Porphyrophobia

Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple.






Monday FOD: Kiu Two
Tuesday FOD: Leopard Three


The Layoff Games: Things are not looking rosy. I am on the "low seniority" list (colloquially known as "the bump list"). That  means that even though there are not supposed to be any positions eliminated at the Bellevue branch during this round of layoffs (there will be at least one more round, in the spring), any of the laid-off technologists at *ANY* branch can choose to "bump" a person off the bump list and take hir job. Although this means that we on the bump list will be absorbing most if not all of the layoffs, normally I would say I had a low chance of being bumped because I work graveyard- and nobody likes that shift. However, the boss told me this morning that one of the technologists expected to get a pink slip is a graveyard tech at another branch. So- if that person wants to stay on midnights, and is okay with commuting to a different branch (commuting being much less of a factor when you're dealing will off-hours like this), s/he will be bumping me. I can almost see the glitter of the axe.


Trying to sleep this week has consisted of strings of stress nightmares- although few of them have involved material from last fall, so as long as that remains true, I can endure. Last fall really puts a lot of things in perspective. Even the layoffs, which I would probably be stressing over a lot worse if not for the thought, "Even getting laid off (again) is not going to be half as traumatic as last fall." Whatever shit life wants to throw at me is just bugs on the windshield right now.

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Lunchtime BJJ at GB Sea. I warmed up with some reps of Leopard Three (both sides) and Kiu Two.


Guard pass: opponent grabs cross-collar, you grab both lapels overtop the arm and bring elbow firmly to your ribs to pin hir arm. DO NOT MOVE HIPS- hips stay square- turn sideways by bringing just the knee out. Push the knee down, get up on toes and tiptoe to the side, side control.


Prof reminded us to posture up at the beginning; I was a little smug to observe to what extent this annoyed my partner, who kept reaching for my lapel and then having to heave himself up to strain for it. In turn, when I was on the bottom, I noticed  how much he was *not* posturing up, and how much easier that made life for me.


Next: Bottom person grabs half guard as the top person is passing. Note: LOCK it. I tend to get sloppy about locking it up because I'm too busy thinking about what comes next.


 Bottom person: Make sure the top arm goes OVER opponent's shoulder. It quickly became apparent that I needed to be speedy to accomplish this, because if I did not get the arm into position pretty much immediately, as soon as the guy's weight came down on me I would be pinned and it would be impossible to do so.


 Try to grab the belt in back (this was not happening for me; my arms were waaaaaaaaay too short.) Place matward hand on temple and curl under opponent, ducking head as close to hir thigh as possible. I wanted to ingrain this in particular- Cindy (and anyone taught by Cindy) loves to crossface the crapola out of you when you're trying to do anything in bottom halfguard.  Unfortunately, the more I curled underneath, the more impossible it became to achieve any semblance of getting that belt grip. Oh well, I could still make it work without it.


Now: Assuming your face is safely deep, take hand off temple and grab opponent's pants at knee. Switch the legs. Stretch opponent's leg out (again, not happening for midget Kit). Now hook the outside-leg toe under opponent's thigh (note that it must be above the knee). Push into opponent so that s/he will reflexively push back. Go with the push and lift the opponent into the air with your three-legged table: That belt grip (if you be so lucky), the knee pantleg grip, and the hooking toe. I was able to make it work most of the time without the belt grip.


You're not trying to flip hir- although you maybe could, keeping in mind that this is not a good position from which you can scramble on top. You're trying to play "airplane" with hir back half just enough to drop hir between your legs and replace closed guard.


This had a lot of steps, and was also new to me, so I was feeling some anxiety. I was also drilling with a white belt, who was a bit lost. I did okay, though- and was even able to contribute feedback and suggestions to him.




Gotta share this, for those not on Jiu jitsu Forums:

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Bsenka-
For quite some time I've been trying to encourage my 8 yr old daughter to join the kids BJJ class where i train. I never pushed it strongly. She'd say "no way", I'd drop it until it was time for registration for the next season's sports, and just suggest it as an alternative to the swimming, skating, or dance she usually picks (not that I think there's anything wrong with those activities -- I just want my little girl to be able to protect herself if someone has bad intentions).

This fall, she finally decided (on her own!) that she wanted to try it. She loved it immediately, and even expressed interest in competing in the up coming local tournament. So I sign her up for that, and try to make sure that she doesn't have too lofty expectations. She responds by declaring that she's going to win. I ask, what if there are not enough girls, and you have to fight boys? She says, "I'M GOING TO WIN". I ask, what if there are not enough smaller kids, and you have to fight against bigger, older athletes? She says, "Daddy, I'M GOING TO WIN"

So, with a grand total of 5 BJJ classes under her brand new white belt, she enters the tourney. Her strategy was both hilarious to watch, and actually brilliant. She didn't know very much of course, so she just stuck to what she did know: a couple of Judo throws. She'd get two points for the takedown, transition to mount if she could, then immediately stand up. When the other girl got up, she'd grab her, throw her down, and just keep on repeating the process racking up the points. She goes on to win gold in the tourney. Not a large field to go through, but she still did what she said she'd do, and intelligently did what she had to to make it happen.

So afterward, after fawning over her and congratulating her, etc, I eventually turn to a conversation about what else she could have done when she had the mount and the other girl's arms were fully outstretched. She stops me cold, and says, "Daddy, you're not my instructor -- WHITE BELTS DON'T TEACH". As I began to pluck that dagger from my chest, she followed that up with: "besides, I won gold, how did you do in your first competition?"
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Pic: The gal on the right is Gina, whom I work with sometimes at both GB and Sleeper. The gal on the left is Elaina Stowell from Foster BJJ, who has recently published a book about her BJJ journey: Flow With the Go. The dude in the middle (whom you may recognize from a blog pic earlier this week) is Jeff, a brown belt from Foster who runs the Revolution tournaments.