"It's okay- I'm fourteen."

Because of the physical nature of martial arts, we can’t lie to ourselves. There is no need for somebody to tell us whether we are moving mechanically or are truly present. When you are there, you know it. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Monday FOD: Three Step Arrow. I ran through Spear Hand first, because as usual I mixed the two forms up. Oh well, two for one today!

This morning, I tore apart a raw pheasant carcass with my bare hands. That should have been all primal or something, but I'll tell, you, it was just gross. (One of the diabetic cats is having what appears to be a food allergy, and I have to feed him exotic meats.)

Tuesday FOD: Leopard 3. Both ways. Feels great.

Wednesday. Leaving for lunchtime class- trying to, anyway- Jeep is dead. Razzafrackin.......

Borrowed a vehicle and made it to Sleeper for evening gi class. Basic side control stuff. Note that you can use your elbow to "stuff" the opponent right up on your thighs and pin hir in your lap with the elbow on the side on the head. This kinda hurts. I know cuz I was the demo dummy tonight.  ;)

The "so easy that your opponent will feel like a total moron if you hit this" move of the day- you bridge under bottom side control, when s/he shoves back, you roll hir right over hir own head.

*AS* the opponent is swooping in for side control- BEFORE s/he settles in- turn in to hir and circle the top hand down and around at the elbow. Get quickly to your knees as that hand continues the circle to end with your shoulder on your ear. If you're not forceful with the shoulder shrug, you won't get the opponent's arm fully off your head. S/he will probably whizzer you at this point. Then you can drop that top arm over hir butt to hir opposite ankle, duck low and grab the opposite knee underneath hir, and drive in while circling towards the head. If you can manage to keep that ankle (yep, I Kept letting it go, again), if will prevent hir from replacing guard.

If s/he does not whizzer you, simply take the back.

Positional sparring from side control. I asked my partner to go light on me because I have a lot of trouble from this position. I said, "Do just enough to make me work for it," He still fought me a little harder than I wanted, so I didn't get to work much. It frustrated me a bit, so that when it was my turn, I held *his* ass down and wouldn't let him do anything either. Childish, I know. I continue to struggle with how to constructively handle my frustration in class. I should have stopped the guy and reiterated that I needed him to go lighter than he was going. I should know by now that just keeping quiet and eating that sort of thing is just going to fire up a sense of frustration that will likely tinge the remainder of the class, so I might as well just do something different.

Several rounds of sparring. Some days you're the hammer and some days you're the nail. I was having kind of a nail night tonight. I think all the struggling under side control made me feel kind of tired and futile. This is my worst position. I'd seriously rather be front or back mounted than in bottom side control.

I did one round with one of Cindy's kids that I've never worked with before. He was good! We were doing a little standup, and I tried the drop-and-summersault-em-over-your-head thing. He sunk his weight just in time and we ended with him in top side control instead. I exclaimed, "Shit!" Then I said, "You didn't hear me say that." He replied conspiratorially, "It's okay. I'm fourteen."   ;)