Kiss the Mat

130.0

WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! Danger zone! Code yellow!

You wouldn't think a girl who walked a million miles this week (okay, maybe not quite *that* far, but it *seemed* like a million) could be gaining weight. I'm going to have to be careful for the next couple weeks. Early registration for the Revolution ends on Feb 28.


I skipped Friday lunchtime competition training.... that was painful, but I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't be too exhausted and blister-broken to go to Cindy's Friday evening no-gi class.

I missed warmups because I had to stop by work and take care of something on the way in.

We drilled some good basics:

Kimura from guard (make sure to hip out far enough, and also use the leg to push down on the opponent's back);

Then guillotine (scoot hips out but keep chest in; if they don't tap, crank a little to the side. Also- if the person is hunching on your guard with forehead down on your belly, you may be able to put your hand on the ear and push the head to the side to get the guillotine)

Then situp sweep (don't forget to POST with the hand that's not holding opponent's arm)

Then- lo and behold- the very same reversal from failed guillotine that Kintanon showed me just a few days ago. How fortuitous. It was great to get a chance to work that- and yes, I like it very much. Need to be careful to be decisive about scissoring the elbow down on the opponent's back. Also, move hir slightly *UP* before moving to the side- just like the upa. Cindy also showed us how to hook the thigh with your toe and lift in case you need to do that to get them over.

I was drilling with Alecia, whom I haven't seen since October.

When it came time to do positional training (from closed guard; pass vs sweep or submit), and then timed matches, I bit my tongue on asking her to "go easy". She still owned me, but not quite to the extent that she had before. However, my momentary delusions of "Wow, I must have gotten better since October!" were shattered when she asked, "Do you want me to step it up a a little?" Rats.

Remembering that devastating little "shimmy" standing guard pass of hers, I did not let her stand up in my closed guard. I spent some time on the bottom. She got me in a mounted triangle that was both painful and choking, but I did not tap. However, she somehow got ahold of my arm and pressed it to her torso, and I had to tap to the armbar.

That armbar was the only tap she got off me. She ensnared me in triangles (mounted and otherwise) another three or four times, but I escaped (with great effort). I was also able to escape all the armbars that she tried to transition to after I stacked and rotated her. I'm happy that I was able to escape- that's improvement- but I need to stop getting caught in the triangles.

I was able to hold her down in side control for a decent while- to the extent that she asked Lamont to come over and give her hints on what she needed to do to get out. I resisted the urge to front mount from side control. I have learned that I can't hold front mount on bigger people (translation- anyone), so just don't even go there. I also had an impule to try to go to knee-ride, which I resisted because it was no-gi and I didn't think I'd be able to get decent grips to keep her there. So I just held the side control, and eventually I started setting up an armbar, but time got called before I could get that well enough underway.

Took her back once and came *this close* to getting an RNC, but she got her chin down.

George was sparring with Lamont. I crawled over while George was choking Lamont, and stage-whispered, "Choke him harder!!" Lamont said, "And here I was just about to tell you that I was happy to see you back in class- now I won't." At one point George put Lamont over his shoulder, carried him across the room and out the front door. I yelled, "Yeah- take out the trash!" I told Lamont that that sight had been worth my coming back to class for. Lamont: "I was thinking, 'Everybody's laughing... he's going to slam me,'... and I didn't know which was worse!"

Alecia and I decided that Cindy's school motto should be "Kiss the Mat!" That would look great on the school T-shirt. We commiserated that we have both found ourselves involuntarily kissing the mat when acting as Cindy's demo dummy.