Some old guy already taught me that one.

Ultimately your mind and intellect are what save you, your body is the tool they use. So keep the tool in good working order, but tune up the engine. Campfire Tales From Hell


Friday BJJ in Bellevue.

Bullfight passing of spider guard. After bringing foe's feet together and planting them on the mat, grab hir right wrist with your left hand (the WRIST, not the gi sleeve). Keep the pants cuff on the other side. Step beside hir right hip with your near foot and give a good ceilingward yank at both wrist and pants cuff before moving to KOB.  You may then be able to transition to an armbar- but make sure you FIRST trap the arm firmly between your knees and THEN clear opponent's grip on your sleeve cuff before re-grabbing the wrist and applying the armbar (one foot over hir neck and the other knee folded with your toe under hir ribs). Unsurprisingly, my biggest problem proved to be remembering to grab the leg (ideally both legs, although with my stubby arms I'm not going to count on that) before dropping back into the armbar. Also, as soon as I tried to speed up, I started getting sloppy about clearing the sleeve grip. I asked why it was necessary to clear the sleeve grip at all... it seemed to me that clearing it is just an invitation for the opponent to try to yank hir arm down in an attempt to get out of the armbar. Carlos explained that it may be difficult to maneuver the hand into position at the apex of the armbar if s/he still has your sleeve. (I think you could probably muscle that.... if you've got them well and truly trapped in the armbar, that cuff grip is not going to save them except in cases of extreme muscle disparity... but even in a comp I would prefer to not muscle that.)

Opponent bearhugs you from behind. Lower stance, bring your hands up to your chest to free forearms, and cover hir hands on your chest with your own hands. Step slightly to the right and stick your left foot behind hir feet. Kneel on right knee and plant right shoulder on the mat, making sure to drive downward forcefully enough and hold tight enough that opponent can't free hir hands before getting tossed over your shoulder. Go with the roll and end in a T shape with your shoulder blades on opponent's chest. Keep butt off the mat and apply as much weight as possible as you roll toward hir feet and move to side control, then KOB.

I have done both of these before, and felt comfortable enough to go decently fast *and* work them both sides. Armbar portion turned out to be much tighter on the Stupid Side, although my brain was very slow to grasp the guard pass from the Stupid Side.

A little KOTH, open guard pass vs defend the pass, me down in open guard the entire time. Lots of white belts- so I spent some time explaining what a guard pass is, some time telling a small woman to try to experiment with different positions and movements instead of trying to simply muscle out of spider guard, and some time getting Captain Cavemanned by muscley spazzy male white belts.

A roll with 2 white belts and one with Doug.

First white belt was strong and spazzy, so I was mostly just trying to control him. Let him have an upa, since he performed it correctly.

Hip-threw and then subbed the second white belt several times, explained about turning and shrimping out from under KOB, and explained about keeping the chin to the chest while I was groping for chokes.

I have rolled with Doug enough that I am recognizing a lot of his sneaky little traps and refusing to fall into them.  (freezing in the middle of a guard pass that I know is going to result in a sweep) "Gee, I think I'll slide right into side control LIKE AN IDIOT. Some old guy taught me that one. You're going to need to come up with some new tricks, Doug."  He also let me get that same one on HIM... I was excited that I 1)remembered it, and 2)was able to make it work, as it's kind of complicated and not at all intuitive.

I love getting my tail kicked by Chrisanne.

At (long) range, you are taking fire. You may not know from where in that first instant. Hit or not, you have to MOVE. You were ambushed in this precise spot because it is the best place to kill you. You MUST get out of that spot (or “Off the X” as we say). –Rory Miller



Friday evening BJJ in Bellevue.  I was standing on the wall minding my own damn business waiting for class to start, and Casey comes over and grabs me and tries to hurl me to the ground. We end up thrashing around like a couple of weasels while the entire rest of the class stands there in line and watches, making comments about the "mutter...mutter... purple belts...."

Standing: ankle pick as yesterday. I'm noticing that with your lapel grip, you can shove the opponent to either side to finish the takedown. Pushing often works better (and is less work)  than pulling.

Bullfight pass to KOB

Failed bullfight pass to underhook both of hir thighs, stack, and pass. I don't try to set this up often- I feel vulnerable sticking both arms under like that- but I love the way the pass itself feels; I like to grab the tag of the opponent's pants and stack the crapola out of hir and then squish down on top of hir thigh until s/he's begging to let me pass. At the same time, you can grind into the throat and/or twist the head away by levering on the jaw with the other forearm. It's lovely.

Positional sparring from spider guard, varying goals. My suckage at passing spider guard is trumped only by my suckage at trying to sweep from spider guard. But I can hang out *IN* spider guard effortlessly defending the pass until the second coming of Christ.

Some epic sparring with Chrisanne. We started from standing multiple times. She got a couple of really sweet takedowns, and some lovely technical taps. Nice and tight. She is almost never on the bottom any more, and she is always attacking instead of waiting to react to what I do. When we scramble, she gets on top first. Her game has changed 180 from eight months ago. I love it when Chrisanne is kicking my tail. It makes me feel so proud. I am getting to the point of going close to full bore on her, too.

Robert

When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.

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Robert has passed away. I am very unhappy. I knew that he had cancer, but I had no idea that the end was so imminent. Robert was so strong and vigorous, and worked like a dog, I just assumed that he would be one of those people who goes, "F You, cancer!" and thirty years later he's still on the mat. But it was quick.

He was liked and respected by all. He was the humblest guy on the mat, even though he was a high-level black belt in another art. He came in here in his 60's, put on a white belt, and busted his ass till he got to purple. I wrote on his FB that he is an inspiration to live up to.  I hope that when I am his age, I am still kicking ass as hard as he was kicking it.
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Interesting pre-class weapons discussion with (big, blue-belt) John. He had a Japanese weapon that looked like a forearm-long metal spike, with one curving piece at the hilt. We were discussing the practical merits of adding this and other weapon options during grappling. I can think of all sorts of juicy things to do with a short stick while grappling.

Lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue. All spars. Chrisanne was a rock star today. Aggressive, technical, attending to every small detail. Best of all, I rolled with her first and last, and her last roll (when she was really tired) was almost as awesome as her first.

Suranjen is still letting me tap him multiple times. I don't know why he has been rolling like this with me. I don't know how to ask.

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Evening BJJ in Kirkland. Dave likes to exhaust the spazzy white belts before teaching technique. He does this by making the class run laps, then do alternating drills of pummelling and side control-scarf-mount flow drills till we are all reeling and dripping.

Basic closed guard break, knee up, slide through. Lots of attention to many small details.

Then, once you have the guard broken and knee up, disengage and then come back in for a bullfight pass.

One spar with Dave and one with Leone.

Faster, faster, faster!

When the senses wake up, people talk about altered states, but actually nothing about them is altered. The only real alteration is the sleep into which we often let them fall. Bringing them back to life is the only natural thing we can do. It is as if we defined the starting of an engine as an “altered state” only because we consider normal leaving it turned off. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Weds: 127

I'm not losing any more weight, yet my jeans won't stay up. The SMALLEST on my spectrum of jeans, mind you- not the "fat day" jeans.

Forearms still very weak and sore. Grips are poor enough that I decided it wasn't worth going to class. Frustrating. The rest of my body- and brain- wants to be on the mat.

Thurs: 130  (Geez)

Grips feel recovered enough to try class today.

Carlos: "I donno why you always go with the two hunnert feefty pound guy..."  He took that guy away from me and gave me Daniel instead.

Whew.... Day Of the Dreaded Drills.  Spinning armbars; bullfight pass setups; Step into sitting opponent's half guard and push hir down with a hook hand over the opposite shoulder while "sliding into home" with the near knee, then all the way around to N/S.

We started out with a nice mellow U2 soundtrack which Carlos threw out and replaced with pounding, driving electronica. He ran around getting in our faces and yelling at us to go faster, faster, faster!!!!

Next time I think I'm dying in jiu jitsu, I'm going to picture Daniel's face doing those bullfight passes.... I **KNOW** how tired and hurting he was- because I was too- and he was just a machine. We both kept up a cheerleading patter which I hope helped him half as much as it helped me.

I would have tossed my cookies when we were done, but that would have required a core muscle effort that I just could not manage.

Damn your spider guard

There is no need to travel to exotic places, load up on drugs, or drive one hundred miles an hour to feel alive. It is not necessary to look for particularly strong sensations, because when the five senses are awakened, every sensation is a strong one. The scent of the earth after a summer storm. The embrace of a lover. The vastness of the sky above. Small experiences that could travel through our consciousness without leaving any trace become the messengers of a beauty that cannot be measured. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

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Pic: After Defensive Folding Knife class at Insights Training, you get to try your new moves on a side of meat which has been duct-taped into a pair of blue jeans.
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Friday:
133.0

Spent an hour before work playing raquetball. I was defeated in an epic fashion, but it was a nice little workout.

Wore my ankle weights all day at work. I haven't done that in a while, largely because my knees and feet already hurt and I'm anxious about making the plantar fasciitis hurt worse than it already does. I probably won't be doing this every day (like I was was a few years ago), but I'll do it once in a while and see how it goes. May have to get a new pair of ankle weights.... this was a nice set (kind of a splurge), but I have worn them enough that they are... worn. And the velcro is starting to go.
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Sat:  133.5  (grrrrr) I had 910 calories yesterday, plus somebody at work gave me an unlabelled cookie that obviously put me over 1000. I had hoped that the hour of raquetball would let me get away with that single cookie, but apparently not.

I wore the ankle weights all day at work again.

 I have separated out a bunch of my too-baggy hospital scrubs for donation. Part of the reason it's easy to let a few extra pounds creep on is that I'm wearing pajamas (scrubs) at work, pajamas (gi) at class, and pajamas (pajamas) at home. Drawstring waistbands all the way, baby. Scrubs are supposed to be baggy, and nothing ever fits me anyway- but seriously, I have scrubs that I could fit four of me inside.
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Sun: 132

Hello, normal-walking-around weight. It's been a little while since we checked in.

My Evil Twin is trying to cuisine-educate me. Back to the eggs.
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Mon: 132
Tues: 132.5 (ankle weights)
Weds: 133 (Razzafrackin....)  (ankle weights)

I lost all semblance of culinary self-control today; which I suspect had less to do with feeling defeatist about that pound gain (altho there was that) and more to do with skipping my Crystal Light. I used to swill Dr Pepper all day, now I swill Crystal Light all day. I'd like to go off artificial sweeteners, but I made a conscious decision to use the Crystal Light as a crutch to wean myself off the soda. Well, today I skipped it, and did not attempt to replace it with plain water. The result: I think I was subconsciously searching for something to put in my mouth, and probably a little dehydrated as well. Lesson learned. My assistant plied me with carrots, otherwise it would have been even worse.

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Thurs: 133.5 (I deserve that)  I redeemed myself today, though- I walked right past a New York Cupcakes Shop. I did not go inside.


Thursday evening advanced class at Bellevue.  Drills. For some reason, we were doing 43 reps of everything today. It seemed to be some kind of inside joke that I was not privy to.

Standup: one lapel grip and one elbow grip. Go to pull guard (make sure you are a:stepping on the ELBOW GRIP side, and b:turning your toe out). Foe steps that leg back. Now you let go of the lapel and ankle pick his other leg.

Bullfight guard pass to front mount. Hang onto that far pantleg until you can use it to move the legs into place for your mount.

Opponent standing, you sitting before hir. Scoot forward and turn the corner, hug the leg. Place front palm on the mat. Technical lift, using heel to lift opponent's foot. Stand up and scoop opponent's leg up, hold it against your chest. (I was corrected on hand position here- do not allow fingers to splay out, you are asking for a broken finger.) Stand very close to opponent- hip to hip.

Bullfight guard pass, but foe turns toward you as you run around. You place your elbow on hir belt, then continue the turn so that your shoulder blades are on opponent and your belly to the ceiling. Now turn BACK the way you came, while scuttling around toward the head. Somehow the opponent's arm usually magically appears to be scooped up, and you finish in side control. Then front mount.

When I saw this last one, I was like, "No way." But it actually turned out to be really smooth- altho only on one side. Every time I tried to do it on the Stupid Side, I messed it up.

Ron: Errrk....Oooh!

Kitsune: Are you okay?

Ron: Yeah.

Kitsune: Seriously- am I being too heavy?

Ron: Good shoulder pressure.

I had mentioned to him earlier that I could tell he was being nice- thank you- but his top pressure was still really, really, good.

“Damn your spider guard…..”   I’m pretty sure that was a compliment from a biggish blue belt to me……

RIP Bothell pod

Being one hundred percent present here and now is the talent of a true martial artist. Through the practice of martial arts, we can learn to feel this presence, call upon it, cultivate it, make it a part of ourselves. When we can enter this dimension at will, it becomes possible to have free access to an enormous source of power. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Friday lunchtime in Seattle. Cornelia, to my dismay, was not there. She is in town right now, and I really want to get some time to work with her. Must get to Seattle pod more often in the next few weeks. Found out that she is also the guilty party regarding that photo of Cindy's Mickey-Mouse-glove swollen hand. I warned Cindy about doing standup with Cornelia! She is a Judo black belt!

One of the white belts made a crack because pre-class, as we were all waiting along the wall, and all the blue belts were standing around while all the purple belts were sitting on our asses leaning on the wall. I replied that we were saving our strength. Added Dave: "To tap YOU later," It was funny, though. It really was a good analogy for the way you get more conscious- as you move up- about conserving every morsel of strength.

Opponent is in your closed guard. S/he grabs same side sleeve cuff, crosses other hand over wrist to grab your belt (imprisoning that hand). S/he stands up, pushes your hips to the floor (that was the detail I missed the first time- get their hips on the floor). Now s/he lets go and grabs both of your pantlegs at the insides of the knees. You grab behind hir left ankle. S/he steps right foot back, kicks hir left foot across to dislodge grip, then steps waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay you to the side with it. Now: bullfight pass.

Before s/he gets that shoulder pressure down on you, you want to roll AWAY (yeah, weird) and sweep your arm around in a big circle. Get your shoulder blade against opponent and try to pressure down as you turn the corner. Ideally, this has you pressuring on the back of hir shoulder (and using hir as a post to get your bod around). At the very least, collapsing that shoulder and ideally forcing opponent down into a face plant. Now take the back. Placement must be precise and you can't skimp on the pressure. But I like it. It seems like one that my agility would play into.

 Two rolls with an unfamiliar blue belt. He plays deep half guard like Casey does, catching me in it again and again. He schooled me, tapped me several times. Smooth, technical, lovely transitions.

Crisanne: continuing to get better. Constantly moving, nice and agressive, doesn't just lie there like a lot of the girls do on the bottom. Great KOB. Not like my sneaky one; she did the full pin-you-and-bow-you-painfully thing.

A visiting green belt was there- Hailey. Tiny little thing. Triggered an immediate defensive reaction in me. (ha ha) Carlos: "She's fourteen, and she's won (redacted lengthy list of titles, medals, and awards)." Kitsune: "I'm glad you told me that *before* she tapped me out twenty times, instead of after."  I prepared to have my butt handed to me by by this prepubescent green belt. Deep breaths: Ego, begone. Ego, begone. Ego, begone. She couldn't be more than 110lb. You have to be careful about underestimating these little squirts, though- it's terribly embarrassing when you go in thinking "I'll go light on this person" and they triangle your ass in eight seconds while your teachers and teammates all sit there and hoot.

So I tried to avoid using weight/strength (again, an unfamiliar exercise for me); I didn't go 100%, didn't get tapped, tapped her twice (chokes). Her game is chokes as well, and my choke defense is very good. Great technical rolls, though. I hope she didn't think I was a big mean bully.

No BJJ classes this Saturday due to tournament.  Also: No Friday evening class at Bothell. Bothell pod has blown off the map. It appears that I will next be chasing Cindy to a new Kirkland GB pod. 

Bullfight

There is an incredible difference between those who experience their power only though the mind and those who also feel it in the body. A person who knows there is a wild wolf living under the skin has less reason to be intimidated by reality. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




(Wednesday)
Carlos had us run laps and do sideways shuffles during warmups on Tues; I had been worried about what that would do to my plantar fasciitis. Now I know. My right heel in particular hurt pretty bad that evening, when I got up in the morning and took one step, I nearly did a face plant. It felt like stepping on a knife. I too 2 ibuprofen immediately. I  had to walk to work, and I limped all the way. It actually hurt too much to grit my teeth, ignore it and walk normally... and I did try.... which was humbling and scary. After a day on my feet at work, it was still painful but I was able to walk almost normally back to the car. I don't know what I'm going to do about this, but it seems that it is 1)not going to just go away, and 2)serious enough that I am not going to be able to ignore it forever.

I had planned to go to class Wednesday evening, but it appears that I may be catching Dana's cold. Between the exhaustion and the possibility of being contagious, I decided against it. I completely forgot that Thursday is a "holiday" and there will be no classes at any BG pod- dang it.
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(Friday)
Evening BJJ at Bothell.

Bullfight guard pass.

Passing spider guard by grabbing insides of pants at ankles, slamming opponent's ankles together, and finishing as with the bullfight pass.

Standing guard pass: push opponent's legs to hir chest and see if s/he is so foolish as to push back. If so, you slam hir feet to the floor, leap over them and take front mount. This is one of Cindy's favorite moves. Simple but effective.

Open guard pass drills; cross grip, pull the leg, go to side, KOB.

King of The Hill from open guard.

Then a few spars.

There's a really good blue belt there who ran a clinic on me, then ran one on Will too (after which I didn't feel quite so bad).

James got his first stripe! I did some KOTH with him tonight, and he has been working hard and improving.
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I made a concoction with wild rice, mushrooms, cheese, a cubic buttload of onion and garlic, and occasional random chicken breast and/or bacon snippets. Got out my little  baby-size tupperware cups, portioned, froze. That OD of onion and garlic does seem to help curb the munchies a bit. I also saw an interesting idea involving egg (and possible mushrooms, onions, cheese, etc) baked in a cupcake tin to make little muffin-shaped portions. I will do that next. The Safeway Bargain Bin has yielded me a goldslide of turkey breast slices that may work well in the egguffins.

I was kinda chagrined at how I looked photographed beside my Evil Twin- who is a personal trainer (dietician? Something like that) and in PERFECT shape. It is basically staring at exactly what I look like when I'm *not* carrying a spare 13.5 lb- so that's actually a good motivation. We'll look even more alike next year when I have my act together a little better. She was eating very healthy and clean even at the festival. I'll do the daily pushups with her next year as well.

I had eaten at an onsite vendor 3 times this year- which I have formerly NEVER done. I am way too cheap; and my hours (and thus hungry times) are too weird; and with no fridge or microwave, I can't control portions. One of my 3 splurges was a hot dog, and that was one **GROSS* hot dog- I won't do that again! The other two were chicken wraps at Phil's Grill. Not a vast amount of chicken, but plenty of garlic, rice, black beans, onion, mushrooms, I'm not sure what else. It was delicious- but truly, had I been at home, I would have divided that wrap into at *least* two portions and maybe as many as 4. It was huge. So yeah, that's not really a good idea for me.

I need to advance-plan a better dietary situation for next year's trip. I wonder if I can just walk up and down the road heralding for two volunteers to come split a chicken wrap with me.
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Read through the problem portions of my WIP last night, and I'm still not having any lightning-strike notions on how to improve it. So I went ahead and worked a little on the next section. If my maple-syrup-in-wintertime pace continues, I may well lose my beta reader, which would suck- so I'm trying to not let it moulder for too long.

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One thing I didn't include in my "Hunting" writeup was the odd thing that happened in the opening rit.

I have been told by multiple independant sources that I appear to grow significantly in height on the occasions that I lead the Sacred Hunt drumming. A couple of people mentioned to me this year that I had also appeared much taller while functioning as Huntmistress. I have never perceived this phenomenon myself; although I was definitely putting on my "leader" hat glamour- which may come across in that way to some. I did not lead the drum procession for the opening rit. I was not in any official leadership position whatsoever at the moment. Thus there was no obvious explanation for why I grew a foot taller while I was standing in the drumline after we got to the circle.

After a lifetime of looking up at everyone, I suddenly realized that I was on eye level or higher with almost all of the people milling past me. Including people that I know quite well and am damn sure are significantly taller than myself. I was actually looking DOWN on some of them. I could see the parts in their hair. It was the most bizarre feeling. (No, I was not on any substances at all- I don't do substances- unless you count caffeine or antihistimines- neither of which I was on that evening.)

I kept looking down at my feet, thinking I must be standing on a hummock or something- but I wasn't, and the fifteenth-or-so time I looked down didn't change the fact. My body didn't feel like I was standing on a chair. I didn't feel stretched out, or out-of-body, or anything like that. I was just a tall person. I stood there thinking, "So.... this is what it feels like to be six feet tall... maybe six-two. Far out." It would have been really interesting to try some forms in that condition... but I was afraid to move, thinking that if I moved, it would probably go away. It did fade off before I left.

I don't know what this means. If it means anything. I actually did do a little Hunt-patterned drumming in that rit, but I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.