Eye-opening

The four lines people cross that take their actions out of the self-defense justification are:
1)The threat isn't physical
2)The threat isn't immediate
3)They cross into excessive force
4)They participate in the creation and escalation of the situation.
-Marc MacYoung

Thursday BJJ in Bellevue. I had a really good spar with Seth; asked him to not let me do any escapes so that I would be forced to try other things. He praised me for staying on the move.

Thursday BJJ in Bellevue.  A lot of King Of the Hill from back mount. As usual, I was doing well at escaping back mount and I was not doing well at keeping it.

Friday evening BJJ in Bellevue. All spars. Carlos left early, so Chrisanne wanted to spar with me for the first time in forever. I didn't injure her. Another good spar with Seth (no escapes allowed). Kevin.... OMG. Nobody rolls like this guy. Every BJJ artist on the planet should get a chance to roll with this guy once just to experience it.  That Brazilian purple belt woman that I have always found challenging- neither of us was able to tap the other tonight, and we spent a long time working standup... so nice to get to work standup with someone my own size. New girl: she stared at me wide-eyed after time was called and exclaimed, "That was..... so EYE-OPENING!"  

Chrisanne is competing next month for the first time. She has 4 stripes on her blue belt. I have spent a lot of time puzzling over our differing strategies. She has done everything possible to set herself up to win. Whereas anyone who has been reading my blog for a while well knows, I am self-sabotaging- I set things up so that if I lose, I have excuses. It seems like either Chrisanne or I have things fucked up- and I suspect it's me.

Maybe I should have been offended instead of relieved?

My crystal ball has never been very good. I've noticed that bad things generally happen to me when I'm not expecting it rather than when I am expecting it. For example, I've never been in a _planned_ car accident. I've never had a flat tire I was expecting to get. And the day my middle son was struck by lightning, we sure weren't expecting that to happen!
 That's why my default setting is to carry the gun, even at times and in places where I "feel safe."
-Kathy Jackson, Cornered Cat



Thursday no-gi and Friday evening gi in Bellevue.

More double-leg setups from standing.

Double-leg attempt to be met with sprawl.

Opponent bearhugs you from behind. You drop down to clear the forearms, lift them in front of your chest, turn body to the side, and step one foot behind opponent's foot. Takedown. If they defend, we lifted them off the ground and sort of contact-improv'ed them across our lower backs to drop them on the other side. I've never done anything like that in BJJ. It was unexpected to be picked up like that. It's something I don't usually think to do to an opponent (in BJJ). Judging by everyone else's response to the concept, it might be worth experimenting with live. Particularly as I have lately had the recurring thought that I ought to be working harder to formulate my nonexistant bottom game and should stop always leaping for the top.

Opponent is turtled. You do a "sash grip" over one shoulder and under the other. Switch legs and stick your far knee under hir belly, pull hir into back mount. At this point it was essential to be sure you had a grip with your fingertips digging into the palm of your opposite cupped hand. I do not like this grip and had to readjust it every rep. It was also essential that the arm OVER opponent's shoulder had the palm toward the ceiling (another thing I had to pause and check, and usually adjust). After getting your back mount points, move into S mount. Scoot the front leg way up on hir chest and sit down, bringing other leg around and over hir floorward shoulder. Now, if you dig your forearm bone into the side of hir neck (this is why the palm of this arm had to be facing up) and pinch your knees together, it was a nasty choke. Usable in no-gi. If you do it wrong it becomes a crank, so be careful. I like S mount, and I found that my usual positioning needed a very conscious adjust to move that front leg from belly to chest. If it wasn't far up enough on the chest, the move did not work. If everything was positioned correctly, we didn't even have to lean back or knee-squeeze, it already hurt bad enough to tap.

Spider guard sweeps- pull opponent's arm across your chest before sweeping. Neglecting to control the arm and neglecting to be aggressive enough about breaking down the opponent's posture are two persistant problems with my sweep game. I got WAAAAAAAAAAAY under my partner and manhandled her balance around.

Same entry, only instead of sweeping, place foot on opponent's shoulder blade and use a turned-in knee to elbow-lock. This was beautifully nasty- I love it. It is very Cindy-esque. Ha ha. I can't wait to try this on someone live. Preferrably Chrisanne, who missed this class. (Insert evil chuckle)

King of the hill- back mount vs escaping back mount. I am fairly good at escaping back mount, but I am hopeless as a backpack- and since that's where I was for this entire cycle, things did not go very well for me.

Carlos cautioned me TWICE this week for what he saw as me doing a technique too fast/rough- in both cases, I had my usual perfect exquisite control and there was absolutely no danger. This frustrates and offends me. I accidentally made Kelly yelp *ONCE* about three years ago (on a technique that I had done to numerous kung fu classmates about 3x as hard and they didn't react), and I think that one unfortunate occurance has really stuck in Carlos's mind and he has me irrevocably pegged as someone dangerously careless. I'm about the most careful and controlled MA'ist on the WHOLE PLANET, so it winds me up when he does this. (Maybe THAT is why he didn't put me with his girlfriend! He put her with a WHITE BELT! Hmmm, maybe I should be offended!)

I'll never forget....

To achieve an elite standard of personal performance usually requires a fair amount of natural ability, motivation and commitment. It does not follow that an elite martial artist also has the ability to pass those skills on to others at all levels. In fact, the opposite is usually true. To become an elite performer usually means that the student has natural ability and therefore learns skills quickly and easily. A great degree of self-motivation and commitment is also required and such performers generally find little difficulty in applying themselves to the rigors of training, grading and competition. Since very few students achieve such high levels of performance, too often a coach does not understand the needs of these "lesser mortals" who are in fact the majority. When one looks at specific groups such as junior, female, male, elderly, competitive, aggressive, shy, introverted, or combinations of these, many martial arts coaches in the past have been- to say the least- underprepared.    Tony Gummerson, "Teaching Martial Arts"


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Friday:
I read a book that basically gutted me. Have you ever read a book in which the sadist- I mean the author- makes you totally fall in love with a character and then tortures that character with an endless litany of events that are a thousand times worse than death? Till you're almost hoping the poor sap just buys it, but you don't think you can handle that? I read a *LOT*, and this is only the second book that has made me feel like that to an extent that it made me feel actually traumatized. In addition, I've only read 4 books in my life in which a character death has made me cry. So this was a double-slam. And it was book 3 in a series, so I was already in love with the character by the start of book 3... there was no lead-in or warm-up, she started torturing my poor dear on page 1 and didn't stop till the epilogue. I didn't really want to read book 3, because by the end of book 2 I knew there was absolutely no way this was going to not end in savage and bitter heartbreak... but I couldn't bear to not find out what happened.

I know this is partly because I've had a difficult week and incredibly little sleep, but I'm feeling really gutted and raw right now.
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Thursday:
Lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue. Standing guard pass drills to KOB to start. These squat-heavy techniques are hard on me and John, especially at the beginning of class, when it's THIS hot, and when it goes on for about five years. Prof. Herbert had the timer set to ding every twenty seconds, so every twenty seconds we would stop, panting, and look pleadingly at him- but he made us keep going.... and going.... and going.....

Same thing, only starting from spider guard. When opponent straightens one leg, you step on the thigh of the OTHEr (bent) leg and pass to that side, yanking both the leg and sleeve as you move into KOB.

Same thing yet again, but now instead of KOB, paste the top of your foot to the opponent's shoulder blade and place the other one over hir neck. Armbar. This was a classic Herbert move- he likes these things where he gets his strong, short legs in there and hooks his toes all over you and plasters himself to you like a leech, then subs you to death. As usual, what works well for him seems to be working well for me, although of course he does it about a zillion times faster and more gracefully. But I was already nicely set up to segue into this, as I had been setting up a bit of a straight armbar while doing the KOB.

A little positional sparring from spider guard.

Sparring with John, then Ed. Ed ankle locked me about ten times in a row. He looks like he could be doing his taxes while he tools me.
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Evening in Bellevue:

Luis is injured and specifically asked me if I would work with him. I know this is mostly because I am tiny, but I do like to think there's at least a LITTLE aspect of me being trustworthy and safe for the injured to work with. He did, however, bring up that time I ran over to him while he was lying on the mat and dropped into front mount and apparently did not catch myself QUITE as high on my knees as I had intended- he moaned like he was dying, and I felt AWFUL.... that happened about 3 years ago and I'll never forget it- but I was really hoping that he had!!!! No such luck!!! I asked him if he still loves me anyway, and he said yes.

He let me do more than my share of the drills, since they were hurting his injury... although he had to tell me several times to be heavier (I was trying to be gentle on his injury). When he admonished me to be heavier in N/S, I whined that I was trying to not smother him with my enormous belly. He laughed for a really long time when I said that.

"Around the world" flow drills: side control to scarf to N/S to scarf to side control, etc etc. At the end, we did some front mount as well. Luis suggests using my forehead heavy on opponent's belly in N/S. It was quite immobilizing when he demo'ed it on me.

N/S, pull both of your opponent's gi tails under hir armpits and snug them in as tight as you can. If s/he is wiggling around, it actually makes this easier than if s/he is just lying there. Then hop up to your feet and step forward so that you force opponent into a sitting position. There should be very little pulling involved, unless you really WANT to work that hard for some reason. Sit back down in back mount and squeeze opponent between your knees. Grab for the choke immediately. When s/he goes to defend the choke, sink the hooks in and immediately roll to the side (NOT to your back, and make sure you pick the correct (pillow) side).

Everyone has been asking me if I've had a chance to work with Amy (Dex's wife, blue belt, professional MMA fighter), and she was there tonight, it's the first time I've ever seen her. I would have liked to spar with her, but not in the shape I was in at that juncture. She has a big-deal fight scheduled next month and is training very seriously right now, and I was way too tired at that point to be able to press her.

Hurts so good

The people without great talent but with desire tend to become the technicians.  When others are more talented, you must be more skillful to win.  Most of the really superb martial artists and fighters I've known have been runts with a drive to win.  Small and weak, they couldn't afford to be merely good.  They had to be fantastic to hold their own.   –Rory Miller



Saturday lunchtime BJJ in Seattle.

Warmed up with Coach Dynamo- mostly sitting on top of each other in turn and groping for sub grips that we couldn't get.

Drills to exhaustion:

Standup- Single leg
Guard pass to kimura
Opponent double-legs, you sprawl, crossface, move to side, double-unders, pull opponent into your back mount

Lots of getting up and getting down; this is always a vast amount of hard work.

Triple-partnered with Angela and Kelly, all of us going 110%.

Too tired to stay for 2nd hour "competition" class.

Thighs (lower fronts) aching by the time I got home. Usually it takes till the next morning- or at least that evening- before noticable muscle aches set in, so I know we worked hard. Always nice to work with Angela and Kelly. They take it seriously and bust buns.

Fat Man Roll

Intention and lack of intention; mindfulness and no mind at all. Magic lay in the tension between those spaces, in the otherwise senses of the esoteric understanding of two things that did not admit of one another at all. –Elizabeth Bear

Sun: 128
Mon: 129.5  (eep!)
Weds: 129.5

Wednesday lunchtime BJJ in Kirkland.

"Fat man roll": You are in turtle, with opponent hanging off your hip. Opponent is foolish enough to commit hir arm deep enough for you to trap on the side opposite hir. Roll, KEEP HIR HAND TRAPPED as you keep weight on hir chest. Roll toward hir feet to take side control. For some reason, I always want to roll toward hir head, so I asked Cindy what would happen. All sorts of unpleasantess, beginning with Cindy getting double underhooks and shucking me off like nothing.

You are in turtle, opponent hanging off your hip. You grab hir far pantleg, scoot your butt away from hir, place the sole NEAREST hir on the mat, and pull your other leg through under you to replace full guard. Remember to pull your head back so that you don't get folded up under the opponent.
Same technique, only starting with opponent sprawled N/S on top of your turtle.

Opponent has back mount on you. Hand-fight the choking side (if there is one) and fall to the opposite side. Lie on opponent's thigh, remove the lower hook. Use the SAME HAND to now start fighting the other leg while you scoot out and take side control.

Same entry, but opponent gets half guard as you are trying to escape. Prop yourself on hir chest with mucho weight on and use your other leg to pry your trapped leg out. From being the demo dummy on this, I learned that the angle of this pressure on the joints is quite painful, and not practical to try to clamp down and resist against.

A little positional sparring from back mount. I continue to struggle with both sides of this. Today my biggest problem was that I could not seem to fall to the side and pin the thigh without taking the entirety of my weight off the opponent (at which point I could never recover- I ended up lying on the mat beside him and he simply rolled on top).

A few spars. I got muscled around a little today by larger men, but I managed to superior-technique myself into a top position for some of the time with both.

Cindy declined to roll with me because she was holding out for me to come back tonight instead of going to Bellevue.    

How d'ya like THEM spiders?

Today many people spend eight hours a day sitting before a computer or behind a desk, forcing their bodies to an unnatural stasis. Overworked minds, inert bodies. Depending increasingly more on an immaterial form of technology, we confine the body to a subordinate position. We grow detached from it. We forget its magic. We forget its power. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Today's photo has absolutely nothing to do with BJJ. To my straight male and gay female readers, sorry. To everyone else: you're welcome.


Fri: 128
Sat: 128
Sun: 128
Mon: 128

Pink Team in Bellevue: we drilled the comb-over escape from front mount to half guard, whereupon one's partner passed half guard in whatever fashion she pleased, rinse, repeat. Then some positional training from mount- escape vs submit. Goddamn, Crisanne is getting good. She sticks to you like Spanx- leaves no room to work at all- digs that shoulder mercilessly into your neck, and lies on top of you like a sack of wet sand that feels much heavier than she is.

Then: advanced class.

You standing, opponent sitting with soles on the floor. You place your right hook-hand over hir left shoulder, paste your elbow to hir chest as you step forward with your right foot between hir knees. Now push hir on her back while driving right knee over hir rt thigh. Land on your hip like you're skidding in for a home run. Try to pass your knee over hir forearm. Keep bodies pasted together, and don't lift that elbow.

Next: same, but as you do this, opponent is foolish enough to throw an arm over your shoulders. Grab it and swing around for the armbar. DO NOT CHEAT THE GUARD PASS- this means don't get sloppy with keeping the bodies close, and you must slide all the way into home before popping up for the armbar.

Opponent is now on hir back with feet on your hips. You standing. Grab hir right ankle with your left hand. overwrap hir left shin with your right arm. Step in and pin hir rt thigh up with your left knee. Now let go of that ankle and grab hir left ankle with both hands. Stand up and thrust your belly out as you shove the foot forward (note that you must clear your own flopping gi tails) then shove both of opponent's legs away to hir right as you pass.

Next: same, but as you do this, opponent is foolish enough to start rolling away to turtle up. Stuff your right foot in the hole opening between hir waist and the floor, and thrust yourself into back mount.

Several spars. I continue to be ineffectual at defending Ron's deep half- he got it within about 20 seconds, then continued to get it repeatedly. I made Pam deal with my spider guard for a good while ("How d'ya like THEM spiders?") and coached and then pop-quizzed a white belt on nailing her chin to her chest as soon as I started groping for chokes.

Saeki got her blue today! When I saw the belts, I was so hoping for Crisanne to get promoted (not that it wasn't great for Saeki). I did find out why it's taking so long, though.... I found out that Crisanne had ASKED Carlos about it.  (wince)  Now he's going to make her wait.

Pink Team

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

 

 

Tuesday advanced class, Bellevue:

Began with double-leg setup drills. I tried to do some variations with one or both knees on the floor, but that’s really hard on my knees. I was with Dave, who grabbed me off the wall and was apparently bent on being SuperPartner tonight- not that he isn’t always nice to work with (and it’s VERY nice to have someone grab me instead of feeling like the last kid picked for kickball every night), but tonight he was cheerleading literally every rep.

Back mount and… wait for it… bow and arrow. Couldn’t believe it; my throat still hasn’t recovered from last week. Oh well. Today we were doing it as follows: the leg behind opponent’s shoulderblade, sit right down on your butt and lie back, pulling the opponent back with you.

Then: opponent pulls your choking arm’s elbow down over hir bicep. Use your same-side arm to comb hir arm down, then hoist your leg up so that your knee is hooked OVER your own elbow. This traps hir arm, then you can put your other sole on the mat and scoot your butt out, then scoot further to the side and armbar. This one was a little tricky for me. Arm and leg positions that I had to stop and think about, and I was having difficulty scooting out to the correct angle/distance so that I didn’t find myself lying down too soon.

Carlos also did a little demo wherein he displayed a bunch of other impressive ends from that opening 9all of which are WAAAAAAAAAY over my head for my current level, but fun to watch).

One roll with Daniel. I socked him in the chin twice. I decided to leave after that one roll… when I’m battering my partners like that, it usually means I’m too tired and/or distracted to have proper control.

 

Wednesday “Pink Team” at Bellevue. Usually if I’m free on Wednesdays, I go to Cindy’s. But tonight I had to be to work at 7:30, so I did this and then went straight to work and used my new key to the work shower.

Lindsey always treats me like a visiting celebrity on the rare occasions that I come to these, but I countered her embarrassing speeches about my level of incredibleness by praising her two white belts, who are pretty kick-ass and coming along very nicely.

We started with takedowns (yay!). Two people stood at opposite ends of the mat while a third ran back and forth and repeatedly took them down with anything. I did some double- and single-legs, because I’m not very good at those. Also some shoulder and hip throws, reaps, tomoe nage. Always good to practice my breakfalls more, too.

Then the comb-over escape from front mount to half guard; then the person who started on top counters with the Shoulder Of Justice and pries the legs off to return to front mount. I encouraged the ladies to apply more shoulder. “If I’m not talking funny, you’re not doing it hard enough.”

 Then some positional training, rotating partners, each person getting a chance to pick a starting position. I picked back mount, and am still not having much success holding it. Both white belts got my Knee Ride 101 Tutorial as well as my Defend-The-Choke-As-Soon-As-You-Notice-Second-Hand-Coming-In talk. Lindsey stuck one arm up over her head, so I trapped it there and ground on it for a while. She also stuck her head right into a guillotine, so I cranked on that for a while. Then I apologized, and she thanked me for the lesson. ;)

A disguise to fight in

The best verbal intervention is to present yourself as an objective outsider who has no opinion and doesn’t care about who is right or wrong. Right or wrong are determined by in-group standards in any case. “Break it up! You’re hurting her!” immediately puts you in a position of both being an outsider and judgmental.  “You’d better knock it off, I overheard someone calling 911 and the cops are on the way,” will break up the situation without turning the focus to you.
-Rory Miller



I have been dieting, and as of today have been successful at losing four pounds. Three more, and I will be back to my normal walking-around-weight, which is 10lb over my ideal/tournament weight. My intention is to lose those three- at least- before my June trip. Three pounds doesn't seem like much, esp when you've got 2 months to do it....yet it takes me a frustratingly long time and an incredible amount of food restriction to lose *anything*. Every pound lower takes discernably more effort to  remove than the one before.

Tues lunchtime at GB Bellevue.  Back mount to bow-and-arrow, Round Three!  (Ow!) I focused on speed and flow.  I got Nelson this time. I love working with Nelson. I did make one improvement suggestion to him: when he pulled me into his back mount, he rolled me right over his ankle. My comment: “That’s fine when it’s me, but if you try that with Rene, you’re going to break your ankle.”

He tried to encourage me to chinstrap him harder. I refused.

Per Carlos: while doing turtle-top spins, do not pause to contemplate your arm position while at opponent’s 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock, as I tend to do. Get thee to proper N/S so he can’t get you.

I had a Jack In the Box chocolate shake today, which I shouldn’t have done while trying to lose weight… but my throat really wanted it after all those chokes.

The antlers are here, FINALLY. To my dismay, they are quite a bit larger than they looked in the photo- as well as much heavier than anticipated. Most of the ideas I had for securing them may now be dismissed as foolish fancy. I’m not sure what to do.

WIP......
Let's say you are about to participate in some fighting that- for political reasons- you are really not supposed to be participating in. You're in a little rural village in ancient China and have just a few minutes to come up with some way to disguise your face (and, ideally, your hair) in such a way that is not going to impair you, and you can later remove the disguise so as to profess your innocence of having anything to do with this. You have access to anything you might reasonably find in a small rural village.

Any bright ideas? Comment if so. I'm stuck. I've done a little internet research, but am coming up empty so far. At first I was thinking of having them cover their faces and hair in flour- but that might sweat off during the fighting. Mud is not an option. Someone on Mythic Scribes suggested flour mixed with animal fat or maybe even blood could be improvised face paint, and might look even scarier if it's sweating off some and running down their faces.

Hedgehog

Restricting our horizons is encouraged in order to seek perfect efficiency in only one activity, avoid dispersing our energies, and dedicate ourselves to a well-defined career. This is how experts are born and life dies. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


The good part of two doses of bow-and-arrow drills in one day: you get to take the tweaks you figured out from part 1 and practice them in part 2.

The bad part of two doses of bow-and-arrow drills in one day: Your throat feels like you swallowed a hedgehog.

I had Angela this morning and Will tonight, and it's great to have excellent partners like they are- but they also got really nice chokes every time and knocked out reps like machine-guns. More aloe gel and aspirin tonight.

Same technique as this morning, plus this:

Opponent is in your close guard, throwing haymakers at your head. You do Black Crane style cover, then grab opponent's head and use your legs to hug hir to your chest.

Opponent fights the elbow and swims head out.  More haymakers.

Black Crane block with both elbow and knee; grab sleeve. Repeat on other side. Feet on hips. Spread knees out for butterfly guard.

Positional sparring from hanging off opponent's turtle, double-under lapel grips.

Spars. James did not remember my KOB lesson and had to be reminded. Next time he ought to be hustling as soon as I say "one!"  There was another blue belt there tonight with a lot of fancy moves, who ran a clinic on me. Also a big white belt who kept pushing my head to the mat. "Wrestler, huh?" Yup.

Vince invited me to do TMX with him and some other people after; which was really temping (esp since I'm trying to drop a few pounds before PSG), but after 2 classes, I was out of gas. Maybe another time.

....and still more back mount

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.
-Karl Popper


Monday lunchtime BJJ, GB Seattle.

You are sprawled N/S on opponent's turtle. Cross your arm over your own chest and place your forearm against the side of opponent's neck before scooting around (keep your weight down on hir).  Get double-under lapel grips.

Switch your base so that you are sitting on the thigh FURTHEST from the opponent. Pull hir into your back mount. Be sure to get both hooks in.

With right arm, reach OVER opponent's shoulder and grab opposite lapel. With other hand, grab hir pantleg.

Lie down on your side (away from pantleg grip) and kick your matward leg back. If you can now get upright (I struggled a bit with that part), you are in S mount. Be sure to cinch the front shin right up against your opponent's chest, and your back leg right up against hir shoulderblades.

!!!!!!DO NOT LET GO OF THE PANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do not lie down on your back! Remain upright, posture up for bow-and-arrow.

Aside from my perpetual driving need to let go of pants, and my difficulty getting upright to S-mount (you really have to do everything quickly and utilize the momentum from the lie-down-and-kick.... step by step ain't gettin' 'er done on this one), my challenge here is another familiar one: when I try to pull people into my back mount, I have a tendency to roll onto my back. I have troubleshot this issue before, but could not immediately recall the solution. So I adjusted a few things and experimented a little, and I'm actually pretty pleased that I was soon able to figure out what I needed to do. When switching base, I needed to plant myself further away from my opponent than would seem proper. Also, a little further up on hir body (closer to the head).

Seemingly endless dreels, then positional sparring starting from the double-under lapel grip hanging off the side of the turtle. Angela was laughing at me and seeming to have a lot of fun today. She said I was "fiesty" and that she likes it.

I tried to sit out the first roll of open mat to catch my breath, but Carlos was having none of that and told me to get on the mat. Cindy was egging him on. This is a downside of having Cindy back at GB; now she and Carlos can collude against me and gang up on me.

I rolled with Z, whom I wish would show up more often- he is just my size and has all sorts of cool sneaky tricks. He tapped me a few times; I got one choke sunk in that felt right, but I couldn't get him to tap (he said nothing was wrong with it, he was just being stubborn).

Then one with Bryan. Once again, I found myself with my arm crossed over my own chest. "Keep doing that," I told him, "Until I learn." Then I went and did it to *myself* while I was trying to turn my body under his mount, and didn't even notice it for a while.

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.