Most people live at a comfortable distance from their bodies. As humans, we spend so much time inside our heads that we often forget the way out. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path
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Saturday FOD: Five Points Of the Star
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Sunday FOD: Northern Mantis Bo form
I'm beginning to become rather seriously terrified about being promoted. I've *always* been terrified of being promoted- but the idea of having to step on the mat wearing a purple belt makes me want to laugh hysterically like a hyena, burst into tears, and puke all at the same time. I can see it coming like the light of an oncoming train in the tunnel, and there ain't nowhere to hide. I'm hoping to keep my head down through the rest of this cycle at least, and put it off till the end of the year. I'm scared, though. Very scared.
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Monday FOD: Silken Needle
I tend to stumble a bit over the reps in this- some techniques have two, and some have three, and I'm always like, "How many pushes, how many elbow strikes?" The first round was great (except for one sloppy hand position). I knew I should quit while I was ahead, but I thought I'd better run through it one more time with that repaired hand position. Of course, on the 2nd round I started to think too much and get confused on the reps. I had to go back to my notes and check a few things. The energy on this is good, though. It is like the Tai Chi forms in that as s0on as I start, I can just feel myself slipping into that Zone, consistantly- even if my attention isn't 100%.
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Tuesday FOD: Tiger Versus Crane
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Wednesday FOD: Angry Snake Defends Its Lair
Note that the first thrust is the one that has the blade towards the ground and the left palm braced on the forearm. The blade orientation makes sense because with the second thrust (the one with the blade to the side), the following horizontal movement would make no sense if the blade was oriented toward the ground.
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Thursday lunchtime BJJ GBBell. I got all the way to school and realized that I didn't have my contact lenses in my bag, so I had to drive all the way back home and get them. No time to stretch before class.
All spars. Everybody in class was BIG today except for me. Started with the Prof, who did not seem to react to my gi... good, it seems that the anti-cat-hairing measures I am taking are working. Then a huge white belt. Then a large blue, then a large white. I am not very happy with my performances. On the bottom, fairly helpless. I did make a point, when rolling with Carlos, to not repeat the specific things that he corrected me on last time- so I hope he noticed that much!
It frustrates me that with many of these guys- even if they start out being careful to not muscle- if time is going on and they can't get a sub, often they will get frustrated and muscle one out. One of them muscled me into a keylock after we went about seven minutes and he didn't get a sub (even though he was on top almost the whole time... guess he wasn't satisfied with that much).
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Three BJJ classes Back to back (in ascending order of toughness: basics, competition class, ending with advanced).
Prof made a comment during the comp class about me going with all those huge guys this morning... I get frustrated and disappointed when I'm stuck on the bottom and getting pwn'ed one match after another, but it seems that he gives me props for being game and never whining that the guys are too big or too hard on me (I do my whining *here*, of course, but I don't whine to HIM... the only time I've ever said anything to the teachers about anybody was that one time I blew up at Richie in class because he kept repeatedly yanking subs after I'd tapped). "She ees tough," he said, and he has said that before; it makes me feel really good to hear that from him.
He also told me that he admires my persistance- specifically, the way I go after things when I roll with him. That single-minded fixation on getting one specific move is something I've been persistantly trying to train myself *OUT* of, but I guess it has its place... esp if you don't have a very big toolbox, or at least not a big toolbox of high-percentage tools.
Basics class was defense against armbar from guard: cover the trapped hand with your other hand, grab a lapel (not too deep, wrap it across the front of opponent's neck and lean on it, stack, shake the hand loose, grab the back of the pants, stack harder, put your knee to your elbow and pass on that side.
Defense against triangle from guard: Similar, but get a pantleg grip with that outside hand. The key to this one appeared to be dropping the knee behind the opponent's head. I could really feel the angle change and the triangle snap right off at that precise moment.
Comp class- all spars. I didn't get the prof again, but I got Casey (purple belt teacher). He was being nice, but I think I did decent enough to impress him. When he got in line beside me for the advanced class, he punched me cheerfully in the shoulder and knocked me back against the wall. I immediately countered with a backfist to the belly- which would have been all humorously chummy if the formal lineup hadn't actually been STARTING right then and he lets out a melodramatic "OW!" Twit. We were lucky to not get pushups.
The same takedown setup we have done multiple times in the past two weeks. Prof wanted us to actually complete the takedown for the last section. In this case, the mat was crowded enough that we had to pull/twist the guy down right at our feet instead of forcing hir back two steps. End with KOB.
Standing guard pass: grab inside-of-knee pantleg with left hand. Underhook the other knee with your right arm. This leg shoudl be hoisted right up on your shoulder as you slam the other leg to the mat and jump both feet to the outside. Then turn your inside knee and drop it over opponent's shin. The arm that you have their leg on your shoulder- try to get a deep grip on the pants hip. Turn your torso to face their feet, shoulder into them, and tiptoe around to pass. DO NOT PUT THE OTHER KNEE ON THE MAT! I wasn't making that particular error, but enough people were that after about a jillion corrections, Carlos said that the next person he saw put that knee on the mat was getting pushups. I was congratulating myself on getting all the pieces (this was complex enough to stretch my small brain), but the one detail I missed was that deep hip grip. Carlos corrected me on that and said, "How long you do Zshoo-zsheetsu? Tree years?!" (Me: "Not long enough") Yeah, he seemed to be getting a little impatient tonight.
I also solicited feedback from my partner and found that he didn't feel I was trapping his matbound leg high enough. Note to specifically ask this particular guy for feedback sooner from now on: I repped it about a bazillion times, feeling like a rock star, then said to him, "Does that feel right?" Immediately he shot back, "NO." I just stared dumbfounded at him a minute, why-the-heck-didn't-you-say-something-sooner warring with at-least-he's-not-preaching-at-higher-belts. But he's good enough to give solid feedback, so next time I'll just ask sooner.
Prof said something about my brown gi tonight. He wants me to wear the blue one (and presumably the cream one) more often. I usually wait till everything else is in the laundry to resort to the blue one, because I'm swimming in the jacket to the point that it is a distinct disadvantage. But apparently some of the newbies have been asking why I'm the only person in the whole school special enough to wear colored gi's. ((blush)) I don't want to push my luck on this, since I guess I'm lucky I haven't been asked to retire them altogether. This would suck mightily, as it would necessitate purchasing two new GB gi's (which I think are ridiculously overpriced, too flimsy, and hideously ugly to boot). My colored ones are still in nice shape, and I paid through the nose to buy the patches and get them sewn on.
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