....at Gracie Seattle. No Competition Class today; it was just open mat- and it started at 11, unbenownst to me. I got there at 11:45, and stayed till about 1:15. Short warm-up stretch and then continuous rolling.
Pat and Bree were there, so I got to congratulate them on their promotions. I was hoping that Dave would be there, so that I could deliver the message that his training blog readers want him to enable comments on his blog! But he wasn't there today.
Fred jumped me as soon as I walked in. I haven't had a chance to roll with him since he's been back. He gave me some pointers. A couple of times, he paused the roll and said, "Think." It would be a good thing to have that chiming up in my mind from time to time.
I tried a variation of one of the drills from Cindy's the other night... twice, when I had Fred in side control, I used the hand under his head to crawl my fingers across the mat and crank his head over to one side. It worked great, but I can see that it will probably only work the first couple times before people get wise to that little trick of mine and start making sure I don't get the chance to do it.
After Fred, I challenged Bree. She said, "let me get a drink of water first," and Bianca was sitting there, so we started while I was waiting for Bree. Almost an hour later, we were still going. I never did get to Bree. Next time.
I do poorly against Bianca, and today was no exception. Defending on the bottom 95% of the time. I outlasted her many and varied chokes for a long time, but she always got me in the end. I tried a number of chokes against her, and got only a small fraction of them deep enough and at decent enough angles to be a threat. Had a few very frustrated, dispairing, almost-teary moments... including one where I just gave up and went limp. I did get it together about fifteen seconds later and start fighting again. I feel like my (relative) strength and endurance are some of my best tools, and I tend to think that I should be able to outstrength and outendure Bianca. Well, I couldn't, and it was not a happy discovery. At the very bitter end, we had been struggling for a REALLY long time, and I was so exhaused I was almost shaking. My hands would hardly grip. I kept thinking, She has *got* to be getting tired too. She had finally tipped her weight enough while on my back that I was able to get a grip on her sleeve. A ray of pure golden sunlight fell upon the sleeve, and the angelic choir broke into a chorus. I clenched the sleeve in a death grip and began to tortuously climb my way up it to her shoulder and lapel, while trying with all my might to keep the sleeve to the mat and climb far enough up to get my weight on her chest. It was tantalizingly within reach, but not QUITE there. It felt like we struggled there for about sixteen years. I knew that as soon as I could get some weight on her chest, I could get on top. I was determined to outlast her, and I just about killed myself, but I finally had to concede. Thus the limp surrender. She back mounted me, and I started fighting again, but as soon as her arms came around my neck, I tapped before she even sunk it in. It killed me to leave it like that, but I was well and truly beaten. I wanted to go lock myself in the bathroom and have another cry, but I was too exhaused to get up from where I lay on my belly on the mat in a lake of sweat.
Fighting Bianca is different than fighting most other people. There are bursts of frighteningly fast and rough action punctuating long periods of straining at chokes. She holds chokes stubbornly for a reeeeeeeeally long time, and does not often give up and move on when I resist the tap, the way many other people do. The straining-at-chokes sections give me enough time to think, "Ok, if I wedge this elbow over here, it will take a little of the pressure off," and such. This is one area where my kung fu training come into play; as it has given me a concept of the way my opponent's elbows relate to my centerline, and sometimes I can push an elbow half an inch in the correct direction and succeed in robbing the choke of much of its oomph.
Another thing that I had a little time to think about during these spars was "How can I make this position a little more uncomfortable for Bianca?" I didn't do any douchebag things... and the fact that I was defending on the bottom the whole time gave me more moral leverage.... but I did make some small conscious adjustments that seemed like they would make her uncomfortable.
Third thing I had time to think about- when she was on top of me and straining for a choke, and there didn't seem to be any productive way to try to get out at the moment, I was conscious of "defend the choke just enough, and use this interlude for a little rest", and I relaxed as much as I could. Unfortunately, I could see Bianca using her interludes perched on top of me to take mini-siestas of her own.
One of the more interesting things that came out of working with Bianca today was that one time when she was straining to choke me for a long time, I did that freeing-up-of-a-hand thing, because I knew that it was getting close to when I would have to tap. Although that was what sealed my fate when I fought Stephanie at the last Revolution, I tend to not really realize that even without a corner to rat me out, the person I'm fighting may actually notice that- and use it to their advantage. In this case, Bianca had been about to give up on that particular choke... but she saw me free up a hand, and decided to keep working on it. I tend to be paranoid- especially when I've been holding out for a long time and am on the knife-edge- that I may not have a voice or hand available to tap when I really NEED to tap RIGHT NOW. But I have to be more discreet about freeing up that hand. Or, as Bianca suggests, just tap with a foot. I took her advice a little later. I don't feel very secure with that, though. By the time I resort to tapping, I'm desperate enough that I need an instant response. I just have to be more discreet.
Also, note that getting to my feet does not seem to be a good idea with Bianca. Every time I did it, trying to drag her down and sprawl on her shoulders, she got to her feet as well. Since she is taller than me, and has much better takedown skills, that never ended well for my part.
Although she taps me every single time, for some reason Bianca seems to honestly feel that I'm good competition for her. I thanked her sincerely for the rolls. It was a great lower-arm workout if nothing else, LOL. They are still aching,and I dropped an empty pop can when I got out of my car, because it was way too heavy, ha ha. Bianca was moaning that she felt old today. She is all of twenty five. She was shocked to hear how old I am. I was a little startled to learn that she is 5'8. The extra height definitely comes into play; there were a few times when she simply stretched me out too far for me to reach whatever I needed to reach to try to get out.
I bought "light multigrain" English muffins. They are a crime against English muffins in the same way that carob is a crime against chocolate. But I'm proud that I've continued to make a valiant effort to improve my diet a bit (note, these are the first English muffins of any kind I've had in about six months.... no bagels either).
(pic- Bianca)
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