Wednesday

"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."-- Grace Murray Hopper



Saturday: 130.0. FOD: Snake Versus Five Animals.

Sun: 133.5 (WTF?!? Okay, I had a couple of extra cookies and things, but not enough to account for that. I'm calling it a hormonal thing.) FOD: Five Animals.

Mon: 135.0. (Yeesh! I really have not been snacking that much!) FOD: Leopard 3.

Wednesday: 132 (Okay, that's more like it).

I met with CK this morning, and we spent several hours doing grueling stance work- the kind where you're just standing there, or doing something seemingly easy like taking a step- and it's a more intense workout than a BJJ roll. Knees, pelvis, lower back, the crease where the trunk meets the top of the thigh. Note: engage the backs and sides of the thighs more, and try to open up that crease area more... about two minutes of that (just STANDING STILL, mind you) made me feel like I'd been digging ditches for eight hours straight... but it seems to take some of the strain off my bad knees.


A little tai chi. Then a sinful lunch. Then back to the gym for sparring. Her back is all messed up, and I didn't have my contacts in, so we were going fairly easy. I got her with the same trick that I got her with this summer- heavy bridging on both of her arms, doing a bunch of stuff with one hand to keep her attention, then suddenly popping the OTHER hand up into her chin. There is a lot of this in Hurricane Hands. I got her with it several times, to my surprise- I'm sure it will stop working soon! I was also getting her a few times with a trick I've been using on her for years: I kick or feint, she blocks, then as she lowers the knee, I nail her with a follow-up kick. It works best if I do both kicks without setting the foot down. Another thing that worked for me a few times was dropping into a low scissor stance with and underhand looping claw to the groin or lower belly. I should mention that besides her back being all messed up, she is very heavily medicated- which I'm sure has a lot to do with the fact that I was able to land anything at all on her.

We did not discuss my life disasters, to my relief. I told her that I had had a really ugly few months and did not want to talk about my life- and she was good about it. She twice brought up SK, and I gave short noncommittal answers and moved on quickly. She was playing with her phone at one point, and put on the ring he always used ("caffeinated rattlesnake")- that hurt. But I did okay overall, emotionally.

MM e-mailed me to ask if we could get together to spar a couple times while he was in town, which is great. I'm considering it a compliment that he asked. He'll kill me, of course.... I would sure love to get him on the ground and tap him out with a BJJ technique JUST ONCE. I couldn't manage it last time he was here, although we rolled around for a long time, and I came close with a number of things. He is REALLY strong, has significant weight on me, and besides his Kung Fu and Karate, he has some Aikido and other things in his tool kit. He is a formidable opponent indeed. He and CK and I will probably work together tomorrow afternoon. It's great to round-robin spar with the two of them... we can go for hours.

Acrobalance at the circus school. There were only five of us tonight, three intermediates and two advanced, so we did some challenging stuff and it was very much fun. Willis was basing for all of us, and having a challenging time, because we were all very differently shaped. It went from 5-foot me to a 6-foot student; and two were very skinny while one was a pear shape and one an hourglass. All of these sizes, shapes and weight distributions called for different balancing methods and post placement for him. I am doing well. Now that I have the hang of getting into the rear plank, I am much less clumsy- and my balance is always excellent. Gawds, but this stuff is an intense core/abs workout.

SNAP

First of all, please just take a moment to admire the vast awesomeness of this photo. This is Alecia (blue) and Rihanna (red), photo taken by Angela. Angela took a lot of great photos, many of which I have now cached to decorate my training blog posts for quite a while to come.

Wednesday morning BJJ at Gracie Seattle.

Prof. Carlos put us through some killer warmups. The first cycle would have been killer- and we did three cycles. He assured us that this boot camp would not be happening every Wednesday (I think he realized that attendance was going to drop dramatically on Wednesdays without that assurance).

Double-leg, opponent sprawls, you turtle, grab hir belt, sit in, and get full guard. Carlos had to correct me as I was bending my leg outward instead of inward at first. I am flexible enough to do that, but he demonstrated that it was too easy for the opponent to pin my leg down that way. Glenn and I had some problems figuring out which side the knee was supposed to be up on vs which side the head was supposed to come out on.

One six minute match with a smaller white belt guy. Spent most of the match with him in my guard and one really nice deep collar hold, trying in various ways to finish the choke. Almost had him a couple of times, but not quite. I did, however, keep him well occupied enough that he couldn't focus on attacking *ME*.

Those warmups were vigorous enough that they had actually made me kinda nauseous... so I had to quit after that one live roll.

Prof Carlos told the entire gym- multiple times- that I had won my no-gi match 22 to 2. (Yeah, I'm still getting conflicting reports about the final score, but all agree that it was a rout). He has stopped calling me "Fox" and started calling me "Twenty-two".



Tai chi. LD was not very spry today. She says that the radiation treatments (of which she has a week left, IIRC) are kicking her butt. Making her very tired and achy. She is blowing off PT- even though she says the PT helps her a lot- because she'd rather take a nap. I'm worried about her.

Review of all the usual suspects, then another piece of the form. Her drill stuff all looks good- I haven't really looked at the form itself yet because she freaks out and goes blank as soon as I'm watching her. So I have just been doing a bunch of reps and letting her stand behind me and follow. At some point soon, though, I'm going to have to watch!



No-gi at Cindy's. We drilled scissor sweeps, tactical stand from failed scissor sweep (posting on opponent's head), and a simple omoplata. I drilled with Leilani. The first time she tried the omoplata on me, I ended up lying on my back, and we couldn't figure out why it didn't work. Then I realized that I had automatically done an extra roll which negated the technique, even though my CONSCIOUS intention had been to be a good training partner and let her omoplata me. Oops.

Cindy came by and showed me a "bonus violence" variation, with a crossface. I told Leilani, "Yup, that's definitely the Cindified version!"

Cindy demoed a very evil takedown on me. First, she said, "I'll just set it up," Then she changed her mind and asked me if she could take me down. I said, "This is going to hurt, isn't it?" My wonderful classmates all cracked up. I was told to just go with it... yeah, it seemed like it would snap your neck if you didn't. Cooperating, it was reduced from murderous to merely excruciating. Of course Lamont had to ask to see it a couple more times. Thanks, pal. Next time YOU are the demo dummy, I'll make sure to ask LOTS of questions.

Rolls with Leilani (more sweep practice), JB (more stacking), Peter, and Cindy. I know that Cindy only has four limbs- but when you roll with her, it seems like at least eighteen. It's insane.

JB threw some weight on my ribs and forced an involuntary little squeak out of me. She immediately asked with great concern if I was okay- without letting up the weight. I managed to say I was fine, and she said, "That was such a pathetic sound!" still with a voice of concern, all the while continuing to cheerfully crush me. It was so funny that I started laughing uncontrollably, which seemed to perturb her a bit- but not enough to get off my chest.

JB did a really nice sit-up sweep on me, and then started thrashing around grimacing and holding her knee. I said, "Do you want an ice pack?" She lay there with the ice pack on her knee for a while, then put it away and started again. She did a lovely hip throw on me, and my left hand hit the mat first. I distinctly heard a SNAP.

First thought: "Wow, that was a sweet hip throw!"
Second thought: "Ahhhhhh! My finger is broken!!!!!!"
Third thought: "It's not my dominant hand, thank God."
Fourth thought: "it's not an index finger or thumb this time, thank God."
Fifth thought: "Dang! JB is only here for another two days! I don't wanna be on the bench!"

JB said, "Do you want an ice pack?" and got me the same ice pack that she'd just put away. It's the little finger on my left hand. It hurts, but not nearly as bad as my last sprain. It still bends, and is not (as of yet, a couple hours later) visibly swollen. I think it's okay. Time will tell. Boy, it definitely went "SNAP!" though. That scared me.

One delicious moment

We are stuck within a system that gives all the power to the mind, and just the leftovers to the body. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




A whole lot of getting my butt kicked by Alecia, interspersed with one very delicious moment.


But first: Tai Chi.

After the standing meditation, we did the sideways walking (with one arm only, scoop-and-pull-across), then review of all the other stuff, then sideways walking again- because that relates to the next move in the form. I explained the whole don't-hit-with-your-hand, hit-with-your-center/entire body concept... and we hit each other lightly with elbow strikes using JUST the arm versus elbow strikes with the entire body behind them.

Again, I was getting really good, instantaneous chi buzz off the "bubble" exercise, as well as the standing med. I hope that now that I'm being more regular about this, the chi will become even more reliable.

Seeing that LD was still having a little bit of a flying-elbow problem, I walked sideways behind her with one hand on her shoulder and holding the other palm out where I wanted her elbow to stop. A lot of stiff people will get even stiffer when you touch them, so I wasn't really wanting to do it that way, but I didn't know what else to do to try to fix it. She's improving- picking up the techniques okay, no slower than I do- just really stiff. She also tends to speed up, and when she speeds up she gets even stiffer. I need to make sure to keep slowing her down.

Then another move of the form. This one is one of the trickier moves, but she did fine. Several reps.


Then off to Cindy's. There was no Cindy today. Lamont was walking people through an escape from half guard, then pairing people up to spar. With a scoreboard. Gulp. He asked me, "Are you doing the Revolution?" I stood there silently, till he and everyone else in line started laughing. Then I said archly, "Maybe."

Lest you think I am being a bit too hard on myself when I write my blog, I gotta lay out the hard evidence: Alecia creamed me 21 to zero. Oh excuse me- 21 AND AN ADVANTAGE to zero. Heh. I was on the bottom almost the whole match, and she apparently did a bunch of position changes (side control to mount, etc) to get all those points. She then slammed an armbar at the very end, with a few seconds to go. Lamont said, "Tap" and she let go. I said, "I didn't tap! But I was gonna."

Then I went with Daniel, who likewise sat on top of me the entire time. Lamont was making us start in standup, which was intimidating (especially against Alecia, and Daniel (who is very large)). I did not pull guard. Considering that once I'm on the bottom, I tend to stay there- I do not want to pull guard. In fact I might even be better off letting the opponent get a takedown as opposed to resorting to pulling guard. Lord knows I've been hurled hard to the ground often enough that I can recover instantaneously- I have a decent chance of scrambling to some marginally better position than guard, unless they land right on top of me in good positioning with all their weight.

Alecia did get the takedown, but I made her work for it. We danced around for a decent time, and I actually tried a few things. They didn't work- but hey, I tried, which is better than I usually do against Alecia- who simply completely overwhelms me.

Then George- who once again, was toying with me and leaving gaping holes which I still couldn't do crap with. Trying to take him down was like trying to uproot an oak tree. (I finally muttered to him, "You're a BITCH to take down!" Which made him laugh.) I did get to try several things, though- since he was letting me- and eventually I took him down twice. He let me get a tap with an RNC... and yeah, although he allowed me to take his back, he DOES fight back in earnest when you start to slap a sub on- so if you actually get one, you know you did a decent job at it.

Then Lamont. Then Alecia again, in gi this time. She didn't want to put on the pants, but I made her put them on. More dancing around; I got to try some more stuff, she obviously was a little awkward with the whole collar and sleeve grip thing. Then I went for the fall-on-your-butt, plant-feet-in-her-hips and toss-her-over-your-head thing. Worked like a charm. Man, that throw only works once- and really only against inexperienced (in gi) people- but when it works, it's damn pretty. I lost my hold on her as she went down, but I scrambled on top before she could recover. Takedown points for me. Hey look, I got points against Alecia! Delicious.

I actually managed to stay on top for most of the round, although I didn't get a sub. I got a KoB that I got points for. I think I also got a front mount that I got points for, but Lamont informed me that I had thrown away some points by failing to wait the full three seconds in side control before going for the mount. Alecia got a leglock on me once that I had to tap to. I don't know *any* leg stuff yet- either offensive or defensive. If I go up against somebody who does a lot of that stuff, I'm going to be in big trouble. I wish somebody would teach me some leg stuff. This would have been a good thing to work on in those small lunchtime Cindy classes- if only they still existed. Sigh. I haven't seen any leglock instruction at Gracie's in my entire two years- they don't want to teach it in front of the white belts.

Alecia asked me how I thought she would do in gi, and I advised her to not let them get grips, and force them to play her game.

Then George asked Alecia and me to go two-on-one on him. I thought we'd handle him, but we ended up kind of getting in each other's way. Lamont made us stop because it was getting a little out of hand.

Somehow we got on the topic of Lamont being old and frail (huh). I then told them, to their shock, that I am older than Cindy, older than Leilani, and at *least* as old as Lamont. He opined that I look so well-preserved because I "haven't had any trauma". I lay there on the floor and laughed till I was out of breath.

Icing my left elbow right now. It's the one Alecia armbarred, but it had seemed controlled- so I'm not sure, something else might have done it. I hope it'll be okay. Sprained finger twinging a bit. Wrist wound finally healed. Bet it's gonna scar, though. I'm glad it's on my right wrist instead of my left, where it might have messed up my tattoo.

I'm enjoying the Tai Chi with the BJJ chaser. I feel like the Tai Chi does favorable things to my body and mind and puts me in a better zone for the BJJ. Maybe I should try to do a little Tai Chi at the tournament while I'm waiting for my matches.

Bubbles

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that most human problems have their origin in a bad relationship with the body. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




I showed my two index fingers to an acquaintance last night and said, "Do they look the same size to you?" He immediately pointed at the one I sprained in January and said, "This one looks fatter." Dang. I had been hoping it was my imagination. Is it going to stay like that? :-(

I skipped Wednesday lunchtime class, so that I wouldn't be totally exhausted by the evening. I have been wanting to go to a Wednesday evening class at Gracie Seattle for a while now... I wanted to get some face time in a Rodrigo class... and apparently that's where all the girls are hiding. Rodrigo has asked me a few times to try to come to that class if I get a chance. I'd like to roll with Vanessa again- and if there are any other girls who can be competitive with me, it might be good practice to roll with them before the tournament. Next week, I have to work the 11:30am -8pm shift Mon/Tues/Weds, so I'll only get 3 BJJ classes- max- the week before the comp.

I feel bad missing possible chances to roll with Alecia... I feel bad missing *ANY* classes. I am trying to be conscious of the fact that when I drive myself like a Type-A Maniac to go to every single available class, sometimes I end up too exhausted to go the class that I *most* wanted to go to. Sometimes I need to prioritize.

Anyhow, I skipped Tuesday evening class *and* Wednesday lunchtime class. Despite my continued poor sleeping (insomnia, waking up frequently, nightmares, sore body and exhausted mind upon awakening), I felt really good on the way to Tai Chi. I also felt really good after that, on the way over to Gracie's. The exhausted and sore came as I was crawling out of there!


Tai chi: We did the standing meditation and reviewed forward walking, forward walking with hand motions, Repulse the Monkey, and sideways walking (with one-handed motions only). When I watched her walking, I asked "How does it feel if you try to bend your knees a bit more?" She did so and immediately said, "Better." And Yowza, her technique immediately looked exponentially better too.... as well as a bit smoother and less stiff. Still a lot of stiff, though. I stressed a lot more body turn and a lot less throwing the elbow out to the side with the sideways walking. It got a little better, but we will need plenty more work on that.

I taught a drill that I haven't done in a really long time- learned from my very first Tai Chi teacher, close to a decade pre-CK. You hold your hands palm-down at waist level and imagine a balloon or bubble inflating under them. This bubble lifts your hands up to chest level (or face level) and then it deflates again and your hands float back down. Again, you're trying to not use your shoulders or upper arms any more than absolutely necessary, and the elbows remain heavy and dropped. The visualization is supposed to affect a similar technque as the marionette-strings-on-the-backs-of-the-wrists thing.

As I said, haven't done this one in forever... in fact I'd pretty much forgotten it. But now, I am looking ahead at the next few moves in the form, and trying to think of good drills to introduce the principles of the movement before teaching that part of the form. Then it's not just parrotting a form.

The bubble/balloon drill felt really good. As soon as I started to do it, my body and spirit both said, "Ooooooo! Ahhhh. We remember this. That feels nice!" My palms immediately got all hot and heavy with chi.

Review of the form, then adding one more movement. Then I took off, because I did not want to walk into Rodrigo's class late.


No Vanessa. Rats. There was, however, Cornelia! I asked her if she would drill with me (yeah, a week and a half before the comp, I am asking the gal who sprained my finger to work with me.... livin' dangerously...). However, after the warmup, the class got split into white belts (who went onto the other mat with Jesse) and everybody else (who stayed with Rodrigo). Cornelia was with the white belts. Double rats. Probably just as well, though- there was such a crowd there that even using both mat spaces, it was FULL.

No new techniques, just positional sparring with light resistance form various positions. I ended up working with Steve. (Sonia was there, but she continues to stay far, far away from Bad Ol' me.) These were useful exercises, because your partner was supposed to move around a bit, but not so much that you couldn't complete the stated mission. One of these was SWEEPS (my biggest weakness). It was good to get a chance to just play around and try different ones with light resistance.. although on the last rep, he wouldn't let me get ANY- even though I'd specifically asked him to not resist much since my sweeps suck. I was tempted to try to serve him the same meal on HIS next rep... but I didn't, because I am an ADULT!

At the end- conditioning explosion. I hate it when they do that, at the end when you're already ready to drop. And with SPRAWLS! (What's with all the SPRAWLS this week???!) When we didn't count loud enough, Rodrigo made us do another set.

A roll with Cornelia. She tapped me once or twice. I had forgotton about her passion for the step-over armbar, but my memory came back pretty quickly. After her, I had to take a break. Then, two blue belt guys whom I don't know. I wasn't doing too well, with any of them. Mostly on the bottom, and trying to not get subbed. One guy set up a really sweet armbar; I knew it was gonna be tight, and I also knew I wouldn't be able to get out- I had visions of him throwing his body back hard and my elbow blowing out, so I said, "Do it slow, please!" He did, and I thanked him.

Then open mat. Almost everyone disappeared. There was no one left who was remotely appropriate for teeny me to roll with. I was going to ask Kaungren (with whom I have STILL not rolled even once) for a light one, but he was talking to Jesse, and I didn't want to interrupt a teacher. There was one big white belt still gi'ed up and not matched up, so I went over and asked him to roll a light one. His name was Nick (another one). He pretty much tooled me; I was trapped on the bottom most of the time. He did compliment me, though, and he didn't rough me up. Shoulder and back are hurting a bit now, though... he is tall, and was doing some body triangles and bow-and-arrows on me that I maybe wasn't tapping to as quickly as I should have been. It's still a bit emotionally difficult for me to be tapping like Savion Glover to no-stripe white belts, even if they are big ones.

So, a lot of rolling tonight, and I wasn't doing that great.... but Nick and I closed down the mat.



Creepy search term of the week found on *my* blog stats: "disembowelling how?"

I want to learn how to sweep.

From school playgrounds to abusive marriages, from dark streets at night to our very private nightmares, the theaters in which the prospect of physical conflict divides humanity into fearful prey or fighters are more than can be numbered. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




130.5. Ooops. I was parked comfortably at 127.5 on Saturday, but there was a minor Pizza Incident on Monday. No more pizza till after the competition. Sigh. I need to go buy some more packages of those plain chicken breasts.



Lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Seattle.

Standup- blocking two jabs and going to the reap. Not standing up- an upa in which you grab the forearm and tricep. Then another one in which you reach down and grab your own pants cuff to trap the opponent's leg. Drilled with Bree.

A little positional training- hold front mount vs sweep. Are my sweeps ever going to get better? With Bree planted on top of me like a small pickup truck (not that she's fat or anything, but she has considerable weight on me), an upa seemed laughable. Carlos was not happy with me when I went for the ol' standby of escaping to half guard... not that *I* am entirely happy with that either, as I most often get stalled in bottom half guard. Carlos gave me the scenario of "Eet's PanAms and there's tertty seconds left and the guy on top of you ees ahead by an advantage. You just lost, Keetsune. You have to sweep." Then even worse- he got on top of a guy and had the guy escape to bottom half guard. Carlos then passed his half guard, guy replaced it- wash, rinse, repeat- in this way Carlos racked up about twelve points in twenty seconds.

We switched partners a few times, and I couldn't even get a sweep on the white belt girl. Arrrrrgh.

After positional training, Bryan took me over to the other mat and showed me a few Barata-licious things from the Rafael De Freitas seminar. They were a little tricky, but I liked them. I need to grab Bryan before/after class for a few minutes in the next couple weeks and drill those so that hopefully they will stick.



Tai Chi. Another 3 min standing meditation. LD remembered all of the points I'd given her for what you want to pay attention to posture-wise when you stand. We reviewed the walking forward, the walking backward (Repulse the Monkey), then added hand motions to the forward walking. She's doing fine, but still *very* stiff. I'm not sure how to fix that other than to keep reminding her to try to relax, and to emphasize the smooth flow while I'm demo-ing. Maybe I could slip a Valium in her water bottle or something.

In light of the stiffness, I would like to try to work on some additional flow-type stuff before delving too deeply into the form. I'm going to try to find time to cruise around online and find more ideas. I also might e-mail CK and ask for more ideas.... although it would be nice to get a little further along before being reduced to running to CK for help.

Wave-Hands-Like-Clouds still seems a bit too daunting at this point, but we did a little sideways walking with a leading horizontal elbow and then a scooping (I know there's a name for this, but I forget). I was watching her do this,and seeing two problems: 1)EXTREME stiffness (especially glaring in the moving arm) and 2)not enough body turn. I asked for one more circuit focussing on trying to relax the arm and picture a marionette string attached to the back of the wrist and doing all the lifting, while there is a weight attached to the elbow to drag it down. She is *SSOOOOOOOO* stiff that if I could think of a way to introduce this without it seeming to be condescending, I would actually tie sashes to her wrists and make her sit there where I move her arms around and she tries to remain limp.

On the next circuit, I told her to not worry about the arm this time, to just focus on the body turns. After about three of these, she was like, "Wow, you should have told me *that* before. Doing it that way makes the arm go where it's supposed to all by itself." Yup.

Then we did the opening move of the form- by which I mean *just* the step out into high horse. The next movement is an arm raise, and I just am reluctant to do any more arm stuff while she is still so damn stiff.

I was wearing my fox ears today, and LD told me that it was really hard to take me seriously while I was wearing that hood.



Evening BJJ at Cindy's. I had actually been planning to go to Gracie Seattle.... I haven't had a Rodrigo class in a long time, and I wouldn't mind trying to catch some of those white belt women who are rumored to appear in the Wednesday evening class (including Vanessa). However, I was a bit late getting out of Tai Chi, and Cindy's class starts at 6:30 instead of 6.... the prospect of getting to class *not* late (and even having time to stop for a sandwich) was too alluring.

I was expecting to see a nice shiner on Leilani, but she didn't have a mark on her! She was laughing at me because my wrist bandage "...keeps getting bigger! It started with just a bandaid, then it was a coban wrap, and now it's an ace bandage!" Yeah, the bandage keeps getting bigger because it's failing to get the job done. Even the gauze pad, tape, coban wrap, more tape, ace bandage and MORE TAPE that I wore tonight didn't protect the wound from abrasion and sweat-soaking. Although the fat ace bandage did seem to inhibit Leilani a bit from gripping my wounded wrist with an iron-clamp hold while she was kimura-ing me. That same wrist has also been a little hinky since Carlos wristlocked me shortly after he arrived last summer. Every once in a while, it just seems to want to reminisce- and ache for a few days. This morning I woke up and for no apparent reason, it was doing its thing.

We reviewed the kimura from guard, the guillotine from guard, and added a triangle for when the opponent brings the elbow inside your knee to try to defend the kimura.

Positional training. Closed guard- pass vs sweep or submit. Then side control- escape or submit vs hold the person down. Leilani was working REALLY hard tonight. I was still hard on her, but did remember to let her have a couple things. Gave positive feedback as always. Also, some suggestions as we were working: "Careful, feel my knee sliding in for the mount? Grab that half guard if you can. See where my arm is...so what do you want to try for?"

A roll with Leilani, and then one with yet another tweenager. This one was fine to work with as well (in fact, when I made an involuntary gargle while I was trying to outlast his triangle, he paused to ask if I was okay before he finished me off.... sigh).

I did actually get a sweep on the tweenager and one on Leilani; it wasn't easy, but I was focussing- still thinking about my sweep frustration from this afternoon. The one on Leilani, in particular: I actually managed to ANALYZE what limbs I needed to trap and where her weight was and where to lift.... this is just not coming instinctually to me, and it's difficult to find the brainspace to focus during most live rolls. I had a number of unsuccessful attempts before getting the sweeps.

Leilani told me as we were packing up that my suggestions while rolling are really helpful, that she learns when she works with me. Wheras Alecia just crushes her. Yeah, I hear ya sister. She was gratifyingly horrified when I told her I might have to fight Alecia at the Revolution. I told her that she still has time to sign up, and she laughed some more.

I haven't rolled with Cindy for a while, which is sad. This is another reason I miss the three-to-five-person lunchtime classes.

Cindy is starting an adult boxing class. I'd love to try, but I feel like I'm already spread too thin. Maybe sometime in the future.


(pic- Jim)

Lamont sings the blues

Friday morning Competition Class at Gracie Seattle. It was a small class- maybe eight or ten of us to start with, then another eight or so trickling in as the morning went on. There's a seminar tonight, so Bryan thinks most people are taking the morning off due to that.

Some warmups, then right to timed rolls.

Bryan first. Guess where I spent most of the roll. Yup, front mounted. Bryan is too good for me to even get my precious bottom half guard. After the eighth time he put me there, I said, "Geez, this seems familiar somehow." Then he choked me. I held out for a long time, but I finally had to tap.

"Ha ha ha ha! Your lips were turning blue!"

"*Cough* *Cough* I was hoping you'd give up."

"I would have, but when I saw your lips turning blue, I knew I had the choke on good."

Then a one stripe white belt guy. He gave me a bit more advice than I appreciated- seeing as how he was six ranks below me- but at least he was trying to use technique and not bull me, which I *did* appreciate. He complimented me on my bottom half guard. I hadn't been able to do much useful with it, but he was inexperienced enough that I did get a chance to at least fish around a bit and TRY- which was helpful.

Then Marc. After Marc was open mat, so Marc and I kept going. Great jiu-jitsu. Good practice and fun.

At first I thought he was a little tired or something today- he seemed a bit off his game at the beginning, although he rallied after a while and started Bringing It. I was on top a lot. My new resolve to quit the automatic jumping to front mount seems to be working out better for me- although I did go ahead and go to front mount a few times on him- when I felt in control enough to do so- and practice trying to hold it (which I kind of suck at, thus my attempt to get off the habit). I got KOB about four times... so I teased, "What are you letting me get all these knee rides for??!?"

I was making a conscious effort to stay *OUT* of his closed guard if at all possible, because I have rolled with him enough to know that that's a place that does not tend to bode well for me. I got caught in it a few times, but I also took Cindy's suggestion of sometimes just disengaging and backing off for a sec if that seems to be the only way to avoid getting pulled into closed guard.

We actually tapped each other out today, which we hardly ever do. I was all jubilant at tapping him with a keylock and then again with one of those rear chokes (one collar and one pantleg). Paybacks are a bitch, though... he was fishing for a kimura, and I said, "Nope, nope, no kimura for you," he said, "Okay, how 'bout a choke, then?" and started digging for that instead. I went to defend the choke, and he went back to the kimura and tapped me out with it! Dang!


Tai Chi lesson with LD. We spent another half hour stretching. She asked if her technique/posture was wrong because she couldn't side-bend all the way down to her ankle like I was doing; I had to explain again that I have been doing this for a very very very long time and it would take her a while to get that rubbery. Sometimes I wonder if I should just fake my level of gumbiness in front of these new people- at least the Type A ones who berate themselves if they can't touch their nose to their tailbone.

We reviewed the basic standing posture, and stood for a 3 or 4 min meditation.

I asked how that felt, and she replied that it felt like her legs were working too hard. I had noticed the same in myself while we were doing the walking at our last lesson, and had decided that the culprit was her thick area rug. We rolled up the rug and I had her take her tennis shoes off. She said that that was much better.

More of the walking (hands on hips only). She is already improved from last time. Less bobbing up at the end of each step.

Then backward (with arm movements- I find the backward waking *easier* with arm movement than without). Repulse The Monkey is probably my favorite technique in Tai Chi. I demoed it for her, then had her follow me across the floor for a few laps. Then I asked her to keep going while I watched. She immediately froze up and forgot everything. She really is like me! Hell, she **IS** me!!! I quickly moved to diffuse the tension by saying smoothly, "No worries, follow me for another lap," But with no wall mirrors, how could I both demo and watch? Ah-ha. I placed us both at the center of the room facing each other, and we Repulsed Monkeys until we reached the far walls. She said immediately, "That really helps." Do I rock, or what?! So we did that several more times. She has the gist, but is still very stiff and jerky.

I talked a bit about the breathing- breathe in as you close or move toward your center, and out as you move outward from the center. I got a little lightheaded from inhaling and exhaling exaggeratedly so that she could hear/see me from across the room as we Repulsed our Monkeys.

Then I explained openings and closings, and taught her two common ones- the slight lift and press at hip level, and the circle-arms from center, down, out, up, to in again. These particular openings and closings are often used in the Shaolin group as well. I did this on purpose. If we turn out to be a decent teacher/student fit, it would be awesome to get her into a little Shaolin as well, eventually. Good to plant a tiny seed of that idea early on.

Next time, we will do 3 openings and closings before and after the short standing meditation. Then we will begin at far endsof the room facing each other, and do the forward stepping till we meet in the middle. Then Repulse The Monkey till we get back to our respective walls. Bunch of reps of that. I'd like to see her get more relaxed and smooth the whole thing out a bit. Then the first few moves of the short open-hands form.

It's a pain to not have wall mirrors. Once we get the form seriously underway, I wonder if it would be possible for us to take a monthly field trip to my (non-MA) gym to work with the mirrors.



Friday evening no-gi at Cindy's. I probably would have bagged that one tonight- three back-to-back classes is a bit much- but Cindy had texted me in the morning and told me to come tonight if I could, as she was going to give Lamont his blue belt. I would've shown up just for that!

When I got there, though, there was no sign of the man. I asked Alecia where he was. "At work." "He's not coming at all?" "Not tonight." Crap. To Cindy: "Lamont's not here!!!" "I know... now I'll make him wait another year."

Ian was there! I haven't seen him in months. I was so happy. I have missed working with him. Turns out he was busy with wrestling program, but now he should be around more often.

Evil warmups. I had to carry Leilani across the gym. I made Cindy stand behind me and hold my shoulders while Leilani jumped guard on me, just in case she knocked me over. Once the weight was settled in the right place on top of my hips, I was fine.

Lamont wandered in after the evil warmups. Yesssss!

More guillotine from closed guard. A defense for that (fight the choke with one hand, hug the opponent over the shoulder with other arm, your own shoulder in hir throat, walk around). Discussion/debate of whether or not cranking the neck slightly to the side while you're guillotining the guy is actually legal.

A really cool sweep for when you're going for the kimura from closed guard, and the opponent straightens hir arm and passes it over your head. Push the arm further across the centerline, pass it to your other hand and hug hir head tight with your elbow. Now s/he's got hir arm wrapped around hir own neck. (And yours as well.) Then you underhook hir thigh, "talk on your phone" (bring your head to hir knee), turn, kick over, and get on top. I like that one.

I was really a bit too knackered to do live sparring, but Ian had run up to me in line and said excitedly, "I want to spar with *YOU*!" How could one say no? He wanted to start from standup. Ack. Well, as soon as he plowed into me, I could tell 1)he had leveled-up by a exponent of about five since I last sparred him, and 2)I was in trouble. If it had been someone I didn't trust, I would have yelled TAP upon hitting the mat from the takedown, so that a serious discussion and negotiations could be had as to whether or not I was going to continue this spar at all. But I knew that even though he'd come out like a freight train, Ian was probably not going to hurt me, so I kept going. Wow, he toasted me. Thoroughly, completely, and without mercy. The days of us being competitive are sadly in the past, it is obvious. That's too bad, but I'm happy for him. He's only fifteen. He's going to be killing everyone in another couple of years. I got a little bottom half guard (for a while), but all I could do was strain to survive for a short time. His shoulder pressure in the throat and side of the face is deathly.

Then Cindy put me with Lynn. I have never seen her before, but apparently she has taken lessons from Cindy at a different site for a little while. She knew some basic technique- including a really nice triangle. She is *TINY*. Tinier than me. Tinier than Sue. I literally had to bend over and put my hands on my knees to talk to her while we were standing on the sidelines. If she's 75lb, I'll eat my Reeboks. So I was careful, and went slow. I made her work, but she had truly beautious triangles, so I let her tap me twice with them. She thanked me for going slow. (Next round she went with Alecia, who was much faster and more smashy!)

Then Lamont got his blue belt. I had brought my housemate's camera and hid it in my sweatshirt under the bench. I got ONE photo (see above) before the battery went tits-up. Rats. It was great to be there for that, though. Lamont's been training for over a decade- but very little gi, and he just never got promoted. As we all congratulated him, I said, "It's about time, ya damn sandbagger!" Then I had to hector him from the sidelines as he sparred George. "Come on, Lamont, you have to Bring It now- you're a blue belt!" "Hey George, why don't you hogtie him with that new belt?!" and so on, and so on.

I told Cindy that I had enjoyed working with that kid she paired me with on Wednesday. She said, "Oh yeah! He was talking about you!" 'That lady,' (murfle...wheeze) 'I was going easy on her because she was so small-' Cindy: 'And was SHE going easy on YOU??' The kid admitted that he thought maybe I was. (wheeze... some more) But I told Cindy that he'd been really good about not putting his weight on me, and trying hard to stick to technique. He had also admitted to her that he'd used some strength 'when I started to get scared,' (wheeeeeeeeeze...)

Alecia tried to fix me up!!!! Ack!!!!

Tai chi with a BJJ chaser

I told Cindy, "I have a funny story for you,"

She got all excited: "Were you MEAN??!?"

"Someone at Gracie Barra is avoiding me on the mats because I'm too rough."

She slapped her thighs and yelled, "Whoo-hoo!"

Hahaha.


The tai chi lesson seemed to go okay, although I really won't be able to tell for sure until several sessions in. Found out that LD hasn't had a chance to work with CK at *ALL* yet, so we are really starting at ground zero. She has a hinky right ankle (sprained last fall and not quite healed fully), and her right shoulder/neck area is really messed up after the breast cancer surgery. Apparently she has been sorta clasping the arm to her chest and having everything all hunched up and tense. She's having PT a few times a week for it, but presently the limited range of motion and the level of tightness in that area is going to be a bit of a challenge.

She's decently flexible... although she did what they all do- despite my disclaimers- they get down on themselves because they can't stretch something as far as I can. I say (beforehand) "I am abnormally flexible, and I have been doing this same stretching routine almost every day for about TWENTY-FIVE YEARS- don't expect to be able to get your leg back this far on day one."

We stretched for a long time, and then went through the basic standing posture, and then a little stepping. NO arms yet. I figure that any bad habit I am still struggling with after some fifteen years of tai chi is a good one to consciously nip in the bud for my newbie. It's easy to get all distracted by the arm-waving, and think it's all about that- that's tai chi. But it's all about the center. Your center is doing tai chi, the limbs are just an after thought along for the ride. So I'm going to be really careful to ingrain that from the start. (And, fortuitously, that also lets us take it easy on her bad shoulder.)

I was able to watch LD's stepping, see something not quite right, and suggest a variation to fix that- which worked. Whew. Maybe I can teach tai chi after all. Each circuit she did was progressively better, although she's still coming up on her toes a little. Tonight while I was making dinner, I thought of a variation that may help with *that* problem- we'll try it on Friday. I'd also like to get to a little Repulse-The-Monkey on Friday. Dying to do some Wave-Hands-Like-Clouds, but I think that trying to move sideways is just going to confuse her if she tries that before she has backwards and forwards down really well. Silk reeling, unfortunately, will probably have to wait till her shoulder is more recovered.

I'm also thinking about teaching her the Dance Of Life. I need to feel her out a little more and figure out how receptive she is to what I sometimes refer to as the "Woo-woo stuff". Dance Of Life is not tai chi, but it's a great chi-flow exercise- and can be helpful to people who are just trying to figure out what chi is, what it feels like, and how to move it around. I am aware, though, that some people want their tai chi without the chi (rolling eyes). I hope LD's not one of them- but if she is, I'll have to figure out how to teach like that.

She did say that her thighs were "feeling the burn"- and we only did actual tai chi for twenty minutes or so. Good.


I went straight from there to Cindy's, and still missed half the warmup. I got there just in time for the Dead Bugs. Oh Goodie!

She had a whole bunch of Tween-age boys in there today. She's doing some kind of new wrestling/BJJ program at a (I think) junior high, and bringing some of those kids into her kids' class- if they are physically large enough and have the attention span, they are sometimes allowed to participate in the adult class.

There was also a small group of kids having Capoeira class on the other end of the mat. OMG, I would so love to try some of that! And it would be so convenient, with that group sharing this space! Sigh. I just do not have enough time- or $$$- for another obsession right now.

We drilled most of the same stuff we'd done on Friday. Coolness, it was all stuff I would like more work on. I had to walk Leilani through most of it. I also got to be demo dummy for some of it (including the bonus neck crank after the reveral- ack!).

Alecia had come in halfway through drilling, and I was regarding her with mixed feelings: "Good, gonna get some challenging live rolling tonight" versus "Ooooooh, I don't know if I have enough gas in the tank to cope with *YOU* tonight".

However, Cindy paired me up with one of the Young-un's. He looked about 12YO, but he was probably twice my weight. I was a bit leery. Didn't give him my "disclaimer", but I was ready to call a time-out and do so if he started to pancake me and rip my arm off.

He turned out to be okay. I don't know what his training background is, but from his rolling it seemed like he had some basic BJJ and some going-on-intermediate wrestling. He knew some technique- some escapes, and he could identify most of the subs I tried to set up, but he wasn't trying for many subs of his own. He was being really good about not putting his weight on me. He *was* using some strength- especially when he felt me slapping a sub on- but you could tell he was making an effort to stick to technique (and doing a respectable job for a 12YO). His buddies were a bit problematic at times, when they had advice (and jeerings) from the sidelines. But we must have rolled for close to 30 min straight, and it was good. Part of me feels crappy that I couldn't sub him... but I did have considerable positional domination. He had good defenses for my favorite subs. I must have tried a bazillion keylocks and half as many armbars, and couldn't finish. I got a few chokes that weren't *quite* tap-out material. Several kimura attempts (which was good; that is not a sub I have gone for much in live rolling, and would like to front-burner it more). As I said, he had good defense for my small bag of tricks, and the one time that I came closest to tapping him was when I pulled out something different- the kimura where you are sitting on the opponent's head in a sort of diagonal position. I *ALMOST* had him with that. He was exclaiming over what a cool technique that was (while I'm continuing to push and thinking, "So TAP... come on, TAP...!) He finally managed to roll out somehow, to my exasperated surprise. (I really need a refresher in the transition into that technique.) As the melee continued to stretch on and on, I started hoping he'd gas out- he was pretty overweight, and he was puffing, all right- but he had game, and kept plugging. As soon as time got called, though, he immediately disengaged with palpable relief. Not that he was the only one. That was a really good roll, though. Fun, and it seemed like we challenged each other.


The little scrape I got on my wrist when I fell down the Gracie Barra Seattle stairs is infected, drat it. I had bandaided it before going to Cindy's, and that worked fine for drills (although I winced a little every time Leilani sat up and grabbed my wrist for the kimura... the woman has a wicked grip! I'll bet she doesn't need hubby to get the top off the peanut butter jar for her!). However, once I stared rolling, the bandaid went bye-bye in a river of sweat, and that guy kept grabbing my wrist hard, too. Tomorrow I'm going to Coban it and then swirl tape all around on top of the Coban, and see if that will hold. If not, I may need to take a couple days off (or at least off free rolling) to let the wound heal up.

(pic- Rodrigo (in the black shirt))

How to avoid disembowelling yourself with your own sword.

Lunchtime BJJ in Seattle. I really wanted to make an appearance at Cindy's this afternoon- but I had a 2pm scheduled with CK, and Gracie Barra Seattle has what Cindy's unfortunately does not: a SHOWER. I look/smell so foul after a BJJ class, I don't even want to stop for GAS without a shower first, so there is no question of going to a second class in that state.

Even more unfortunately, the condition of my car necessitates an overdue trip to the car hospital.... which will make it impractical to go to Cindy's tomorrow lunchtime either. Working Friday and Monday. I might be able to make it to Cindy's lunchtime next Tuesday, assuming the car is repaired by then. She probably thinks I've died.

Anyway- same techniques as last night. I got to work with Steve, a small-size 4-stripe blue who is great to work with.

I had to be reminded to keep that gable grap during the clinch- and also during the scarf/headlock reversals. I also had to be reminded to keep my head/posture up when doing the clinch so that I don't get guillotined.

Problem: during the scarf/headlock rollovers, I whacked my ulnar nerve ("funnybone"), not just once but multiple times. I slapped some jow on it when I got to the community center with CK, but it's still pretty tender- and radiating funky weirdness all along that arm. (My right arm, of course- my sword arm, when I had a class scheduled with CK, drattit.)

King-of-the-mat positional sparring from headlock/scarf. I last about three seconds in this position on top of a big guy. After several rounds of immediately getting rolled over, I started switching to side control the second we said "go"- whch is kind of cheating the whole "positional training" concept, but heck, that was just not working out for me.

Timed spar with Marc. Very competitive. He has unexpectedly flexible hips, and is really good at making a little space and replacing guard when you don't think he'll be able to pull that off. All of a sudden, there's a leg between you- and it's like, "Damn- where did that leg come from?" and there you are in his guard again. Every time he put me back in guard, I cursed softly.... after four or five times, we were both laughing about it. He's good at triangles, too- which is fortunate for me because I get to work my triangle defense/escape, which still is wanting. I got out of one by stacking him hard and then shoving his thigh aside and passing. Escaped a couple more by quickly underhooking both his thighs. But I had to be pretty quick.

Open mat- I challenged Bree, but she was having asthma issues and had to bail. So I jumped Marc again. Another good competitive roll. Because I felt challenged by him- but not hopelessly, helplessly overmatched- I was consciously doing a little better at getting out of my game-plan rut and trying some different tactics once I observed that he was using the same set of techniques successfully against me multiple times. I finally managed to tap him out with an armlock. I had to work for a while to get it. I was perched on top of his shoulder, but he kept shoving away the ankle I was trying to park beside his head. Once I managed to accomplish that, I grabbed for his pantleg to try to bow him (that was an unusual tactic for me to experiment with). I had to let go of the pants, though, to keep the arm. He gable-gripped his hands to try to defend the armlock, but I wrapped his wrist by grabbing my own gi lapel. It wouldn't have worked against a big gorilla- and for a while I didn't think it was going to work on him- but I kept at it for a bit, and wore him down, and he eventually lost the gable grip and had to tap. I hardly ever tap Marc any more- and he really makes me work for it when I do- so I was pleased with myself.

Jamie just started yoga. He said wonderingly, "Some of those women in there are so flexible that thay can stand with their feet apart, put their heads right down on the mat, and go up into headstands!" So I had to show him that I could do that. Gracefully. When I was upright again, I glanced down the line, and all the guys were watching me with identical gawping expressions. LOL. Someday I'll walk on my hands for them, and then they'll REALLY think I'm Hot Stuff.



Later.........

Tai chi with CK. I asked her to show me the new form that she wants to teach me next. It's a jian form. Pretty cool. She thinks it has a lot of Dragony energy in it. I can't really tell by watching.

We did some more Catherine Dao, some more Cannon Fist. More moving-from-the-center, more alignment. It is a bit frustrating that the second I stop focussing on the pelvic alignment, it slides right back into it former bungled state. I mean IMMEDIATELY. I literally have to say it to myself every twenty seconds. CK says that it is a process of actually changing PHYSIOLOGY as well as posture, so it's not unusual for it to be that much work.

I got to work apps from Catherine Dao, involving grabbing the enemy by the hair (I had to grab CK by the collar instead, as she currently has a buzz cut), chopping her head off, and then swinging the severed head around in a wide circle as you make the next turn. The blood splashes in a lovely arc- nothing is untouched.

One correction she made on me was the spot where I was puling the dao back across my belly for a rechamber before a stab- I was turning the edge outward as I pulled it back and then twisting the sword on the stab so that the edge was inward again at extention. She wanted me to keep the dao in place and remove all the superfluous twisting. I tried it, and immediately objected because that put the edge toward my stomach on the rechamber. I argued that in a melee situation, that would put me in danger of someone falling or pushing against me and causing me to open my own gut with my own sword. That is always embarrassing. She ran the technique both ways and exclaimed, "Huh!" I was enormously pleased that I actually had a practical martial reason for the alteration that I had apparently made on a subconscious level... and even more pleased that CK appreciated my deviation enough to consider it valid. We compromised, and decided to turn the edge downward on the drawback. She further suggested that we both present a united front in insisting to SK that that was the way it had always been. (hee hee)

Whenever CK comes to Seattle, she visits a Chinese bakery and gets these EEEEEEEVIL custard pastry things that probably have a zillion calories in them. Today she also fed me a coconut tart from the same bakery. I said I'd try a small piece... wow, it was yummy- Next thing I knew, I had gorfed the whole thing. Good thing- in that aspect- that CK and her baked good are leaving tomorrow morning. The ten lb I dropped for the November Revolution, I've kept it off throughout the holidays.

While in the International District, she also bought a pair of ceramic cups with a traditional design in nice earthy green and beige- Tigers on one and Dragons on the other. Those being our respective Shaolin styles; she gave me the Tiger and kept the Dragon.




I had hoped to get to evening BJJ tonight in Bellevue as well, but my malfunctioning car put the kibosh on that. I feel bad flaking out on Angela yet again for no-gi.

(pic- Doug's black belt promotion)

The Deadly Triangle

Met CK at 9:30 am... we went to High Point Community Center, in West Seattle. I've never been there before. They've got an awesome room... high ceiling, mirrors, wood floor. (Greenlake Community Center is going to be very much unavailable for the foreseeable future due to budget cuts- their hours have been slashed.)

We only had about 45 min to work on tai chi before MM arrived. We worked on Catherine Dao- mostly the closing, which I continue to struggle with.

I declined to spar with them today. At all. I know that this is not a viable long-term solution, but when I contemplate sparring- even with CK, with whom I feel fairly safe- all I feel is anxiety and dread. It's not fun any more... it just makes me feel frustrated and inadequate.

CK and MM sparred, and when they got tired, CK worked with me on Catherine Dao and Cannon Fist. She wants me to use higher, narrower stances- which feels like regressing and wussing out to me, but she stresses that doing it RIGHT in high narrow stances is better than doing it WRONG in deep stances. I insisted that I *could* do the deep stances- yet every time I tried, she informed me that my form was unacceptable due to all the compensatory positions I was using in order to try to avoid bending my knees. I hadn't really seen/understood how bad it was until today. It took her pointing out all the various things I was doing- most of them on a completely subconscious level- for it to hit home. It was quite a disconcerting and dismaying discovery. This is certainly just as bad of an issue in my Shaolin.

"THE DEADLY TRIANGLE"- the point at which my stance becomes wide enough that I start to subconsciously avoid bending my knees. Actually, I guess I'm sort of ALWAYS subconsciously trying to avoid bending my knees.... but there is a definite point at which it starts to show up glaringly as crippling my formwork. "You can't just badass your way through everything" was a statement that was also made, which stung enough to have a ring of truth to it.

We worked some more on alignment issues- pelvis, head, hips. CK thinks that this is the single most important thing I ought to be focussing on for the next period in both tai chi and Shaolin- and that if I can clean up some of my alignment issues, it may actually ease my knee pain enough to go back to the deep stancework. The high stances are a little easier to take if I think that this isn't a *permanent* step backward.

Moving from the center was another big theme today. Hips continue to be tight and inflexible. Even after we'd been working for a while, I still felt like there was a stone column running from my tailbone to the base of my skull- that's how stiff my hips felt. CK made me stop, lie down on the floor, and do hip circles. She knows I can't stand hip circles... I do not have the patience to do hip circles. They appear to be a necessary evil, though!

I have a few specific notes on the two forms, which I am too tired to transcribe tonight, but I will get them down in the next few days. Not too many specific notes, though- it was mostly alignment and moving from the center on our radar today.

Tomorrow will be CK's last day here. I gladly put in a bid for her anticipated small block of time tomorrow between lunch and dinner. She already has an after-dinner class planned with SK and JM... and me, I was informed. I tried to gracefully sidestep the evening class three times- with three different perfectly reasonable excuses- but she knew I wasn't working that evening, and she just wasn't having it. She kept insisting that she really wants me there for the particular class material that she had in mind. She thinks that SK and I have similar major stumbling blocks when it comes to Chen, so she has some specific things planned to work on, that she wants SK and me to continue working on until her next visit. I finally had to put my foot down and state outright (which I was doubly reluctant to do with MM there) that I simply do not want to work in front of JM. It fills me with anxiety, and it would just not be productive for me. Again, avoidance not being a viable long-term solution for *that* problem either... yet it's a step forward for me to be self-aware enough and assertive enough to know that that situation is just not going to be worth the effort for me, and that it's a waste of my valuable time to go through the motions. As soon as I start getting corrections from JM in **CHEN**- in which she has had a grand total of about four lessons, and I have been studying for fifteen years, and yet I have no doubt she'll immediately be more proficient at than I am- I will truly have a nuclear meltdown. We are just not gonna go there, uh-uh, nope- not while my self-confidence is in the toilet to the extent that it currently is.

I did text SK and warn him that CK wants to work on the tai chi short form with him tomorrow evening, so he'd better do some reps beforehand!


Later............


Evening BJJ in Bellevue. I haven't been to BJJ since Christmas eve. I got to congratulate Doug on his black belt promotion, which was cool. Hostility Boy now has two stripes on his blue belt, which was markedly less cool. I also saw Jamie for the first time since the huge Promotion 0rgy in December, and congratulated him on his fresh purple. Luiz got *TWO* new stripes on his purple, Manuel got two new stripes on his white- and he has also dropped thirty-four pounds in four months. Wow. Irina now has a stripe on her white belt. I drilled with her tonight.

I was afraid I'd be feeling out of shape after my recent lax training schedule, but the warmup went fine- even though we spent a lot of time running, which is challenging for me with my breathing issues. After the running, I did four full fast, technically precise shrimping circuits, and didn't feel particularly weary.

We started with a standup drill- two cross-jabs to your partner's upraised palms, thrust kick to belly, step in and clinch. Irina- the karate artist- had some SERIOUS jabs and kicks- each kick knocked me back a step or two, and she was going light. So when it was my turn, I felt that I needed to serve back the same high standard- on my honor as a kung fu artist! I didn't knock her back with my kicks, but they were at LEAST as serious as hers... I exercised my skillful control and precision, and pulled them at exactly the right point. I can tell she knows enough to recognize a Serious Kick when she feels one!
;-)

Another thing I like about drilling with Irina is that she is all brisk business- no futzing around, so we get maximum reps in. We got two circuits in the time it took everyone else to do one.

Spinning armbar. I can do this, although the fine details still need a little work. In particular, I need to pay attention to snuggling my ankle tight against the opponent's neck and pinning hir head in place with it. We were also grabbing the pants at the knee with the free hand, which I had to keep reminding myself to not let go of.

Escape from scarf/headlock- the one where you clasp your arms around the opponent's body and roll hir first toward hir head and then overtop of your own body to get on top.

Then a little positional training from scarf/headlock, and from north-south.

(pic- Andrew and Renzo)