131.5
Astonishing, considering 1)the amount of jiu jitsu I've missed this month due to work, and 2)the heinous diet crime I committed the other day. But since I appear to have gotten away clean with that, we don't need to talk about it any more!
:-)
Five weeks of dieting, seven pounds down, Eleven weeks to the tournament, seven and a half pounds to go. Cakewalk. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... cake.........
Morning BJJ in Seattle. Rodrigo misses me and my slacker buds (hee hee); he asked me about them! I miss him too. He seems to be having Prof Carlos do all the classes unless there is simultaneous class in both locations.... so without JB as an incentive to drive into Seattle, I have been bereft lately of Rodrigo-taught classes. At least he still shows up to lunchtime classes, even if he's not teaching, so you don't forget what he looks like!
Additionally, there are almost never any women in Bellevue in the evenings or in Seattle in the mornings, so once again we are back to the state wherein I am almost always the sole source of estrogen in the room. This morning, that caused Prof Carlos to pair me up with black-belt-Kevin for drills. Coolness.
Carlos didn't like my halfway-down-to-the-floor pushups today.... he came over and put his foot on my back and pressed me all the way down to the floor.
Stand-up: covering and moving in for double-leg clinch, posture up and control opponent's arm, side around to the back.
Then starting from turtle with sprawled opponent on top of your head: cross-grab the knee, stick the leg out, swing your butt in and recover full guard.
Thirdly, a similar technique involving grabbing the opponant's belt/waistband instead of the knee.
Positional sparring. I got paired up with Benny. I've worked with him very little, but SK had worked with him for a class and reported that he was "crazy", so I was a llttle nervous. *Everybody* (including Kevin) got my don't-kill-me speech today. Back mount. Benny was slightly rougher than I liked, but not terribly so. I seemed to be doing okay.
Then timed rolls. I drew Nic's son (I forgot his name again.... why am I so bad with names this week? Early Altzheimer's setting in). Those were a fun couple of rolls. I did better against him this time than I had when I fought him a couple of weeks ago. We seemed pretty competitive. There were two times that I was certain I had an armbar, I was already mentally accepting my medal- but he pulled off an impressive escape at the last second (for which I praised him).
For the next round, there were three or four oddbits left along the wall to take a break (including me). Nate (of the Incredible Cauli Ear- it keeps getting bigger and bigger- how big can it get????!??) invited me in and asked Carlos if it was okay. Carlos gave me a significant look with raised eyebrow, like "Are you sure?" But I have rolled with Nate before and he is nice and controlled, even if he is about as tall as a telephone pole. I did okay here as well- I think Nate is using me to play catch-and-release, but that's fine, as I get to work some stuff too.
Kevin told me that I am trying to roll "too much like a man"- and that I need to adapt my game for my unique size. That I need to move around more and stop clamping onto random grips and positions and then just clinging there for dear life with muscle. This is not news to me. I am clinging because 1)I don't know where to go from there, and 2)If I'm clamped on and not presently being subbed or in imminent danger of being subbed, I'm reluctant to give that position up for fear of ending up someplace worse. But he's right.
He also told me that I'm focussing too much on subs and I ought to concentrate on position. LOL. He doesn't see enough of me to realize how sub-deficient I actually am.... but it's good to know that my recent project of trying for more subs is actually manifesting to the point where it's noticable.
Later..............................
Evening BJJ in Bellevue. JM and SK were there for the first hour (gi); I stayed for the second hour (no-gi) as well, since I am insane.
I crept up and RNC'ed JM as she was stretching out on the mat, which led to an almost 10-min roll. It served well to warm us up- a little too well, as we were exhausted and sweating going into the actual class warmup.
Prof Carlos was walking around shaking everybody's hand- and he came over and stood near us, watching and smiling, until I pinned JM well enough so that I could stick a hand out and shake without letting her escape. Then I back mounted her and pulled her around so that she was facing him and released one of her arms just long enough for her to shake as well- then we continued. Carlos asked if we were friends, and we both started laughing.
She got me in that wrestler's crade again- she has such a fetish for that. She said, even as she was squeezing it on, "I know you don't tap to this, but...." I replied, "It HURTS, if that makes you feel any better." I came within a titch of having to tap to it after all- not because of the pain, but because she had my head pressed down into my own gi lapels and she was also lying on my face. I was being suffocated in both of our gi's; could barely breathe and it was hotter than ten saunas under there. I didn't tap, but I did give her side control so that I could get some air.
Wow, she is so good at sinking her weight down. She feels like she weighs three hundred pounds. I was getting very close to having to ask her to go lighter on my poor ribs.
As we were doing triangles in the warm-up, Carlos came over and hald his flat palm out, indicating that I was to hip up higher and touch his hand with my toe. I was already up almost vertical on the back of my neck. Heave-ho, holy crap. I have great abs, but they do have their limits of exhaustion. He's right, though- I do need to get my hips up higher for my lame triangles, and maybe someday they won't be so lame.
Carlos teases and picks on me constantly- even JM commented on it tonight- but he is also pushing me, which is a good thing. So far he is managing to stay
just this side of obnoxious. (grin)
I drilled with JM, and SK got Jeff the purple belt. Good for him. At least he didn't get another Spazzy White Belt tonight. It was a slightly smaller class that usual tonight, but still a nice turnout- yet Jeff and I were the only colored belts in a sea of whites!
Same techniques as this morning, with the addition of a majorly cool sweep from turtle. I was a bit daunted and said to JM, "I don't know about this one..." then I tried it, and it worked so beautifully. I then said, "This is SO COOL!!!" When it was her turn to try, she thought the same.
No time for positional training tonight; we had already gone over by 10 min. I was dithering about staying for no-gi... I was pretty tired, and I had already done enough BJJ today to satisfy any taskmaster. But when I saw that most people were
lighting out, and it was only going to be 6 or 8 students, I girded myself to push through the last 50 min. I am trying to do better at pushing through exhaustion. I am also trying to do better at not using "I already went to a class this morning," or "I'm going to another class tonight" as an excuse to skip out when I really should continue.
I'm glad I stayed, because we worked on some neato-takedown stuff. Double-leg drills, double-leg to taking the back, then a tripping takedown from there, to a choke that I've never seen before. It was a cool-looking choke and I was excited about it, but I couldn't make my partner (white-belt Kevin) tap to it. It was a trachea choke, and I got uncomfortable with how long and how hard I was holding it. In fact at one point I thought he'd passed out (to a trachea choke?). I've worked with
white-belt Kevin fairly regularly, and haven't noticed him as being one of those "I refuse to tap" people- but he seemed to just not want to tap tonight. I didn't want the tap bad enough to crush the guy's trachea and murder him for it, so I gave up.
A few short free rolls with Kevin. I had to ask him to not bow-and-arrow me so fast and hard (he cracked my back!).
Then I rolled with Carlos. He gave me some pointers, and I think I did reasonably okay. I almost had to tap to his leg wrapping up mine... his bony ankle!! It was grinding a hole through my shin! I also wristlocked myself once, which was embarrassing. He apologized as I was shaking my wrist out, and I said, "It's not your fault, I wristlocked myself!" And yes, I did continue to try for a variety of subs.
It has occurred to me that even though I'm not sure when CN's semester begins, it is probably imminent enough that he will be gone before my essay is due.
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