Stuck at 130, still. It has become clear that I am not going to make weight for the Revolution unless I resort to Slim-Fast. I'm waffling (Mmmmm, waffles...) whether I want to go for it or just say F it and stay at 130 (that's going to be about 135 with the gi on, and I will probably want to pad that by three lb so that I don't have to fast and withhold water on tournament day). I'm leaning towards "F it".
I have until Thursday to decide if I want to sign up for the small tournament at the new Seattle site on Oct 2. I think Rodrigo needs a psych eval for hosting a tournament the same week he's moving his school.
Oh, I got the Saturday in October off so that I can go to the Rory Miller self-defense legalities seminar. I hope there'll be enough good info to make it worth it, and not just a rehash of what I've already learned in Insights courses. But looking forward to that.
Monday evening BJJ at Cindy's. I would normally go to Gracie Bellevue if I have Monday evening free (assuming JB's not free for class). But with the Seattle branch closed this week, I figured it was going to be even more crowded than usual in Bellevue. Monday evenings in Bellevue tend to be pretty crowded, and bottom-heavy in newbie white belts. Plus Hostility Boy is there, and I always get stuck with him. All this is not normally enough to make me want to commute all the way into the city, but since there was no morning Seattle class (thus we're looking at one commute and not two) I decided to go ahead and do it. SK came with me.
He told me two unhappy things in the car. 1)He's strongly considering dropping his Gracie's membership. His financial situation is even tighter lately than usual. 2)JM is making noises about quitting BJJ altogether. Serious Bummer for me, on both accounts.
JB is planning on going away to college this winter, so we were going to be losing her altogether anyway- now it looks like I'm going to be the only one of the gang left at Gracie's- and maybe the only one left anywhere. SK says he wants to keep training at Cindy's- but he will be down to only two possible classes (since he works days and can only do Cindy's two adult evening classes). I just feel like it's the beginning of the end for him- especially if JM is not training BJJ at all. If she's not training those two evenings, she is going to be making alternate plans for said evenings and pressuring SK to be with her instead of training- and he'll cave. I predict he won't stick around very long. :(
And it's also too bad about JM. I thought she was really enjoying the BJJ. And Gods know she has a gift for it. Probably it's just too much MA. I know she likes MA, but we're doing a heck of a lot of it. The Shaolin alone is 3 classes a week- more MA than that is really the province of Crazy People. She may well just be tired of being one of the Crazy People, and wants a life back.
This sucks for me- it looks like I'm losing a lot of good training partners (not to mention carpool options). Sigh.
I guess there's a silver lining- once I train long enough to pull well ahead of their skill level again, I'll have that edge over them again in sparring. I did give up a distinct advantage when I brought them into grappling! It used to be that as soon as I got any of them on the ground, I had it in the bag! No more. But if they stop training BJJ, it will eventually get back to that status quo again!
Anyway- tonight it was pretty warm up in the Tully's Building. I think this is the first class I've taken over there in gi. It was humid and I felt like I weighed about 300lb.
We did a basic guard break, and then the "seat belt" stacking pass that JB loves to do on me. Then an escape for the person getting passed- stiffen up, grab the opponent's wrists when she dives under your thighs, plant one foot on her shoulder, roll backward, and posture up under her armpit- drive in for a double-leg to side control.
I was the demo dummy first- I took a deep breath and put my cheese graters on to march bravely to my doom. This prompted Cindy to growl, "Yeah, you BETTER put those things on!!", Thus prompting one of the other regulars to comment wryly to me, "Lucky you! Lamont's not here." Cindy didn't get it- she asked, "Why? is Lamont mean?" We all bit our tongues on "NO, *YOU* are!!!" Hee hee hee! So SK got to be the alternate demo dummy. At one point I put my arm up to try to keep some of the pressure off my poor ribs, and she was like, "You better not put that arm up! If you won't let me do the drill, you're gonna make me go even harder!" Ack! She also cheerfully directed us to pressure right down on the opponent's xyphoid process.
After the drills (I was drilling with SK), I did one timed free roll with SK. He tapped me with an arm lock from a very strange position. But later, he totally gave me his back- and I almost had a great choke locked on when time was called.
My next roll was with a teenager I've never seen before (Chase). Chase weighs 112. When I first grabbed him, it was astonishing to be grappling with someone that small. But I knew that he has 10 years of wrestling experience, so this was not going to be easy. He is really strong. But he was puffing and panting a lot. Surprising that his wrestling training didn't teach him to breathe better. He tried very hard to choke me, but I held out. Neither of us got a tap.
After that I needed a break- very tired and hot. That was the last roll of the night, though- the capoiera class was starting right after us, so we had to clear out- if I'd known it was the last roll, I would have soldiered on.
Cindy mentioned possibly adding an open mat on Sundays, to give us more time to work on tournament stuff. That would be awesome, if the timing works out for me. The Shaolin class looks like it will be moving the Tuesday evening class to Sunday evening- at least temporarily (to increase the possibility that CN may be able to show up sometimes). So if the Sunday open mat is in the evenings, that won't work for me. I have to work every other Sat/Sun till 4pm, though- so if she does it in the morning or afternoon, I'll only be able to come to every other one. Still, I'd be happy about that. I hope she means to continue that ongoing, and not just up to the tournament.
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