The last thing you smell before you go out

Spiritual are those who are not satisfied with surviving, but want to turn daily experiences into sources of ecstasy. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

I totally stole that photo from either Allie or Stephanie. I just really like the intense looks on both their faces.

Monday FOD: Lon Qi
Tuesday FOD: Leopard At Dawn

Gracie Barra WA won the Revolution overall team trophy. The points for gi were TIED with another school- that school got 9 golds and GB WA got 7 golds, so the other school got to take home the gi trophy.

GB WA got kids' gi gold and kids' overall gold.

Carlos- gold in black belt
Brock- silver in brown belt and bronze in advanced no-gi (Steve's BJJ Log has a vid of one of his gi matches)
Jamie- bronze in purple belt
Angela- gold in purple belt
Kelly- silver in blue belt
Ron- silver in blue belt

There's more, of course, but those are the people I write about…...

Amanda, the woman who crushed me at the last tourney, got gold in gi and also gold in no-gi COMBINED advanced/intermed. Hopefully that gal will get promoted soon so that Kelly and I won't have to worry about her for a while!

It looks like Cindy's kids had a good showing as well.



Wednesday: 133.0

I have a gastrocnemus injury. The frustrating part is that I didn't *DO* anything to it. It cramped up on me during the warmup stretches in Luiz's class on Saturday. I pounded it out with the heel of my hand, and it went away. It didn't make a peep even during Lindsey's run-heavy warmups on Sunday. It was fine till Monday, when I was walking out of my boss' office (after a singularly glowing review, I must add), and it abruptly siezed up so bad that I almost face-planted in the hallway. Now it's cramping up off and on.

The khukri is here! I am **SO** ready for the Zombie Apocolypse now! Apparently this weapon is still carried by Nepali solders and police. Man, if someone unsheathes this thing on you, they are **NOT** fooling around- they are going to chop you into bite-sized chunks.

I really miss SK. Whenever I got a cool new weapon, the first thing I would do is show it to him, because he was the only one I knew who would be as excited about that as I was. (First I wrote "he's the only one I know who..." then I had to go back and change it. Sigh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY )


Lunchtime BJJ at GB Seattle. I couldn't find the vid of Carlos' match- apparently you have to be Facebooked, and I continue to resist Facebook (I waste too much time at the keyboard as it is).

I sneaked up behind Vince and started to choke him. He said, "You smell like coconut." "Yeah, that's the last thing you're gonna smell before you go out!" "Oh good, I can pretend I passed out from pina coladas, and dream of being in a tropical paradise!"

Standup- opponent bear hugs under your arms. You grab your own wrist, frame up and sprawl a bit to get room. Wrap your arm around opponent's shoulder on the side opposite the side your head's on. Go to the side. Step back in front. Hip throw. Keep the arm. Use your other hand to press the shoulder while you KOB. Figure 4 armbar. First with Sonia, who planted her butt right in my sternum to hip throw me. Then with Nic, who actually squatted low enough to put his butt in my pelvis (the first time, no less)! I said, "Awesome, nobody ever does that right!" He had been working with Angela before, so maybe he got the 101 from her first- she's fairly short too!

Escape from side control to replace guard. First while they're hugging you, second while they're blocking your hip. Bridge (or "breech" if Portugese is your first language), frame up, Get the far arm under opponent's armpit. Roll immediately to belly. If you end up side by side, you can try to take hir back. Otherwise, get to your knees so that you can sit out and grab closed guard again. If they're blocking the hip, it's actually easier, because you can usually cheat or even skip the belly-to-knees step. Although I tend to get my feet tangled in the opponent's gi while I'm trying to replace guard.

Note that if you can keep ahold of a sleeve or arm as you're doing this, it can often set up nicely for an armbar or triangle just as you replace guard.

One roll with Bryan, who smoked me.


Mike, that nice white belt that I worked with last week in Brock's class, got his blue today (very deserving).