Five classes in two days- whew

A dog needs only a few seconds sniffing people to decide whether to snap at them, ignore them, or jump on their legs wagging its tail. Damaged perceptions are the only reason why humans need more time. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



Thursday lunchtime BJJ at BB Bellevue. Five Animals (both ways) to warm up; plus a little Touch Bridge.

The prof was complaining good-naturedly that he was tired and wanted to go back to sleep. I offered to put him to sleep. He said,"Try."    ;)


Thursday lunchtime class is always multiple hard rounds of drilling. Single legs, double legs, armbars from mount till we were all huffing and puffing.


One roll with a blue belt guy whose name I forget- he was pretty good, he tapped me once (maybe twice) and didn't use strength.  Then I had to sit out one.  Had to take some good-natured ribbing from the prof for being so tired. I told him that I'm out of shape and have gained a few pounds. I don't really want to admit I had ringworm, but I hope he doesn't think I was just slacking.


One roll with Charles. I forgot how much he loves the head and arm choke- note, do not let any arms go above chest level when rolling with this guy. He was using strength, but not quite to the point of ticking me off. He took me down against a wall, and got a warning from Carlos for that... I said he was fine (wish he'd been watching that closely last night, while Ritchie was grinding his knuckles into my face!).



Afternoon basics class. A few reps of Sil Lum Tao, and Wing Chun hand drills, and some kick drills to warm up. I am awkward doing kick drills in a BJJ gi. So bulky.


One roll to warm up, with the white belt guy who keeps asking me questions. He asked me about triangle setups today, and I did my best, but this is *not* one of my strengths (as I stated). He tapped me with one by the end of the roll, so I don't think he really needs any help from me. He's still huffing and puffing, and GOODNESS is he spazzy and aggressive. He is medium-sized; if he was any bigger, he'd be too dangerous for me to roll with. It was all I could do to defend for a few minutes before he got the triangle.


Same bottom half guard reversal that I did at Cindy's last night. The purple belt teaching the class wanted us to use a hand to post instead of hugging the opponent's knee. Drilled with a white belt woman I've never seen before- Pam. She was good, and strong.

Positional training- half guard, pass vs sweep. As usual, I suck on the bottom, but my passes are decent. Pam made me work for them, though.


Competition class. Ai yi yi. Several laps of shrimps- enough to make me think I'd made a mistake trying to do a third class today. Then rolls with everyone in turn, no subs, just points. I got the Prof first. Deathly tired, but did my best to keep moving and transitioning. He started teasing me- "Calm down! Calm down! I'm your friend!" "No, you're my OPPONENT!" Unfortunately, he is no easier to fight while he's laughing his butt off.


I bit the bullet and grabbed Ritchie next- I knew we'd have to fight everyone in the room, and the more tired I was, the worse it would be. He muscled me a lot- yes, you're stronger than me, congratulations, here's your sign, let's move on. We spent a lot of time with me lying on his stomach in his closed guard, because if he wanted to just hold me there and stall, there really wasn't anything I could do about it. It would be so nice if this guy would learn some good sportsmanship before he gets elevated to purple. I don't think it's just me, either. Other people tease him- not in an excessively mean way, or an affectionate way, but with just enough bite that it makes me think he's not much fun when he's rolling with other people either.


A white belt that I've worked with a few times; I remember getting KOB on him repeatedly and telling him that he needed to shrimp out in 3 seconds. So I did that to him again today. He just lay there for the first couple, but when I started chivvying him, he began to shrimp violently as soon as he felt my knee sliding in. Good.


Another white belt that I've never worked with before. As with any white belt man that I've never worked with before, I gave a disclaimer (In this case, "Don't kill me. I'm old and weak."). I tried to choke him a lot, and he was tipping his chin up even when he knew I was trying to choke him, so I said, "Keep your chin down!" I ended up tapping him once anyway (sloppy forearm choke while leaning over his head). He said, "I thought you were old and weak!" "I am, but sometimes I get a lucky choke in."


The purple belt who taught the last class- he mopped the mat with me.