Breakfalls

There is no need to travel to exotic places, load up on drugs, or drive one hundred miles an hour to feel alive. It is not necessary to look for particularly strong sensations, because when the five senses are awakened, every sensation is a strong one. The scent of the earth after a summer storm. The embrace of a lover. The vastness of the sky above. Small experiences that could travel through our consciousness without leaving any trace become the messengers of a beauty that cannot be measured. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



I told Rodrigo that JB has signed up for the May Revolution, and will be repping Gracie Barra Seattle in gi and Sleeper Athletics in no-gi. I figured it would be good to not have that take anyone by surprise. I do not expect it to cause a flurry like the one I caused in November, though. 1)I paved the way, 2)She's not technically an enrolled student anywhere at the moment so no one can technically claim current ownership of her, 3)She's a white belt, and issues of loyalty are not such a big deal at the lower ranks, 4)She's a white belt, and there are not as many team points on the line, and 5)It's not going to take anyone by surprise. I'm happy that she decided to rep both. JB also wants to train at both my schools whle she's in town this summer, which would be cool.

I have warned her that she is probably going to have to fight Alecia in gi. I think JB has a good shot of winning against Alecia in gi just as long as she stays cool and doesn't let Alecia's aggressiveness mentally intimidate her.


Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Seattle.

Ribs still feeling tender amd slightly achy, on both sides. My right shoulder still feels somewhat weak and sore with pushups. I think things are almost healed, I just need to be careful- I'm really scared about reinjuring my ribs, especially this close to a tournament.

We reviewed all four of this week's grab-the-insides-of-the-pantlegs guard passes. I was drilling with Bryan because we are both recovering cripples.


When we were told to switch partners for positional sparring, Glenn came up and grinned at both of us, and said, "Who wants me?" I replied, "I do, but don't let that get around." Carlos shuffled people around some more, though, and I ended up with Angus. I cautioned him several times to be light on my ribs; he and Bryan were both a titch heavier than I liked, but I was able to carefully frame my elbows up to protect my ribs.

One live roll, with Angus. On the bottom again. He tapped me once or twice, and I didn't get any on him, but I did get a couple of gloat-worthy escapes. Including a sweet omoplata escape that involved a headstand.


Good e-mail discussions with SK regarding positive feedback and other ways to try to eval how one is doing. Now that I'm being blatent and shameless about my lust for positive feedback, he's being good about trying to humor me. Today I got: "Note to self: tell Kitsune more often how awesome she's doing and how grateful I am to have a student like her in my class as a newbie instructor." Yowza, that's the way to pump me up!!! It's kinda stupid, but as I told him- "I'm a big fan of milking "stupid" as long as it's working!"

He suggested that it might be helpful to tape myself doing forms six months apart, and compare them- that that might help me see the improvement. That's an interesting idea (that never occurred to me). I wonder if that would work?



Later.......... Friday evening no-gi at Cindy's.

As I was stretching out, I was watching a tiny little girl of two or three, doing summersaults across the room. She did this continually for a good fifteen or twenty minutes. In another two years, Cindy is gonna have to recruit that kid.

After a while, I noticed that she had come up behind me and was mimicking each stretch that I was doing. When I tucked my hair up under my skullcap, she mimed that as well. Okay, I do not like kids, but this is kind of cute. The parents along the wall were pointing and grinning and taking pics with their cells.

Lamont is leading warmups regularly now so that Cindy has a little break between the kids' class and adult class to take care of a few things. After warmups, he had us pair up and drill armbars from guard. I drilled with Leilani. We did that for a really long time, and then things sort of devolved into each pair working on their own thing.

I reminded Leilani that there was one day left to register for the tournament under the lower price! Still no bites, but she is eager to be a good teammate and help others get ready. She mentioned that she had offered to let Alecia work throws on her. Wow, she is either pretty gutsy or pretty suicidal; I'm not sure if *I* would make that offer to Alecia! Come to find out that Leilani doesn't know what a breakfall is. Mama mia. So I taught her, and she was in as much wonder as if I'd pulled a rabbit out of a hat. I showed her a palm-heel strike versus a willow-palm on the mat to demonstrate how important it is to get that little wrist twist in there right before your hands hit the mat. Next time I get a few free minutes with her, I should review breakfalls and then throw her gently so that she can practice (hopefully) before she gets thrown by somebody else.

Timed spars. Cindy started to put me with Leilani, but Leilani begged for a break, so Cindy put me with George. Well, this is going to be a little harder. It boggles the mind the way he just sits there and lets you set up a sub, then just as you start to squeeze it on, he casually escapes. I couldn't finish any of my guillotines, kimuras or RNC's, but he finally let me finish a triangle- which I was happy about (Still weak on triangles).

Then Ranier, one of the kids. He outweighs me, so I was cautious, especially since I didn't know how much technique he has- but he didn't have a ton of technique, so I was able to go just a notch above him and let him work.

Then Cindy. She has been taking it easy since her injury early in the week, and said, "Don't hurt me!" I responded, "Don't hurt *ME*!" I asked her where she was injured, so that I could try to be careful of that area- and she said, "This part," Indicating her entire body. Okay then.

One of the things I notice more when I roll with Cindy is my slowness and pauses. I would like to work on (in particular) setting up subs faster. I have excellent control- good enough to slam a sub without REALLY slamming a sub. I think if I could get over my hesitations and commitment-phobia and habituate myself to setting up subs faster, that could really be a strength of mine.