NELSON IS DA MAN!!!!!!!!

You don't stop fighting until the fight is over. You don't need to go down just because you have taken a few hits. As long as you believe you can keep going you will. If you do go down, you are still going to win because you are going to gnaw through his Achilles' tendon and bring him down to where you can rip his head off. -Greg Hamilton




Yes, I'm SHOUTING IN ALL CAPS because I'M SO EXCITED MY BUDDY NELSON WAS PROMOTED TO PURPLE BELT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know he's good, and he has black belts in Judo *and* TKD- but it's been a short timeline and he's also been benched quite a bit for injury- so I (and he too) was thinking not quite yet. Big surprise. We had a visiting professor in today, and so were trying to have decent decorum- but when Carlos pulled out that purple belt and called Nelson up, I lost it and started jumping up and down and clapping wildly and doing the Xena battle cry.  I'm so happy I got to be present for that.

He had already congratulated me about four separate times (just today) for my own promotion,and called it "well-earned"... he also took a moment before we all left today to compliment my work in effusive enough detail to be embarrassing. But that really means a lot. Yeah, he's my homie, but he's also an experienced MAist and teacher, and a noble guy, and he can be trusted to not BS me. I was feeling kind of so-so about today's performance, so it was gratifying to hear that from him.

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Today's Form Of the Day is the 3 Step Arrow fragment. Not to be confused with the Spear Hand fragment, haha- which I often do.

Day 2 of Jobless Jiu Jitsu Camp, and I already feel like I've been run over by a combine, LOL. Sleeping pretty poorly- I'm up now after only about 6 hours, and I think I woke up twice every one of those six hours.

I have lost a pound. I'm not going to admit- even in my blog- what my weight ballooned up to. I have restocked on chicken and eggs, and I've been really good for 3 days (well, except for the Dr. Pepper- but one step at a time).

I got a bit of writing done yesterday, some more this morning, and glory of glories it's a little chunk of new PLOT. Plot has been giving me fits. I have a great setting, and great characters, but I don't know what to make them do. That is, I know a bunch of stuff they are going to do, but I need MORE. The piece I concieved yesterday ties together a few things I already had, and I ought to be able to write at least a handful of scenes around it. I got two of the MC's to meet, which definitely needed to happen at some point. It also helped flesh out one of the supporting characters that I really wanted to flesh out more, so that's good.
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This was lunchtime BJJ at GB Bellevue. Warmed up with a little flow rolling with Casey. It seemed to me that I kept getting kind of stuck in his open guard, although when I mentioned it to him, he thought I was doing fine.

 All spars. John, a tall two stripe white belt, Casey again, Nelson, a blue belt. Like I said, I was feeling kind of so-so.

Lately it has seemed to me that I have been:

1)comprehending the techniques that are taught a bit better... it doesn't seem quite so much as if I'm watching a debate in Swahili. I (more often) understand what I'm looking at, can (usually) remember (most of) the steps long enough to walk to a clear spot on the mat and kneel down to drill, and can (usually) get the technique to work.

2)able to be more calcuating while working live. I have always had a persistant problem with "white noise" filling up my head as soon as I go live. It is still happening to some degree- especially with high belts, when hard pressed,and when I am feeling frustrated or otherwise emotionally ill-equipped.
Yet I am finding the new experience from time to time- particularly with new white belts- of being able to survey the situation, look at where all the posts are and where the balance is, clinically select a technique to execute, and then perform the steps to execute it. I have never had that before, and it's amazing. I only hope that this new superpower will continue, and improve.

Anyway that's been lately. Today seemed like a half-step backward. In particular, I spent what seemed like about eight years working my slow and tortuous way out of Nelson's side control, and then just as I was about to clap him into close guard, he put me right back at the beginning in side control again. I was saying naughty words.

Casey's side mount today felt just like Luiz's "gorilla glue" side mount: he got there, and then just sucked up every millimeter of space until I felt like I'd been shrink wrapped. He did that to me two or three times. One time, he did it and then just hunched there for a while. Since I couldn't move an eyelash, and I didn't really want him to just perch there till he was well-rested and ready to tapdance on my face, I said, "Hey! no parking!" That got him moving again.

I was able to give a little intelligent coaching to the white belt as we rolled. We didn't get to the KOB Tutorial this time, but we discussed what to do in closed guard, and choke defenses.