"That doesn't feel right,"

131.0

I was dismayed to weigh myself on the scale at the Seattle school and see it say 139. True this was right after breakfast and a can and a half of Dr. Pepper, and wearing sports bra, undies, tank top, bike shorts, and full gi- but still, eight pounds???! WTF?!? I need to weigh the gi by itself. I was thinking it was going to be about 4lb. Either the gi is a lot heavier than I thought, or my home scale is weighing light (how bad would THAT suck.... argh!)

Monday morning BJJ. Prof. Carlos asked me where I'd been on Saturday, and I told him that I work every other weekend (at least). He also asked me about my "karate", so I took the opportunity to tell him it was kung fu. He asked if I was a black belt, and wanted to know if it was a similar belt system to BJJ. He seemed impressed that I'd been training that for about 4 years.

One of the purples- whose name I can't recall- is no longer purple. I looked him up and down and said, "Something's different.... I don't know what...."

Bryan was there too. I haven't seen him in forever, so it was nice to see him again.

Breakfall to tactical standing up. Pendulum sweep. Armbar from failed pendulum sweep. I drilled with Dex. Struggled a little with the pendulum sweep, especially on my right side. Gods, my sweeps still suck so bad. When we did the armbar, I got a correction from Carlos- I was grabbing the sleeve cuff when I should have been grabbing the tricep. After I got that problem fixed, I had a second one: I was letting go of the leg so I could grab the sleeve cuff again. I have a confession to make: I am a cuff-grabber. Sleeve, pantleg. I often don't know what to do with it once I have it, but I know that controlling a limb is a good thing- so I just latch on and cling like a doberman puppy. I am beginning to see how a tricep grip is often superior. Harder to get, though- especially in no-gi. I am going to try to remind myself to go for that tricep more often. Anyway, the armbar felt so insecure to me when I didn't have that cuff. I said to Dex, "Can't you just pull your arm right out of there? It feels like you could pull it right out." He said, "No, it's tight." When it was his turn, he said, "That doesn't feel right." "Toldja." "That feels weird." "I'm going to try to pull my arm out next rep." But I couldn't pull it out- so I guess it was okay.

Positional sparring with Dex- I know he's an MMA guy, as well as a white belt, so I was carful to give him my speech. I know he works with Bree, though, so I thought he'd be okay. And he was. Pass guard vs sweep only, then pass guard vs sweep or submit, then start in guard but anything goes. I seemed pretty competetive with Dex, but who knows how much he was holding back.

I had to leave at 1pm to go to work, so I could only say for one 7-min match of open mat. Dex again. It was a fun roll; neither of us got a tap. I would have liked to get a roll with Bryan- sigh. And I wasn't even feeling dog-tired, either, like I usually am by the time open mat rolls around.