Rock the pink

Perfect is the enemy of good.  - Voltaire


Wednesday lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Seattle.

Standup: Opponent front-chokes you. You place both hands palm-down at your waist to defend the kick, and swim your head down and around out of the choke. Jab with whichever hand is on the same side as the foot you have nearest hir. Change level. Step in and clinch around waist. One ofyour feet shoud be between hirs, and you should pull hir into you with the clinch so that hir back bows a bit and hir balance is compromised. Inside reap. End in hir closed guard.  

You are in bottom side control. Frame up with arms and get enough space to swim JUST your top forearm (the one closest to opponent's head) under hir armpit. Do not move the elbow- keep it braced there. Turn your hips down to the mat. Get up on knees. Now you are in turtle with opponent sprawled on top of you NS, and you are holding the backs of hir thighs. Step out with the outside foot on the side that your head is on. Scoot fwd a bit so that your other knee is against hir knee. PUSH (use shoulder and entire body) and then lift. Do not cheat the push. If you do it right, opponent will be unable to catch you in half guard before you descend upon hir in top side control.

I have always struggled with this one. I have trouble framing up and getting any space in bottom side control if my opponent is resisting even a little.  I'm clumsy getting my hips downward to the mat, and I'm scared of getting flattened out on my belly while I'm trying to do that step. Bryan thinks this could be a really good technique for me because of my compactness. It seems likely that the largest part of my struggle here is mental.  

We drilled this to exhaustion, and there was so much head-squeezing that I lost my cap. Carlos came over and asked, "Who are you?" "I'm new."

I really would have liked to stay for sparring today, especially since Z was there and I haven't had a chance to play with him in forever. However, I began the class with a headache, and it was still there at the end- so I decided I'd better just go home and take some aspirin so that hopefully I'd be fit to do a second class tonight.

I started a poll on Jiu Jitsu Forums: You have a laundry accident before a big comp. All your gi's are pink. Do you A)rock the pink, or B)drop out of the tourney? Male respondents only. I'm tickled- well, pink- by the results so far. 34 respondants, and all would "rock the pink"! Cool, huh?