It sucks when your car is in the shop. Raining and cold. I whimped out on lunchtime class.... partly because I did't want to ride the motorcycle in the freezing rain, and partly because the headache I went to bed with last night was *still* lurking about when I got up.
I bailed on Kung Fu this evening, too, but that was altruistic. SK would have picked me up- which is why I didn't tell him. This is MM's last class with us (well, with them) before he heads back to school. If the carpool had had to rush me back to the eastside to shoot up my diabetic cat after class, that would have meant everybody else couldn't go out with MM after class.
Fortunately, I had a backup plan.... BJJ in Bellevue, which is a much more do-able motorcycle ride than all the way around the lake to Seattle and back (my motorcycle is too small to legally go on the highway, so I have to take the long way around).
Thursday is Rodrigo's night to teach in Bellevue, so that was cool, as I don't get to many of his classes any more. He has made a point of asking me to try to get to more Wednesday evening classes in Seattle, since there are several new white belt women there. But without JB to train with in Seattle, there is less incentive for me to drive all the way in there instead of going to Bellevue, which is a much shorter and less trafficky commute. As soon as they start tolling the 520 bridge in a couple months, there will be even *less* incentive.
I ran into Rodrigo walking into the building, and while he was saying hello to a guy who was standing outside, I pulled open the door and stood behind it. When he walked up, he took the door, walked around in back of *me*, and shooed me in- brushing off my "I was holding the door for *YOU*!" Have I mentioned Rodrigo is a cool guy?
The only thing that made me happier than seeing Nelson walk onto the mat was seeing a blue belt tied around his waist. I haven't seen him in months, and he is one of my very favorite people to work with. Especially now that he has dieted himself down to 150. Holy crap. He's only 21 pounds heavier than *ME*. I said, "If you don't stop this, you're going to be in *my* weight bracket!" He mentioned that he is discovering that the ribs are vulnerable to injury when you're this size. Yeah, tell me about it.
Alisson and Nick (who is now teaching the kids) were both wearing new purples. I don't know Nick very well, but it's ABOUT TIME for Alisson. Doug was saying about a YEAR ago, "When is Alisson going to get promoted? I'm tired of getting my ass kicked by a blue belt!"
Side control to armbar. Rodrigo went into a ton of detail during his demo, which was great. Then a variation in which the guy pulls his arm out and grabs his own gi lapel- whereupon you transition to kimura. We drilled forever. Nelson was working really tight, and every single rep, he got tighter and faster and better. I'm really glad that I was drilling these particular techniques with a really good partner instead of some yahoo slamming the subs on too hard and fast. Having kimuras slammed on HURTS.
After drilling forever, we did positional training forever- starting in side control with top person having bottom person's arm trapped with a grip on hir own lapel. Nelson and I pushed each other. He was good at not letting me get the same trick on him twice, though. That's something I want to improve on myself.
It seemed like forever, and that's because it was. We didn't stop at 7 to change from "basics" class to "advanced" class as usual (at which point I was planning to bail)- we just kept going from 6 to 7:30, then open mat. I was too wiped by 7:30 to do any more.
I had had fair warning from Side Control's training blog that Rodrigo is On A Mission to wrest back domination of the Revolution tournaments in 2011. So I was ready for him to be a little more driving, a little more picky; and he also let it be known that he does not want people tutoring their partners during the drill- especially if they can't do the technique themselves. "Don't teach your partner, I'll do that."
There's a small tourney on the 29th; Rodrigo specifically asked me to let him know if I could do it or not, so that he could talk to the other school owners and see if he could make sure I would have someone to fight. That's thoughtful; although I feel a little pressured; as I am not even sure if I want to do the next Revolution (or compete again at all)... but I think I'm going to be on the work schedule for the 29th anyway (must double check tomorrow when I go to the hospital). He did mention that he was going to check with Cindy as well about sending people to the tournament. I think Cindy's new schedule has done away with gi BJJ completely. Tournament is gi only. But I'm just relieved that there seems to be open communication between Rodrigo and Cindy.
Rt elbow is still sore, and Nelson left me with a big dark bruise on the inside of the same elbow. I have to work all day tomorrow, but I hope this elbow will be back in comission by Saturday.
(pic- Lindsey and Carlos)
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