"We get a little sweatier here."

If even for the blink of an eye you can control two of the other guy’s limbs with one of yours, either with angle or timing or some sort of clinch, then the opponent is in grave danger.  - Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”



No-gi in Bellevue.

Carlos is out of town, so Ben taught class. He decided on "all spars"  ;)  He let us open the big door, which was wonderful.

Ben and I were talking to a brand new white belt in the lobby before class, and Ben said something about washing his gi and belt....

White belt guy: "Wash your belt? Are we supposed to wash our belts?"
Ben: "PLEASE do."
WBG: "We didn't wash our belts at my tae kwon do school."
Ben: "We get a little sweatier here."

When I heard that Ben was going to have us do all spars, I told him that Chrisanne was coming in, and to please make sure she didn't end up with any huge spazzy assholes. He said that he hadn't been planning to match people up. I gave him a Look. He matched people up. Thanks Ben.

I told Casey how much I had enjoyed having Lindsay back in class last week. He told me that she had been happy too, and that she'd been scared to work with anyone except him and me..... and she'd said that I was even better than he was. That made me feel so, so, so, so good. Few things make me feel better than knowing that I was a excellent partner to my teammate.

I also had a chance to mention to Sean that Ben and I had been marvelling over him before class... that he is here ALL THE TIME, and busting his buns, and getting really, really good. So technical. He got all smiley and said, "I just love this." I said, "I know, right?"  :)  I enjoy giving people positive feedback, especially when I notice that they have been putting in a lot of time and hard work.

I had all good rolls tonight. All with people better than I, which is how we learn. And Carlos wasn't there to yell at me for setting up kneebars, so I tried to set up a few on Ben and Casey, but of course I failed. I did get two nice taps, though- a straight elbow lock on Sean and an RNC on somebody else (can't recall whom at the moment). Everybody tapped me left and right, but I was really happy to get those two taps- with this caliber of opponents, when you get a tap, it means something.