A raw reality here, folks, if you have to act in self-defense,
life as you know it is over! But here’s
the counterpoint: if you don’t act, life- as you know it- is still over.
Finding yourself in a self-defense situation is simple: All your options suck. You
need to embrace the suck. If you act,
you’re going to do horrible, hurtful things to another person. If you don’t
those horrible, hurtful things are going to be done to you. You’re damned if
you do, You’re damned if you don’t. -Marc MacYoung
Thursday lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue. My broken toe is doing really well, but I am still having trouble with my thumb (of course the one on my smart hand). In light of these, I figured careful drilling would be my best bet, but I was dying to spar. So it was with mixed feelings that I found the class was 100% spars.
Note that the friendly blonde white belt with the English accent is a nice partner right up until you start winning, at which point he Hulks out (and he is stronger than he looks).
I was very excited to get a crucifix (something I rarely try) on a FRAMO (fully-resisting adult male opponent).
I felt pretty good about these spars, and did not seem to aggravate my injuries.
Friday lunchtime BJJ in Kirkland. I usually do Friday evenings in Bellevue, but I had another appointment on the eastside in the afternoon, so I did this instead. It was a Cindy class! She has an ugly new warmup which consists of RUNNING a lap around the gym, then doing ten or twenty reps of a warmup exercise, then running another lap, etc.
Double leg takedowns. I knew that I needed to work on stepping close enough… but having resolved to do so, I got a correction from Cindy to step in even CLOSER. Step between opponent’s feet well *past* hir feet, while ramming the shoulder into hir gut. Another two corrections she’s made on me about a zillion times which haven’t stuck yet: placement of the other foot, and failure to stand up again while turning the corner (ouchie, knees….) I do, however, fully grasp the concept of using my upper body to push the person over instead of actually trying to pick up their legs (and advised my white belt partner on that, after which her double-leg takedown got about a megaton better; better than mine!).
From this takedown, we went to side control, then wrapped the opponent’s arms over hir chest, moved to the other side, and did a kimura. Setting up a kimura from this position was new to me, and there were a lot of steps, so I was distraught when my partner kept asking for instruction. I hate trying to teach things that I don’t fully grasp yet myself! I did the best I could.
One spar with the same girl. She has excellent potential- I hope she sticks. She was thrilled with the few pieces of advice I tossed out. After we were done, she confessed that she had been terrified when she saw that we were the only female students on the mat, because she was afraid I was going to bludgeon her.
I got a few mornings of yard work (practical exercise!) done this week- mostly blackberry-pulling and mowing (with my manual Flintstone mower on waist-high grass…. So it was mostly just flattening the vegetation rather than actually mowing it, but that works for me as long as it stays mostly flat.) I finally bought a post hole digger so that I can start working on my fence (among other things needing holes). That is going to be some killer exercise, especially considering that my land is mostly composed of rocks with a little bit of dirt scattered among them.
I have been struggling with snacking and extra weight since PSG; but if I get accepted into the volunteer EMS responder program, that will be good incentive to discipline up. Most if not all of the others are late-teens/early-twenties kids, and I am going to have to bust a move to keep up physically.
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Thursday lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue. All spars again. Not so happy with this set as I was with the ones last week. I can't seem to pass anyone's guard.
Lots of walking and more yard work.
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