Saturday

A man who knows that body and spirit are part of each other doesn’t need anyone to remind him that he is alive, nor does he have any reason to upset the ecological balance. Only the sky above his head and the earth under his feet. His body is the only home. It is the only thing that never abandons him, the only one that truly belongs to him. Such an individual is a threat to every form of established authority. A wolf that can’t be tamed. He is not under anyone’s orders and doesn’t accept dogmas  because he already has within himself everything he needs to face life. When streams of power flow in the veins of your body, dependency on external factors is reduced to a minimum. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Lunchtime 2-for-1 classes BJJ at GB Sea.  Kaungren was there (cool!) and Hostility Boy (less cool).

Same single-leg setup that we did yesterday. I only used the wrong knee one, but I still have to think hard about it every time.  And man, this is a good way to become completely exhausted when you've barely begun class.

Spider guard sweep, the one where you kick the knee out. This is one of the three that I've been mentally reviewing kind of obsessively. We began from closed guard: one foot on the hip, other foot on the floor, hip out (pushing on the HIP side).

One additional Improvement Opportunity: pulling the opponent's lower arm (the one you don't have your foot planted into) is helpful as well.

If you don't hip out far enough, you can't get the leverage you need, but Rodrigo cautions that if you hip out too far, it invites the opponent to press your legs down and pass.

If this sweep doesn't work, you can take that foot in the bicep and extend it past opponent's head for a triangle setup. When you begin this setup, you are propped on your side with your elbow on the mat. You need to torque your head way over to the diagonal, and end on your back, with a really tight angle to the leg.

I continue to be very clumsy with the triangle. Hudge is very good at it. He was lamenting his short legs, but his triangles hurt before he even started pressuring anything. He was able to offer suggestions to me on this, and I was able to offer some to him on the sweep.

One roll with Angela and one with John. I was not doing too well today. I had felt pretty low-energy to start with, and the standup at the beginning didn't help with that.

I asked them both if they felt I was being an a-hole with my pressuring of the jaw with the forearm, and they both said no. I asked them to give me a heads-up if I was doing anything a-holey.