Mmmmmmm..... doughnuts.

Worked the graveyard shift last night, and crashed when I got home this morning. I sooooooooo did not feel like getting up for class. Especially as it involved fighting Seattle Rush-Four-Hours traffic into the city alone, without access to the carpool lanes. The commute (one way) takes longer than the class itself. But I knew I'd regret it if I wussed out of class, since I am having to miss so many this month due to work. So I hauled my groaning carcass out of bed, ate my half a baked chicken breast (sigh), and set off.

It turned out to be a great class, so I'm really happy I made myself go. Cindy asked where I'd been, and where the rest of my crew was (it's nice to be missed).

Leah was there! I haven't seen her in months. She is skinnier than ever. Didn't get to work with her at all, sadly. Pat had mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that Leah was supposed to be back (at Gracie's). It would be good to see more of her, in either or both places.

We did a few new warmups, including a strange sort of backwards shimping wherin you pull yourself toward your feet with your heels instead of pushing yourself toward your head. There was also an exercise where you had to spend three straight minutes doing different movements in different directions with no pause, and you couldn't repeat a single thing more than three times in a row. Harder than it looks (pretty clownish, too). But good cardio, and good practice transitioning from one thing to another.

It was just me, Leah, Dan and Ian. We drilled another one of those long sequence things that Cindy likes to do. I definitely struggle with this teaching style. It's a lot of information at once for my small brain. I hope that after a few months, more parts of the sequences will be familiar to me, and there will be a few small unfamiliar bits to focus on instead of one long stretch of intimidating newness.

This particular sequence had a guard pass to scarf hold, to north-south, to four different ways to finish (two variations on a kimura and two armbars). Good, kimuras again. I continue to struggle with the hand/arm positons, which I still have to think much too hard about. I had to be walked through the sequence slowly a few times, and have a few questions answered. It was nice to have so few people in class today, so that I was able to hog Cindy a lot for help. It was also nice to have Leah step in as Cindy's principle demo dummy. I had to laugh (and wince in sympathy) at all the faces poor Leah was making as Cindy worked her over. I feel for ya, sister. EVERY SINGLE THING Cindy does to you hurts. Every single hold, every single transition; there is no pause in the Parade Of Pain. I had to endure some too, as Cindy always does an additional demo on a second dummy, so that her main practice dummy can watch.

I drilled with Ian. After drills, Leah and Dan booked. Ian had some specific technique questions. As soon as he started asking questions, I thought, "Oh, great, here we go with me as demo dummy again," Twist, yank, spin, stuff, squeeze, flip, wrap, tap tap tap tap tap.

Then a few four-minute spars with Ian, followed by four minutes of being annihilated by Cindy.

Ian: I went to start on my knees, since that's the way we always do it at Gracie's, but Cindy wanted us to start standup. Uh-oh.... okay, I'll try. I tried to reap him a few times without success, and he kept trying to force my head down and guillotine me (he's significantly taller, so he was already up there and ripe to decend upon my poor head and sprawl). He got his arms wrapped around me and forced me to the foor on my knees a few times, but I had my chin and hand in, so he wasn't finishing the guillotines. I pulled guard once, although he passed and got side control almost immediately. Once we were on the floor, it was fairly competitive. As per usual, my version of "we were fairly competitive" means that I was able to dominate positionally at least some of the time, and also pull off a number of decent escapes, until the oppponent eventually taps me because I try few submissions and have a poor success rate on the ones I do try. So anyway, he tapped me one or twice (with kimuras), I spent a fair bit of time on top of him. I also spent a fair bit of time trapped in bottom half-guard (what else is new). He was decent to work with, though. Some slight Spazz and muscling, but not enough to make it too unpleasant. He was obviously making an effort to be nice. Better technicality than me. He's bigger but not too much bigger. It was some fun rolling.

I told Cindy that I was thinking of doing the November Revolution, and that there were some specific things that I would really appreciate her help with between now and then. I said that I wasn't really looking to WIN- whereupon she immediately made it clear that she does not want that attitude. I also expressed trepidation at the likelihood of having to face Bianca, and she assured me, "I can teach you how to beat Bianca." Heh heh.

She wants me to make a list of the specific things that I want to work on. I guess I should narrow it down from "Everything". I already know I want to work on:

Things to do from bottom half guard

Subs in general (maybe pick one to three to focus on)

Sweeps in general (again, perhaps concentrate on just a couple basic ones)

Any specific techniques that are particularly well-suited for small-person-vs-big-person

Choke defenses (for dealing with Bianca, Queen of Chokes)

Flying armbar recognition and defense (for dealing with that scary Vicious Submission girl)... maybe I'd do well at flying armbars myself, too, if we have time to play with that

A couple of good takedowns for tournaments

I'm sure I will come up with a lot more... in fact I'm sure I will come up with much more than we will have time to work on, but this will be an ongoing thing, I hope. I couldn't wish on a star for anyone better suited to help me get ready for a tournament than Cindy Hales. I hope I will be lucky enough to be able to hog some decent chunks of her time in the coming few months.


Grace, our new lab assistant, brought in five dozen doughnuts from Top Pot this morning. I restrained myself from kissing her. I did have one doughnut. It was soooooooooooooooooooooo good. My level of rapture must have been plain on my face, because when I opened my eyes again, the security guard was standing there watching me and grinning widely.