Those who have never approached their bodies as temples have no idea of what they are missing. The frog at the bottom of the well sees only a fraction of light and believes it to be the whole sky. The same happens to those who have lost the address of their bodies.
-Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path
Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Bellevue.
Prof Carlos mentioned to me that it has been a long time since we rolled together, and threatened- "As soon as your reebs are healed." I'm gonna be darn careful to keep my wrists away from him!!
We drilled a variation on the "seatbelt" guard pass. In this version, your legs are sprawled out and you're up on your toes, and- as Rodrigo cautioned me- I need to remember to keep my hips sunk down to the mat. Your hands are crossed on the opponent's chest, you're pushing hir knees up her nose, and your arms are more around the knee area than the hips (as in the true "seatbelt" technique).
After we'd drilled that part for a while, Rodrigo wanted us to explore how we thought we should proceed into the actual pass. We (collectively) must have been doing a halfway decent job, as he let us experiment for quite a while instead of stopping us three minutes in and demo'ing what he was really fishing for. It was interesting to try different things, tweak them, discuss them, try something else. I was working with Kelly, so I didn't have my partner ordering me around for a change, and it didn't feel like a dominance struggle- we were just able to try stuff and give each other feedback on what hurt more. (ha ha)
She's doing pretty well; in fact seemed more skilled with the guard pass than I was, but kept asking for reassurance that she was doing okay. She got flustered when I started to resist a bit; and I had to tell her several times that that didn't mean she was doing something wrong- it meant that she was doing great and that was why I was starting to resist a bit and challenge her more. Wow, imagine that.... a new girl feeling insecure about her performance on the mat. Welcome to my world, Kelly- hang in there.
Notes on the pass itself- it worked better when I grabbed the back waistband of the opponent's pants and stacked hir with it. A forearm across the throat was also "EXTRA INCENTIVE" (Cindy used that term last night, and I really like that). For some reason I kept wanting to lift up in the instances where I didn't get past the legs immediately- I think Animal Brain was wanting to try to go AROUND them, but experimentation showed that as soon as I lifted up, that just gave the opponent more room to get legs in there and turn body and start doing all sorts of other things that were bad for me. Keeping the weight down on the person keeps hir pinned there and you can take your time to work your way around- there is no need for panicky rushing.
It was funny to watch Prof Carlos gritting his teeth and curling his toes while he was acting as Rodrigo's demo dummy.... Rodrigo is on the small side, but you could tell his pressure hurt.
Spars with a blue belt guy whose name I forget, and Ben. I was very frustrated today. On the bottom the whole time, just doing small motions to fend off the chokes. Ben was chill and methodical, but I could sense the other guy- like Alecia- getting frustrated with my passive defensive stalling. I am seeing that this tactic- which I am not deliberately doing to be a douchebag, honest- I'm just falling into it out of sheer desperation, as it seems the only way to stop getting tapped every two seconds- is frustrating people to the point that they are responding by getting meaner and going harder on me. When they can't get the tap with technique, they just resort to muscle- and that is driving me crazy with anger and frustration.
After that guy finally got the tap on me, when we restarted, he (as Leslie calls it) Captain Cavemanned out. It took me by surprise- *YOU* just got the tap, dude, I'm the one who should be all ticked off (and I was)... but he started going really fast and hard, and picked me up from standing and did something that was half a split hair from qualifying as a slam.
Ben, as I said, was chill and methodical, but he still resorted to muscle when his technique didn't get the tap.
I got in my car, put the seat back and put my coat over my face, and wept and wept with frustration and despair.
Later.......
Stubbornness or masochism, take your pick. As much as I want to just crawl into bed and pull the covers up over my head after a training session like that, I think the despair just sorta sinks into your bones and marinates there. What have you really got to lose by getting right back on the mat a few hours later? The worst than can happen is you get a second dose of pwn and a second crying jag... but maybe you'll do better..... and then you can end the day feeling a little less like crap.
Thus: evening BJJ at Gracie Seattle. Hostility Boy was there. What are you doing here? I want to stick a GPS on the undercarriage of that guy's car so that I can know which school he's at and go to the OTHER one. But Cornelia was there, and John, and Vanessa (whom I haven't seen in a long time). Unfortunately I didn't get to work with either of the ladies tonight, but I grabbed John for drills. I always enjoy working with John. (Hostility Boy tried to grab John, but I grabbed him first! So Nyaa!)
Apparently Cornelia and Vanessa mostly come to the Seattle school on weeknights... whereas if I drive all the way into the city on a weeknight, it's usually to go to Cindy's. It would be nice to be able to do more, but I really try to get to the occasional one. There is a different population in different classes... of course there are the other class-surfers who may show up anywhere, but sometimes you get to meet and work with totally different people. I like to try to have at least a nodding acquaintance with as many students as possible, especially the female ones- and of course, working with different people is a good thing. Also- Rodrigo is usually in Seattle in the evenings.
Same techniques as this afternoon. I like that, as it gives me a chance to really look at details. I am also more relaxed when I'm not frantically trying to impress unfamiliar technique steps onto my brain.
One additional pass, starting from the same grab-the-insides-of-the-knees beginning. Thrust one knee to the floor and wrap your arm around the other, up by your shoulder. Crawl over the flattened leg, hug opponent's head and far shoulder along with that still-trapped leg, fall on your hip, and pass- controlling opponent's bottom leg with your shin to avoid the half-guard.
These stacking guard passes are not very nice on my nearly-healed ribs.... I am sore. But they seem to be holding up reasonably well.
Timed spars- a small 4 stripe white belt that I've never seen before. I didn't do that great, but better than I did this afternoon. I don't think either of us got a tap.
Then Rodrigo (!!!!) I was so excited. Two whole years, and I don't think I've ever rolled with Rodrigo even once! It's hard to eval how I did, since he was of course modulating his own game to my level. He told me I did well, though.
Open mat then.... I asked Z for a roll, and we rolled for a long time without anyone getting a tap. He's really good. I don't know how he got this good in three weeks. And it's not just a lot of crap he found on Youtube; he has skills such as a solid base that the Newbie Youtube Warriors usually lack till they have some significant mat time. It seemed like I ought to be able to sweep him easily, because he's pretty small (close to my size), but I think I only got one clean one. He is really good at sweeping me. I thought I had him once when I slapped on a guillotine and jumped guard, but he defended. The next time I got the guillotine, I tried to finish it from standing. Hostility Boy was standing on the wall exhorting me to jump guard, and I finally yelled back at him, "I TRIED that last time, and it didn't work!" I couldn't seem to finish it from standing, though, so finally I tried again to jump guard and finish it from there. Didn't work that time either, durnit. That's one of my higher-percentage moves. How did this guy get so good so fast???!? Finally, FINALLY, I managed to tap him with a keylock. Yay! It doesn't happen very often for me, but I *love* it when I roll with somebody for a really really long time with noboody tapping, and then *I* finally get the tap.
I have a lot of fun rolling with Z, but I think he's going to zoom right out of my league pretty quickly! I told him that he's going to be a scary blue belt. I had said that to Ron as well, in his early days, and I was right!
I'm glad I went to class tonight; I feel better about my work tonight than I did this afternoon. I should try in the future to do a second class when I have a putrid one early in the day.
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