Thursday

Without Constant Reader, you are just a voice quacking in the void. -Stephen King

Friday FOD: Little Red Dragon- just the standard side. Feels powerful but a bit stiff and not quite extended enough, esp near the end.

Saturday FOD: Catherine Dao. With broom handle. Also did the mirror version of Little Red, since I didn't get to that yesterday.
Sunday FOD: Leopard Fist. Standard side only. Snake continues to be... interesting.....
Monday FOD: Cannon Fist
Tuesday FOD: Tiger Versus Crane. It emerged with Dragon energy, and a slight tinge of Northern Mantis. (It's a Tiger form.) Interesting.

Thursday: Terrible night for nightmares. Got up at 4am even though I was still exhausted, because every time I went back to sleep, I kept finding myself back in the same nightmare.

Thursday lunchtime BJJ at GB Bellevue.
Before class: few reps of Leopard Fist, both ways. A few slight problems on the mirror side.
Armbar drills from guard, then drilling failed armbar transitioning to triangle- for almost the whole class. Exhausting. Thighs and core. Then pass guard vs sweep. Then rolls with two white belt guys. The second was with the guy that I had advised about his breathing a couple of weeks ago. He's gotten quite a bit technically better, but is still huffing and puffing. He was a little spazzy (enough so that Carlos asked me if everything was okay). He overwhelmed me a bit with the spazz and got a tap, but it was a legit tap (armbar from guard- geez, I hate getting tapped with the Technique Of The Day!)- so good for him.

Evening Advanced BJJ, Bellevue. I planned to do Competition Class, but spent 40 min trapped in gridlock on the Bellevue off-ramp, so was too late. I used the time before the next class to do some forms in the locker room. Leopard Fist (both sides, concentrating on the problem areas from this morning), Cannon Fist, Box Form, Tai Chi short form, Little Red Dragon (both sides), Plum Blossom Fist fragments, Walking the Path fragments, some of Tiger Versus Crane (Yeesh, mirror side is very rusty... that same horrible flying kick, again). Plum Blossom feeling less tentative now. The part starting with the two Leopard fists, kneeling- that part feels so luciously Dragony.

Standing, rt lapel grip and left elbow sleeve grip. Let go of lapel and slide your right foot between opponent's feet. Drop onto your back underneath opponent, rt arm underhooking hir left leg. Your rt foot hooks behind hir rt knee. Scissor your feet- your rt one pulls and your left one (in front of opponent's shin) pushes. At the same time, you are yanking that elbow sleeve grip and joggling opponent's remaining foot on your shoulder. As opponent topples forward, you roll up, but stay down near hir knees until you get your three seconds. If you are too eager trying to climb on top, s/he'll just roll you.  Note that this is technically a sweep and not a takedown.

If opponent puts hir left knee down beside your head when you try to sweep, let go of the sleeve and underhook both of the opponent's ankles. Hip around till you are scissoring on hir rt thigh instead of below the knee. Trial and error showed that one really needs to get well underneath one's partner. Corrections by the Prof showed that one needs to get opponent's rt foot OFF THE MAT and cuddle it closely like a kitten or something. Ideally your hand ends on your own knee. Then you can use your legs to rock like a rocking chair and tip opponent over backward.

These were pretty tricky, but I liked them- the first better than the second, because I had a heck of a time trying to get that opponent's foot off the mat and snugged to my bosom correctly, even with a cooperating partner.

Got to work with blue belt Carlos, whom I haven't seen in a long time, so that was cool.

One roll with Kelly and one with Ron. On the bottom or back mounted almost the whole time with Kelly, as usual. Could not get the woman off my back for love or money. She couldn't choke me, though (and complained about how hard I am to choke!) She did finally transition to an armbar, and get me with it, to my frustration.

My goal with Ron tonight was to not get baratoplata'ed- in which I succeeded. In fact I don't think he got a tap on me at all tonight.

Richie's back- and up to three stripes on his blue. I didn't have to deal with him tonight, but am REALLY not looking forward to when I will have to do so again.

Missing kung fu class- and certain people in it- badly today.