"Don't tell the ESL guy that!"

Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face.” –Mike Tyson


Friday evening women's class in Bellevue.  It's a little awkward to have this new women's class right before Friday night class, as I love Friday night class and it's going to be nearly impossible to do both back to back. I just don't have the stamina/cardio unless I phone one of them in, and I can't do that because it's cheating may partner. Unless maybe I have a really really REALLY new white belt for the first class.

Tonight that was NOT happening. We had an odd number of people, and so I drew Professor Doug. So much for phoning it in! I was like, "Okay, shoulder to the boulder now,"  He did a few reps but let me have most of the drilling, and we were moving at a fairly good clip. I was quite exhausted by the end.

Standup- choke from behind. Pull down on forearm and get chin down. step to the side while shoving elbow up. Shuck the elbow over your head and secure opponent's arm in a figure 4 (snug up really close or s/hell wiggle out). This was difficult for me on the stupid side.
Knee to face, then take down and armbar.

Pull guard from standing, then situp sweep. By the end-of-class drill reps, my abs were howling for mercy and I had to reprimand Doug twice for rolling over for me instead of MAKING me do the technique correctly, even when I was struggling.

Standup, judo grips. Yank foe toward you with the lapel grip and try to reap the leg. Bad guy steps out. Pick the other leg. At first I was anxious about getting kneed in the face while leaning over to pick that second leg, but Doug proved that *if* you get the person off balance enough first, they are too busy trying to stand on that leg to be able to life it up and knee your face.

A little QOTH (Queen Of the Hill), pass guard vs sweep.

Prof. Carlos started out by calling us "women" but then switched to "girls" on Doug's advice. (sigh)

Me: Don't tell the ESL guy that!
Doug: (puzzled expression)
Me: Tell him to call us women! Anybody over 12 should be "woman" not "girl".
Doug: (pointing at the single pubescent girl in the group) What about her?
Me: Since she's in a group of adult women, just include her in "women", don't single her out and make her feel weird.

In the locker room after, one of the white belt WOMEN was talking about how I had instructed her to relax and breathe during the QOTH, and another one exclaimed, "Oh yeah, you told me that same thing two weeks ago!!" Then another one started talking about how she was afraid to spar because she felt like she did not know what she was doing, and the whole roomful looked at me like I knew something, LOL.

I told them that I had gone a really really long time just drilling before trying to spar, because I felt the same way, and it was okay. That they just needed to work with the right people, and I could point out which men were careful and helpful. "NO WHITE BELT MEN."

Me: (In private message):
Doug was teasing you, Professor! You should call your women's class "women" and not "girls"!
If it is an informal situation or people you know well, it doesn't matter as much. If you are talking to me and Chrisanne in the lobby and you call us "girls", we won't be mad. But on the mat where we try to be a little more formal, and with new students you don't know well enough yet to consider them friends, it's polite to call any female over 12 "women" and not girls. Sometimes calling them girls makes it sound bad, like calling a class of men "little boys".