DLR passing

In a sudden attack, you will have little or no time to work out your glitches, your ethical issues, your capacities. Whatever time it takes will cost you in damage. That is why it is imperative to work out all you can well in advance of any attack. –Rory Miller


Thursday advanced class in Bellevue.

Standup, judo grips. Foot on hip, on the side that you have the sleeve grip. Drop on butt, swing leg out, swing back in to DLR. 

After we did that for a while, we advanced to sweeping partner over head from there. Note that although it seems necessary to heave the person forcefully over your head, it is actually much easier (and works better) to pull hir head to your chest- it forces hir to summersault.

Same entry- now when partner tries to sweep you, you kneel and grab hir pants at the insides of the knees. Push hir foot off your hip, then turn your body toward your knee-up side to remove the hook. Creep knee over opponent's thigh, hug head, backsit, take side control.

Same entry. Now, when you try to turn your body to remove hook, opponent responds by turning knee in. Counter by turning the OTHER way and "sliding into home" knees and hips first. Take side control.

Positional sparring starting from one person in DLR, the other kneeling and gripping insides of knees. Rotating partners.

"Don't give me any spazzes!"

When you play for those stakes, social violence is…well, stupid. You understand what the guy wants and if it makes him feel all big and bad, then so what? It’s no problem to you to give him that, because you know what high stakes are. Campfire Tales From Hell


I pinged Lindsay and Chrisanne and Kelly, but none of them could come in and work no-gi with me today. I went in anyway, and Tagir was lurking about, so we rolled no-gi for an hour and then did the combined beginner/advanced class. It was down to a pack of newbie whites, Lance, and us.

Jamie had us do some interesting new exercises. We had to stand on our hands with our feet on the wall (bellies to the wall) and "walk" sideways. The turn our backs to the wall and do it again. It was easy for me to keep my balance, but my biceps got tired quickly. Could also feel core engaging big time.

Del a Riva sweep. Ah, white belts. Mine was having so much trouble lifting his hips up high enough to scoot to the side, and I also had to explain how to avoid breaking one's shoulder when one is being swept in this way. He still groaned pitifully every time he hit the mat. Poor guy had to be all of 22, if that. I remember how painful it used to be for me, too, before I'd had it done to me a fajillion times and got used to it.

Partner has DLR, you put hand in back of collar and drive into hir with knee, s/he pushes back, you flick trapped leg out and go to side control. You may need to sitback to clear the other leg.

Finally: Same as above, only when you get to side control, partner throws arm over your shoulder.
Finish with spinning armbar.

A little positional sparring from DLR, then from side control.

One spar with Tagir, and one with a different white belt (I had said to Jamie, "Don't give me any spazzes!"). This one was pretty good, although using too much strength (he was skinny enough that I could take it). He was huffing and puffing like an overweight badger. It made him gas quickly. I told him that that was his thing to work on.

Hiccups hurt

You can have almost god-like technique, but if the story is boring, it's boring whether or not its well written.  -JCFarnham


I went to bed feeling like I'd been run over by a tractor, and I was pretty sure that this morning I would feel ten times worse- you know how when you go to bed really sore, you wake up really sore + swollen + stiff? Well, I'm sore this morning, but not nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. The body may be aging, but it still has quite a resilience. I have a lot of challenges as a martial artist, but one big strength I have always had is: you knock me down, I get back up and keep going.
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Lunchtime BJJ, GB Seattle. I told Carlos how sore I was from his class. It makes him happy to hear that. It makes *me* happy on the occasions that he admits *HE* is sore as well (he admitted it today!).

Rolled a little with Angela to warm up. Triangle defense, re: my usual strategy of circling to the side and stacking- it works less well on her because she is more flexible than most of the men. She suggests that I try to get my foot on the other side of her head, continue stacking and twisting. If I can get my foot over there, she won't be able to turn with me and readjust, and she'll get kinked and hopefully have to let go.

Same Del a Riva techniques we did last night. Angela made an error on the grip, and to my horror, Carlos told *me* to go first and show her how it's done, since I'd worked on it last night. Can we say AWKWARD, and PRESSURE??!? Fortunately I got through it without phucking it up too badly. I really need to stay thoughtful on the grips. There are several grip switches, and several spots where if you let go of the wrong thing, your entire plan collapses. Also, still not getting both hooks in every time. I get to the end, and all I can think is, "Thank God, I got through all those steps and didn't mess it up!" Well,  you're not done yet. Not till both hooks are in.

Angela suggests that I turn further over on my shoulder to get those deep, odd leg angles that I'm having difficulties with. She was turning almost to the point that I could see her entire back patch.  

Positional training from Del a Riva, then King Of the Hill from back mount. I can't keep back mount. If I can't sink a sub-worthy choke instantly, I try to turn and transition into a different position (usually front mount, sometimes me in closed guard). I backmounted Carlos, and immediately upon the "go" I turned us and ended up in KOB. He just looked up at me and said, "You lost the back mount." Yes indeedy, yes I did.

Resolution: next time Angela asks me if I'm going to stay for open mat, do it- no matter how tired I am or what I have planned for later in the day. I've turned her down the last four times in a row.

Hey- Nick has his purple belt, and Kelly shaved her head. Lindsey didn't even recognize Kelly.

Ribs- still slight ache- and hiccups are excruciating! but otherwise doing okay.
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I'm thinking about offering a women's self defense class at PSG. Probably not this year, but next year. We wouldn't be doing physical techniques; it would focus on how to avoid trouble in the first place, how to take yourself out of the "potential victim" pool. A lot of the Insights and Rory Miller material... awareness, avoidance, recognition of patterns, de-escalation, how to walk. Self-defense law. Dispelling myths. Why they should get a gun and learn to use it. The fact that they have a right to defend themselves. Truly, an hour of that stuff is more valuable than 20 years of martial arts experience. And there are just so many broken women in the Pagan community. So many who have been abused as kids, been raped, been battered by a significant other, have crappy self-esteem. Just ten minutes of instruction on how to "walk like a narc" could really change their perspectives.

There was a recent thread on the Feline Diabetes list where we got to talking about this sort of thing... most of the people on that list are middle-aged or older "Crazy Cat Ladies", and the board is heavily "moderated"- so I expected to get shut down as soon as I started telling them they needed to get handguns. That's such an emotional hot-button issue right now. But they were amazingly open to what I had to say, and several of them were in fact already shooters. I was able to address the "I'll just show him the gun" myth, the "I'm afraid that if I have a weapon, the attacker will take it away and use it against me" myth, the "I can't shoot an intruder in my house until he actually attacks me physically" myth, several others... I felt like I knew what I was talking about, and that they were really hearing me. I'd like to bring that to the PSG community as well.

Ambivalence

    Fisher had tried to enter the hole in the clouds six or seven times- but kept finding
herself back in her body, the bamboo raft pressing impassively against her
shoulderblades.   –The Hole In the Clouds




Thursday and Friday: Walk to work and back.

Saturday lunchtime BJJ, GB Sea. I only had enough get-up-and-go for the first of the two back-to-back classes.  I also was late again (third time in a row)! I don't have a good excuse for today. I really need to get my act together. Fortunately, I can jump in and function without a stretch out or warm up. The only things I really *need* to stretch out for are things like  flying spinning kicks and vigorous crescent kicks.

Standup: single leg setups.

Opponent has you in hir closed guard. You place hands on hir belt, turn one knee out and the opposite foot (toe loaded) out. Stand up. Opponent slides down your body and takes del a Riva guard with unhooked foot on your hip.

Now you grab the ankle of the foot that is planted on your hip (let's call it your left hip) and slam the sole to the mat. Hold it there while you ram your right hand between opponent's knees. Drop your left knee to the mat right against opponent's hip. Glue your left shoulder to opponent and put on weight. Keeping your right hand on the mat, crawl it toward opponent's head. Kick your trapped foot free, and complete transition to side control.

Saturday means many reps.

I told Angela that I love working with her, and feel that I always learn a lot when I do. It's important to verbally appreciate your good training partners.

I bought a used GB gi off a dude on Jiu Jitsu Forums. It is almost identical to my old blue GB gi, but there are a couple of minor patch differences. Casey noticed immediately, and asked if I had a new gi. I told him I found a used one, wondering what his reaction was going to be (I don't know if the school is getting kickbacks for selling these gi's, or have quotas, or what- but I figured he'd be annoyed that I hadn't surrendered my credit card). He didn't comment. Prof Carlos noticed too, and said that he was happy to see that my gi was "nice and blue" today. I answered that I was happy he approved.

Black-belt-Lindsey was there, and I was so happy to see him- it's been a while. I jumped on his back and RNC'ed him during a break, and then we rolled around for a few minutes. Blue-belt-Lindsey also jumped on my back and RNC'ed me. I didn't throw her this time- I said, "Didn't you learn your lesson yet??!?" I jumped on Cindy's back and choked her. I did not choke Rodrigo, but I did get a hug from him.
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Dru, when I ran my proposed Hunt role shift past her and Derek: "Kitsune, do you remember when Drake asked me to lead the drumming for the Hunt at Ravenstone and I felt blindsided by it? You said to me, "He wouldn't have asked you if he didn't think you were ready for it." The same applies here, so I'm quoting you to you."

I don't know whether to be more touched by her faith in me, or by the fact that she took my advice so to heart to remember it, follow it, and then years later quote me back to me.

Bo:  "...I was in contact with SilverDrake.  He knew who I was considering.  But did not want to offer his opinion until I chose because he did not want to influence me.  The night that I sent you the original e-mail I contacted him again and asked who it was that he thought was right.  He had chosen you as well.  Yet another reason that I believe spirit is offering this to you."

That's encouraging- and sobering- why was this so obvious to everybody when it never even occurred to me? Dru's and Derek's blessings means even more to me, though. They know the Hunt, and they know *me* better than Bo or SilverDrake do.

The main reason I've been dragging my feet is that I love- passionately love- drumming for the Hunt, and I passionately love leading the drumming for the Hunt. It's the high point of my year, there's nothing like it, and the thought of not doing it makes my soul weep. That part is selfish, but I don't apologize for it. It's also a lot of hard work, and I know that I serve my community well in the job.

I'm sure that assistant Huntmaster/mistressing would have its own fun, challenge, and spiritual growth. Cross-training is always a good thing (for both an individual and the team) for multiple reasons.

I'd like to try it. Who knows, I might like it even better. Or I might not like it, or we might find that I have no aptitude for it. Won't know unless we try, huh? I'm up for the challenge. Geez, it's going to hurt to not be drumming, though.

I've joked to Derek and Dru in the past about how Herald Camp is slowly and insidiously taking over the Hunt. I've really enjoyed (and counted on)  the way the three of us have worked together- both on practical and energetic levels- for years, and I think that's been a really good thing for the Hunt.  Now we're going to have one of us in each of the three major coordination roles. I'm excited about that. I think that could be unbelievably awesome.

Also, the coordinating team is 3/4 women this year. The Hunt started out pretty male-dominated, so that's kinda cool as well. I'll really miss Harry (who is on hiatus this year), but I'm excited to have Cindy (different Cindy) keeping the fire.
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The blue and white Borg

If you teach self defense as primarily a physical skill, you limit the chances for success for the less-physical students, who are far more likely to be victimized anyway.- Rory Miller




Well, it's finally come to a head. They've segued from telling to me to not wear my green and brown gi's to Gracie's any more to _TELLING_ me to _NOT_ wear my green and brown gi's any more. I am so annoyed. This is such a dumb rule, perpetrated for the sole cause of shaking students (I mean PROFIT GENERATING UNITS) down for more money. I don't really blame my teachers; I blame the Borg-esque GB marketing machine juggernaut. Casey was as nice about delivering the news as he could be.  But the fact remains, I'd rather juggle skunks than buy a GB gi, solely on principle. Which leaves me with a bare 2 acceptable uniforms, one of which fits so crappily that it is a distinct and very irritating tactical handicap.   Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Lunchtime BJJ at GB Belle. Happy Birthday Nelson!

All sparring. Doug, Prof Carlos, Casey, Ross.

I tried a footlock on Carlos; I am *still* not getting the job done. Today, choked too far up on the leg. I was also reprimanded for trying to escape same by rolling onto my stomach. As I have been told numerous times before, grab the lapel and put the foot on the mat. Also: beware the wristlock when trying to do gi chokes from guard. There really was no permutation of gi choke that I could come up with, which the prof could not wristlock me from.

Another thing he did today that he has done before- leave himself open for a triangle from guard, which I totally did not even see, because I never try triangles. He wants me to stop trying the same selection of tricks that I always do. He pretty much knew what I was going to do in every situation- and he doesn't even work with me nearly as often as a lot of other people do.

At least when he got to his feet, I tried to jump guard instead of fighting fruitlessly for the takedown. Not that that worked either, har har. But at least I failed in a DIFFERENT matter this time.

Note: trying to do de la Riva, esp on *HIM*- pull my elbow in. Otherwise he will jointlock me. Elbow in, then pull lapel so that opponent's head is DOWN.

He discussed the "work smarter, not harder" principle- he wants me to work harder on seeing and going for opportunities that are presented. In fact he had a lot of advice today, and I'm not sure I absorbed even half of it.

Ross is improving by leaps and bounds. His pressure from the top is very good. I praised the way he uses even the side of his face to press me down hard. I also caught him pulling out a nice underhook- "Wait! Don't do that! You always do that. Keep that underhook."

Rock star

"To die will be a great adventure."    J.M. Barrie




I felt like a rock star at class tonight.

I got there in time for the last 15 min or so of the Women's class, which tonight consisted of Lindsey (teaching) and three white belts that I don't know. I jumped in with them and did some armbar-from-guard drills and then some positional sparring from closed guard (pass vs sweep or submit).

Lindsey was saying things like, "See, can you feel how Kitsune's using her hips to power that turn," and the girls are going "Oh, wow," and I started to feel like a fancy prize mare being trotted out so that everyone can ooh and ahh at the clean lines of the hocks and the perfect gait. I tossed out the occasional piece of profound Dalai-lama-like wisdom. I politely declined to sign any autographs. LOL.

With the positional sparring, I did my standard virgin lesson of sinking one collar grip and telling them to defend the second. Once they started to catch onto that, I began to mess with their base and coach them on that. Lots of positive encouragement. I let them work till the buzzer, then ended by sweeping each one- just because executing a real sweep (even on a white belt) is still a rare and shiny thrill for me.

I really do enjoy teaching brand-newbies (especially the women). And I am darn good at it, too!



Then I jumped into Doug's all-levels class (which was already warming up on the other mat). It was just him and me and Aussie Dave (in a new brown belt! Go Dave!), and a bunch of blues and whites.

Del a Riva sweep. Note that keeping a locked elbow/rigid arm on the collar grip is important, especially if the collar grip is high and deep. The first time I tried a deeper collar grip on Dave, I pulled him right on top of me (which was suboptimal for this situation). Doug is pulling a leg under himself in a tactical-lift-esqe motion to finish. You don't want to get caught in half guard or let the guy turn to you and curl up like a shrimp.

Although I am getting fairly comfortable with this sweep, stupid side is still so stupid that it doesn't know which foot to put up. Also, Dave suggests that I pay mor attention to controlling the foot that I'm hugging. Once again I was sloppy with trapping it at the back with my "up-knee", and there is also more I can do with the leg that's on the mat to control that trapped foot. Dave demoed that if he can pick up that foot and step out, I got nothin'.

Next: start from side control; the arm nearest the opponent's head gets collar grip right at the back of hir neck. Other hand- pretend you are digging for opposite collar grip, but it's a trap! When opponent puts up arms to defend, armbar. What seemed to be working best for me was to use my chest to put weight on and trap Dave's arm across his chest. Then take plenty of time to carefully secure the arm. Grab the pants before sitting back. Keep your foot that's on that pants side, on the mat- don't put it over the person, The pants grip will prevent the escape.

As usual, I wanted to grab my own lapel to try to force the armbar- since guys normally either muscle their arm away, bicep-curl me out of the armbar, or grab their own other hand/wrist to defend. We messed around for a bit trying to figure out how I could secure the arm and still prevent Dave from being able to grab his own other hand/arm and lock up. Finally consulted Doug. He suggested a maneuver that I have seen Carlos demo before, but I was not ready to assimilate it at that time. (I don't think I'm gonna assimilate it this time either, but I am one step closer to doing so.)

First, you have to let go of the pants and put your second foot over the person. Put it high enough so that you can trap the arm between your knees. Now, take that free hand and grab the wrist, use your entire body to force it in a curving motion toward opponent's head. It hurts at wrist/shoulder, so s/he will let go. (Do this carefully, slow and controlled). Continue the arc back to the armbar.

Now- 8 min spars with several people that I haven't worked with in a long time. Dave (God! Why did the entire world need to name their kid Dave! This was short blue-belt Dave), James and Steven. I am used to being dominated by all three of these fellows, so I was quite pleasantly surprised to find myself competitive tonight. I did worst against Steven, who passed my guard a couple times and kept me on the bottom a while. But even with him, I didn't feel like I was being owned. Every time I've sparred with James, he's smashed the snot out of me, so I was very happy with my performance tonight when all my snot remained intact. I didn't get any taps, but neither did they, and I wasn't on the bottom all the time.

I can feel myself getting closer to having a sub game. I am now finding that I can engage my brain enough to 1)try to set things up, as well as 2)look for openings. Neither of which I have really been able to parse until recently, through the mental white noise and the "survivesurvivesurvivesurvive" litany.  I am still not getting them yet, but I'm going to.

Open mat- I played with Dave (the Aussie one) and aksed him to kneebar/footlock me. He likes these, so he is going to be another really good person to keep going back to for help. ]

Noting (yet again) how instinctually I twist around like a ferret all the time trying to escape. I'm very flexible, squirmy, get through tight places, and my limbs are short- so I'm used to being able to just twist and squirt right out of things. Now that I'm having people attack my legs, I need to ***STOP*** doing this until I engage my brain first and make sure I am not turning the wrong way. This is going to be a real struggle for the next little while, since I am still trying to figure out which way the "Right Way" is, LOL. I failed a couple of the quiz questions Dave threw at me regarding this.

I got too much valuable advice from Dave tonight to fully absorb, but here's one good one: He was in turtle and somehow we got to a place where I was standing with one foot behind his butt (between his feet). THIS IS BAD! He summersaulted and leglocked me. He showed me that if I put my knee down so that the knee is on the outside of his leg and the foot in, it messes up his ability to summersault. It was counterinstinctual (for some reason I want to put the knee in at the foot out- this works too, sorta- better than getting leglocked, but he was still able to summersault and then neither of us had a distinct advantage). But there are a few guys who like to play inverted guard on me, whom I think I will deal with better if I can remember this trick.

Excellent night of Jiu Jitsu.