Wednesday

As a warrior, you are given weapons very few people possess. The self-confidence of a wild animal, a spirit that can’t be broken, the tranquility of one whose roots are too deep to be disturbed by minor events. If you don’t change the world, certainly no one else will.
Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




Monday FOD: Box Form
Tuesday FOD: Long Qi

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Wednesday lunchtime BJJ GB Seattle.


First, a sweep that was like a pendulum sweep only without opening guard till you're already on your side. Grab sleeve cuff and pantleg (at KNEE, not at bottom cuff). Use legs to pull opponent toward you. Roll hir toward the side that you have the sleeve cuff. Once you're on your side, you can open guard and post hand.


Then, same thing, except the opponent puts hir knee up. Underhook the knee, pull your top half over so that your ear is pressed to hir ankle, yank the trapped arm with you as much as possible, throw leg over and armbar. I was finding it impossible to yank the arm with the guy latched onto my belt- so the prof told me that if the arm wasn't coming all the way, just pull the leg harder.


Drills of both of these, with gradually increasing resistance. Of course- especially since we were dealing with sweeps- *any* resistance meant that I couldn't do the technique. Found myself wanting to do the same to him... but since *I* am not a douchebag, I was a good training partner and fought him hard enough to make him work but not so hard that he couldn't get the  technique eventually. (Why is this such a difficult concept for some people to grasp?? And he was a blue belt, he should know better by now...)


One roll with Prof Dave and one with Bryan. Dave let me do that rolling choke from n/s turtle, but I couldn't finish it because I didn't trap his arm firmly enough with the hand that I had placed behind his neck. Once I hit the roll, I tend to think "It worked!" and then get sloppy with the remainder- which results in not being able to finish. Need to commit to the full sequence.


He also let me get that sweep from side turtle- one of the complemetary pair I'm focussing on. The one I got this time was the one where I roll him over me. It worked very nicely. I know he was being nice and letting me have some stuff, but still- I think this is the first time I've performed that sweep live.


He did an interesting takedown on me which involved sticking both of his feet between my ankles and turning the toes out like hooks, then pulling both in. I've seen similar stuff before, but the hooking toe thing was new.


Bryan- We restarted 4 or 5 times, each time with me circling him on foot for a while looking for an opening. Finally, he just grabbed me by the pantlegs and hauled me in. "Tired of the foreplay, huh?" "Let's get right to it." "Just like a guy." "Hey, some girls like that." There's been a recent thread on Jiu jitsu Forums about how inappropriate this kind of thing is... and I certainly wouldn't have a conversation like this with just anyone- but Bryan's cool.
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Okay, I had a really crappy evening practice tonight. I don't even want to talk about it. Maybe tomorrow. I got back in the car and cried. Note that I did *NOT* cry on the mat. That is all.