Friday no-gi at Cindy's, with JB.
More gymnastic warmups. You know roundoffs? Cindy makes us do roundoffs, and then roundoffs with an extra 180-twist so that you land facing the other way. Mine are not all that great, but it's forcing me to handspring harder so that I can try to get enough room/time to twist. With the bouncier handspring, the regular roundoffs are lovely. Another student remarked on how much air I was catching. Also- backward rolls continuing into a handstand/handspring and try to bounce yourself to your feet. Those are hard. I can get myself upright, but only to a squat. Front rolls with handspring. Even worse- I landed every single one on my butt. Connor did them perfectly. There's a new show-off in town! I announced, "If we don't succeed at jiu jitsu, at least we'll all be able to run away and join the circus!"
Scissor sweep. Scissor sweep setup, then opponent roots.... post on mat and on the back of opponent's neck, and do "tactical stand" to get back to your feet (or knees). This is good, this might be a way for me to get the heck out from under the bottom once in a blue moon.
Scissor sweep setup, opponent defends the sweep, then you try to do the tactical stand and opponent tries to grab a single-leg. You transition to omoplata. I'm always excited to work on omoplatas- I'm not good at them yet, but I just know that once I work on them enough, they're going to be great for me. I can ball myself up and spin around with speed and agility. I just need more reps so that I know exactly where I'm trying to go.
Next- same sequence, only instead of omoplata, you transition to triangle. Still clumsy on the triangles. Cindy also showed us several alternatives if it wasn't working out- a kimura, a neck crank ("It looks like a triangle, so it's a triangle!!! Ian (pointing sternly at the teenager)! Don't you do this one!" Uh-huh. Gods, she's a trip!), switching to an opposite side triangle. I didn't quite get the neck crank one, but everything else seemed to be working okay for me.
Two long rolls with JB. Geez, she just keeps getting better and better. I got only one tap on her (guillotine again! She was disgusted that I got her with that yet again) I complimented her- I was noticing that every time I try to set something up on her, as soon as I do the initial weight shift or grip, she seems to always know just what to do to counter. I asked her if she really *knows* exactly what I am setting up and how to counter, or if it was just instinctual. She thinks she usually realizes what I'm likely to be trying for, but some of it is also instinctual.
I did notice that in our first roll, she pulled guard almost immediately, and I was on top for most of the rest of that roll. So I pointed that out to her afterward, and told her what Cindy has been telling me, about "never voluntarily go onto your back" and try to stay on top.
Cindy waylaid me on my way out and said that after I'd left class on Wednesday, somebody had taken her to task for being too hard on me. Didn't I tell you she smooshed me that day- see, that wasn't just me being a whiner, LOL. She just wanted to make sure I hadn't taken it the "wrong way". I replied that we were cool- if she had gone that hard on me and then NOT given me a positive backpat at the end like she did, that would have been discouraging. She said, "I wouldn't have done that," and reassured me again that I am getting better.
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