Next time, I'll bounce

My definition of impossible has been overrun by external events so often as to take away from me any certainty regarding what is possible and what is not. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Okay, I challenge anyone to watch this without laughing. One of Cindy's littlest kids vs PROFESSOR CARLOS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQOgkOmE2oU

WIP: I figured out what to do with the missing piece of that one scene. Enter GIANT CONSTRICTOR!!! Yes, my protagonist is currently battling a giant constrictor. Unfortunately for me, this involves research in the form of watching videos of boas and ball pythons devouring helpless cute little mice, rats, and (gulp) a baby bunny. Coulda done without that... but I don't want to describe unrealistic snake attacks. Fortunately for my protagonist, she is far from helpless, and she definitely has more weaponry on her person than your average baby bunny. Dayum, those snakes strike fast, though. And not mouth-first (or even head-first), which  foils my initial few ideas of how to kill it. I haven't figured out yet how she's going to take it out. She's good, though. And very highly motivated to kill this sucka. I trust her. She'll come up with something. 

Friday lunchtime BJJ at Gracie Sea. The prof from Yakima was there and brought a couple of his students, including a white belt woman with what Marc and I decided are "triangle legs". Long, long legs and arms- I'm jealous- she's going to be using those to her great advantage as soon as she gets a bit more experience.

Rolled a little with Vince before start of class. I *FINALLY* managed to tap someone with that thumb-in choke that I've been trying to get on everyone for the better part of a month. Thanks Vince.

Visiting prof led the class. Remember those 100 armbars from mount and 100 triangles from guard that I was whining about a few weeks ago? Man, that was nothing. We started with a lot of running (which is really hard for me because of my breathing issues). Followed by a lot of brutal new (to me) line drills; then we circled up and did about twenty Brazillion cardio exercises- crunches, pushups, all sorts of things. I was invoking both Jesus *and* Mary before we were done, and I'm not Christian. It was brutally hot again today, too.

You have guard. Double sleeve cuff grips, feet on hips, push out a tad. Spread knees and keep opponent's arms on the outside.  One foot on bicep as in spider guard, other foot swings around and up and then sockets under opponent's armpit. Opponent puts the other knee up. You grab hir elbow (on the same side that you have your foot in the pit), turn, and omoplata. I'm not really suave yet with the omoplata, and there were a lot of details in this one that zoomed over my head, so I think we're gonna have to come back to this later when I'm a little more seasoned. At least I knew enough this time to grab the guy's belt to hold him there while I was trying to sub him.
                                                                    
Same entry, but this time you take the foot that was in the pit and stick it under the thigh that the opponent put up. Sweep with a cartwheeling motion. Letting go and posting with one arm allows you to end in a very neat front mount. Subs from this position are legion, especially if you were good about keeping hold of that arm. Same "this is a little beyond my current level" feeling as far as considering trying this live, although I was pleased to have grokked the technique enough to be able to execute it the first time on my purple belt partner- who couldn't figure out how to do it. He called over the prof to get corrections, explaining, "She's too flexible, I can't get the tap." Prof did it on me and tapped me instantaneously, then fixed the guy's technique and replied, "She's not too flexible- you're doing it wrong."  (I kept a straight face.)

Positional training from closed guard, Angela. I can't be competitive with Angela, she is just too far above my skill- and I was feeling kind of helpless and apologetic. Sorry Angela.

One roll with the visiting woman. I tapped her instantly with my handful-of-the-back-of-the-shoulder choke, then told her how to defend, and tried for it a whole bunch more times while coaching her on how to stop me.

Little bit of rolling with Dave, who suggests focusing more on the technical lift. I had gotten him with the grab-the-backs-of-your-ankles takedown... which I get quite a bit- but as often happens, I was too slow and clumsy to follow up properly and get on top. He walked me through it and had me technical-lift, which worked much better than I expected it too. We seemed way too tangled up for that to work, but it did (I even posted on his leg). I was able to not only get up, but dive smoothly on top. Focusing more on trying to get this- and trying it even when it seems like I don't have enough room or free limbs- may be a way for me to try to stay off the bottom. If I can habituate this, it ought to work really well because of my short legs.

A roll with Marc, which is always a real pleasure. He seems to have legs EVERYWHERE while I'm trying to pass his open guard. I think he should exploit spider guard more; it seems like that would be a real strength for him. The fact that we haven't rolled together in a while showed when he let me get KOB and he just lay there under it. "Don't you start THAT again!" After he did it two more times, I said, "The next time you let me get that and keep it for three seconds, I'm going to start bouncing." Then he started shrimping the heck out of there immediately (or better yet, keeping me from getting the knee in there at all).                         

Jalen kicking butt at UGF last weekend... look how big he's getting...he seems to double his height every year... by spring he's going to be way bigger than me and we won't be very well-matched any more.  :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5CtQAroQFc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Bjwq6iz3Sc&feature=youtube_gdata

Hippocampi!

Ultimately what I believe, or don’t believe, doesn’t really matter. The only thing that beliefs do for me is close my mind to different possibilities. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Saturday Form Of the Day: Bung Bo Kuen
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Sunday FOD: Plum Blossom Fist
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MOnday FOD: Northern Mantis Bo form.
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Tuesday FOD: Sil Lum Tao.
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Wednesday FOD: Leopard Fist (smooth, so smooth)

Wrote most of a pivotal scene last night and this morning- perhaps the most pivotal scene in the story. I came up with a (I hope) unique spin on what I was going to do, which made it so interesting that I couldn't wait to get it down. The twist caused a few inconsistencies that I need to iron out, and there's still one part of the scene that I'm not sure what to do with- but it's some good writing.  I also managed to insert hippocampi into the story, which I had really wanted to do. As I commented on Mythic Scribes recently, hippocampi are just way too cool to not use in my story. (If you need to Google "hippocampi", that's a a shame and that's why we need more of them.)
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Thursday lunchtime BJJ at GB Belle.

It was pretty hot (and promises to be even hotter later today... multiple classes are gonna be a strain today). Any idea that the Prof might be easier on us due to the heat were dashed when warmups included "swims"- that's where you lie prone, throw your arms out to the sides, slap your palms on the mat at arms' length in front of your face, and then PULL your entire body along the mat using just your arms. Two laps of this.

Knee-on-belly day.  Side control to KOB- one hand grips collar behind opponent's head, the other grips pantleg on the inside of the near knee. Jump to KOB. Keep your back upright and pull to bow the person. Pray that your drill partner did not eat a big breakfast. 

Yay, something I do well- I can go from prone on the mat to upright KOB in one smooth quick hop. Well enough that Carlos had everyone stop and watch me do one as a demo of how he wants it to look. I confess it did get a bit slower and jerkier after a dozen or so reps.

KOB is good for me, but it's good for me because I can sneak my knee in from side control and get 3 seconds before the opponent knows I have KOB. Once they realize it, I can rarely hold the position even if I'm doing everything right. So this dramatic entrance to the technique ("HEY DUDE, Look, here I go to get KOB on you!!!!") is probably not going to work well for me in live rolling, at least against bigger people (read: 99.999% of my opponents).

You have KOB, opponent turns in to you and puts hand on your leg to shrimp out. You let go of pants and place that hand over hir hand. Spin so that you are sitting on hir head. The knee behind hir head is on the mat (press this one right up close to prevent hir from moving around), the knee in front is up. Make sure opponent is not gripping hir own lapels (remove the grip if so), loop your other hand under hir armpit and grab your own forearm, kimura.  You can also transition to an armbar from here.

Note that Carlos echoed Lamont's lesson of last week- the person on the bottom simply must let go of something in order to move. As soon as s/he does so, there's the arm for you to attack. If s/he just lies there and tries to fetal-position so that you can't get the sub, you can just leisurely pry hir loose. You're sitting on hir head, which is a pleasant place for you but not for hir.

Two rolls with John and one with Carlos.  I'm still not sure what he's wanting from me when we go to standup, but this time I did try lunging in on him as fast as I could instead of facing off like a couple of gunslingers. I think I'm going to stay with that tactic for a while and see where it goes- fighting takedowns against Carlos is just getting me nowhere, even when he's being nice.   

Wednesday

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.   –Philip K. Dick

Sometimes I make comments on the weblit page of one of my fave authors. My desktop computer logs me in automatically, but my laptop and the computers at work do not- so sometimes I'm commenting under my name and sometimes under "Anonymous". Last night I made an Anon comment, and followed it up today with another comment under my name. The author said, "Hey, was that you at the top of the page, just not signed in?" "Yeah, sorry," "I thought so, by the writing style."

I'm trying to not overanalyze that- It could just as easily be "You yammer way too much in my comments section, so I recognize you by now, you pesky troll" or "I recognized your crappy diction and the way you overuse the winky icon" But it sure would be cool if I have an actual (non-crappy) WRITING STYLE- "creative voice" that is now recognizable by one of my favorite authors (and one I would love to be able to emulate, because she's wicked good). I hope that when I actually get some public postings up on my WIP, I will be able to summon the nerve to ask her to read it and critique. The idea is utterly terrifying- but I know it would be valuable and accurate feedback.

Monday FOD: Sil Lum Tao.

Have had nightmares every day since Thursday. Part of it was that conversation with Carlos, but I think part of it is that it's now been one year since things imploded. I feel like I've lost a year, just trying to endure through one more day at a time... and people tend to think that after a year, one should be healing and getting over stuff. I wish I got over stuff like other people seem to be able to.

Creative writing:   I have pulled several words and a few phrases out of my hat for my MC's language... basically they have their own names for a handful of certain objects and concepts that are central to their way of life (including a few things that have no direct English translation). I think this "language" sounds reasonably cohesive, since I cobbled together sounds that I tend to like. Lots of K's and I's and three-syllable words.

Now I need to come up with a few words and phrases in a language pertaining to a completely different culture in the story. At first I was just picking more stuff out of my hat, thinking, "It'll be fine, I'm making it all up anyway," But then I looked at it and realized that the "foreign" language really needs to have a different flavor to it than the MC's language, and I'm not sure how to best accomplish that.

I've been looking at examples of different languages online all night, thinking maybe I could rip off something, but I'm still flailing.

One idea that seems to be working a little bit: For a different project, I recently notated a bunch of place names from Michigan that were based on the local native language(s). I then noted a bunch of place names from Washington state which were based on THEIR local native language(s). It was pretty obvious that these were two distinct flavors. So one thing I tried last night was to write down some of the more repetitive syllables from the Michigan names, and combine them with a few other syllables, to try to capture that unique flavor. I'm still experimenting with this, so I'm not sure it's going to work- but you can definitely tell the difference between a phrase from my original "language" and a phrase from the Michigan-derived syllables.

Kyle was promoted to purple belt today... pic on the GBSea site.
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Tuesday FOD: Tai Chi short form.


Amusing to see that SIDE CONTROL has changed his blog background; it is now the same pattern as mine- and the very same COLOR as on my creative writing blog.  He is also accidentally referring to Cornelia as "Cordelia"- I know I do it because I'm a Buffy fan; I wonder if that's his excuse?

Wednesday lunchtime BJJ GBSEA.  I walked in, and there was a pair of shiny red spike heels sitting just inside the door. It was such an anomaly that I just had to stand there and stare for a moment. Then I had to look around and see who would be wearing such things on their feet. There was a girl I've never seen before, talking to the Prof.

Warmed up by rolling around with Vince a bit.

That same takedown setup that we did all last week. Both sides, two different partners.

 Then scissor sweeps from guard. We used a cross collar grip and a behind-the-bicep grip. I drilled them on both sides. I still have difficulty pulling the person on top of me, esp if I have my knee up as far as it's supposed to be. Getting further onto my side helps somewhat.

Cross-collar choke from guard. Same cross-grip with the first hand- deep, but not so deep that you can't slip JUST THE THUMB of your other hand in between it and the opponent's head. Then let the forearm of the thumb-hand loop over the opponent's head. That wrist needs to be flexed... it works even if it's not, but it works a lot better with a flexed wrist. With a flexed wrist, very little pressure is needed to get a tap. I like this choke. I *so* need to work on my subs.

One roll with Cornelia.

Cornelia said, "I wonder how that girl is going to do.... did you see those SHOES?" I started cracking up, and cracked up even harder when she added, "When I first walked in, you were the only girl I saw in here, and I thought...." I said, "YOU would not catch me DEAD in a pair of shoes like that... I have combat boots...." Then we were both cracking up.

Steve got promoted to purple! It was so funny. When Carlos called his name, he just stood there and looked from side to side with a bewildered expression, like he was looking for another "Steve".