section. If my maple-syrup-in-wintertime pace continues, I may well lose my beta reader, which would suck- so I'm trying to not let it moulder for too long.

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One thing I didn't include in my "Hunting" writeup was the odd thing that happened in the opening rit.

I have been told by multiple independant sources that I appear to grow significantly in height on the occasions that I lead the Sacred Hunt drumming. A couple of people mentioned to me this year that I had also appeared much taller while functioning as Huntmistress. I have never perceived this phenomenon myself; although I was definitely putting on my "leader" hat glamour- which may come across in that way to some. I did not lead the drum procession for the opening rit. I was not in any official leadership position whatsoever at the moment. Thus there was no obvious explanation for why I grew a foot taller while I was standing in the drumline after we got to the circle.

After a lifetime of looking up at everyone, I suddenly realized that I was on eye level or higher with almost all of the people milling past me. Including people that I know quite well and am damn sure are significantly taller than myself. I was actually looking DOWN on some of them. I could see the parts in their hair. It was the most bizarre feeling. (No, I was not on any substances at all- I don't do substances- unless you count caffeine or antihistimines- neither of which I was on that evening.)

I kept looking down at my feet, thinking I must be standing on a hummock or something- but I wasn't, and the fifteenth-or-so time I looked down didn't change the fact. My body didn't feel like I was standing on a chair. I didn't feel stretched out, or out-of-body, or anything like that. I was just a tall person. I stood there thinking, "So.... this is what it feels like to be six feet tall... maybe six-two. Far out." It would have been really interesting to try some forms in that condition... but I was afraid to move, thinking that if I moved, it would probably go away. It did fade off before I left.

I don't know what this means. If it means anything. I actually did do a little Hunt-patterned drumming in that rit, but I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.