Friday

There are times when the body needs to heal, but those are ripe opportunities to deepen the mental, technical, internal side of my game. You should always come off an injury better than when you went down. -Josh Waitzkin, The Art Of Learning



Thursday:

Sooooooooo tired. Not up for silk class tonight. But you can't blow off circus school, since you have to pay whether you show up or not, and it's expensive!

The hoop arialists were practicing behind us tonight. They looked soooooooooooo awesome. Not as awesome as silk, but almost.

Russian climb: DO NOT WRAP the silk. Drape it over the front of the rt ankle, then lift the tail with your left foot and make a little stirrup. Place the left foot on top of the right. DO NOT MAKE AN "L" SHAPE. squat on top of your feet with your shins parallel to the ground. Then stand up.

Dutchmans again. Arabesque, which I messed up and didn't get enough time to fix. Must ask for that again next time. Hip hang, and straightening out to pose parallel to the ground. I like that one.

So tired that I thought I was going to fall aleep behind the wheel on the way home. Unfortunately, that did *not* translate to getting a good night's sleep. :(


Friday: 133.5

Lunchtime BJJ Gracie Seattle.

Carlos asked how I was, and I told him that my legs were sore from yesterday's class (fronts of thighs). He was delighted. I don't think I could have given him a better compliment. He loves to hear when we are sore from his classes. It means we worked hard. He exclaimed "Good, hah?!" and I said, "Yes!"

Takedowns- grab opponent's left lapel with your rt hand. Pull and step back with your right foot, turning your body to your right as you do so. As opponent lurches forward, drop to your RIGHT knee and grab hir left heel; pick it up. I had my usual problem of dropping on the wrong damn knee over and over. I figured out, though, that part of my mental block this time was because doing it correctly left my chin right against the opponent's left knee, just waiting for him to piston it up and clock me if we were doing anything other than sport BJJ (and maybe even here, by accident). When I told this to Bryan, he of course demoed that it was impossible for me to clock him with *MY* knee, as he was doing the technique way too quickly and skillfully. Well, when I'm a brown belt, I hope I will be able to do it like that too- but right now I can't!

Pass guard from standing, with sitting opponent who has both knees up. Quickly kneel over hir shins and pinch hir legs together with yours. Throw your right arm over hir shoulder- hugging in close like s/he's your buddy, otherwise you'll get straight-armbarred. Pick up your left knee and hike it *HIGH* and *WIDE* as you swing over to the other side of the opponent and take side control. Rodrigo came over _TWICE_ to tell my I wasn't swinging the leg out far enough, so I really need to get my act together in that respect.

You standing, opponent sitting. Step between hir knee with your left foot, step to the outside of hir thigh with your right foot, turn your torso toward opponent and bring that left leg out *HIGH* and *WIDE* just like in the previous technique. When you set the foot dowm, set it close to the opponent's hip, then shoot your other foot out to base. I kept wanting to set the swinging foot out wide. The get KOB or side control.

Always nice to work with Bryan. He was getting a little frustrated with my constant habit of getting knee and elbow in the way of his side control. I wasn't doing it to be a crappy drilling partner; I was just trying to keep him off my ribs! It is a Black Crane defensive technique (which has a bonus **REALLY** gnarly elbow strike incorporated into it). I said that his ability to feel like a dump truck on my ribs is chi. He said it is physics. I also teased him about his hooking monkey feet.

Positional sparring with Bryan and Dave. Wow... I got Carlos yesterday, and today I get Dave and Bryan. I am getting to spend the week in pretty heady company, getting kicked around by black and brown belts!!

When it came time for open mat, I saw Dave drilling something by himself, and remembering how he's always talking in his blog about wanting to get extra drilling reps with people, I went over and asked him if he wanted to drill something on me. So he drilled some terribly complex inverted guard takedown that was way beyond my ability to understand, then offered to help me with something. I didn't have anything specific in mind, so I suggested that we spar a little, and I was sure something would present itself.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to choke him and otherwise wrap him up with his gi top (I had it completely off at one point, by which I ended up disadvantaging MYSELF, as we were now essentially fighting me gi and him no-gi). He went over some choke details with me, and suggested that I practice reps on my own gi top while watching TV or whatever, till I can stop having to pause and think about which way my grips and wrists need to go.

My initial grip- deep with my right hand cross collar, palm up- is fine, but as for the 2nd hand... first thing he pointed out is that I will have better luck if I sneak the second hand UNDER my first forearm instead of over. Then I need to get a grip with my palm _DOWN_. !!!!!DO NOT SPLAY THE ELBOWS OUT LIKE I'M DOING THE FUNKY CHICKEN!!!!! What a newbie flub, and here I am still doing it. Then roll the wrists so that I'm looking at the insides of my wrists.

Alternatively: Grab with the second hand palm UP (this is the way I instinctually want to do it) and roll my thumbs TOWARD me.

That was really nice to get a chance to work with Dave. I should have a couple of specific things in mind to ask for help with next time. It was a fun spar. I've hardly gotten any chance to work with him before now.

Was watching Rodrigo kneeling on the floor taping a white belt guy's foot for him. How cool is Rodrigo? He is just so nurturing to his students. I was also thinking today (this was before I saw him taping feet), I don't know how he remains so patient after all these years correcting- over and over and over- the same little dumbass mistakes we make in drills. In some cases, correcting the SAME PEOPLE over and over and over on those same little dumbass mistakes. Ahem.
I wish I was a better student for him. All I can do is keep trying.