Who are you, and what have you done with the wolverine?

Turn your body into a temple and nature starts talking to you. It brings you back to a wilder, more authentic state. Nature is not just a name to identify what we have not yet covered with concrete and asphalt. It is life lived without fear, without sense of guilt; life not enslaved by the artificial rules of a society which has lost it center. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



I know I've talked about this before, but one of the things Dave used to say many years ago re: the Hunt was that the work people were doing on their spiritual "stuff" is not just selfish indulgence. Everything you do to better yourself benefits your tribe. You in fact have a RESPONSIBILITY to evolve yourself so that you can be a better contributor to your tribe.
Accept your power.
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Some of the GB patches on my gi's are beginning to fray and come off. I am so annoyed. I still haven't gotten over the annoyance of having to pay for them- and pay for them to be sewn on- in the first place.  I am a penny-pinching cheapskate who hates to spend money on herself; yet I am told that I sometimes have unreasonable expectations of my possessions. I still have clothes from high school. I have been known to wail such things as, "But this was BRAND NEW sixteen years ago!!" or "But I just got this serviced in 1987; it's broken again ALREADY??!?"  I don't have a working sewing machine right now (It broke and I'm too cheap to get it fixed). I spent 40 min between classes today hand-sewing the corners of the bottom  patch that looks most likely to fall off- the long rectangular one along the lapel of my cream gi. I'll try to spot-repair the others as I can. Geez, I hate sewing. Maybe I can leverage this into more vigorous enthusiasm for avoiding opponents' grips on my lapels.  "!!!RHAAAAAAAHHHHR!!!! Get your stinkin' hands off my collar!!!! I don't wanna have to resew that dratted patch again!!!!!!"

I was fairly sure I wouldn't be up for three classes today, so I skipped the 4:30 basics class & went in for competition class. I'm enjoying Thursday comp class; I'm worried that they might axe it due to the low turnout.....  today it was two behemoth guys and Ritchie. Joy and rapture.

As soon as we stepped on the mat, Carlos asked: "Who ees deeped een Tiger Balm?" It was me. As my former Kung Fu teacher used to say, "Ah, the scent of pain and suffering!"

It was also still hotter than an oven in there. Carlos was complaining about it too. I said, "Isn't it a lot hotter in Brazil?" He says lots hotter, but not as humid. I commented that whoever invented the BJJ gi should be shot. He said that in Brazil, they don't wear rash guards or other shirts underneath. I replied, "I'd still have to!" He informed me that in Brazil, the female BJJ artists wear BIKINIS under their gi's in summer- and they only train with each other during those months. !!!!????   

Pendulum sweep: partner is in your closed guard. Place your left palm on hir same-side elbow. Do not grab the gi sleeve. Do not grab the wrist, or the bicep; as I was repeatedly told, you are not grabbing anything at all. Just place the palm there to keep the elbow from flaring out.

Use legs to pull opponent forward into your chest. Open your guard and hitch yourself up a bit, making sure that your knee is now covering that elbow that you don't want to flare- you don't want hir to be able to post on it.

Now that you have pulled hir forward, you have room to move your torso to your rt and slip your arm under opponent's thigh. Hitch yourself sideways a ltitle more, till you're forming an X with the other person. Roll up on top, scissoring your lower leg. It is important that this leg- which I want to bend- is straight.

Reps of this till exhaustion. 

Then rotating matches with everyone. Ritchie first- and I gritted my teeth and headed bravely into the breech. He let me get a KOB and just lay there under it, then he let me have a keylock. He actually TAPPED. I was dumbfounded. Who are you, and what have you done with Ritchie? Don't get me wrong, I like *you* better- but you're actually going a little *too* light. Carlos thought so too, and he told him, "You can go harder..." I'm kneeling there thinking, "ZOMG, don't tell him that... I really don't want to go back to where he's ripping at me like a starving Nazi wolverine on meth. As we restarted, I murmured, "Okay, you can go harder, but you're a lot stronger than me, so don't go nuts." That kid really has got me intimidated- but man, he just goes so aggressive and douchebaggy all the time! Except for today. I don't know what was going on with him today. Maybe it was just a fluke, and the starving Nazi wolverine on meth will be back next week. I did make a special point to be gentle with my knee-up guard breaks, and thank him, and shake his hand, and bow to him- all stuff I did anyway even when he was being a dick, but this time I did it with sincerity and looked him in the eye like he was a person.

When the class was done, Carlos asked, "Advanced class, Keetsune?" I responded, "Eerrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhh...." "Advanced class, Keetsune?" "Uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...." I'm happy that he pushes me. I'm not good at saying no to him.

By the time we were nearly done with warmups for advanced class, I thought I might actually not make it through this class without a trip to the alley to puke.

We started with more pendulum sweeps. My muscles and brain were both flagging, so I was embarrassed to mess up a couple of times right in front of the prof. I feel sooooooooooooo stupid when I do a second class' worth of the same technique in one day and then flub the first few reps. Especially something like pendulum sweep, which isn't exactly brain surgery. I was also having a slight problem with my new partner holding onto my belt in my guard with her arms braced like steel girders, so that  I was unable to pull her forward without flaring her elbow. I didn't want to ask her to ease up, so I went ahead and flared the elbow, and got corrected. Then I explained the problem and asked her to ease up, but she didn't. So I sighed inwardly and tried to figure out how to get around this. Prof came over and had me open my guard a bit, then use my knees and arms to smoosh her in on herself enough to break her down.
  
King Of the Hill- closed guard, pass vs sweep. I drew Allison three times in a row. Him and his long, long legs and his X-guard. He just loves to get X guard and hoist you up and dangle you there in the air like a piece of meat on a spit, then let you drop inelegantly to the side (usually on your head), and he gets on top. He always has this little smile on his face, and never looks like he's trying  hard. For the last three and a half years, I have approached Allison knowing that he was going to do exactly this to me, and being unable to foil him. This time, I made him work pretty hard for it the first go-round- and was pleased with that much. The next two times, he actually had to resort to something different. I got to half guard and actually thought for a moment that I might have a chance to pass. That's good progress for me. He's a challenge.]

I got Chris once, and said, "Be careful, I'm old and weak and fragile." He responded, "You be careful, I'm old and weak and fragile too!" We both started cracking up... he's in his early 20's, and he's one of those guys that I wish we had "before" and "after" pics of on our school website- he came in hugely obese and not able to get through the warmups. Now he's less than half his former size, and a skilled blue belt.

King Of the Hill from half-guard, pass vs sweep. This is something I'm fairly decent at from the top. My short legs just kinda squirt through; I only have to be careful that I don't overbalance my weight too much and let me opponent tip me on my head or my butt while I have all my posts tied up. I passed my first opponent, but then that put me on the bottom. Blerg. A purple belt immediately tooled me, and I was in line again. I passed my next opponent (and this is my reward? I'm in bottom half guard again?). Then I got Hudge. I would not let him out of my half guard, and we fought for a long while. I eventually managed to replace full guard, and for a moment I thought I might have a chance- I don't work with him very often, so he's not wise to my bag of tricks. One of these is to use my feet on the guy's waist to shove him away, get to my feet, and fall upon him. I couldn't quite pull it off, but the resulting scramble put me almost on his back. It was of course a blood grudge by then, and we were both fighting all out. I was soooo close to getting his back, but I was tiring and weakening, and then time ran out. Great fight, though.

One or more of the guys was apparently going too hard on one of the girls, by Carlos' estimation... the next KOTH was all four of us women down and the men in front mount- sub vs escape. The guys were cautioned that the entire point of this round was for them to get subs without being beasts on the women. I cycled through a whole bunch of them, and they were all fine as far as level of roughness (although at least four of them in succession dripped sweat directly into my eyeballs; new record)- a few were asking for feedback on the force level, which is great. I was a rock star in this round, and I hope it wasn't just because they were going way too light. I even managed to reverse one and get mount on HIM.

 In the locker room, I asked both Kelly and Pam if the guys had been rough on them- Kelly said not really, Pam said kinda. I gave them both the "don't hesitate to set firm boundaries" speech, especially Pam (the white belt). Kelly says she's not really comfortable with Carlos being so protective and making a big deal about the guys going too rough on us, because she doesn't want the guys to think we're wusses and not take us seriously. I tried to explain that it's good that he's on top of that, and he wouldn't have to make such a big deal out of it if we were all assertive about telling the guys to not squash or muscle us. I too used to worry about the guys thinking I'm a wuss and not taking me seriously; I still do a bit, but not as much as I worry about 2 seconds of too-heavy side control putting me on the bench for a month and a half. BTDT and pride ain't worth it.   

Kelly already has THREE stripes on her blue belt- she is just ZOOMING through the ranks. She surely deserves it, though. There were 4 women in tonight's advanced class. That's a lot, especially for Bellevue.

Owwwww- jawline is so red and raw- I aloe-gelled it tonight. More Tiger Balm, too.

I'm getting tons of blog hits from people searching on "ringworm". Yay. Well, I guess I'd rather have them come to me via ringworm as opposed to some of the kinky sex terms that come up in my stats every week.