The Walk Of Shame!

Even some of the best people I know live by the “I just wanna do my own little thing.” Satisfied with the happy little island they created for themselves in the middle of the ocean of the surrounding disharmony, they look at life from their seat in the audience. I consider this attitude one of the main causes in the mediocrity in the state of things. Often for creative people the beauty of their inner world can become a handicap. Too caught up by their subjective experience to learn how to dance through the physical world.  The result is that, limiting themselves to the cultivation of their own spiritual world, the most sensitive people leave to the most careless the management of collective reality. Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




Yow, sore body today. Especially the right front thigh (the sit-up sweeps?).


Basics class at GB Seattle. A bazillion people on the mat today. I got to drill with (short) John (I don't know what to call him...there are too many Johns, and they are almost all blue belts now...), which is always lovely.


Single-leg setups from standing- that same one we've been doing forever. John suggests I try to get the elbow up further. I like the way he gives suggestions: "It's up to you, but..." like I said- good partner.


Defense against opponent sitting up and grabbing your leg while you are standing (prep for X guard, De La Riva, etc). Grab the back of hir collar and the far knee, step out (spread the feet) with the outside leg, step backward with the outside leg, then lift the inside leg and place it behind opponent's butt. Flatten hir out and sprawl into side control. Apply copious Shoulder Of Justice.


My instincts want me to move the inside leg (the one at opponent's crotch) because that feels like the one "in danger" somehow. I really have to stop and force brain to override gut and do those TWO steps with the outside leg first. The initial step gets the leg out of the way so that the opponent can't trap it or stretch it out. The second step gives you something stable to stand on so that you are able to lift the endangered leg. There is just no shortcut here.


Speaking of short- being so, it means that it's difficult to give "good shoulder" and hold that leg away at the same time. Even with short John, I kinda hand to pick one or the other. I chose S.O.J, although if I have an opponent with really squirrely legs, I might need to switch that up. This shortness problem may mean that I will need to settle for top half guard  instead of side control. (Where can I buy six or eight inches?)


Another note: When I am the one doing the sitting up, I'm not sure why I always want to make life more difficult for myself by forcing myself to do a full armless situp. Yeah, the abs can always use the exercise, but let's get practical here. There is nothing wrong with putting the hand down and using it to push into a sitting position- and hey, look how much easier and faster that is.


Note that the stupid side is particularly stupid with this technique. If you're going to stand up and let someone grab a leg, let 'em have the left one and not the right one.


Escape from top half guard: swoop in with one arm under the head and other hand attacking the leg, sit out, Swing the leg up and out, turn belly down again, side control. (Yay, even more S.O.J.!)


I badgered John to do more shoulder pressure with both techniques. I think he was just trying to be nice, but I said, "Come on- grind it- more, more!" (hee hee)  He was wearing a patch from Thirteen Hands, Lindsey's new school in Fremont. I miss Lindsey. I told John to tell Lindsey hi from me.


I also saw Sabrina. I haven't seen her in forever. I knew she had come back and was training, because I saw her commenting on the school website. She is now a BLUE BELT one stripe!!!!  Whoo-hoo! I congratulated her.


It was nice to have a Rodrigo class today. I see much less of him now that I spend more time at the Bellevue satellite, and he is busier with administrative stuff as opposed to teaching, now that the GB conglomerate has mushroomed into half a dozen different pods. I wish I wasn't a little late getting in- having to do the Walk Of Shame before him when he hasn't seen me in  weeks. (It wasn't my fault... there's a really inconvenient train that bisects Seattle periodically and traps all car traffic for 20 min... sometimes it catches me on my way to the school)
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Saturday afternoon no-gi at Sleeper. I failed to plan well today. On Saturdays, I really need to shower at GB and get fast food to scarf in the car so that I can go straight from one school to the other in order to be on time. Today I went home for a shower and lunch, and ended up 20 min late. (Walk of Shame, twice in one day! Yes, this one was my fault.)


I had wanted to stick to just drills for a few weeks at least, but unfortunately Cindy was ill- she was there, but not rolling- and Stacy was on her way out just as I was coming in. We were down to Lamont and Terry, and they were just sparring- so I had to fight Terry for several spars and then Lamont. Mixed bag of results.


I had made a comment when I first walked in, about the mat already being an ocean of sweat just from the two of them... Terry sweats a ton, and after every roll, we moved to a new section of mat to try to get away from the pool. It was fruitless. The entire floor was soaked.


One hilarious interlude where Lamont and I were rolling, and Cindy was trying to corner us both- urging me to be rougher and telling Lamont (jokingly) to stop being such a bully. When we finished and were both lying there panting, looking at her, she shook her head and rolled her eyes, snorting, "Ass." We looked at each other, and then back and her, and I said, "Which? Him or me?" "Both- him for being too mean and you for not being mean enough." It was so funny. It can be really enjoyable on the occasions when only a couple of people come in, and you can either get really focused and get a ton of specialized work done, or you can get relaxed and goofy and have a very fun time. Or a little of both. Cindy also told us a great story about competing in an open division against a mountainous woman (Cindy's my size- about 5 feet tall and around 130-ish if that). Apparently  video exists. I told her she has to dig it out for us.


Things have sort of come to a head regarding the belt thing. I have not been wearing my belt into Sleeper on gi days; it just makes me feel too much like crap, and I thought I could get away with it. People are mostly all uniformed up these days, but in the past, it was common for people to come to gi class without a gi, much less a belt. Unfortunately my recent beltlessness did not fly under the radar as well as I would have liked, and Cindy finally called me out on it.


The four of us had a long conversation on the topic. I'll have to incubate it and write more later.


During this discussion, I whimpered that if I keep going into Gracie Barra, sooner or later someone is going to give me a purple belt. Cindy asked me what I was going to do then, and I said that I honestly do not know. She professed that I had better figure it out PDQ. (She also said that she's surprised they haven't done it already- which shook me.) I've been a four stripe blue for a really long time. I don't remember when my last stripe promo was, but it's got to be somewhere around a year ago now- and in December I will have been a blue belt for three years. I have- umm- been sort of lowballing my attendance cards, a little- maybe- which may have bought me some breathing time. I've only been getting about every third or fourth class marked off (and this is not counting classes at Sleeper).


 I don't know if I could actually bring myself to step on the mat (at either school) in a purple belt. I can't even imagine it or think about it. On the rare occasions that I have tried, my brain just shrivels up painfully like a salted slug.


Whew, legs even more painful now. I can barely bend over. Gonna ache big time in the morning.