Marc's perfect day

Spiritual are those who are not satisfied with surviving, but want to turn daily experiences into sources of ecstasy. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


At Kung Fu on Sunday, JoE knelt on my right-side big toe with his heavy bony knee- and today the toe is burgandy with purple touches. Luckily it doesn't seem to be hampering my BJJ much.


Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Bellevue. Rodrigo was teaching. I think Carlos is taking it easy this week before the Pan Ams. He was still there, though. I like that teachers are often present even if they're not on tap to be teaching... they don't HAVE to be there, but it's like they'd still rather be there than anywhere else. :)

Pummeling with Ron. Then pummelling segueing into a single-leg. I struggled with this due to my inability to distinguish left from right. I kept going down on the wrong knee. Rodrigo: "Keetsune! What knee is supposed to be on the mat?!?" "The right one!" "What knee did you just put on the mat??!" "The left one!" Arrgh.

Then overhooking the shoulder and stepping back to pull the person down. I was marginally better at this one because I have done something very similar in Kung Fu.

Then pendulum sweeps- making sure to stay tight as you roll on top, and hold the person there for "TREE seconds"! I was a little frustrated with the grips. I could see that a bicep grip was working splendidly for Ron, but whenever I tried it, my short stubby arms made it hard to get my butt out sideways far enough to do the sweep. I had to go back to the sleeve cuff- which didn't give me as much control, didn't let me stay as tight, and made it easier for Ron to try to post. Grrr.

Failed pendulum sweep transitioning to armbar. Same issue. Ron was getting a great tight armbar with that bicep sleeve grip- enough that I gave up trying to get my cuff grip to work half so well and struggled with trying to emulate him.

Positional training from closed guard- pass vs sweep or submit. It was Ron. Enough said. I put up a decent fight... I do appear to have been more competitive with Ron lately, although he always gets me in the end.

Break before timed matches. I was really tired and sweaty after being wrecked by Ron, so I took off my jacket and figured I was likely done.... maybe a little more at the very end after I'd cooled down. However, Rodrigo was matching up everybody on the mat and he had Marc left over- so he started calling the names of those of us sitting on the bench, chivvying one of us to get out there. I was the third one down. When he got to me, I bravely heaved myself up, dragged on my coat, and went out there. I said to Marc, "Just because it's YOU!"

Couple of good, fun, competitive matches, tired as I was. I tapped him once with Sunday's "technique of the day", the bow-and-arrow choke. When time was called, Rodrigo wouldn't let us off the mat- he rematched everyone and there I was facing down Ron again. Whimper.

I did okay, altho not as well as in the positional sparring. I was so tired I felt like I was fighting underwater. He tried get me into the bow-and-arrow, which I defended. "Oh no ya don't.... I was here on Sunday too, Mister!" Later, I got him into the bow-and-arrow and thought I was actually going to tap him. Carlos yelled across the mat for me to get my illegal fingers out of Ron's pants cuff. I switched my grip, got a deeper collar grip, set my knee in his back, and kept pulling. Nothin'. "What's wrong??!!??" "I just don't like to tap." Grrrrr.

We teased Carlos about not being able to eat Gummi Bears. He was mopey because he is on veggies. Then we teased Marc because he was going to get a massage after class. "Then back to work?" "No, home to bed.... massages make you sleepy!" I commented, "How's that for the perfect day- BJJ, a massage, then back to bed. All it needs is a bucket of barbeque wings!"


(pic- Peter (on the right))