I showed my two index fingers to an acquaintance last night and said, "Do they look the same size to you?" He immediately pointed at the one I sprained in January and said, "This one looks fatter." Dang. I had been hoping it was my imagination. Is it going to stay like that? :-(
I skipped Wednesday lunchtime class, so that I wouldn't be totally exhausted by the evening. I have been wanting to go to a Wednesday evening class at Gracie Seattle for a while now... I wanted to get some face time in a Rodrigo class... and apparently that's where all the girls are hiding. Rodrigo has asked me a few times to try to come to that class if I get a chance. I'd like to roll with Vanessa again- and if there are any other girls who can be competitive with me, it might be good practice to roll with them before the tournament. Next week, I have to work the 11:30am -8pm shift Mon/Tues/Weds, so I'll only get 3 BJJ classes- max- the week before the comp.
I feel bad missing possible chances to roll with Alecia... I feel bad missing *ANY* classes. I am trying to be conscious of the fact that when I drive myself like a Type-A Maniac to go to every single available class, sometimes I end up too exhausted to go the class that I *most* wanted to go to. Sometimes I need to prioritize.
Anyhow, I skipped Tuesday evening class *and* Wednesday lunchtime class. Despite my continued poor sleeping (insomnia, waking up frequently, nightmares, sore body and exhausted mind upon awakening), I felt really good on the way to Tai Chi. I also felt really good after that, on the way over to Gracie's. The exhausted and sore came as I was crawling out of there!
Tai chi: We did the standing meditation and reviewed forward walking, forward walking with hand motions, Repulse the Monkey, and sideways walking (with one-handed motions only). When I watched her walking, I asked "How does it feel if you try to bend your knees a bit more?" She did so and immediately said, "Better." And Yowza, her technique immediately looked exponentially better too.... as well as a bit smoother and less stiff. Still a lot of stiff, though. I stressed a lot more body turn and a lot less throwing the elbow out to the side with the sideways walking. It got a little better, but we will need plenty more work on that.
I taught a drill that I haven't done in a really long time- learned from my very first Tai Chi teacher, close to a decade pre-CK. You hold your hands palm-down at waist level and imagine a balloon or bubble inflating under them. This bubble lifts your hands up to chest level (or face level) and then it deflates again and your hands float back down. Again, you're trying to not use your shoulders or upper arms any more than absolutely necessary, and the elbows remain heavy and dropped. The visualization is supposed to affect a similar technque as the marionette-strings-on-the-backs-of-the-wrists thing.
As I said, haven't done this one in forever... in fact I'd pretty much forgotten it. But now, I am looking ahead at the next few moves in the form, and trying to think of good drills to introduce the principles of the movement before teaching that part of the form. Then it's not just parrotting a form.
The bubble/balloon drill felt really good. As soon as I started to do it, my body and spirit both said, "Ooooooo! Ahhhh. We remember this. That feels nice!" My palms immediately got all hot and heavy with chi.
Review of the form, then adding one more movement. Then I took off, because I did not want to walk into Rodrigo's class late.
No Vanessa. Rats. There was, however, Cornelia! I asked her if she would drill with me (yeah, a week and a half before the comp, I am asking the gal who sprained my finger to work with me.... livin' dangerously...). However, after the warmup, the class got split into white belts (who went onto the other mat with Jesse) and everybody else (who stayed with Rodrigo). Cornelia was with the white belts. Double rats. Probably just as well, though- there was such a crowd there that even using both mat spaces, it was FULL.
No new techniques, just positional sparring with light resistance form various positions. I ended up working with Steve. (Sonia was there, but she continues to stay far, far away from Bad Ol' me.) These were useful exercises, because your partner was supposed to move around a bit, but not so much that you couldn't complete the stated mission. One of these was SWEEPS (my biggest weakness). It was good to get a chance to just play around and try different ones with light resistance.. although on the last rep, he wouldn't let me get ANY- even though I'd specifically asked him to not resist much since my sweeps suck. I was tempted to try to serve him the same meal on HIS next rep... but I didn't, because I am an ADULT!
At the end- conditioning explosion. I hate it when they do that, at the end when you're already ready to drop. And with SPRAWLS! (What's with all the SPRAWLS this week???!) When we didn't count loud enough, Rodrigo made us do another set.
A roll with Cornelia. She tapped me once or twice. I had forgotton about her passion for the step-over armbar, but my memory came back pretty quickly. After her, I had to take a break. Then, two blue belt guys whom I don't know. I wasn't doing too well, with any of them. Mostly on the bottom, and trying to not get subbed. One guy set up a really sweet armbar; I knew it was gonna be tight, and I also knew I wouldn't be able to get out- I had visions of him throwing his body back hard and my elbow blowing out, so I said, "Do it slow, please!" He did, and I thanked him.
Then open mat. Almost everyone disappeared. There was no one left who was remotely appropriate for teeny me to roll with. I was going to ask Kaungren (with whom I have STILL not rolled even once) for a light one, but he was talking to Jesse, and I didn't want to interrupt a teacher. There was one big white belt still gi'ed up and not matched up, so I went over and asked him to roll a light one. His name was Nick (another one). He pretty much tooled me; I was trapped on the bottom most of the time. He did compliment me, though, and he didn't rough me up. Shoulder and back are hurting a bit now, though... he is tall, and was doing some body triangles and bow-and-arrows on me that I maybe wasn't tapping to as quickly as I should have been. It's still a bit emotionally difficult for me to be tapping like Savion Glover to no-stripe white belts, even if they are big ones.
So, a lot of rolling tonight, and I wasn't doing that great.... but Nick and I closed down the mat.
Creepy search term of the week found on *my* blog stats: "disembowelling how?"
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