Sunday evening

We live in an attention-deficit culture. We are bombarded with more and more information… the constant supply of stimulus has the potential to turn us into addicts, always hungering for something new and prefabricated to keep us entertained. When nothing exciting is going on, we might get bored, distracted, separated from the moment. So we look for new entertainment…If caught in these rhythms, we are like current-bound surface fish, floating along a two-dimensional world without any sense for the gorgeous abyss below. - Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”




An hour of Competition Class at Gracie Seattle. I was having some contact lens issues, and didn't get on the mat in time for warmups, so I did pushups on the cement. They still hurt some, but I can do them- as long as I do them slow. After about thirty, though, I started to seriously flag. My right shoulder feels weak.

We drilled a gi choke from guard. Grab the tail of opponent's gi jacket and wrap it around the back of hir neck, then pass it to your other hand (thumb up grip). If you've got it nice and tight, it already hurts- and there are a couple of ways to finish, either by grabbing a handful of gi at the shoulder blade or by using the lapel. If the opponent tries to push your arm past when you go for the cross grip, you can switch to an armbar. It doesn't take much; Angela and I found that even if your grips and technique were phenomenally sloppy, we still wanted to tap almost immediately because that fist in the side of your neck hurts so bad. I really enjoy wrapping people up in their gi's!



On to Kung fu.

A few reps of Bung Bo Kuen, a few reps of the piece of Punch-and-Jab that we have so far.

Next piece of the form: You are facing west in left-foot-forward hill climbing stance, right fist extended and left palm against inside of right elbow. Straighten your right hand out and step back with your left foot while you lower the right hand and "wipe" the left hand down the arm. Then left hand bounces back up to palm-heel the chin. Right hand is chambering at waist. Make sure to turn the toe in; as you are now in a right-foot-forward hill climbing stance. Right forward punch, left hand chambers.

Use left hand to reach under right wrist, then a violent pull-apart motion with both arms- right chambers at waist, left is fisted near left hip with elbow slightly bent.

Now a quarter turn to your left (you are now facing north again) as left arm chambers and right arm draws up to ear, then hammer-fist to north at shoulder level.


Apps of that first new piece: the opponent is Mantis-claw-gripping your extended wrist and then Z-locking you. The straightening of the hand and stepping back neutralizes the Z-lock, then you "wipe" the opponent's hand off and palm-heel hir. I have always had a little trouble with the Z-lock; it seems like my hand is too small to comfortably get the correct grip on the opponent's hand. I also want to push everything too high, for some reason. (When I do that, it turns into a different armlock- still works, but not what we were supposed to be drilling.) I repped it on SK till it was working acceptably.

When you are on the recieving end of a Z-lock, it makes you want to go to one knee. I found that if you go to the ground and roll, you can roll out of the Z-lock and come out of the roll in position to thrust kick up into your opponent's groin. In the meantime, though, you are within range of whatever knee strikes and kicks S/HE wants to throw at you.

I used to think Z-lock would be a useful thing to try in BJJ, but you'd really have to have the person immobilized so that they couldn't roll out of it.


A little sparring. Each of us in turn against SK. DD wanted us to spar in one specific animal style- which I begged off from; I'm having quite enough trouble without that extra complication thrown in. With everyone watching, I was again very stiff and anxious.

(pic- Carlos (in white) at the PanAms)