Northern Mantis kills brain cells.

Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. You may get killed with your own gun, but he'll have to beat you to death with it, cause it's going to be empty. -Clint Smith


Took a Percoset last night, and another at lunchtime today. Didn't help a bit. This is why I don't do drugs. None of them work on me. All they did was make me sick to my stomach. I just took two of them with dinner. I really would like some kind of trip here, okay? Please? Just a little lull from the pain, enough to find a comfortable position to lie in bed. I promise not to move again once I find one.

I still haven't attempted any BJJ since Thursday lunchtime. The rest doesn't seem to be helping the situation, though. So after tomorrow (I have to work all day tomorrow... and won't that be fun with this blasted headache), I'm going back to the gym. Maybe rolling will pop back in whatever has popped out. If it's still this bad by tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll see about trying to get a doctor's appointment. (If the response is something like, "I have an opening on September 29," I give up. I don't go to the doctor very often, but on the rare occasion I try to, that's usually what happens.)

I was lying on my bad side on the floor, with my arm over my head. It feels like there is a fist-sized rock on my upper rib area over there. Someone suggested that maybe I popped a rib out. That's not what it feels like (and God knows I've popped enough ribs to know), but it's so frustrating when you've got that radiating nerve pain thing going- because it's really hard to tell exactly where it's originating from.

I'm so excited to get a chance to wear my two "new" colored gi's! Now that I have incredibly awesome colors, it makes me want to patch them out, too. If I put GB patches on them, my colors might not get as many eyerolls over there. Most of the people there are white/blue purists. ;)



Sunday kung fu. Started with a few reps of Bung Bo Kuen. I got my attention called to the fact that my arrow-hand fingers are sloppy. I think I may be paying too much attention to the footwork in some areas and neglecting some hand positions. SK wants me to make the crossing of the forearms more deliberate before the double Mantis-claws pull-apart. Apparently I'm getting too swirly and sloppy with the wrists there.

SK picked that section for us to work apps with a partner. It took some effort for me to correlate the handwork with the footwork. When I tried it on JoE, I of course wanted to hook the BACK of his neck and force him down to kiss the mat. I could feel that that was taking way too much muscle, though... and would never work on a big resisting guy. Hooking at the front of the neck seemed counterintuitive (whoa, I think those 2 Percoset are kicking in... it was hard to type that word.... hee hee). Yet it worked better. JoE gave me the feedback that that method was torquing his spine into an odd three-dimensional "S" shape and making it more difficult to keep his balance. I was happy to hear also that I have good stabby Mantis-claw fingers. JoE actually requested after a while that I switch to Leopard-fist hands, because he couldn't take any more poking in the side of the neck.

A few run-throughs of the intro to Punch and Jab. I had to work the opening arm movements for a long time before SK and I figured out exactly what my problem was- I need to do the turn and *THEN* stick my arms straight out from center, as opposed to trying to begin the arm parries *as* I was turning. Another thing I need to watch is to keep my front foot turned sideways. These are hill-climbing stances, not front stances. Make sure to fully extend the willow palm. My bad habit of failing to fully extend strikes is exacerbated (whoa....) in this instance by the fact that I'm so excited to get to the dramatic hoppy lunge that comes right after it. Speaking of- the weight shift occurs *as* you're standing up. And it's a punch after that- for some reason I stubbornly want it to be a palm-heel. I'm convinced that we must have been practicing it with a palm-heel when we played with this last year.

Notable positive: I was able to remind myself, "Once you get past the what-comes-next stage, you need to start doing this with NORTHERN MANTIS energy," and I knew what that meant and was able to start doing it.

Next little bit: The right fist that you just punched with, do a Mantis hook to the outside with just the hand. Pull that back to chamber at waist as you do a knife-hand strike (fingers up) to front (this is NOT a willow palm nor a palm heel, so don't get sloppy) and right-footed snap kick. The kick is supposed to be with the ball of the foot- I don't like those- so this will be another detail that's going to take a lot of repping to feel okay. Additionally, since you come out of the deep lunge in hill-climbing stance, you have to remember to move your toe at some point before trying to do this kick.

After the snap kick, settle back into a rather narrow horse with the right foot back a bit. This is NOT a hill-climbing stance. Parry left hand across chest and punch again with right overtop of the parry.

Small piece, still clumsy after several reps. JM opined that doing Mantis kills brain cells- and I had to agree heartily. The flow and techniques are just so bizarre, the brain doesn't want to assimilate (okay, THAT word took me four tries...) ; it definitely takes more reps to seal it in memory. I need to be good about repping this a lot before next Sunday, or I'm going to start to struggle and fall behind now that we're past the initial bits.

Sparring. JoE vs Nemesis first. Then I was up, and SK let me pick my opponent. I wanted to pick SK, but said gamely, "Let's start with Nemesis." but JoE had given him a bloody nose, so he had to sit a while. I got JoE instead.

I wasn't doing too well. As SK pointed out, I continue to plunge and batter myself against highly defensible parts of my opponent's stance without noting and taking advantage of what's most vulnerable.

I tried a leglock, but couldn't finish it. I really wish someone would teach me some leglocks. I was also a bit frustrated that even when it segued to grappling, I couldn't seem to hold my own. One of my problems is that I tend to forget where I am, and that here I can strike (and- significantly- the other guy is striking at *ME* and I can't just ignore that). I got *VERY* frustrated when he grabbed my hair. Geez, do I ever hate hair grabs. I can't defend against them effectively at all, and they're just one of those humiliating things. I think I'm going to start wearing the skullcap when I spar in here so that they can't grab my hair.