It doesn't matter if I lose.
I just don't wanna lose in the first eight seconds.
Showing posts with label bjj; tournaments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bjj; tournaments. Show all posts
Friday, August 23, 2013
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
It doesn't matter if I lose.
I just don't wanna lose in the first eight seconds.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Revolution Aug 2011
Today's FOD is Five Animals, again, because I didn't get it done yesterday.
Right ear is killing me after having Alecia grind on it Friday evening. I lay on my left side all night, and was sure that I'd be seeing a cauli ear in the mirror this morning. I don't see one, but it hurts mightily. NO MORE ROLLING SANS HEADGEAR. My CLiff Keen set needs to be replaced. The velcro won't hold, and that's why I keep getting frustrated and tossing it to the sidelines. I need to stop doing that. Neither my checkbook nor my pain threshold can stand another bout of cauli ear.
Revolution: Short version- I didn't do so hot.
There were 4 women total in my gi division, and I came in 4th. There were two women total in my no-gi division, and I came in 2nd {blush}.
Gi first. The first fight can only be called a rout. I got mounted almost immediately, and there I stayed till she tapped me out with a cross collar choke. I am used to being stuck on the bottom, so I wasn't that surprised to be imprisoned in mount.... but my choke defense is usually good, so I was frustrated and taken aback to get tapped to a choke.
2nd fight I was more competitive. I spent too much of it in my opponent's guard, but we ran out the clock and I lost on points. I accidentally poked her in the eye at one point, and stopped to apologize- I felt really bad.
Jeff (the guy who runs this show) came over to bitch that "I can't have all these Gracie Barra people over here!" They are very strict that you can only have one coach per athlete per mat. Gracie Barra of course has a zillion coaches running around, and I never ask someone to corner me- it's just whomever happens to show up. Often, more than one person shows up. Did I mention that Gracie Barra is very big on the TEAM thing? This time Lindsey showed up first (thanks, Lindsey), and Jeff chased all the others (including Rodrigo!) away.
No-gi- This was the one girl from the gi bracket that I didn't get to fight. She was a Tenth Planet student, so I was anxious about what wild tricks she might pull out of the bag, but she won on solid basics.
Another rather embarrassing first match. She came in very aggressively and double-legged me to take me down. I got a sweet guillotine but just barely missed getting the left leg around for closed guard, so I ended up with bottom half guard. I kept the guillotine for a long time- it was on very nicely, and I knew if I could just get closed guard, I'd have her- and she couldn't move a whole lot with the way I had her neck kinked over and her forehead glued to the mat. She seemed lighter than me, and I felt like I ought to be able to manhandle her into place. I came close to getting the closed guard a number of times, and was doing fairly well at reminding myself to be patient and conserve my breath/strength, but finally I got frustrated and let the guillotine go- and not long afterward she went for a keylock... at least I thought she was going for a keylock, but she fooled me and slipped in a kimura instead before I realized what was happening.
Second match, same girl. I was torn about what to do this time. Should I try for that guillotine again, because I had been THISCLOSE, and it is my best sub...? I chickened out, because I figured it would be too much of a disadvantage that she would know what I was trying. Spent a lot of time with her sprawled on my shoulders while we grabbed at and wrestled each other's legs. By the time we finished doing that for an eon, I was so exhausted I could barely raise an arm. I was in TOP (yes, TOP) half guard for a considerable time, but couldn't quite finish a keylock. She was very strong for being such a tiny little thing. I could hear Angela (she showed up first this time) yelling advice at me, but my body was too exhausted to do most of the things she was telling me to do. Then I heard another official yelling at Angela that there were again too many Gracie Barra coaches lurking about this mat. Finally the girl got a sub (IIRC an armlock) and I had to tap. The timekeeper was actually tossing the beanbag in *as* I was tapping. I was disgusted, because I think we were tied two to two.
I didn't see much of what was happening to my teammates today. I saw Kelly tie in a match during which she was in top half guard the entire time. I saw her later on the podium with second place. I saw Carlos (one of my fellow "Little Guys") get creamed on points, and I gave him an encouraging hug. I saw Kaungren lose one and win one. Another white belt guy that I work with at Bellevue sometimes- I'm blanking on his name- it was his first comp and he was nervous. We talked a bit, and I watched him get smeared on points in his first match. I told him that he was breathing too hard and fast, and that he was also turning AWAY from his opponent when trying to get out from under, instead of turning toward him. I didn't see him fight again, but he must have done better in his next matches, because I saw him later on the podium with third place.
I was indeed preoccupied to the point that I was a lot less nervous this time, but still had some flutterbelly and shaking when it was time to get on the mat. I am still feeling all the strength drain right out of my body almost immediately, and I am almost too exhausted to move after about forty seconds. I thought that phenomenon was a product of nerves, and perhaps partly because of poor breath control. But this time I seemed more on top of those two factors, and I still felt weak as a kitten very shortly into each match. Now I'm not sure what is causing that sensation.
I am not having much fun with competing, and I am not a good competitor. Rolling in the school is fun, even when I lose; this ain't fun. I also perform better in school; I don't seem to come through under pressure very well. I think I am mostly doing this as a Rodrigo-approval-seeking exercise. I think I'm subconsciously seeing him as the father figure I never had, and I'm trying to make him proud of me. I need to do some thinking, though, about whether or not competing is actually helpful for my personal martial artist development.
Right ear is killing me after having Alecia grind on it Friday evening. I lay on my left side all night, and was sure that I'd be seeing a cauli ear in the mirror this morning. I don't see one, but it hurts mightily. NO MORE ROLLING SANS HEADGEAR. My CLiff Keen set needs to be replaced. The velcro won't hold, and that's why I keep getting frustrated and tossing it to the sidelines. I need to stop doing that. Neither my checkbook nor my pain threshold can stand another bout of cauli ear.
Revolution: Short version- I didn't do so hot.
There were 4 women total in my gi division, and I came in 4th. There were two women total in my no-gi division, and I came in 2nd {blush}.
Gi first. The first fight can only be called a rout. I got mounted almost immediately, and there I stayed till she tapped me out with a cross collar choke. I am used to being stuck on the bottom, so I wasn't that surprised to be imprisoned in mount.... but my choke defense is usually good, so I was frustrated and taken aback to get tapped to a choke.
2nd fight I was more competitive. I spent too much of it in my opponent's guard, but we ran out the clock and I lost on points. I accidentally poked her in the eye at one point, and stopped to apologize- I felt really bad.
Jeff (the guy who runs this show) came over to bitch that "I can't have all these Gracie Barra people over here!" They are very strict that you can only have one coach per athlete per mat. Gracie Barra of course has a zillion coaches running around, and I never ask someone to corner me- it's just whomever happens to show up. Often, more than one person shows up. Did I mention that Gracie Barra is very big on the TEAM thing? This time Lindsey showed up first (thanks, Lindsey), and Jeff chased all the others (including Rodrigo!) away.
No-gi- This was the one girl from the gi bracket that I didn't get to fight. She was a Tenth Planet student, so I was anxious about what wild tricks she might pull out of the bag, but she won on solid basics.
Another rather embarrassing first match. She came in very aggressively and double-legged me to take me down. I got a sweet guillotine but just barely missed getting the left leg around for closed guard, so I ended up with bottom half guard. I kept the guillotine for a long time- it was on very nicely, and I knew if I could just get closed guard, I'd have her- and she couldn't move a whole lot with the way I had her neck kinked over and her forehead glued to the mat. She seemed lighter than me, and I felt like I ought to be able to manhandle her into place. I came close to getting the closed guard a number of times, and was doing fairly well at reminding myself to be patient and conserve my breath/strength, but finally I got frustrated and let the guillotine go- and not long afterward she went for a keylock... at least I thought she was going for a keylock, but she fooled me and slipped in a kimura instead before I realized what was happening.
Second match, same girl. I was torn about what to do this time. Should I try for that guillotine again, because I had been THISCLOSE, and it is my best sub...? I chickened out, because I figured it would be too much of a disadvantage that she would know what I was trying. Spent a lot of time with her sprawled on my shoulders while we grabbed at and wrestled each other's legs. By the time we finished doing that for an eon, I was so exhausted I could barely raise an arm. I was in TOP (yes, TOP) half guard for a considerable time, but couldn't quite finish a keylock. She was very strong for being such a tiny little thing. I could hear Angela (she showed up first this time) yelling advice at me, but my body was too exhausted to do most of the things she was telling me to do. Then I heard another official yelling at Angela that there were again too many Gracie Barra coaches lurking about this mat. Finally the girl got a sub (IIRC an armlock) and I had to tap. The timekeeper was actually tossing the beanbag in *as* I was tapping. I was disgusted, because I think we were tied two to two.
I didn't see much of what was happening to my teammates today. I saw Kelly tie in a match during which she was in top half guard the entire time. I saw her later on the podium with second place. I saw Carlos (one of my fellow "Little Guys") get creamed on points, and I gave him an encouraging hug. I saw Kaungren lose one and win one. Another white belt guy that I work with at Bellevue sometimes- I'm blanking on his name- it was his first comp and he was nervous. We talked a bit, and I watched him get smeared on points in his first match. I told him that he was breathing too hard and fast, and that he was also turning AWAY from his opponent when trying to get out from under, instead of turning toward him. I didn't see him fight again, but he must have done better in his next matches, because I saw him later on the podium with third place.
I was indeed preoccupied to the point that I was a lot less nervous this time, but still had some flutterbelly and shaking when it was time to get on the mat. I am still feeling all the strength drain right out of my body almost immediately, and I am almost too exhausted to move after about forty seconds. I thought that phenomenon was a product of nerves, and perhaps partly because of poor breath control. But this time I seemed more on top of those two factors, and I still felt weak as a kitten very shortly into each match. Now I'm not sure what is causing that sensation.
I am not having much fun with competing, and I am not a good competitor. Rolling in the school is fun, even when I lose; this ain't fun. I also perform better in school; I don't seem to come through under pressure very well. I think I am mostly doing this as a Rodrigo-approval-seeking exercise. I think I'm subconsciously seeing him as the father figure I never had, and I'm trying to make him proud of me. I need to do some thinking, though, about whether or not competing is actually helpful for my personal martial artist development.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Results
Revolution results are finally up.
Besides winning the overall team trophy by 3.5 points, Gracie Barra WA got 2nd place team in gi, 2nd place team in no-gi, first overall in the kids' division, first place in kids' gi, 2nd place in kids' no-gi.
Besides all the wins I've already mentioned, Peter got 3rd in his blue belt gi division, and Kaungren got 3rd in his intermediate no-gi division (dispite having claimed his no-gi "sucks"). Brandon took gold in his kids' intermediate no-gi bracket. Richie took a second in his green belt gi division.
Sleeper Athletics placed 4th in the kids' gi division (only 3 teensy little points behind Lotus Club), 3rd in kids' no-gi, third in kids' overall.
Cindy's little prodigy, Emmanuel (Code name: E-Man) took first in age 10-12, 78-81lb ADVANCED no-gi, as well as first in his orange belt gi division. That little kid is impressive. I'll bet he'd tap me. Daniel took first in his kids' beginner no-gi bracket.
(pic- E-man)
Tournament part 2: no-gi
Text from Cindy: "Congratulations on the win, champ!!!!!"
E-mail from Lamont: "Kitsune, I am very proud of you. Not just your placing but your attitude and performance. You did great!!!!"
E-mail from JB: "I heard you won!!! Good job!!!! =D =D =D I'm so proud of you! It was so awesome watching you compete today!!!! Hugs and chocolate cake!!!!!!!!! ;)"
Text from SK: "I'm alive. Surgery went well. :-) "
I had asked him to text me Monday night or Tues morning just to let me know he was still alive after the general anesthesia. He gave me a whole bunch of crap for being a Mother Hen.
So, where'd I leave off... no-gi. Oh, one more gi thing: my GB teammate Blake got the "Vicious Submission" prize for gi.. armbar in seventeen seconds.
Once again, a two-person field in my bracket. We would fight three times, best two out of three wins. The other girl was a buddy of Peter's. I had been sitting right behind her in the bleachers for half the morning, surreptitiously checking out her biceps. I was thinking that my biceps were bigger, and maybe I was stronger than she. She didn't look as scary as those badass MMA girls from the November Revolution- with their swaggers, glowers, cornrows and gang tats. She looked like a normal girl.
We were the first complete no-gi bracket weighed in and matside, so they went ahead and started us. There were still a few white belt brackets finishing up. We were the first adult no-gi match of the day.
It's all a little fuzzy... but IIRC, yet again my opponent initiated the takedown but got no points because of the way we landed. You know, I don't really mind letting them initiate the takedown if they're not getting any points and I am always going to begin the floorwork in an advantageous position. I really do recover well from takedowns. As soon as I know I'm going down, I'm already beginning to execute the landing and ensuing moves- using the momentum from the takedown.
After that, I spent almost the entire rest of the roll on top. Yup. Wow. I think that deserves an encore: "I spent almost the entire rest of the roll on top."
Also notable- I don't recall finding myself lying in bottom half-guard once during this match.
She got me halfway rolled over a couple of times, but failed to press the matter by getting some weight on top of me quickly enough, so I was able to put her right back down. After a bit, I felt that I was in control and had enough leisure to consider applying a keylock. It was a nice one, and I kept yanking, but she did not tap. Rats- another rubber-shouldered gal.
As we were struggling with the keylock, I abruptly realized that I was much stronger than this woman, and she was going wherever I muscled her. The devil on my left shoulder crowed, "YAY-esss!!" while the angel on my right shoulder groaned, "You brute! You're doing to her exactly what you hate having everybody else do to you! Not only a bully, but a HYPOCRITICAL bully! And this is not good jiu jitsu."
A while later- the devil having muscled the angel into an RNC and choked her out cold- I attempted a kimura on my opponent. I had her arm twisted so far behind her back- and I was thinking, "Jesus H Christ, isn't she ever going to tap??!?" I hadn't had anyone cornering me when we began, but at this point I became dimly aware of Lamont's voice saying very calmly- like he was asking me to please pass the scones- "Kitsune. Switch your hands." Duh! I did that, muscled the poor gal further up onto her shoulder so that I could switch hips and throw a shin over her head to pull the kimura further, and then there was a red beanbag flying past my nose.
Dazedly, I stood there while a ref lifted MY arm instead of my opponent's arm for the very first time.
Walked off the mat, and Peter was standing there waiting. I slapped his hand, then realized that he wasn't waiting there to congratulate me, he was waiting there to console his friend whom I'd just beaten. Oops. A hypocritical INSENSITIVE bully, that's me.
Then Lamont was hugging me, and Professor Carlos was hugging me, and I think some other people were hugging me too, but it's all kind of a blur. Lamont said, "Did you see the points?" No. He said it was something like seventeen to zero. I started shaking and quavered, "Are you shitting me?" I hadn't just beaten her, I'd Alecia'ed her.
I heard "Keetsune.... Keetsune." and saw Rodrigo across the mat smiling and giving me thumbs-up.
Lamont said, "They want you to go again." I said in dismay, "Right now?" There were still no other no-gi brackets matside and ready. "The ref says three minutes." {sputters} "How long do you want?" {more sputters} "Tell me how long you want, and I'll tell him." Thank Gods he showed up and I didn't have to handle these negotiations myself. My brain still wasn't functioning quite right. I swallowed and tried to pull myself together. "I'll go- she's tired too."
Then Peter came over and said, "She wants some more time. In fact, she doesn't know if she wants to fight again." I stared at him blankly. I think he had to repeat it once or twice before I said, "At all??"
The ref was next to loom up in my grill. "She might not want to fight again. You're garanteed at least two matches at this tournament. Is it okay if she doesn't want to fight again? I don't like to see anybody cry."
Lamont again: "She wants to forfeit the remaining two matches. She doesn't want to fight you again."
"Keetsune....Keetsune." Rodrigo is calling at me across the mat again, grinning like a Halloween jack-o-lantern. I have never seen Rodrigo grin this much. At *ME*.
That would probably have felt really good if I hadn't been hyperaware of Peter comforting my obviously very upset opponent/victim at the other end of the bleachers. As it was, I felt kinda crappy. She did eventually come over to me and was very gracious, and I hope I was gracious back. She said that it was her first Revolution, and that it was not how she'd expected. I told her that her technique was good, that I'd just totally muscled her.
I would have felt better if I'd won by nice clean jiu jitsu technique instead of muscling. I was quite honestly perplexed and flabbergasted just to find myself in that position at all. The few times during my entire BJJ career in which I've rolled with someone smaller and weaker than myself- of which I can count on one hand, and have fingers left over- the person was also junior enough that I was just sort of walking them through stuff, draping myself gently over them and letting them escape, etc. I have never muscled anyone until Saturday. I didn't even know what that felt like. It was exceedingly odd. Some kind of bizarre trip that my brain still can't process.
I watched Alecia beat up some girl in her no-gi division, then Rihanna vs Alecia. I had conflicting loyalties. Luckily they were not standing near each other, and there were enough people milling about that I hope neither of them saw me orbiting between them, wishing them both good luck. Wow, another heck of a fight. Rihanna finally tapped Alecia- I think with a choke of some kind. They had to fight each other a second time a little later, and Rihanna beat Alecia again- this time on points. So Rihanna got first in both gi and no-gi. I felt better about having gotten my butt kicked by her after seeing her kick ALECIA'S Butt. Twice. That is one Bad Girl.
At some point in there.... I don't even remember if it was before or after my fight... Relax_On_the_Mat came over and introduced herself, and we chatted a bit. I know I stared blankly at her for a moment. When we'd described ourselves by PM on the forum, she'd said she was "one of the bigger white belt chicks" in a navy blue Koral gi, so I had been scanning the mats all during the gi matches while I was in the bleachers, looking for the "big chicks". I never saw any big chicks. Once she was standing in front of me, I had to work through some cognitive dissonance before realizing that I'd been looking for a horizontally "big chick" while Relax_On_the_Mat is a VERTICALLY "big chick". LoL.
I picked up the traditional post-tournament giant bag of M&M's on the way home from the comp. I was too tired for the traditional post-tournament pizza, and I knew I had to get up early in the morning for work.
The results and photos are still not up online. Cindy's got some pics of the kids up on her school website, though. Her Flicker account won't let me save any of them to post on my blog.... annoying. There's a real cute one showing one of her little boys choking a kid from behind and looking completely gleeful while peeking over the top of his victim's head.
E-mail from Lamont: "Kitsune, I am very proud of you. Not just your placing but your attitude and performance. You did great!!!!"
E-mail from JB: "I heard you won!!! Good job!!!! =D =D =D I'm so proud of you! It was so awesome watching you compete today!!!! Hugs and chocolate cake!!!!!!!!! ;)"
Text from SK: "I'm alive. Surgery went well. :-) "
I had asked him to text me Monday night or Tues morning just to let me know he was still alive after the general anesthesia. He gave me a whole bunch of crap for being a Mother Hen.
So, where'd I leave off... no-gi. Oh, one more gi thing: my GB teammate Blake got the "Vicious Submission" prize for gi.. armbar in seventeen seconds.
Once again, a two-person field in my bracket. We would fight three times, best two out of three wins. The other girl was a buddy of Peter's. I had been sitting right behind her in the bleachers for half the morning, surreptitiously checking out her biceps. I was thinking that my biceps were bigger, and maybe I was stronger than she. She didn't look as scary as those badass MMA girls from the November Revolution- with their swaggers, glowers, cornrows and gang tats. She looked like a normal girl.
We were the first complete no-gi bracket weighed in and matside, so they went ahead and started us. There were still a few white belt brackets finishing up. We were the first adult no-gi match of the day.
It's all a little fuzzy... but IIRC, yet again my opponent initiated the takedown but got no points because of the way we landed. You know, I don't really mind letting them initiate the takedown if they're not getting any points and I am always going to begin the floorwork in an advantageous position. I really do recover well from takedowns. As soon as I know I'm going down, I'm already beginning to execute the landing and ensuing moves- using the momentum from the takedown.
After that, I spent almost the entire rest of the roll on top. Yup. Wow. I think that deserves an encore: "I spent almost the entire rest of the roll on top."
Also notable- I don't recall finding myself lying in bottom half-guard once during this match.
She got me halfway rolled over a couple of times, but failed to press the matter by getting some weight on top of me quickly enough, so I was able to put her right back down. After a bit, I felt that I was in control and had enough leisure to consider applying a keylock. It was a nice one, and I kept yanking, but she did not tap. Rats- another rubber-shouldered gal.
As we were struggling with the keylock, I abruptly realized that I was much stronger than this woman, and she was going wherever I muscled her. The devil on my left shoulder crowed, "YAY-esss!!" while the angel on my right shoulder groaned, "You brute! You're doing to her exactly what you hate having everybody else do to you! Not only a bully, but a HYPOCRITICAL bully! And this is not good jiu jitsu."
A while later- the devil having muscled the angel into an RNC and choked her out cold- I attempted a kimura on my opponent. I had her arm twisted so far behind her back- and I was thinking, "Jesus H Christ, isn't she ever going to tap??!?" I hadn't had anyone cornering me when we began, but at this point I became dimly aware of Lamont's voice saying very calmly- like he was asking me to please pass the scones- "Kitsune. Switch your hands." Duh! I did that, muscled the poor gal further up onto her shoulder so that I could switch hips and throw a shin over her head to pull the kimura further, and then there was a red beanbag flying past my nose.
Dazedly, I stood there while a ref lifted MY arm instead of my opponent's arm for the very first time.
Walked off the mat, and Peter was standing there waiting. I slapped his hand, then realized that he wasn't waiting there to congratulate me, he was waiting there to console his friend whom I'd just beaten. Oops. A hypocritical INSENSITIVE bully, that's me.
Then Lamont was hugging me, and Professor Carlos was hugging me, and I think some other people were hugging me too, but it's all kind of a blur. Lamont said, "Did you see the points?" No. He said it was something like seventeen to zero. I started shaking and quavered, "Are you shitting me?" I hadn't just beaten her, I'd Alecia'ed her.
I heard "Keetsune.... Keetsune." and saw Rodrigo across the mat smiling and giving me thumbs-up.
Lamont said, "They want you to go again." I said in dismay, "Right now?" There were still no other no-gi brackets matside and ready. "The ref says three minutes." {sputters} "How long do you want?" {more sputters} "Tell me how long you want, and I'll tell him." Thank Gods he showed up and I didn't have to handle these negotiations myself. My brain still wasn't functioning quite right. I swallowed and tried to pull myself together. "I'll go- she's tired too."
Then Peter came over and said, "She wants some more time. In fact, she doesn't know if she wants to fight again." I stared at him blankly. I think he had to repeat it once or twice before I said, "At all??"
The ref was next to loom up in my grill. "She might not want to fight again. You're garanteed at least two matches at this tournament. Is it okay if she doesn't want to fight again? I don't like to see anybody cry."
Lamont again: "She wants to forfeit the remaining two matches. She doesn't want to fight you again."
"Keetsune....Keetsune." Rodrigo is calling at me across the mat again, grinning like a Halloween jack-o-lantern. I have never seen Rodrigo grin this much. At *ME*.
That would probably have felt really good if I hadn't been hyperaware of Peter comforting my obviously very upset opponent/victim at the other end of the bleachers. As it was, I felt kinda crappy. She did eventually come over to me and was very gracious, and I hope I was gracious back. She said that it was her first Revolution, and that it was not how she'd expected. I told her that her technique was good, that I'd just totally muscled her.
I would have felt better if I'd won by nice clean jiu jitsu technique instead of muscling. I was quite honestly perplexed and flabbergasted just to find myself in that position at all. The few times during my entire BJJ career in which I've rolled with someone smaller and weaker than myself- of which I can count on one hand, and have fingers left over- the person was also junior enough that I was just sort of walking them through stuff, draping myself gently over them and letting them escape, etc. I have never muscled anyone until Saturday. I didn't even know what that felt like. It was exceedingly odd. Some kind of bizarre trip that my brain still can't process.
I watched Alecia beat up some girl in her no-gi division, then Rihanna vs Alecia. I had conflicting loyalties. Luckily they were not standing near each other, and there were enough people milling about that I hope neither of them saw me orbiting between them, wishing them both good luck. Wow, another heck of a fight. Rihanna finally tapped Alecia- I think with a choke of some kind. They had to fight each other a second time a little later, and Rihanna beat Alecia again- this time on points. So Rihanna got first in both gi and no-gi. I felt better about having gotten my butt kicked by her after seeing her kick ALECIA'S Butt. Twice. That is one Bad Girl.
At some point in there.... I don't even remember if it was before or after my fight... Relax_On_the_Mat came over and introduced herself, and we chatted a bit. I know I stared blankly at her for a moment. When we'd described ourselves by PM on the forum, she'd said she was "one of the bigger white belt chicks" in a navy blue Koral gi, so I had been scanning the mats all during the gi matches while I was in the bleachers, looking for the "big chicks". I never saw any big chicks. Once she was standing in front of me, I had to work through some cognitive dissonance before realizing that I'd been looking for a horizontally "big chick" while Relax_On_the_Mat is a VERTICALLY "big chick". LoL.
I picked up the traditional post-tournament giant bag of M&M's on the way home from the comp. I was too tired for the traditional post-tournament pizza, and I knew I had to get up early in the morning for work.
The results and photos are still not up online. Cindy's got some pics of the kids up on her school website, though. Her Flicker account won't let me save any of them to post on my blog.... annoying. There's a real cute one showing one of her little boys choking a kid from behind and looking completely gleeful while peeking over the top of his victim's head.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Tournament Part 1- gi
From Rory Miller's blog.... he was talking about being a little guy on the football team, but I can relate to this as a mini martial artist.
"I found out I could take a hit and get up and keep going. Found out that if I deliberately picked the biggest guy and slammed him with everything I had I'd get knocked in the dirt but if I did it again...and again...and again eventually he would flinch. And if I could get him to think I was crazy, that I wouldn't give up and find that flinch moment I could knock him down and keep going. Found out that on defense, even guys too big to stop could be misdirected by an elbow upside the helmet. Found out a lot of things hurt and most of the time the pain meant nothing. That the person who was willing to get back up was the toughest. That there was a limit to size and strength but there was no limit to your willingness to pick yourself up and hit the bastard one more time."
--------
Had to work all day today, then a BJJ class, then Kung Fu, work again early tomorrow. I got a little time early in the morning at work to write up the first half of the Revolution, while I was waiting for some of my project ingredients to come to room temp. I hope I can get caught up before I get too far behind!
The good news; I didn't have to fight Alecia.
The bad news: I had to fight the girl who BEAT Alecia.
For this edition of the Revolution, I got to the venue in plenty of time to put my contacts in beforehand! I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of two hours sitting in the back hallway waiting for gi weigh-ins. They called the weight class below mine.... and the weight class above mine.... I was completely paranoid about missing my call! There was a girl lying on the floor down the hall from me, and I was trying to estimate her weight in case I should wake her up for one of these calls. I'm starting to get better at estimating weight on smaller-size girls in my own neighborhood. I thought "No, that's not her weight class, she's too big for that...."
I saw some guy in line squirt half the contents of a honey bear straight down his throat! Ugh! Another guy asked the person behind him if he'd had breakfast, and the second guy replied, "A scoop of peanut butter." Ugh! Glenn weighed in on the practice scale and was point-something over. I said, "You'd better go try to pee!"
I was just under my bracket. I could have slipped into the next-lower bracket. My opponent (Rihanna) was point-something overweight. They were going to DQ her. They asked me if I wanted to fight her anyway, so I said sure. The first thing she did (after thanking me) was pull a candy bar out of her bag and gorf it right in front of me. I wanted to say, "Gimme half of that, or I'll have you DQ'ed after all!" I had stopped at the grocery store on the way in and bought a turkey sandwich and some sliced deli ham, but I'd resisted the urge to buy junk food. I knew I was safely underweight for gi, but didn't have a whole lot of extra wiggle room for no-gi, and I knew I didn't have the self-control to save junk food for later!
Thus, this girl had a full ten-pound advantage on me.
We chatted while we were waiting for our matches, and she was really nice. We agreed that neither of us wanted to be female dogs and be grinding each other's faces and garbage like that.... so that was nice to establish.... and helped me relax.
We were the only two women in our bracket, so we were supposed to fight each other three times and take best two out of three. As soon as we grabbed each other to fight for the takedown, I was like, "Oh, great- another wrestler," She was hauling down heavy on my shoulders and lapels, and trying to yank me to the side, and once she started pulling my gi up over my head. We both tried a few foot hooks. I was happy that I attempted some of those. I even considered the fall-on-your-butt-and-plant-feet-in-hipbones-and-toss maneuver that I'd gotten on Alecia last week.... but if I was going to go for that in comp, I wanted her to totally overcommit her weight by pushing into me. I pushed into her- often that elicits a reflexive push back, and that's when you grab for it- but she wasn't taking that bait. Rats. I realized a little too late that she was telegraphing a bit just before the yank-to-the-side, and the thought floated through my mind that I ought to come up with something clever to counter with the next time she did that. Just as I thought that, she did it again and I found myself flying ass over teakettle across the mat.
JB took some vid of this match and the next one from the bleachers.... not great quality, but when I see it, I ought to remember more and have some more to say about those fights. It's a little fuzzy. I seem to recall that Rihanna initiated the takedown both times but didn't get points for it either time because of the way we landed. After the first takedown, she got a vicious KoB that pinned me like a dead bug on a card- it seemed like a lot longer than 3 seconds, but it didn't look on the vid as if she got points for it. In one of the matches- I forget which- I was THISCLOSE to getting a clock choke- I was thinking "AH HA, NOW I HAVE YOU!!!" but she squirted out somehow. I am very pleased to say that I did not spend these two matches in bottom half guard. I got out of bottom half guard twice, using the technique that I had practiced with George on Friday night (Thanks again, George and Cindy!). I even got on top a bit. However, she tapped me out in the end... the first time with an RNC and the second time with a triangle. While I was getting RNC'ed, the photographer crawled up close enough to smooch and took a photo with his bright red flash right in my face. Thanks, buddy. Rub it in, why don'tcha. That pic had better not show up on the May Revolution poster. I was annoyed to get tapped with a triangle, since avoiding that had been one of my goals.... I think I set too many goals this time. I was so busy thinking about staying out of bottom half guard that I forgot to be hypervigilant for the triangle setup.
Since Rihanna had won the first two matches, there was no need for a third. I felt okay enough about my performance against a worthy opponent that I felt okay accepting a second place for being the loser in a two-person field. Rihanna was a nice girl, and a good martial artist. It wasn't too bad to lose to her.
The most significant thing of note about these matches was how quickly I gassed out. I didn't gas out like this in the last Revolution until the middle of my second fight, and I was a lot more scared then. This time, I seemed to gas out almost immediately. In the second match, we weren't fighting grips for twenty seconds before I thought, "OMG, I'm tired... I feel weak as a kitten. How am I going to get through this match?" I'm sure at least some of it was nerves. It's weird, though, that I can go for two hours at practice, and yeah, I'm tired- but not tired like THIS, after mere minutes.
When I went to the back hall for the podium formalities, Rihanna was there with an older woman who looked just like her. Just in time, I bit my tongue on "And this must be your mom!" I would die of embarrassment if I said that and it turned out to be her two-years-older sister or something. So I choked that off and just stuck my hand out and let her introduce herself. "Hi! I'm Rihanna's mom!" "Hi! I'm the girl that she beat!" "Well! Ahhh... thank you?!?" "You bet! Anything to help out!" We all cracked up.
I sat in the bleachers with JB, and we watched Peter, Pat, Glenn, Hostility Boy, Jerome, and several other Gracie Barra guys fight. Jerome was one of the highlights of the tournament for me. He lost the match, but he fought very well- including a beauteous hitch hiker escape that ought to have been in a superhero movie. All of us in the stands were like, "WHOAH!!! Did you see that??!??!" It was a white-knuckler of a fight. Bummer that he didn't win. I got to congratulate/compliment him on it when he came back up in the bleachers. The other four guys won their fights. I don't know how they ended (and the results aren't up yet), but I think Glenn got first in his division.
JB and I agreed that we felt sorry for the girls who would have to fight Cornelia and Alecia. We saw Cornelia and Alecia each do a couple matches and win. Unfortunately, they were on a rear mat, and there was a particularly rotund ref standing between us and that mat, so the view was pretty poor. Soon, though, it was "OMG, are we actually going to see Cornelia and Alecia throw down??!!??" (Recap- Cornelia: the judo black belt who sprained my finger in January, who kicks my butt all over the mat at Gracie Barra. Alecia: the rough MMA girl who smeared me 21 (and an advantage, lest we forget) to zilch in a practice match last week, and kicks my butt all over the mat at Cindy's.) Sure enough, there they were facing off for first place. I know Alecia has mad wrestler's takedown skills, but I kind of expected Cornelia's judo takedowns to send her sprawling fairly immediately. They both fought long and hard for the takedown, though. It was another white-knuckler. JB and I didn't know who we should be rooting for, but it was nice to know that we could be happy regardless of who won! Cornelia tapped Alecia- so Cornelia got 1st and Alecia 2nd in their division.
I woke up REALLY sore this morning- I think just from the tension!
Next installment soon: no-gi.................
"I found out I could take a hit and get up and keep going. Found out that if I deliberately picked the biggest guy and slammed him with everything I had I'd get knocked in the dirt but if I did it again...and again...and again eventually he would flinch. And if I could get him to think I was crazy, that I wouldn't give up and find that flinch moment I could knock him down and keep going. Found out that on defense, even guys too big to stop could be misdirected by an elbow upside the helmet. Found out a lot of things hurt and most of the time the pain meant nothing. That the person who was willing to get back up was the toughest. That there was a limit to size and strength but there was no limit to your willingness to pick yourself up and hit the bastard one more time."
--------
Had to work all day today, then a BJJ class, then Kung Fu, work again early tomorrow. I got a little time early in the morning at work to write up the first half of the Revolution, while I was waiting for some of my project ingredients to come to room temp. I hope I can get caught up before I get too far behind!
The good news; I didn't have to fight Alecia.
The bad news: I had to fight the girl who BEAT Alecia.
For this edition of the Revolution, I got to the venue in plenty of time to put my contacts in beforehand! I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of two hours sitting in the back hallway waiting for gi weigh-ins. They called the weight class below mine.... and the weight class above mine.... I was completely paranoid about missing my call! There was a girl lying on the floor down the hall from me, and I was trying to estimate her weight in case I should wake her up for one of these calls. I'm starting to get better at estimating weight on smaller-size girls in my own neighborhood. I thought "No, that's not her weight class, she's too big for that...."
I saw some guy in line squirt half the contents of a honey bear straight down his throat! Ugh! Another guy asked the person behind him if he'd had breakfast, and the second guy replied, "A scoop of peanut butter." Ugh! Glenn weighed in on the practice scale and was point-something over. I said, "You'd better go try to pee!"
I was just under my bracket. I could have slipped into the next-lower bracket. My opponent (Rihanna) was point-something overweight. They were going to DQ her. They asked me if I wanted to fight her anyway, so I said sure. The first thing she did (after thanking me) was pull a candy bar out of her bag and gorf it right in front of me. I wanted to say, "Gimme half of that, or I'll have you DQ'ed after all!" I had stopped at the grocery store on the way in and bought a turkey sandwich and some sliced deli ham, but I'd resisted the urge to buy junk food. I knew I was safely underweight for gi, but didn't have a whole lot of extra wiggle room for no-gi, and I knew I didn't have the self-control to save junk food for later!
Thus, this girl had a full ten-pound advantage on me.
We chatted while we were waiting for our matches, and she was really nice. We agreed that neither of us wanted to be female dogs and be grinding each other's faces and garbage like that.... so that was nice to establish.... and helped me relax.
We were the only two women in our bracket, so we were supposed to fight each other three times and take best two out of three. As soon as we grabbed each other to fight for the takedown, I was like, "Oh, great- another wrestler," She was hauling down heavy on my shoulders and lapels, and trying to yank me to the side, and once she started pulling my gi up over my head. We both tried a few foot hooks. I was happy that I attempted some of those. I even considered the fall-on-your-butt-and-plant-feet-in-hipbones-and-toss maneuver that I'd gotten on Alecia last week.... but if I was going to go for that in comp, I wanted her to totally overcommit her weight by pushing into me. I pushed into her- often that elicits a reflexive push back, and that's when you grab for it- but she wasn't taking that bait. Rats. I realized a little too late that she was telegraphing a bit just before the yank-to-the-side, and the thought floated through my mind that I ought to come up with something clever to counter with the next time she did that. Just as I thought that, she did it again and I found myself flying ass over teakettle across the mat.
JB took some vid of this match and the next one from the bleachers.... not great quality, but when I see it, I ought to remember more and have some more to say about those fights. It's a little fuzzy. I seem to recall that Rihanna initiated the takedown both times but didn't get points for it either time because of the way we landed. After the first takedown, she got a vicious KoB that pinned me like a dead bug on a card- it seemed like a lot longer than 3 seconds, but it didn't look on the vid as if she got points for it. In one of the matches- I forget which- I was THISCLOSE to getting a clock choke- I was thinking "AH HA, NOW I HAVE YOU!!!" but she squirted out somehow. I am very pleased to say that I did not spend these two matches in bottom half guard. I got out of bottom half guard twice, using the technique that I had practiced with George on Friday night (Thanks again, George and Cindy!). I even got on top a bit. However, she tapped me out in the end... the first time with an RNC and the second time with a triangle. While I was getting RNC'ed, the photographer crawled up close enough to smooch and took a photo with his bright red flash right in my face. Thanks, buddy. Rub it in, why don'tcha. That pic had better not show up on the May Revolution poster. I was annoyed to get tapped with a triangle, since avoiding that had been one of my goals.... I think I set too many goals this time. I was so busy thinking about staying out of bottom half guard that I forgot to be hypervigilant for the triangle setup.
Since Rihanna had won the first two matches, there was no need for a third. I felt okay enough about my performance against a worthy opponent that I felt okay accepting a second place for being the loser in a two-person field. Rihanna was a nice girl, and a good martial artist. It wasn't too bad to lose to her.
The most significant thing of note about these matches was how quickly I gassed out. I didn't gas out like this in the last Revolution until the middle of my second fight, and I was a lot more scared then. This time, I seemed to gas out almost immediately. In the second match, we weren't fighting grips for twenty seconds before I thought, "OMG, I'm tired... I feel weak as a kitten. How am I going to get through this match?" I'm sure at least some of it was nerves. It's weird, though, that I can go for two hours at practice, and yeah, I'm tired- but not tired like THIS, after mere minutes.
When I went to the back hall for the podium formalities, Rihanna was there with an older woman who looked just like her. Just in time, I bit my tongue on "And this must be your mom!" I would die of embarrassment if I said that and it turned out to be her two-years-older sister or something. So I choked that off and just stuck my hand out and let her introduce herself. "Hi! I'm Rihanna's mom!" "Hi! I'm the girl that she beat!" "Well! Ahhh... thank you?!?" "You bet! Anything to help out!" We all cracked up.
I sat in the bleachers with JB, and we watched Peter, Pat, Glenn, Hostility Boy, Jerome, and several other Gracie Barra guys fight. Jerome was one of the highlights of the tournament for me. He lost the match, but he fought very well- including a beauteous hitch hiker escape that ought to have been in a superhero movie. All of us in the stands were like, "WHOAH!!! Did you see that??!??!" It was a white-knuckler of a fight. Bummer that he didn't win. I got to congratulate/compliment him on it when he came back up in the bleachers. The other four guys won their fights. I don't know how they ended (and the results aren't up yet), but I think Glenn got first in his division.
JB and I agreed that we felt sorry for the girls who would have to fight Cornelia and Alecia. We saw Cornelia and Alecia each do a couple matches and win. Unfortunately, they were on a rear mat, and there was a particularly rotund ref standing between us and that mat, so the view was pretty poor. Soon, though, it was "OMG, are we actually going to see Cornelia and Alecia throw down??!!??" (Recap- Cornelia: the judo black belt who sprained my finger in January, who kicks my butt all over the mat at Gracie Barra. Alecia: the rough MMA girl who smeared me 21 (and an advantage, lest we forget) to zilch in a practice match last week, and kicks my butt all over the mat at Cindy's.) Sure enough, there they were facing off for first place. I know Alecia has mad wrestler's takedown skills, but I kind of expected Cornelia's judo takedowns to send her sprawling fairly immediately. They both fought long and hard for the takedown, though. It was another white-knuckler. JB and I didn't know who we should be rooting for, but it was nice to know that we could be happy regardless of who won! Cornelia tapped Alecia- so Cornelia got 1st and Alecia 2nd in their division.
I woke up REALLY sore this morning- I think just from the tension!
Next installment soon: no-gi.................
Saturday, November 13, 2010
DQ by contact lens
Lesson number one from my first big tournament:
Get up ten minutes earlier and put your contacts in before you leave the house.
I didn't put them in because I don't like driving in them, and I thought there would be a ton of time... but I got a little lost (Bonney Lake earns a D in street signs) and went straight to gi weigh-in upon arrival. Immediately after weigh-in, I went to the bathroom to put my contacts in.... then straight to my assigned mat.... where I found that I had already been scratched. Yep, I know, almost too stupid to be believed, huh? After all that. Can you believe any large tournament could possibly be that efficient? And they must have BEGUN with my bracket... WTF.... one of the MIDDLE brackets????!? Wouldn't any intelligent person assume they would start with either the heaviest brackets or the lighest ones, not with some random bracket from the center of the field???!??
So, all you boys and girls who have yet to do your first big tournament, don't be a moron like Kitsune: Weigh in, go straight to your assigned mat and stay there. Do not go to pee, do not go to find your friends, do not go to the candy machine, and do not go to put your contacts in. If you have half a brain cell, you'll just immediately find your mat and STAY THERE.
Now if I hadn't signed up for no-gi as well, the whole trip would have been for nothing. But I was pissed enough because
1)My gi is better than my no-gi
2)There were few enough women in my gi bracket that even if I had lost all my matches, I think I would have still placed and gotten some points (I think Rodrigo wanted to tie a knot in my tongue for that....Now if Gracie Barra loses the team trophy by two points, it really WILL be totally my fault!!!)
3)Now I had to sit around for another five-plus hours and get more and more jittery waiting for no-gi... I could have slept in.
OKay, well, it's done. Moving on.
I had actually weighed 126.5 first thing this morning (naked). I had a decent breakfast (albeit eggs yet again), drank all I wanted, I even had a candy bar. I could have gone to the friggin' Old Country Buffet breakfast bar and eaten myself into a stupor and still made weight. I weighed in UNDER weight in both gi and no gi; I could have gotten into the next lower bracket. So I was actually at a bit of a disadvantage (in the fights that I actually showed up for), because I was essentially fighting up a bracket.
I also still have a bit of lingering laryngitis, slight dry cough, slight headache. I could fight, but I was definitely not at my physical 100%.
The first uniformed woman I saw when I walked in was JULIE. That chick was *not* on the registration list!!! Believe me, I looked. All I can think of was that she may have been on the kids' list (which I skimmed but didn't scour) since she's under 18... and they bumped her up. A good thing to keep in mind when checking up on my potential opponents next time.
Bianca had to fight her (gi)- and lost. Welcome to the Sisterhood Of Those Who Have Been Owned By Julie, Bea.
Bianca almost missed *her* fight as well.... she was on the other end of the gym watching the brown belts, but luckily I was watching the women and heard her name called, and I knew where she was. Normally I would have used my Herald Voice to summon her across the gym and over the crowd..... but with laryngitis, I had to run!
One woman was lying on the floor sobbing, with her gi jacket over her face- it looked like she had dislocated her shoulder. I hadn't seen it happen, but wow.... that's a chance we all take.
By the March Revolution I should be able to shed another 2.5lb and be safely in that lower bracket. Of course that puts me back in with Bianca and Julie again! But I'm pretty sure I have more muscle mass than either of them. Not that that helps me when their technique is a lot better... but catching up to them is a good goal to strive for.
I didn't see hide nor hair of Cindy most of the day... not that I expected to; the kids were upstairs, and they need her more than I do on tournament day. I heard that Ian won gi, and lost in no-gi to a rough guy with many years of wrestling experience. The other kids did well.
Carlos called me over, and I slunk warily up to him... but he clasped my hand and hugged me. I asked him if he still loved me, and he said yes. So that's a big relief. I guess Rodrigo succeeded in convincing him that I am not a terrible person.
I saw Brandon lose a match and come off the mat crying.... it was a really good fight, and he was up against an adult (he is 13!) so he has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of... but since he's 13, he was crying. I was kind of watching for him, since Cindy had mentioned to me that Brandon was crying after he lost a match at the Seattle Open last month. So I tapped Carlos on the arm and pointed over there, and told him that Brandon was crying and Carlos should go talk to him. Which he did, so that was good.
I saw one of Kaungren's matches; he got the guy in what looked like a really nice triangle. But after about a year's worth of looking like the guy would have to tap any second, he somehow got out, and ended up winning the match. Bummer.
I saw Dex and Miguel both win very hard-fought matches, and Pat win two. Saw little Carlos lose one, but he fought well.
Sabrina was there, and explained that she hadn't signed up because she's been nursing a shoulder injury. Angela was there, and she *had* signed up, but no other purple belt women had- so she didn't get a fight. She said that there would be someone for her to fight at the March Revolution, though... and then she plans to go to the Pan Ams.
So, no-gi.... I had been bumping into Pat here and there all day and he kept bucking me up. Before my first no-gi match, he pulled me off the foor and started doing a little pummeling and such to try to warm me up. He was being so supportive that I completely forgot to chew him out (as I had intended to) for scaring me on Tuesday and leading me to believe that Rodrigo was more angry at me than he actually was.
I had seen a girl about my size walk in wearing a "Team Wise" sweatshirt and carrying a gallon jug with "Tiffany" written on it, and I thought, "Bingo, she is my first match!" I was sizing her up out of the corner of my eye for hours as we were both wandering around the gym. She was kind of scary. Swaggering, glowering, black cornrows and tats. When I pointed her out to Pat, he whispered, "Your tattoos are more badass than hers." LOL.
Well, there must have been a last-minute switch for some reason, because she was set up to fight some other girl- Stephanie (she must have gotten combined into this bracket from elsewhere). Tiffany won.
I was up to fight Rachel first. She was taller than me, but she actually didn't look as scary as Tiffany. I don't remember a whole lot of the match, but I think I aquitted myself halfway decently before losing to an RNC. An RNC! I almost never tap to chokes! I was exasperated to have to tap to a choke, although I was happy it was not a triangle. Mission number one for this tournament was: do not get tapped out within the first fifteen seconds. Mission number two was: do not get tapped out by triangle. (Next time, mission number one is going to be SHOW UP FOR THE MATCH!!!) I succeeded in my two missions this time. I held out for quite a while before tapping to the RNC. Unfortunately, Rachel's corner (the bastard!) was squatting about ten inches in front of my face while I was being choked, and I was unable to adequately hide the level of discomfort on my face nor the fact that I had freed a hand to hover over Rachel's leg in preparation for the tap if I had to resort to it. So he assured her that she had it and to keep going, and after a bit, he started a countdown for her. (did I mention that this guy was a bastard?) If not for him, I might have been able to hold out till she gave up. By the time that bastard got to six, I had to tap BAD, but I held out until eight just because I was pissed at him. The ref was impressed- there was an unmistakable expression of wonder on her face when I got up and looked at her.
Then I fought Stephanie for third place. We danced around hanging on each other's necks for quite a while. She eventually tripped me up, but I got her in a headlock on the way down and hung onto that for quite a while. I couldn't seem to do anything useful with it, though, and eventually I became aware of Rodrigo's and Carlos's voices from the sidelines both hollering at me repeatedly to LET GO OF THE HEAD.... well, crap, I don't really want to, but if you say so. After that, I spent much of the match- one guess where! Of course, where else, bottom half guard. (Mission number two for the March Revolution- GET THE ^#%$ OUT OF BOTTOM HALF GUARD! In fact, that should be my primary mission in practice for the next little while as well.) We ran the clock out and she won on points. I was actually less pleased with my performance in this match than I had been about my performance against Rachel. But even though I lost both matches, I think I did well enough to say I didn't humiliate myself.
After the second fight, I sat next to Angela and her camera, and said, "Did you get any good pics of that?" She said, "Yeah," And showed me some. "Don't you have any where I'm not on the bottom?" "No." LOL. Yeah, well, gotta have a sense of humor about it.
I do recall being calmer than I had expected during the matches. In particular, at the beginnings, when I normally feel a hurry-hurry-hurry pressure to try to get in and get a takedown. Today I was just chillin'. There was just less of the "white noise" that seems to fill up my head when I'm in a particularly intense fight. I was able to think some, to look around a bit and consider options. I did find myself gassing out, especially during the second match when I was trying to get out from under. I hate it when I have some sense of what I should be doing and my body simply can't summon up the strength to do it.
We watched Rachel and Tiffany duke it out for first- OMG, they were really brutal. Everyone was sitting around staring gape-jawed and murmuring. Even Carlos was shaking his head and saying with dark disapproval, "That is not jiu-jitsu," as Rachel was kneeling there with her knee on the side of Tiffany's face and all her weight on it. Less clean BJJ technique and more dirty pool. But it's good to know what to be ready for.
Carlos asked me where my boyfriend was. After a little back-and-forth, I finally figured out that he was asking about SK. Apparently the rumor mill at Gracie Barra thinks SK is my boyfriend. ((murfle))
The entire crowd seemed to change radically in both mood and appearance between the morning (gi) and the afternoon (no-gi). I know this is a little offensive to say, but it's true: a noticable rush of "Trailer Trash" appeared to watch (and some to compete in) the no-gi. The fighting was a lot dirtier, too.
Angela told me that those two girls I fought (both from MMA gyms, and both of them half my age, I might add) have been doing Revolutions for a while, and placing- so they had a jump on me experience-wise. I told Angela that I wished I could have been in the "beginner" division, and she thinks I should have been- she doesn't think I was correct in my understanding that I *had* to be in intermediate. Oh well. You may roll your eyes at this, after I placed fourth in a four-person bracket- but I did feel competitive- I didn't feel completely outmatched, like "OMG, these girls are totally out of my league, I don't belong in this bracket, I don't belong in the ring with this person" It wasn't like that. On a different day, I might be able to beat them. (Maybe in March!)
One of the perks of repping two schools: if your teacher is tied up, you have back-ups. It was really nice to have Rodrigo and Carlos (and Pat, and Bea, and a couple of the guys) holding my hand during the no-gi. They were really supportive, even though I bombed, and that meant a lot. I'll be sure to thank them again later. Gracie Barra always talks up the whole team mentality and "we've got your back" and all, and I really saw how that was at the tournament, like I've never seen it before. I wish I could have pulled through and brought in some points for the team. I want to do better next time.
Stephanie made a point of coming over and thanking me again for the good fight; she seems really nice.
Cindy did eventually find me after my fights, and ask me about them. I was guarding Rodrigo's and Carlos' bags at the time, and my toes curled when I saw them walking toward us. But to my relief and immense gratitude, everyone was pleasant and cordial. That meant a lot to me. I don't know if they did that just for my sake, but it would have been so much simpler for them all to just orbit around each other and not interact, so that was great to see. It would be nice to be the impetus to help the ice thaw a bit there. Maybe it could even get to the point someday that they all actually *COULD* consult together on my promotions and such. That would be cool. This is the same sort of project I'm sorta perpetually working on with the two estranged kung fu factions. The progress there is glacial, but I hold out hope.
I am eating pizza as I type. Bacon and mushroom. I scarfed the M&M's in the car on the way home.
Get up ten minutes earlier and put your contacts in before you leave the house.
I didn't put them in because I don't like driving in them, and I thought there would be a ton of time... but I got a little lost (Bonney Lake earns a D in street signs) and went straight to gi weigh-in upon arrival. Immediately after weigh-in, I went to the bathroom to put my contacts in.... then straight to my assigned mat.... where I found that I had already been scratched. Yep, I know, almost too stupid to be believed, huh? After all that. Can you believe any large tournament could possibly be that efficient? And they must have BEGUN with my bracket... WTF.... one of the MIDDLE brackets????!? Wouldn't any intelligent person assume they would start with either the heaviest brackets or the lighest ones, not with some random bracket from the center of the field???!??
So, all you boys and girls who have yet to do your first big tournament, don't be a moron like Kitsune: Weigh in, go straight to your assigned mat and stay there. Do not go to pee, do not go to find your friends, do not go to the candy machine, and do not go to put your contacts in. If you have half a brain cell, you'll just immediately find your mat and STAY THERE.
Now if I hadn't signed up for no-gi as well, the whole trip would have been for nothing. But I was pissed enough because
1)My gi is better than my no-gi
2)There were few enough women in my gi bracket that even if I had lost all my matches, I think I would have still placed and gotten some points (I think Rodrigo wanted to tie a knot in my tongue for that....Now if Gracie Barra loses the team trophy by two points, it really WILL be totally my fault!!!)
3)Now I had to sit around for another five-plus hours and get more and more jittery waiting for no-gi... I could have slept in.
OKay, well, it's done. Moving on.
I had actually weighed 126.5 first thing this morning (naked). I had a decent breakfast (albeit eggs yet again), drank all I wanted, I even had a candy bar. I could have gone to the friggin' Old Country Buffet breakfast bar and eaten myself into a stupor and still made weight. I weighed in UNDER weight in both gi and no gi; I could have gotten into the next lower bracket. So I was actually at a bit of a disadvantage (in the fights that I actually showed up for), because I was essentially fighting up a bracket.
I also still have a bit of lingering laryngitis, slight dry cough, slight headache. I could fight, but I was definitely not at my physical 100%.
The first uniformed woman I saw when I walked in was JULIE. That chick was *not* on the registration list!!! Believe me, I looked. All I can think of was that she may have been on the kids' list (which I skimmed but didn't scour) since she's under 18... and they bumped her up. A good thing to keep in mind when checking up on my potential opponents next time.
Bianca had to fight her (gi)- and lost. Welcome to the Sisterhood Of Those Who Have Been Owned By Julie, Bea.
Bianca almost missed *her* fight as well.... she was on the other end of the gym watching the brown belts, but luckily I was watching the women and heard her name called, and I knew where she was. Normally I would have used my Herald Voice to summon her across the gym and over the crowd..... but with laryngitis, I had to run!
One woman was lying on the floor sobbing, with her gi jacket over her face- it looked like she had dislocated her shoulder. I hadn't seen it happen, but wow.... that's a chance we all take.
By the March Revolution I should be able to shed another 2.5lb and be safely in that lower bracket. Of course that puts me back in with Bianca and Julie again! But I'm pretty sure I have more muscle mass than either of them. Not that that helps me when their technique is a lot better... but catching up to them is a good goal to strive for.
I didn't see hide nor hair of Cindy most of the day... not that I expected to; the kids were upstairs, and they need her more than I do on tournament day. I heard that Ian won gi, and lost in no-gi to a rough guy with many years of wrestling experience. The other kids did well.
Carlos called me over, and I slunk warily up to him... but he clasped my hand and hugged me. I asked him if he still loved me, and he said yes. So that's a big relief. I guess Rodrigo succeeded in convincing him that I am not a terrible person.
I saw Brandon lose a match and come off the mat crying.... it was a really good fight, and he was up against an adult (he is 13!) so he has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of... but since he's 13, he was crying. I was kind of watching for him, since Cindy had mentioned to me that Brandon was crying after he lost a match at the Seattle Open last month. So I tapped Carlos on the arm and pointed over there, and told him that Brandon was crying and Carlos should go talk to him. Which he did, so that was good.
I saw one of Kaungren's matches; he got the guy in what looked like a really nice triangle. But after about a year's worth of looking like the guy would have to tap any second, he somehow got out, and ended up winning the match. Bummer.
I saw Dex and Miguel both win very hard-fought matches, and Pat win two. Saw little Carlos lose one, but he fought well.
Sabrina was there, and explained that she hadn't signed up because she's been nursing a shoulder injury. Angela was there, and she *had* signed up, but no other purple belt women had- so she didn't get a fight. She said that there would be someone for her to fight at the March Revolution, though... and then she plans to go to the Pan Ams.
So, no-gi.... I had been bumping into Pat here and there all day and he kept bucking me up. Before my first no-gi match, he pulled me off the foor and started doing a little pummeling and such to try to warm me up. He was being so supportive that I completely forgot to chew him out (as I had intended to) for scaring me on Tuesday and leading me to believe that Rodrigo was more angry at me than he actually was.
I had seen a girl about my size walk in wearing a "Team Wise" sweatshirt and carrying a gallon jug with "Tiffany" written on it, and I thought, "Bingo, she is my first match!" I was sizing her up out of the corner of my eye for hours as we were both wandering around the gym. She was kind of scary. Swaggering, glowering, black cornrows and tats. When I pointed her out to Pat, he whispered, "Your tattoos are more badass than hers." LOL.
Well, there must have been a last-minute switch for some reason, because she was set up to fight some other girl- Stephanie (she must have gotten combined into this bracket from elsewhere). Tiffany won.
I was up to fight Rachel first. She was taller than me, but she actually didn't look as scary as Tiffany. I don't remember a whole lot of the match, but I think I aquitted myself halfway decently before losing to an RNC. An RNC! I almost never tap to chokes! I was exasperated to have to tap to a choke, although I was happy it was not a triangle. Mission number one for this tournament was: do not get tapped out within the first fifteen seconds. Mission number two was: do not get tapped out by triangle. (Next time, mission number one is going to be SHOW UP FOR THE MATCH!!!) I succeeded in my two missions this time. I held out for quite a while before tapping to the RNC. Unfortunately, Rachel's corner (the bastard!) was squatting about ten inches in front of my face while I was being choked, and I was unable to adequately hide the level of discomfort on my face nor the fact that I had freed a hand to hover over Rachel's leg in preparation for the tap if I had to resort to it. So he assured her that she had it and to keep going, and after a bit, he started a countdown for her. (did I mention that this guy was a bastard?) If not for him, I might have been able to hold out till she gave up. By the time that bastard got to six, I had to tap BAD, but I held out until eight just because I was pissed at him. The ref was impressed- there was an unmistakable expression of wonder on her face when I got up and looked at her.
Then I fought Stephanie for third place. We danced around hanging on each other's necks for quite a while. She eventually tripped me up, but I got her in a headlock on the way down and hung onto that for quite a while. I couldn't seem to do anything useful with it, though, and eventually I became aware of Rodrigo's and Carlos's voices from the sidelines both hollering at me repeatedly to LET GO OF THE HEAD.... well, crap, I don't really want to, but if you say so. After that, I spent much of the match- one guess where! Of course, where else, bottom half guard. (Mission number two for the March Revolution- GET THE ^#%$ OUT OF BOTTOM HALF GUARD! In fact, that should be my primary mission in practice for the next little while as well.) We ran the clock out and she won on points. I was actually less pleased with my performance in this match than I had been about my performance against Rachel. But even though I lost both matches, I think I did well enough to say I didn't humiliate myself.
After the second fight, I sat next to Angela and her camera, and said, "Did you get any good pics of that?" She said, "Yeah," And showed me some. "Don't you have any where I'm not on the bottom?" "No." LOL. Yeah, well, gotta have a sense of humor about it.
I do recall being calmer than I had expected during the matches. In particular, at the beginnings, when I normally feel a hurry-hurry-hurry pressure to try to get in and get a takedown. Today I was just chillin'. There was just less of the "white noise" that seems to fill up my head when I'm in a particularly intense fight. I was able to think some, to look around a bit and consider options. I did find myself gassing out, especially during the second match when I was trying to get out from under. I hate it when I have some sense of what I should be doing and my body simply can't summon up the strength to do it.
We watched Rachel and Tiffany duke it out for first- OMG, they were really brutal. Everyone was sitting around staring gape-jawed and murmuring. Even Carlos was shaking his head and saying with dark disapproval, "That is not jiu-jitsu," as Rachel was kneeling there with her knee on the side of Tiffany's face and all her weight on it. Less clean BJJ technique and more dirty pool. But it's good to know what to be ready for.
Carlos asked me where my boyfriend was. After a little back-and-forth, I finally figured out that he was asking about SK. Apparently the rumor mill at Gracie Barra thinks SK is my boyfriend. ((murfle))
The entire crowd seemed to change radically in both mood and appearance between the morning (gi) and the afternoon (no-gi). I know this is a little offensive to say, but it's true: a noticable rush of "Trailer Trash" appeared to watch (and some to compete in) the no-gi. The fighting was a lot dirtier, too.
Angela told me that those two girls I fought (both from MMA gyms, and both of them half my age, I might add) have been doing Revolutions for a while, and placing- so they had a jump on me experience-wise. I told Angela that I wished I could have been in the "beginner" division, and she thinks I should have been- she doesn't think I was correct in my understanding that I *had* to be in intermediate. Oh well. You may roll your eyes at this, after I placed fourth in a four-person bracket- but I did feel competitive- I didn't feel completely outmatched, like "OMG, these girls are totally out of my league, I don't belong in this bracket, I don't belong in the ring with this person" It wasn't like that. On a different day, I might be able to beat them. (Maybe in March!)
One of the perks of repping two schools: if your teacher is tied up, you have back-ups. It was really nice to have Rodrigo and Carlos (and Pat, and Bea, and a couple of the guys) holding my hand during the no-gi. They were really supportive, even though I bombed, and that meant a lot. I'll be sure to thank them again later. Gracie Barra always talks up the whole team mentality and "we've got your back" and all, and I really saw how that was at the tournament, like I've never seen it before. I wish I could have pulled through and brought in some points for the team. I want to do better next time.
Stephanie made a point of coming over and thanking me again for the good fight; she seems really nice.
Cindy did eventually find me after my fights, and ask me about them. I was guarding Rodrigo's and Carlos' bags at the time, and my toes curled when I saw them walking toward us. But to my relief and immense gratitude, everyone was pleasant and cordial. That meant a lot to me. I don't know if they did that just for my sake, but it would have been so much simpler for them all to just orbit around each other and not interact, so that was great to see. It would be nice to be the impetus to help the ice thaw a bit there. Maybe it could even get to the point someday that they all actually *COULD* consult together on my promotions and such. That would be cool. This is the same sort of project I'm sorta perpetually working on with the two estranged kung fu factions. The progress there is glacial, but I hold out hope.
I am eating pizza as I type. Bacon and mushroom. I scarfed the M&M's in the car on the way home.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Boundaries in tournaments
Lunchtime BJJ in Seattle.
As soon as I saw that the first drill involved jumping guard, I ran over to grab John. At 20lb heavier than me, he was by far the smallest person in there- and I didn't want some 260-lb guy jumping guard on me! As it was, I let John slither to the floor a few times, but at least I didn't drop him on his head!
So we jumped guard on each other, then some armbar drills from guard, then we started timed rolls. I got John first. I was trapped in his guard for the entire roll. Then Marc. That one was a litte more dynamic, and I even got mount- but neither of us subbed the other. Then I had to take a break.
Open mat- I asked John for another roll. He kept catching me in triangles, whereupon I would stack him. Twice he transitioned into armbars, just like Julie had done to me last weekend. So he helped me with the triangle defense where you move toward your trapped arm and step over the opponent's body. That's the same one Pat had been trying to teach me last week. If only I had absorbed it, it might have gotten me out of that spot in the tournament. It was another case of me not being able to keep straight whether I need to go to the right or to the left. Hope I got it this time- it's toward the trapped arm. Carlos also walked me through a defense against getting kimura'ed while in guard.
Later............
No-gi Friday night at Cindy's. SK was with me, and I took the opportunity to pick his brain in the car.
I first approached the issue sideways and asked, "Do you think my kung fu needs to be "meaner"?" He answered, "Yes." almost before I had the question fully out of my mouth. Humph. Nothing like those cold-bucket-of-water-in-the-face-style reality checks. I then asked him if he sees a dichotomy between my level of aggression in my kung fu sparring versus my BJJ rolling, and he doesn't think so. So apparently (according to him) I'm not "mean" enough in either MA- which wasn't exactly my perception. (Maybe I need to change my screen name... "Retiring Kitsune", perhaps?) Then we had to dissect the definition(s) of "mean" and the definitions(s) of "aggression". He feels that you can't be "aggressive" in an MA until you have enough of a toolbox to have options for constantly pushing your attack. I then asked if that means he doesn't consider the Spazzy White Belts "aggressive". He thinks that "drunk lout" type aggression (of which Spazzy White Belts may be considered a subgroup) is very different from skilled technique-based aggression in MA... and the "drunk lout" type aggression is not effective enough to even be considered significant (in his eyes).
I asked him if he would do "mean" things in a tournament, and he says that as long as it's legal, he'd have no problem doing it. Something illegal that the ref didn't see= not okay. Would it make any difference if it was a teammate versus someone he'd never met before? No. What if he was in the absolutes and going against someone thirty pounds lighter- is it "mean" to use your weight to help you win? No. You don't feel like it would be a "better" win if you did it with pure technique as opposed to doing something that wouldn't have worked if he didn't have the weight advantage? No. It's a tournament; here are the rules; if he's within the rules, all is well.
I envy him; it all seems to be pretty clear-cut in his worldview. I asked him a ton of "If situation A, would you..." type questions, and he didn't waffle at all on any of his answers..... even if I couldn't always buy into (or in some cases even follow) the logic.
I do think I hit on something important while we were talking, though. He said that even if he has never worked with the person before, he very quickly gets a sense of how intense that person will/can go, and adjusts his own intensity accordingly. I'm not sure if I have that instinct, or at least have it tuned as well. I almost never have the experience of doing *any* MA with someone that I outmatch- so I have had very little practice of adjusting my level of intensity downward. I'm not sure if I ever really adjust upward, either, now that I think about it- I assume the other person is going to have to adjust downward to accomodate me. But I could feel something about that part of the conversation tickling my "we're getting close to the REAL issue" sensors. I think it has a lot to do with not knowing where the boundaries are.
I have mentioned before that I am less comfortable working with JM than with many people, simply because she is not forthcoming about where her boundaries are. Since I can't figure out where they are, I feel like I have to tiptoe around to try to avoid crossing them- which is generally confusing, uncomfortable and makes me go a lot lighter than is probably useful for either of us. With JB, I just go ahead and whack her because I know she will tell me if it's too hard. Over long practice I get a sense of how hard I can go with her, and she has to give me feedback less often.
I don't know where the boundaries are in a tournament. Yeah, I know what's against the rules. But there is that wide range of "legal but arguably MEAN" stuff. Particularly with someone I've never met before, I don't know if she is willing to/going to thump all her weight down hard on my ribs, so I am reluctant to do such a thing to her.
Even if I had SK's sense of being able to quickly gauge her level of intensity- in a tournament, is there even that much time to waste? You're putting yourself in the position of waiting to see how she's going to roll so that you can react to it. In the dojo, there's always the option of saying, "Hey dude, I need you to go a little lighter on my right-side ribs please" or even stopping altogether if anyone squicks your boundaries. In a tournament you can't do that. There is no negotiation of the (finer) boundaries, and no time/leisure to try to suss them out on your own.
Hell, even if she *did* thump all her weight down hard on my ribs, I think I'd still hesitate to do it back- so maybe all these boundary questions are completely irrelevant due to an unwillingness in me to do certain things in *any* case.
Facing off in the tournament against someone I didn't know at all.... I don't recall feeling afraid OF HER.... I do recall feeling afraid. I assumed I was afraid of getting completely humiliated (flying armbar sub at four seconds), and surely I was... but now I think I can identify a large part of my fear as "I don't know where the boundaries are in this confrontation.... making me confused, unsure, reluctant to assert myself."
This bears a great deal more thinking... and meandering in my blog.... and maybe getting some other people's thoughts on. But I really feel that this is a very important issue for me as regards tournaments in particular, and my MA in general.
Anyway, back to class: Cindy had a new warmup drill- "This one's for you, Kitsune!" I had complained that it seems I need more core strength. This drill has you lying on your back and inching yourself to the side by hipping out and then doing a similar motion with the top half of your body. No fair using feet or elbows. It took me a really long time to grasp any semblance of this movement- and when I did, it was very difficult and it hurt muscles that I didn't know I had. Obviously, I need to do a lot of this. Ouchie.
We did some guillotines from standing, then into guard (I was very relieved to be drilling with SK- I dread going from standup to guard with my neck in a guillotine unless I'm working with somebody I really trust. I break out in a cold sweat whenever we have to do these at Gracie's. It just seems like a great way to end up a quadriplegic for the rest of your life with one tiny jerk at the wrong angle). Then the opponent defends the choke, so you transition into a triangle. There were a lot of steps in this, and I had a hard time with it. Still having trouble climbing the triangle up the person's back, trouble closing it, trouble getting my hips up high enough, trouble remembering to grab my shin before I start adjusting the angle so the person doesn't just stand up and walk away. I'm frustrated to have so much trouble with triangles in general- this is supposed to be the female BJJ'er's "go-to" move!
Then sparring. Cindy is on the bench with knee issues. I went with SK, then Elliot, then said, "I need a break" and started for the bench, but Cindy was having none of that. "No break for you! Go with Ian!" Argh. So tired. Then SK again. I was trapped in my old familiar residence of bottom half-guard a lot of the time with all three guys. They all kept crossfacing me hard out of deep half guard, which was very annoying. I got mount briefly on each one, but only when they reversed THEMSELVES (they all did that tonight)! I was THIS CLOSE to getting an armbar set up on SK once. I truly thought I had it, and I got really excited. He succeeded in muscling out of it. I'll tell you, if Satan himself had appeared at that moment in a puff of brimstone and offered me that armbar in exchange for my immortal soul, I might have said yes. I wanted it that bad. But I didn't get it. Tonight. Someday.
Lamont asked me if I was going to do the Revolution. I said, "We'll see." Cindy said, "We're planning on it."
As soon as I saw that the first drill involved jumping guard, I ran over to grab John. At 20lb heavier than me, he was by far the smallest person in there- and I didn't want some 260-lb guy jumping guard on me! As it was, I let John slither to the floor a few times, but at least I didn't drop him on his head!
So we jumped guard on each other, then some armbar drills from guard, then we started timed rolls. I got John first. I was trapped in his guard for the entire roll. Then Marc. That one was a litte more dynamic, and I even got mount- but neither of us subbed the other. Then I had to take a break.
Open mat- I asked John for another roll. He kept catching me in triangles, whereupon I would stack him. Twice he transitioned into armbars, just like Julie had done to me last weekend. So he helped me with the triangle defense where you move toward your trapped arm and step over the opponent's body. That's the same one Pat had been trying to teach me last week. If only I had absorbed it, it might have gotten me out of that spot in the tournament. It was another case of me not being able to keep straight whether I need to go to the right or to the left. Hope I got it this time- it's toward the trapped arm. Carlos also walked me through a defense against getting kimura'ed while in guard.
Later............
No-gi Friday night at Cindy's. SK was with me, and I took the opportunity to pick his brain in the car.
I first approached the issue sideways and asked, "Do you think my kung fu needs to be "meaner"?" He answered, "Yes." almost before I had the question fully out of my mouth. Humph. Nothing like those cold-bucket-of-water-in-the-face-style reality checks. I then asked him if he sees a dichotomy between my level of aggression in my kung fu sparring versus my BJJ rolling, and he doesn't think so. So apparently (according to him) I'm not "mean" enough in either MA- which wasn't exactly my perception. (Maybe I need to change my screen name... "Retiring Kitsune", perhaps?) Then we had to dissect the definition(s) of "mean" and the definitions(s) of "aggression". He feels that you can't be "aggressive" in an MA until you have enough of a toolbox to have options for constantly pushing your attack. I then asked if that means he doesn't consider the Spazzy White Belts "aggressive". He thinks that "drunk lout" type aggression (of which Spazzy White Belts may be considered a subgroup) is very different from skilled technique-based aggression in MA... and the "drunk lout" type aggression is not effective enough to even be considered significant (in his eyes).
I asked him if he would do "mean" things in a tournament, and he says that as long as it's legal, he'd have no problem doing it. Something illegal that the ref didn't see= not okay. Would it make any difference if it was a teammate versus someone he'd never met before? No. What if he was in the absolutes and going against someone thirty pounds lighter- is it "mean" to use your weight to help you win? No. You don't feel like it would be a "better" win if you did it with pure technique as opposed to doing something that wouldn't have worked if he didn't have the weight advantage? No. It's a tournament; here are the rules; if he's within the rules, all is well.
I envy him; it all seems to be pretty clear-cut in his worldview. I asked him a ton of "If situation A, would you..." type questions, and he didn't waffle at all on any of his answers..... even if I couldn't always buy into (or in some cases even follow) the logic.
I do think I hit on something important while we were talking, though. He said that even if he has never worked with the person before, he very quickly gets a sense of how intense that person will/can go, and adjusts his own intensity accordingly. I'm not sure if I have that instinct, or at least have it tuned as well. I almost never have the experience of doing *any* MA with someone that I outmatch- so I have had very little practice of adjusting my level of intensity downward. I'm not sure if I ever really adjust upward, either, now that I think about it- I assume the other person is going to have to adjust downward to accomodate me. But I could feel something about that part of the conversation tickling my "we're getting close to the REAL issue" sensors. I think it has a lot to do with not knowing where the boundaries are.
I have mentioned before that I am less comfortable working with JM than with many people, simply because she is not forthcoming about where her boundaries are. Since I can't figure out where they are, I feel like I have to tiptoe around to try to avoid crossing them- which is generally confusing, uncomfortable and makes me go a lot lighter than is probably useful for either of us. With JB, I just go ahead and whack her because I know she will tell me if it's too hard. Over long practice I get a sense of how hard I can go with her, and she has to give me feedback less often.
I don't know where the boundaries are in a tournament. Yeah, I know what's against the rules. But there is that wide range of "legal but arguably MEAN" stuff. Particularly with someone I've never met before, I don't know if she is willing to/going to thump all her weight down hard on my ribs, so I am reluctant to do such a thing to her.
Even if I had SK's sense of being able to quickly gauge her level of intensity- in a tournament, is there even that much time to waste? You're putting yourself in the position of waiting to see how she's going to roll so that you can react to it. In the dojo, there's always the option of saying, "Hey dude, I need you to go a little lighter on my right-side ribs please" or even stopping altogether if anyone squicks your boundaries. In a tournament you can't do that. There is no negotiation of the (finer) boundaries, and no time/leisure to try to suss them out on your own.
Hell, even if she *did* thump all her weight down hard on my ribs, I think I'd still hesitate to do it back- so maybe all these boundary questions are completely irrelevant due to an unwillingness in me to do certain things in *any* case.
Facing off in the tournament against someone I didn't know at all.... I don't recall feeling afraid OF HER.... I do recall feeling afraid. I assumed I was afraid of getting completely humiliated (flying armbar sub at four seconds), and surely I was... but now I think I can identify a large part of my fear as "I don't know where the boundaries are in this confrontation.... making me confused, unsure, reluctant to assert myself."
This bears a great deal more thinking... and meandering in my blog.... and maybe getting some other people's thoughts on. But I really feel that this is a very important issue for me as regards tournaments in particular, and my MA in general.
Anyway, back to class: Cindy had a new warmup drill- "This one's for you, Kitsune!" I had complained that it seems I need more core strength. This drill has you lying on your back and inching yourself to the side by hipping out and then doing a similar motion with the top half of your body. No fair using feet or elbows. It took me a really long time to grasp any semblance of this movement- and when I did, it was very difficult and it hurt muscles that I didn't know I had. Obviously, I need to do a lot of this. Ouchie.
We did some guillotines from standing, then into guard (I was very relieved to be drilling with SK- I dread going from standup to guard with my neck in a guillotine unless I'm working with somebody I really trust. I break out in a cold sweat whenever we have to do these at Gracie's. It just seems like a great way to end up a quadriplegic for the rest of your life with one tiny jerk at the wrong angle). Then the opponent defends the choke, so you transition into a triangle. There were a lot of steps in this, and I had a hard time with it. Still having trouble climbing the triangle up the person's back, trouble closing it, trouble getting my hips up high enough, trouble remembering to grab my shin before I start adjusting the angle so the person doesn't just stand up and walk away. I'm frustrated to have so much trouble with triangles in general- this is supposed to be the female BJJ'er's "go-to" move!
Then sparring. Cindy is on the bench with knee issues. I went with SK, then Elliot, then said, "I need a break" and started for the bench, but Cindy was having none of that. "No break for you! Go with Ian!" Argh. So tired. Then SK again. I was trapped in my old familiar residence of bottom half-guard a lot of the time with all three guys. They all kept crossfacing me hard out of deep half guard, which was very annoying. I got mount briefly on each one, but only when they reversed THEMSELVES (they all did that tonight)! I was THIS CLOSE to getting an armbar set up on SK once. I truly thought I had it, and I got really excited. He succeeded in muscling out of it. I'll tell you, if Satan himself had appeared at that moment in a puff of brimstone and offered me that armbar in exchange for my immortal soul, I might have said yes. I wanted it that bad. But I didn't get it. Tonight. Someday.
Lamont asked me if I was going to do the Revolution. I said, "We'll see." Cindy said, "We're planning on it."
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