Wednesday

Perhaps even more than the dogma of scientific philosophies, the gloomy ghost of many different religious doctrines planted the seeds for the rejection of the body. Doctrines of renunciation according to which life is a sin to be amended. Doctrines born out of the fear to be truly alive. In their eyes, the Earth is nothing but a vale of tears, a place of suffering, nothing more than an obligatory stop on the way to reach better destinations. The body is a heavy burden pinning us to the ground, an obstacle on the way to Heaven. Not only are body and soul not in harmony, they are antithetical principles at war with each other.
-Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




Yesterday's Form Of the Day was the Three Step Arrow fragment. Today's Form Of the Day is Five Points Of the Star. Several reps of both (no rolling on the ground for Five Points, as I was doing it at work), plus a few reps of Hurricane Hands, Silken Needle, and Spear Hand. Bit of trouble with the sequencing of Silken Needle. Need to remember that there are THREE dips, not just two, and then the pushes to the sides go 2 hand, 2 hands, one hand. Then the elbow strikes. I keep wanting to throw in some extra reps of techniques. I also found time to add a few paragraphs to my incomplete notes for Five Points.

Evening BJJ at Gracie Seattle. Took me two hours to get there, so I was 30 min late and missed all but one of the drills. Guard pass, grabbing the insides of the pants at the knees and pushing one leg to the ground, putting the other on your shoulder, and circling toward the DOWNWARD leg (a bit counterintuitive).

Rolls with JB and Ian. I tried setting up triangles on JB twice. I didn't really expect to finish them- and I didn't- but just looking for them and trying to set them up is a step forward.

I was pretty happy with my work against Ian, altho he was kind enough go light on me due to my broken finger. I was on top a lot, got a lot of side control, mount, KOB. I set up a bunch of chokes, some of which seemed like they should get a tap, but only one did (an RNC, and I had to crank on it for a long time). Gi chokes are difficult with the bad finger. I had to favor the finger, but I'm happy to be able to roll at all.

The skin is starting to peel all off the thing, just like the index finger did... ick.