The sad puppy

Tuesday lunchtime BJJ Gracie Bellevue. Prof. Carlos was there, wearing his street clothes and slumped in a chair, holding his ribs. I asked him how his ribs were, and understood nary a word of the response- but I could tell by his tone and facial expression that it's a bad injury, and painful.

So we got Prof. Rodrigo for this class. Begin with opponent in your guard, holding both of hir sleeves. S/he stands up, you open ankles and slide down, place right foot in hir left hip. Move your butt WAAAAAY out to sit on hir right foot, hook your left leg around hir right knee, grab that ankle. Slide your right foot down from the hip to the knee. Stretch hir out. From there, you can tip hir forward. I was not having very good luck with that one. I couldn't stretch my partner out completely with my short legs, and same short legs made it difficult to get the angle I needed to get any decent lift under his thigh with my hooking foot. I did a little better with option #2- sit up with your chest pressed to hir thigh, grab hir left wrist cuff with BOTH hands, and then tip. Option #3 was my favorite- sit up, put your right hand on the mat, and go belly down- taking out hir right leg. The opponent is now on hir back, your legs are tangled together in such a way that *S/HE* can't really get up, but *YOU* are in a perfect position to pull yourself right on top in side control. If you get the flow right, you can use the energy of your opponent's fall to make *HIR* pull you on top, and you hardly have to work at all.

Rodrigo was drilling us hard/fast/long today; I was getting really tired. I was drilling with Nick, who had good feedback and advice for me, and I feel safe working with him even injured (I told him that afterward, and thanked him). We did some positional training (start resisting only after the opponent slides down, hips out and grabs your ankle). Again with the hard, fast, long. I didn't have any energy left for open mat... and also, there was only one other person there besides Nick whom I would have felt safe free-rolling with in my injured state, anyway. I watched a little while and then packed it in.

The finger did okay today, although I could not grip the gi at the shoulder for options 1 or 2- which would have let me prevent the guy from posting with that arm.

Professor Carlos looked so forlorn sitting on the bench watching us. Just like a sad-eyed puppy in a pet shop window!

Rodrigo was asking me about my injury- both before and after class- being really sweetly and gratifyingly solicitous, in fact, LOL. He hadn't known that I sprained my hand, and it sounded like he'd been concerned about my absence. He kept telling me to let him know if anything was going on or if I needed anything. I like it when my teachers make an effort to 1)make sure they are approachable to talk to about anything, and 2)make me feel like they truly care if I am there or not (and why). It's especially gratifying to get that in a school of this size. Rodrigo and Carlos have a *LOT* of people to keep track of, yet they are carefully conscious to make you feel like you aren't just another face in a crowd (or just another credit card number on the books). I feel very fortunate to have them.

(pic- Bree's promotion)