I have a new favorite choke.

When fighters fight, their souls touch. –Jacob Duran



Previous Thursday and Friday classes, Bellevue: all spars. Didn't have much to say about them.

Thursday lunchtime gi, Bellevue:

You have butterfly guard. Get right-hand cross lapel grip and place left foot on opponent's right bicep to stretch hir out and pull hir forward. She will have to put up hir right knee, where you have stuck in a butterfly hook (your right foot).

Push that butterfly hook through deeper. PULL THE ARM DOWN and under your ankle, yank it up onto your belly. (This was the bugaboo for me, for some reason- had trouble braiding all the limbs in the correct order in that particular little knot). Triangle-lock your other leg so that opponent's right leg and arm are both trapped here. You need to sweep to the side that hir post is NOT (I had a little trouble with that too...). The trick (assuming you have managed to trap the arm effectively) is pinching your knees together and tipping them to the outside to spill the opponent. Pinching the knees together is a persistant failing for me over several techniques, so I really need to pay attention to the techniques that use that.

Another thing that stymied me was that you have to be square with the opponent, flat on your back, and disturbingly far away from hir to make that last bit work. I am used to having to curl up like a pill bug, quirk to the side, and tuck myself as far under an opponent as possible for most sweeps. And NEVER NEVER flat on your back. This one was the opposite, and it always freaks me out when I have to try to do those rule-breaking outlier techniques.

John was having trouble as well, and Carlos was getting frustrated with both of us. He got so frustrated with me at one point that he walked off (I hate that worse than anything), but he was a lot harder on John. I whispered to John, "He's being rough on you because he's getting ready to promote you to brown," and John thanked me.

One great roll after class with John. I also found his pulse.

I am going to take a CPR/first aid recertification class, and finding the pulse quickly and consistantly was one of the things that I had problems with last time I tool this class back in college (when dinosaurs walked the earth). I want to find pulses on everybody I meet until I feel really comfortable with it. So far I have quickly and easily found five out of six; that sixth person I had to grope a little, but I did find it.

There is a fire station only 2 miles away from my house. I had always intended to get am EMT certification, just to have the skills, but with the station that close it would be nice to volunteer there or pick up a little extra money now and then. They will even pay for your EMT classes, if you commit to a certain workload. It's in Everett and the scheduling is going to be very difficult with my work schedule. I think I can power through it, but I will have to wait until my two elderly dogs pass..... I just can't be away from the house that much while I am taking care of them. That's okay. I can use the interim time (years, maybe!) to study so that I know all the Book Learnin' backwards and forwards by the time I do the class.

In the meantime, I am going to check pulses obsessively on all of my BJJ bretheren. I have promised to not try to transition to a choke if they let me.

----------------
Friday evening:

Women's class- same techniques as yesterday. Good, I needed more work on them. Happy to see that I was not the only person struggling with the same aspects.

2nd class (ooof)- I almost died doing the second class, but it was worth it because I learned my NEW FAVORITE CHOKE.

Pulling half guard from standing (why am I so clumsy at this? I have done it before and was not this clumsy.... I need to practice this more).

Opponent drapes over you as you have half guard (lying on your right side). You grab a handful of gi at hir knee with your right hand, and stick your thumb into the back of hir collar. With a twist of your body, you can now roll the person over yourself and dump hir on the opposite side (You are now lying side by side, feet to head, on your backs). Do not let go of grips as you roll up and take side control.

THIS CHOKE- oh my. You are in bottom half guard and the opponent is squashing you. (I like it already, because how much time do I spend here? YEARS!!!! What am I able to do from here? VERY LITTLE!!!!)

You are on your right side, frame up and use your right elbow to shove opponent's top half toward your left. (Note that in no-gi, you can also do this, cupping opponent's shoulder.) Snake your left hand under opponent's arm as if you are trying to reach under your own armpit- then grab your own bicep instead. This can be a choke or (with a body twist) a shoulder lock- and it comes on FAST, so be careful and don't slam it.

Simple. Effective. From the position that I spend the most time paralyzed in. I am in love.

Found Chrisanne's pulse and Doug's pulse. They are both alive.

Maybe I should have been offended instead of relieved?

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



Thursday no-gi and Friday evening gi in Bellevue.

More double-leg setups from standing.

Double-leg attempt to be met with sprawl.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carlos let me touch his katana.

It’s all about the visualization.    -Savage Kitsune


Thursday lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue. Same setup as that wacky sweep that Chrisanne and I worked on all last week, only this time instead of sweeping hir backward, you sweep hir forward. This means that after you swing your leg to the outside and place it on the Bad Guy's hip, you place the other one on hir knee and stretch hir out. Pull hir arm across hir own centerline ( remember well from various other techniques that this makes it HUGELY difficult to defend the sweep). Note that you still have to remember to underhook the ankle, which once again was the step I left out as soon as I tried to speed up.

One short spar with John. I was happily surprised to find myself on top the whole time. John has become a fearsome opponent, and it's very challenging to not be completely dominated every time.

Thursday evening I hiked.... as I wanted to see the Cirque Du Soleil, and avoiding the $15 parking fee meant a pre- and post- performance hike. Which was fine, although I had to circumambulate half of Marymoor Park on the way in. I kept running into dead end streets, and businesses backed up to the park with fences all around them.

Friday evening BJJ in Bellevue.  Prof. Carlos won a katana in a comp last weekend, and was playing with it before class. He let me play with it too, to my humble gratitude. It led to an interesting comversation about the etiquette of handling other people's weapons, and whether or not it was disrespectful to grab the sword by the blade or drop it on the floor. He knows I had a lot of TCMA etiquette pounded into me before coming to BJJ. He actually apologized to *me* for dropping his own sword on the floor, when I winced.

Standup: front choke defense.

Pull guard to loop choke

Top half guard to gi tail choke. A second permutation in case foe defends by pressing your forearm down.

King Of The Hill, side control, mount vs escape. I was on the bottom the entire time and did very well- although granted I was almost always escaping to my Home Away From Home, bottom half guard.

One roll with Frasier, who tapped me with a keylock.

Trifecta

How are impact weapons used? You smack people with them. You can spend years learning nuances of jo staff or bo fighting or try to recreate quarterstaff technique from old manuals, but the basics aren’t that hard. You hit people. –Rory Miller



This entire week, I have spent 4 hours per morning in my yard, pulling blackberries by hand. On Weds and Thurs, I also spent an additional 4 hours in the afternoons (for a total of 8 hours a day those two days). It has been a lot of exercise, and I am irritated that I haven't lost any weight. But I have made serious inroads on the blackberry problem. I have a heap of mangled vines the size of a car. I am going to have to slack off at least some next week , though, if I want to have any grips for Proving Grounds. My hands are killing me. Knees are bitchy as well. Otherwise, not feeling a lot of body soreness. It's nice to be 43 and be able to do eight straight hours of yard work two days in a row and feel fairly okay.

Also- turns out that sticking your hand in the lawn mower to clear the blades is a dumb idea even if it's a Flintstone (reel) mower instead of a motorized one. Damn thing bit me. I have an enormous protruberant blood blister on my finger. Fortunately it's on my non-dominant hand. I was growling because the blades are dull, but I'm lucky they were, or I could have chopped off the tip of my finger. 
------------------
Thursday no-gi in Bellevue. It was a drill-till-you-die night. I began with a spar with Casey. I didn't feel like I did too well, but he praised me.

Ben and Kevin both have been promoted to brown belt!

Single leg setups.

Standup, meathook behind head and bicep grip- transitioning to a standing armbar. Yank hir down to break hir posture. If s/he jerks upright, let hir- and do a double-leg.

Flopping from one side of a turtled opponent to the other- knee tucked in on each side.

We learned one new drill that was actually fun- you standing, opponent on hir back with feet on floor and knees up. You place your left hand on the floor just inside hir right foot, and your right hand atop hir left knee. cartwheel to the opposite side. Repeat. This was enough of a dance-ish technique that I was very coordinated at it and found it easy and fun.

These, MUCH LESS FUN: In open guard, press opponent's left knee to the mat and hike hir right leg onto your left shoulder, hugging the thigh. skip from side to side, pressing each of your knees down on hir thigh in turn. This was not a good time for my achey knees, but I was soldiering along until Carlos came by and informed me that my butt was too high. He pressed my butt down, and after 3 reps, my body failed me. It was not a pain threshold or an exhaustion threshold, it was a case of I told my muscles to do X and absolutely nothing happened. Chrisanne did not do well with these either, but we both felt a little better when we noticed that the mid-twenties muscley boys beside us were moaning louder than we were.

Same setup, only now you press your palm to the small of opponent's back and try to force hir to roll into turtle. You slide your knee under there, grab the over-one-shoulder-and-under-other-armpit back hug, control that wrist (That was the part I kept forgetting), and choke. Also, if opponent blocks your knee, hop over hir and do it on the other side.

When time was called, I keeled over and lay there in the fetal position for a while, as everyone else started lining up. I had to get up because Luis stared jeering at me.
----------------

Friday evening in Bellevue, all spars. Sore from yesterday.

Peter, Chrisanne, Peter again, some blue belt guy, Doug twice, Carlos.

I choked blue belt guy to a tap three or four times. Kept telling him, "Put your chin down, put your chin down," If you don't listen to me, buddy, I'm just going to keep right on doing it. He started to go out once. He didn't go totally out, I don't think, but he greyed and then had to pause for a moment. He then told Carlos and Doug that I "choked him out". I have never choked anyone out.

The Doug-Doug-Carlos trifecta at the end nearly killed me. I was trying really hard to stay mobile and attacking, especially since Carlos informed me before we began that he was going to hold me down in various positions and he expected me to get out. For many of these positions, I had to try and fail at several options before he let me escape.

Note- with Casey, Doug and Carlos, I was noticing that when they are standing and I am sitting open guard, I sometimes fail to contact three points- which I need to be doing. Worse, sometimes when I *had* three points, I voluntarily let one go.

Nonetheless, I felt competent tonight.

--------------
I should mention that my 30-Day Plank Challenge failed at four minutes. I got through Day 26. I cannot do a four minute plank. Three and a half minutes is my limit. If I wanted to do more than that, I would need to plank regularly for a few weeks at least and build up to it.

James' juicy neck

Chi, outlaw Taoist wanted in vain by the inquisition of Western science; the breath of a God forgotten in a mortal body; nightmare of the laws of physics; Zen warrior of our will; fuel in the engine of the universe. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



I almost didn't go in tonight because of the twisted ankle, but I wanted to work it some.... I knew I just needed to not do anything stupid. I wore the brace and stayed strictly on the ground. It was an open mat, which is probably a good thing.

I rolled a bit with Casey (no jackets) and then for a long time with James (also no jackets). I seemed to be doing fairly okay with James, even though he's big and muscular and technical. Very shortly I found myself zeroing in with razor hyperfocus on his succulent neck. Guillotines, head-and-arm chokes, RNC, baseball bat. I was also using head control a lot- pushing his head to the mat, hanging on the back on his neck.

He pointed out that sometimes when I slap a guillotine on, I don't fully commit to jumping closed guard. It's true. Reason A) I play almost no closed guard... but at a tournament, it may be reasonable to expect that I might be fighting people that I can actually get my guard closed around. There's a shocking notion. Reason B) If I'm not positive that the guillotine is on really well, I don't want to jump guard because I know that if it fails, I'm on the bottom- and I suck on the bottom, so I do **NOT** want to be on the bottom. But I need to be mindful of this tendency in myself, and make up my damn mind if I'm going to jump guard or not- and if I am, to do it wholeheartedly.

I had really been hoping to get in more rolling time with women this week... but I think that long session with James was really valuable. He was being really nice and helpful even though I was grinding terribly all over his neck. I'll have to thank him personally if I win anything tomorrow.

The stripe fairy

All the world will be your enemy
Prince with a thousand enemies.
And when they catch you
They will kill you.
But first
They must catch you!
-Watership Down
Thursday: 127.5



You can run.... you can hide.... you can even leave your attendance card in the box so that it doesn't get marked..... but the STRIPE FAIRY is still gonna get you in the end.



No-gi class in Bellevue. Began with a grueling series of warmups featuring all sorts of mutated pushups, backwards and forwards iron buffaloes, and anything else that Carlos' twisted mind could come up with. Bear crawls with your partner backpacked on your back. Bear crawls with your partner papoosed on your belly. Thank God (blue belt) Lindsey was there today. Even she was almost too much for me. It wasn't the weight that was the issue; it was more a problem of restricted limb movement with a human being pasted precariously to your torso.

Opponent is lying on hir back with you standing, hir feet on your hips, Push the feet to your left, swing RIGHT leg over the opponent, and drop with your right hip on top of hir left hip. Go to side control.

Same entry, only this time the opponent turns toward you and tries to swing hir leg over your head. Punch BOTH your arms to the other side, slide through using hir hip as the balance point, and take side control on the opposite side.

Opponent tries to double-leg you, you snap hir down and sprawl on top N/S. go to the side, reach both arms under opponent's chest, grab far bicep with both hands, and pull to place opponent on hir shoulder. Keep weight on hir while you switch your arms so that the outside of your bicep is on hir clavicle. Now use "RNC" formation with your arms and lean your hip on hir head.

A couple of short spars. Carlos put a big white belt guy with me, and then gave him a lengthy talk about how he need not go easy on me. After he made the point three times, I said, "Okay, that's enough! Now he's going to kill me!" "I know thees guy ees a gentleman." And the guy was, to the point that I actually had to reiterate to him that it was okay to put some weight on me.

I also had to have a talk with Lindsey, who is really hyperparanoid about hurting me ("but you're so LITTLE!!!") and won't put barely an ounce of her her hulking 135lb down on me. She was doing that first guard pass drill brushing over my hip like a butterfly. I told her to be kinda careful of my RIBS, but she could thump down on my hip as hard as she wanted. She also wouldn't complete her subs even with repeated urging. I tried to explain to her that as two colored-belt training partners who have worked together for a while, she needed to trust me to let her know if she's going too hard, and trust me to know when to tap. 
---------------

Next: Advanced class. It was a relief to see Kelly, whom I haven't glimpsed since I crunched her elbow. I once again sought reassurance from her that I hadn't injured her. Oh, she now has 4 stripes! Pam also got a stripe tonight! And- uh, well, me too.

We divided into teams of three and drilled double-leg setups from standing, then did the same inverted turn exercise that we did last night.

Then: opponent is in your guard. Pull hir fwd with legs and work hir bottom left gi tail free. Underhook hir left leg and feed the gi tail OVER your own thigh to the hand which is now underhooking the leg. Now you can scootch your butt out just a bit and go for- surprise- an armbar on opponent's RIGHT arm!

If opponent pulls arm out, Keep ahold of the other grips and go for an omoplata.

If you go for the omoplata and the opponent hops one leg over you to straddle your head, you can (still retain those grips!) lunge up and force hir to continue the roll until you are on top. If you still have that gi tail, and now your weight down on hir, s/he can't get out. Go to side control.

Several rounds of positional sparring starting from closed guard. I was working with Ron, and I was very pleased to try some of my new strategies when he inevitably went for deep half guard. I wasn't able to get his head and package him up like Cindy had shown me... but I am very proud to say that I did **NOT** consign myself helplessly to the sweep and fall back on my ass. I did in fact manage to stay on top- it was messy, but I stayed there.

Triangles with Doug

A religion that forgives me for being a shit doesn't have near the impact of one that promises that whatever I send out is coming right back at me. -Anihow



Now that I'm not going to Bothell on my free Friday evenings, I have discovered that Prof Doug is doing a "study hall" at Bellevue in that time slot. We had a great group of mostly colored belts in there tonight, and worked on triangle setups.

First, some drills from guard, sans hands (Doug made us lace our fingers behind our necks).

Then: Start with foe in your closed guard, two cuff grips. Transition to a double knee shield or to butterfly guard (feet on hips). Act like you're going for spider guard on one side, and "miss"... transition to triangle. Yank the hell out of that cuff to help fuel your angle change, and try to get said angle change down to as few steps (and as quick) as possible.

Now: You are in top side mount. Make sure you have kneed the opponent's near arm atop your thigh. Slide your knee onto belly. when s/he pushes at knee with hir other hand, you grab the wrist/cuff and pin that hand. Yank your leg back, straight out, then hoist it up and over, shove your foot behind opponent's head. At the same time, with your free hand, haul hir head up (my partners and I discovered for ourselves that that was a lucious detail- very distracting to the victim). Roll. As you roll, grab opponent's other sleeve and lock the triangle as you finish the roll.

This intimidated me, as it looked complicated and showboaty. But when I tried it, it was nice and smooth.

Finally: You have opponent in armbar with your knees over hir face, but s/he is clasping hir hands together. Act like you're going to try to pry hir hands loose with your foot, but then shove the foot right through. Open your knee above opponent's forehead. This prompts hir to sit up. Let hir. This results in putting hirself right into your triangle. (Another tidbit we discovered during the drill... this bait doesn't work nearly so well unless you really act like you are going for the armbar, and keep your leg over the opponent's face. That way, as soon as you lift that leg and s/he sees daylight, s/he wants to lunge up into it. At first, my partner was not covering my face- and I had to think about where I was "supposed" to go for the drill.)

A roll with (blue belt) Daniel, a roll with Mario, a roll with Doug. Good competitive matches all (of course Doug was letting me work a little).

Nice gi choke from Doug: You are in top side control. Sneakily get ahold of your own gi tail (on the side closest to opponent's feet) and wait your chance to shoot it to the far side of hir neck. You must leave yourself plenty of slack, because you are going to feed this gi tail to your other hand, which is behind opponent's neck.  Grab opponent's pants at hir hip (same side as you are on), turn N/S, put your forehead to mat.

I adore gi tail chokes, but for some reason my brain is very impaired at retaining them.

Thursday advanced class

In martial arts, everything begins with the body. First, one gets acquainted with it, and slowly becomes intimate with it. The body is transformed into the best ally of the spirit. Then spirit and body become one. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




Look what I found by the side of the road on my way home from work last night. Its name is "Notstaying". Anyone want a bunny?


Evening advanced BJJ at Bellevue.

Drills: side control to KOB to side control on the other side. Sit on your hip and use the FAR knee to slide over opponent, then fall onto hip on other side.

Opponent is in your closed guard, holding your belt. Break hir grip by bracing with your hand on your own wrist (Carlos does it by gripping with the outside hand and running the INSIDE wrist under). As you break grip, pull opponent's arm crossways over your chest and use your legs to help hir along. Hug around hir head and arm. Take a moment to make sure you have this seated correctly on the neck... this is the time to do it, as your opponent is occupied with trying to avoid the face-plant. Later, s/he is going to figure out what you are doing, and tuck hir chin- then it will be too late to adjust your choke. Now: Slide your legs down a bit,  and use them to pinch hir thighs together, then roll. (If this isn't working, you can also use a butterfly hook toe here.) Front mount. Hop off on the same side you have the trapped arm. Choke.

More drills: this time we began with the wrist release and cross-yank, then shrimped out and took the back. Note that getting a hook or a good lapel grip (ideally both) and then pulling opponent into your lap is much less work and less dangerous than  trying to get all the way out and then climb on hir back.

A few spars- two blue belts and a purple. I felt in control with both of the blues (got a few taps on each) and competitive with the purple tonight. Dave and I traded some good choke tips.
Got the new Miller book- "Force Decisions"- I'm about ten pages in, and already have about a billion good quotes marked.

Friday Friday

I know people who are healthy, strong and agile, but they are not aware of it. Their bodies possess a wisdom that they can’t access. They are like little gnomes who direct the body from the control room; prisoners within their heads. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Friday lunchtime at Seattle.

All spars. I was hoping to keep the groove from yesterday going, but no such luck. In BJJ, your good days seem to almost always be followed by crappy days- and vice versa.

Today was a day of repetitive "Oops- I knew better than that- why did I do that?"

 My first roll was with Carlos. Note that I once again forgot that he wants me to quit trying to shove him over backward from his knees, and to quit being so fixated with trying to get on top. He wants me to work on my bottom game, esp sweeps. He knelt on my right hand today, but it seems to be a minor injury, thank Gods.

Hedge got me with the same (really awesome) rear summersaulting armbar that he got me with yesterday. I keep setting it right up for him; I need to quit that. Bryan wasn't there today, but I stuck my arm up by my head for Angus a few times. Ed used the same standing guard pass on me three or four times, and FINALLY at that point I got a clue and just quit trying to set up del a Riva on him. It was basically the same pass that Cindy does to me all the time, so I need to stop letting everybody do that on me.

Set up two triangles on a 4 stripe white, but he had shoulders like a musk ox and it wasn't going to happen unless it was set up perfectly from the get-go, which it wasn't. I hope he learned a lesson, though. And I continue to give myself brownie points for even attempting to set up a triangle.

Speaking of brownies.....Hungry ALL THE TIME, yet not losing weight.

Book report: Divergent by Veronica Roth- I'm recommending this one.
It is YA, so has a few of the pitfalls of that (the teen romance, the vague echo of "Hunger Games"), but I enjoyed it a lot. The first five chapters are available for free on Kindle as part of one of the "Pitch Darkness" sets of samples. I paid for the rest, and I'm a big cheapskate, so that means it's good.

Part of a trilogy. I'm almost through the 2nd one. It's just as good, although backstory is scanty and it builds on reader knowledge and character-investment from the first volume- so would not stand alone well. The third book comes out in October.
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Friday evening at Bothell.

Standup- clinch to collapsing the knee for takedown. Spinning armbar, starting from side control (note for me: don't forget to bring heels in... I am being better about remembering to pinch the knees).

Choke: start in top side control. One arm under opponent's head- grab gi at shoulder. The arm closest to opponent's feet: reach under and across your own chest and behind opponent's shoulder to grab gi at the back of hir neck (fingers in). Your other arm: bring it over opponent's head and across neck. You can keep the gi shoulder grip *OR* get a lapel grip with thumb in. Sink elbow to floor.

Positional training from side control. I am lousy on the bottom as usual. I couldn't get out from under either of the two white belt girls, unless I bodily picked up the 110-lb one and threw her on her back like a big bully.

I recieved an unfortunate kneebar while rolling with Cindy, and had to stop. It hurt like a mofo for a couple of minutes, but I think it's going to be okay.

Noticing that (per CK's suggestion) my heel pain lessens when I tuck my pelvis under the way she is always trying to get me to do. Is this what it's gonna take to drive in that habit?

Pink Team

From school playgrounds to abusive marriages, from dark streets at night to our very private nightmares, the theaters in which the prospect of physical conflict divides humanity into fearful prey or fighters are more than can be numbered. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

 

 

Tuesday advanced class, Bellevue:

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

"You'll have to do it with one arm"

  “If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” THE DALAI LAMA


Friday night no-gi at Sleeper Athletics.

Man, was everybody on my case tonight! It's a good thing that I feel confident that these people actually *LIKE* me, because the harrassment was nonstop today! More dunning about how I get off on crushing the throats of helpless children, dire threats about what various people were going to do to me during the sparring, derisive exhortations to stop being so Care Bear gentle with my KOB's and N/S transitions. Yes, that last from the very *same people* who were riding me about mangling middle-schoolers. Ironically, several of tonight's techniques were of the "Oh Lord, that hurts so bad" or/and "Ye Gods- is that *LEGAL*?" varieties. (I only actually asked the question once today. I find myself asking Cindy this often. I think she may be a bit exasperated with my habit of doing this.)

It was the consensus (of everyone besides me) that I am practicing "possum jiu jitsu". I guess this is a slight improvement over what Bryan terms my impression of a "dead fish"... at least the possum presumably is only *playing* dead...

Standup: one hook behind opponent's head, the other "inside tie" on bicep. Push into hir. When s/he pushes back, tip your bicep-grip elbow up (bringing opponent's elbow up with it), lower stance just a titch, and duck under the arms as you step past and yank that neck hold to try to bring opponent to knees. Follow hir down and end hanging off hir side, with the neck hook transferred to the shoulder (this forearm is now across the throat) and your other arm around hir back and hooked into the opposite inside thigh.

Now: Transfer shoulder hand to bicep and thigh hold to far ankle, Put your head down into hir ribs (I always flub that part) and drive into hir till you roll hir on hir back and get side control.

Next: S/he tries to push at your face. Use the arm nearest hir head to sweep around and force that arm up so that you can lock on a head-and-arm. (Note: that crawling-the-fingers-across-the-mat thing is very good here to cinch up around the head.) Use the "RNC" grip.

You are in top side control. Opponent pushes at your face with hir far arm. Use the arm nearest hir feet to hook the bicep, then swing your body over to sit on hir head. Pinch knees tight. Figure 4. Pull up sharply if opponent is trying to fold/wrap arms to resist. Push hir arm behind hir shoulder blade. YOUR elbow (the one nearest hir feet) should touch the mat. Now sprawl on belly. The leg nearest hir feet should be straight, toe braced to keep hir from rolling you. Kimura.

After I kimura'ed Lamont about a zillion times (with both him and Cindy railing at me for being way too nice: "crush his head"; "That's the gentlest KOB I've ever felt"), I asked him if he wanted to drill something on me (see, I'm a good partner!). He wanted to practice an armbar from mount that ended with him belly-down instead of on his back. Interesting. It often caught BOTH of my arms and locked both elbows if I wasn't careful to pull one under me. Wristlock opportunity as well.

This is a baratoplata, I think(?). You are setting up a triangle, opponent attempts to defend by stuffing hir arm into your crotch. You loop your arm through the triangle s/he has just formed with hir arm (not too deep- for some reason I felt like it needed to be really deep, but it doesn't). Now release your triangle and place your foot on hir hip (opposite side as hir trapped hand). Keep your other leg over hir back. Keep both knees tight to control. This is a shoulder lock. It is not obvious to me which way to crank it once I have it set up, but as soon as I prompt myself that the shoulder should roll back, it makes sense.

Hmmm... we set up this technique from another position, involving a roll... but my mind is blanking.......

Me (getting shoulder cranked): "Be careful...."
Lamont: {dismissive grunt}
Me:  "If you blow out my rotator cuff, I'm going to kill you."
Lamont: "You'll have to do it with one arm."

Sparring: I was letting people force one arm over my head or across my own throat too often tonight. Note that tomoe nage does not work on Lamont, Terry, **OR** Wei. Not only does it not work on them, it ends in my plopping back on my butt on the mat fruitlessly in an embarrassing fashion. I attempted the guard pull from yesterday on Terry, and it failed miserably- he grabbed my foot, single-legged me, and flopped happily down on top of me in side control.

Wei had me tapping like Savion Glover. He is still being fairly nice, but after having worked with me for this long, I guess he has decided it's okay to put on a little more head/face pressure. Now I have bruises on both cheekbones. 

I did cave and have one more Real Pop after class, but it was a 90-cal Coke mini-can.
------------------
Saturday: Both gyms closed for the Revolution. I had a number of errands to run- so to combine that with exercise, I parked at my first destination and walked to the rest.

One of my errands was the Redmond Safeway, where I found to my happiness that they had stocked some of the little 90-cal mini-cans of Dr Pepper. Usually they only have the Coke. It would be nice if they kept stocking the Dr Pepper.

"They're in my stomach"

Accept your power.



Wednesday evening gi class at Sleeper Athletics. As I was watching the tail end of the kids' class, Jalen (who does both the kids' class and adults' class) took a shot to the groin. He collapsed to the mat on his stomach with his hands between his thighs and just lay there.  Eventually:

Cindy: "Are you all right?"
Jalen: "They're- like- in my STOMACH right now."
Cindy: "Well, roll off the mat."



Clock choke from back mount.

That choke from back mount that starts out like a clock choke, but you trap the arm with your second hand and then place your hand behind the opponent's head.

Bow and arrow. 

Opponent has sitting backmount on you. Defend the choking arm if there is one. Trap one of the opponent's arms, lean back and bridge, roll onto the side that you have the arm trapped. Pin that leg down and keep weight on opponent's chest. Walk out to form a T with opponent. Turn belly down to side control. We did a few different variations of this.

Opponent in sitting back mount on you, dumb enough to hang hir head too far over your shoulder. Use both hands to grab behind the head, bridge, walk around to N/S.

Opponent in sitting back mount on you, one arm coming around neck. You move the arm to your OTHER shouder, snug everything up so that your shoulder is socked tightly into hir armpit and hir arm is locked straight. Walk around to side control as before. There is also a kimura you can get from the sitting position, but you have to really crank it. (Cindy noted that it's a good thing Wei and I were drilling together- because we are both "too nice".)

Positional sparring from back mount- sub vs escape. I did not do very well at this against Wei, in either position.

Battling Wei in positional sparring emptied out my gas tank. I begged off sparring. However, after I'd sat on the wall for a while, Cindy wanted me to spar Axel.

I enjoy starting from standup with Jalen and Axel, since they are close to my weight, and I feel pretty safe with both of them even though Jalen sometimes takes me down fairly hard. Tonight I got two nice hip throws, one of the drop-on-your-butt-put-a-foot-in-his-belly-and-toss-him-over-your-head ones, and one takedown where I was hugging him around the waist from behind and I just sort of picked him up and dropped him. Due to shortness, I had to hip-thrust way out in order to pick him up, but it worked. I could hear Cindy cheering those latter two takedowns, so that felt pretty good. I got a few taps on him- different chokes. Again I tried the one from closed guard with the one trapped arm, that we did in the Old Farts' class, but just could not make it work. Maybe I need to ask one of the higher belts to help me troubleshoot that; as I keep trying it and I don't think I've finished it live.

Terry insisted that I knock out a few pullups and those shrugging thingies at the end.... Lord, so tired..... he was annoyed that I wouldn't spar with him- but I know he doesn't like it when I lie there like a dead fish (I don't like it either), and I was tired enough that that's what would have happened.

Be my hero

 

 

One we learn how to use adversity to our advantage, we can manufacture the helpful growth opportunity without actual danger or injury.  -Josh Waitzkin, The Art Of Learning





Friday evening Old Farts' class at GB Bellevue.

For some bizarre reason, they have scheduled an Old Farts' class in Seattle in THE SAME TIME SLOT. Now I know some people aren't willing to make the commute, but some are- so why would you want to split your pool; why not have the two classes on different evenings??? Each class would be larger, and some people could come to BOTH. I would.

Hip throw setups. I was working with Peter (not gigondo-purple belt Peter, white belt Peter), and he's the first training partner (teachers excluded) in my entire martial arts history to whom I have not had to say, "You're going to have to squat lower." He apparently is a judo guy.

Bear hug from behind. Bring forearms up and drop body a bit to make a little room. Grab opponent's hands and try to keep them  locked together on your solar plex. Maneuver your lower body to the side so that your pubic bone is close to oppnent's hipbone. One of your feet should be in front of opponent's feet; one behind. ("Dog humping leg" position)

Now- continuing to keep opponent's arm(s) if you can- take the knee that's in the front of hir and drop it to the mat between hir feet. Roll over your shoulder, taking opponent with you. When hir back hits the mat, you will be on top, but your back will be to hir- so you have to continue the roll and end in side mount.

If you do it right, there are three possible bonuses: 1)As soon as opponent's back hits the mat, your own shoulder blade is planted on hir chest and your weight can press down to pin hir there while you change position. 2)As you're getting into side mount, you are nicely positioned to trap opponent's near arm right under your arm and on top of your thigh. Lovely segue to armbar or multiple other sub possibilities. 3)As you are getting into side mount, you are also nicely positioned to whack the opponent in the head with your elbow as you turn to your belly. In fact, you are *so* nicely positioned to do this, that specific care has to be taken to *NOT* do so, should this be your training buddy or BJJ comp opponent as opposed to a Bad Guy.

Next technique: You have closed guard. Pull opponent fwd with your legs, while bringing your arms to your chest, up and around to trap one of hir arms in your armpit. (don't forget to move your head out of the way... in fact I raised my hand in class to suggest this, when Doug did not mention it. I don't think I've been in a class *YET* where some pair did not bonk their foreheads together doing this maneuver).

Now: with the arm that you have used to pin opponent's arm, use your hand to sieze hir opposite lapel. Don't yank it taught, because your next move is to use your OTHER hand to reach behind hir neck and stick your thumb in the collar right at the tag.

Now whip THAT arm over hir head and pull. Beauteous choke! Peter was tapping almost immediately, while I still had miles of room to tighten up more. When he did it to me, I noticed that it is kind of sneaky in that it doesn't *seem* dangerous until you're already tapping. I like this one.

Peter is going to give me a swelled head. He thinks I'm Rickson Gracie. He kept showering me with compliments. He actually told me tonight that I'm his hero. Hee hee. He's not trying to come on to me, either- he's married. It seems that he's just inspired that someone tiny and older (he is also tiny and older) can make purple around here.

A short roll with Prof Carlos (the young bucks were having an open mat in the other room). He was going light because he has a hand injury. I got him in closed guard at one point and exclaimed, "LOOK- my closed guard is relaxed!!" He cracked up, and asked me how it's working out for me. I told him that I haven't had enough chance to practice with it as of yet, but look- I'm trying! I also tried to footlock him. I need to be gripping further up on the toes than I am wont to do. When Carlos corrected my grip, I was like, "Geeze, it feels like I'm going to break your toes." So he did it to me, and weirdly enough the pressure is in the top center of the foot, not the toes at all.

Then a roll with Ross, and I tapped him over and over and over without working too hard- while giving suggestions. He gave me one KOB, and I started counting loudly- after that he remembered to scoot out immediately. He pulled me into his guard 4 times with his rt leg going down bent on the mat, whereupon I cruised right overtop it and passed. The 5th time he did it, I stopped and asked what he was trying to do. Turns out he did not have a solid plan, so I said, "Okay, you've done exactly this same thing 4 times now, and 4 times I have immediately passed in the exact same fashion- so that is not working for you; do *something* different." So he put me in butterfly guard instead, and that worked better for him. He is also giving me way too much room when he is trying to get on top- I had enough room to dance the cha cha before easily replacing guard- so I told himto either get closer, be heavier, or get into a different position.

After that, all the young bucks were sitting on the wall played out, and none of them was up for another roll (sniff). So I went back over to the Old Farts' side, and started rolling with a big blue belt, but before we had done more than a few minutes, Doug was flicking the light switch on and off to tell us to GTFO.

I still had energy left, so I went over to Sleeper, hoping to catch the last little bit of open mat. But no one was there. (sniff).

More front mount

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to be over,
it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.




4:30pm basics class: Adrian is out of town, so we had no teacher today. Open mat. I rolled with Lindsey for 40 min. It is so unusual to work with someone who is lighter and weaker than myself. I used strength/weight a couple of times, but I was very conscious of doing it. It was unsatisfying. I let her put me in bad positions- especially bottom side mount, since I hate that. I felt less intimidated trying to work from that position with her, since I knew I could probably just Donkey-Kong her off at any time. I attacked her feet, but was not able to finish anything. She is very flexible, and her technique is good. It was a good time.



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Study Hall. It was just me and Kelly. Awesome. We started rolling to warm up. I haven't worked with her in a long time, but she has a history of sorta physically and psychologically overwhelming me somewhat with her aggressiveness. Maybe she was going lighter or something today, but it didn't seem quite so bad. She was still getting the better of me, but I didn't feel steamrollered.


The Prof asked her what she wanted to work on, and she said she was having trouble with front mount. Whoot! So we worked on that.


Carlos suggests that we not plaster ourselves to the opponent, but stay mobile on top to defend getting rolled. Kelly apparently has a similar problem as I do with being TENSE and stiff and trying to strongarm people who are a lot stronger.


Cross-collar choke from mount: keep elbows in- I knew this, but apparently I'm still not doing it adequately. Roll hands inward, pull elbows to belly button, you can also lift the person's head off the mat or bow your own forward.


Keylock from mount. Carlos suggests that I try pinning opponent's hand to the mat further out than is my habit. When I tried this on Kelly, she was tapping pretty promptly with only a tiny lift to the elbow.


Ezekiel from mount. Hug opponent's head with left arm. Place your right hand at opponent's ear. Left hand grabs inside your own right sleeve cuff. Make a blade hand with little finger toward opponent's tender, juicy throat. squeeze. You need not grab anything with your right hand- keep it in a blade. If the opponent rolls you, you can finish the choke during the roll (Carlos demo'ed this on both of us... I now have a headache just from being Ezekiel'ed by him two or three times).


We also did some positional training from side mount. When in top side mount, every time the opponent moves, use that opportunity to suck up more space and get tighter.

Front mount troubleshooting

Many people receive the answer to their prayers, but ignore them- or deny them, because the answers didn’t come in the expected form.  –Sophy Burnham




I was too weary to do a writeup last night; I hope I didn't lose a bunch of stuff.....

Tuesday lunchtime BJJ at GB Bellevue. Many of the same techniques/drills we have done over the past week. We did the grab-the-backs-of-the-heels takedown again, only this time instead of pushing one shin forward and the other back to go to front mount, we folded both shins back on the same side to go to side control. I hope that sometime this week we also cover the technical lift out of this takedown, since I remember doing that before. Having three different options for ending this will hopefully not leave me sitting there on my butt like a big fat panda bear after I get the takedown.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4:30 basics class- nobody showed up except for me, so I got an hour private with Adrian! Score! We worked on my sorry excuse for front mount. I can't stay put for 3 seconds nor long enough to finish any subs. Adrian wants me to get higher, shoving the opponent's elbows up. I need to fully utilize all my posts, and not be afraid to move them around to try to defend the roll. It's gotten to the point that I'm resigned to getting rolled, and I need to stop accepting that. I can use my head to post (I think this will be a key- I have not been doing this). I can also pull the opponent's head off the mat, which makes it harder for hir to bridge.

Isolating one arm/shoulder can give me an opening to an armbar or mounted triangle. We also addressed isolating the near arm while in top side control.

Adrian suggests that I get my one deep cross collar grip and then hang onto it. Keep the opponent defending chokes, because every time s/he put hir hands up to defend the choke, I can wiggle up into hir armpits a little more. It seems like I am not getting the cross-collar chokes deep enough (STILL!). I frequently get a cross collar choke and then get rolled, and I can't seem to finish them from closed guard.

He also showed me another cool gi-tail choke. This one is from top side control, and uses the nearer gi tail. The hand which is nearest opponent's head, put it behind hir neck. With the other hand, pull the NEAR gi tail across hir chest and feed it to the behind-the-neck hand. It doesn't seem very threatening, but when you grab the outside-knee pants with your other hand and put your forehead down on the mat beside it, it chokes.  (I heart gi-tail chokes!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Wednesday lunchtime BJJ at GB Seattle, with Julia!

Same standing roundhouse parry to hip throw as last week. I was nice to Julia and set her down gently.  ;)   I had not been quite as gentle with John yesterday, and he kinda called me on it- he said, "Should I be throwing you harder?" I laughed and said, "I couldn't blame you if you did!" My breakfalls are still kinda clumsy, and I guess the right-sided ones are going to be painful for the rest of my life because of that broken finger.

Hook sweep: You sitting, opponent standing. You have 2 sleeve cuff grips and feet on hips. Switch to a cross-sleeve grip (ie, you grip opponent's left sleeve cuff with your left hand), grab behind opponent's left heel with the rt hand you just freed. Now hook your left toe behind hir rt heel. Push with the foot that you still have on hip, hook that heel out from under. Do not let go of either sleeve cuff or foot. Put your weight on your rt elbow, pull your rt leg under you so that you are belly-down, and stand up. Now you can control the opponent's leg and arm on that side, and go to KOB or side control.

Take the back from closed guard: As opponent reaches for your lapels, you pak sau the arm across your chest and grab the cross inside bicep. Yank opponent forward as you pull with your knees, and place hir front half on the mat beside you. Keep control of the arm. Hip out, stick your lower leg hook in, grab over opponent's back to armpit. Take the back. Do not fall too far to the front so that your are summersaulting off (or leaving your head where opponent can grab it).

Unfortunately Julia pulled a hip flexor, and could not spar afterward (although we did get about 5 min before class). I did one roll with SIDE CONTROL and one with Jason, who just got his black belt last week.

Dave (SIDE CONTROL) mentioned S mount again as an alternative to standard front mount- he uses it on me to great effect (he's pretty much the only person that I can't use the comb-over mount escape on, because he just switches to S mount every time I try to get his foot). Note to self- ask him to work on this specifically with me next time I get a chance to play with him.

I tried to get my gi-tail baseball bat choke on him, but he was spinning away from it. I put my foot over his head, but this time it did not work. He suggests trying to put my forehead to the mat (exactly as Adrian had showed me for the cross-gi-tail choke) instead. Must keep this in mind.

This was the first time I've ever rolled with Jason. He's small (like, *my* size small). So relaxed. I had what seemed to be a nice deep cross collar grip, and then I got another, but I could tell that he wasn't worried about it- he was as relaxed as if he was on his couch with a late night movie on and almost falling into a snooze. I said, "Still not deep enough, huh?" He said, "Nope." Gak!  He was fun, though. I hope I get a chance to work more with him.

Crucified!

It is important that when a new activity is being introduced, the practices that immediately precede it are will known to the student and the general movement pattern is similar to the new skill. The advantage of this strategy is that the student is confident in his own ability and has a starting point to work from. Having an existing frame of reference makes any demonstration or presentation  of a new technique all the more effective for the student, because he can quickly relate it to his own existing range of skills. With similar movement patterns, the rate of learning is much faster than with different ones, because part of the skill is already known.  Tony Gummerson, "Teaching Martial Arts"

Wednesday evening gi class, Sleeper Athletics.

One of the same chokes that we have been doing the last week or so, plus some new things:

Turtled opponent. You are hanging off the side, facing the same direction. Your near hand- place it on the back of opponent's head and press it down on the mat. Your other hand goes under opponent's near armpit and grabs the wrist of your first hand figure-4 style. Sprawl and tiptoe around opponent's head. The under-the-armpit hold should flip hir onto her side/back and allow you to take side control. Keep the weight on.

Turtled opponent. You are hanging off the side, facing the same direction. Arm nearest opponent- reach over hir back and under the far armpit. (Don't get too deep/committed with this hand, or it'll get trapped!) Grab the collar and shake it out so that you can feed it to your near hand- which is going right under opponent's chin.

Now: take that arm that's over opponent's back and grab hir far wrist, pull it toward hir body. Sprawl and choke. You can also sit out if need be.

Alternately: instead of the wrist, you can grab the other lapel. Sprawl and choke.

If the opponent posts up on arms: Take that arm that's over the opponent's back and wrap it under hir far armpit. The back of your hand is pressed to the front of hir bicep. Stand up and wrap your FAR leg over hir NEAR arm. Roll diagonally over hir head. As you roll, wrap your second leg around that trapped arm as well. I found that if I didn't pay attention to the placement of the opponent's BODY during the roll, I ended up with hir between my legs- or lying on one of them- and thus one of my legs was effectively out of commission, which FUBAR'ed the next step.

Now, if you have done this correctly, opponent is CRUCIFIED (mwah ha ha). Grab your own collar to help keep that arm trapped. If you can't finish the choke from here, you can switch your leg formation, hip out a bit, and use your topmost leg to wedge the knee behind hir head. Evil! But effective!

Sparring- tonight I was the nail, big-time. I got my butt soundly kicked by everybody in the place, except for Sony. I spent way too much time lying helplessly under side control. Erin's and Stacy's side controls are very good. Very tight, very heavy.

 Sony did really well tonight on the upa, KOB escape, scissor sweep defense, and choke defense. I'll have to challenge her with something new next time. She finished one of the head-and-arm chokes that we've been working on this week.

My knee held up okay tonight. Ribs kinda hurt. They took a hard thumping a couple of times.

Further refinements- baseball bat chokes

Players tend to get attached to fancy techniques and fail to recognize that subtle internalization and refinement  is much more important than the quantity of what is learned…. Depth beats breadth any day of the week, because it opens a channel for the intangible, unconscious, creative components of our hidden potential. - Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”

"Bunny Jiu Jitsu" is now blue.... women are invading the ranks of the colored belts in tsunami waves....

Monday evening gi at Sleeper. More neck-squeezing today!

A couple of the same ones we did last week.

Then: You have butterfly guard. Snap neck and bicep down. wrap around head and one arm, gable-grip under opponent's chest. Use the butterfly hook on the side that you have the arm trapped to flip the opponent over. You can run around and entangle hir legs with yours if you wish. Then "RNC" grip and squeeze. This would work for no-gi as well- it didn't use any part of the gi.

Sony caught some flak for being "too nice"... Finally, someone else in here is "too nice"! I think she's even "nicer" than I! She has lovely choke placement, even if she lets go too soon sometimes. Her side control is very good as well.

Lamont is using some calisthenics counts to perch kneeling on one knee with both arms spread out, heels of hands up, eyes closed. He absolutely refuses to tell me what he is doing. Thus I am free to speculate that he is rehearsing a marriage proposal, trying to spin Spiderman silk, or doing a chi exercise which involves attempting to vaccuum Dragon energy out of all of his classmates for his own use.

Rolls with Cindy, Sony and Eric. Sony escaped all of my KOB attempts with alacrity today. I front mounted her about a Brazillion times, and made her do clean upa's with good hip pops and no stinting the arm or leg captures. (I saw Terry doing the same thing to her later, and I called, "You're going to be upa'ing in your dreams tonight!") After she upa'ed me off, I scissor-swept her and front mounted her again. It took her a while to start defending the scissor sweep with any success- or at the very least, scramble after being swept and not just lie there and let me regain front mount.

Eric and Cindy both leglocked and footlocked me upon request, and I tried to escape, with lukewarm success. Eric let me baseball bat choke him about 4 times (both with gi tail and without- I didn't get a chance to try to the gable-grip collarless version, must remember to work that one too). He was running away from them, and prompting me to plant a foot behind his head to hold him there while I finished. I also tried to employ the refinements that Jesse suggested yesterday (more elbows together, more sprawl to the mat, you don't necessarily need to get all the way behind the guy's head).

I was worried about my knee, but it did mostly okay. I was even able to run laps and do (shallow) lunges. The only time it really whined was once when Eric put it in half guard. It hurts now, though. Limping a bit.

I asked Cindy about that spider guard sweep. She confirmed what I had already pretty much decided- that, like kung fu throws, you aren't going to just go up to someone who is standing there flat-footed and try to do this to them. If I'm playing spider-guard and can get the guy to overbalance forward, or commit to a weight-forward attack, then I can do this sweep. Cindy was also pulling her knees abruptly to her chest to overbalance me, then sweeping. That might work for me, especially on smaller guys, but I am going to have to make sure I'm sufficiently underneath them first... and also take them by surprise.

I did have to sit out the last match.... because I thought if I rolled one more, I was gonna upchuck.

Do not let go of the pants, round 7,244

After making an error, it is so easy to cling to the emotional comfort state of what was, but there is also that unsettling sense that things have changed for the worse. The clear thinker is suddenly at war with himself, and flow is lost. - Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”


FOD: Tai Chi long form

Saturday morning basics. I still feel tired. I woke up this morning gable-gripping my pillow, ha ha. (The pillow did not tap.)  By the end of class, I was so weary that I was getting sloppy with the drills and felt like a kitten- so I didn't stay for comp class, sigh.

Kaungren was there. He now has 4 stripes on his ratty, faded purple belt.  (Little) John was there too, and we talked about how much he *doesn't* want to be promoted to purple. Sorry John, it's coming like a light in the train tunnel. Angela asked me if I cried when I got the belt. I said no, I just stood there and put both hands over my face. She said, "I cried."

Opponent is in turtle. You hang off the side, near shin parallel to hir shin, far leg posted out straight. Hold both of opponent's lapels under armpits.

Do a little hop and switch legs, so that your formerly FAR leg's shin is now against's opponent's shin. The other leg should be knee-up behind the turtle. Do not throw this leg over the opponent.

Sit back and pull opponent between your legs. Do not lie down on your back (I continue to struggle with this). Get both hooks. Have your feet flexed, and keep them on two different levels.

Open collar with one hand and reach OVER opponent's arm to grip deep with the other hand. Grab pants at the knee with the first hand. Yes, folks,  this is another case of DO NOT LET GO OF THE PANTS!!!!!! In fact, the prof threatened that if *anyone* let go of the pants, the whole class would do 20 pushups. (We had to do 2 sets... but it was not because of me!)

Use that pants grip to lift opponent's leg as you roll hir onto her side ("pillow side", the side that you have your arm wrapped around hir head). Now you are kneeling over hir with one foot on the mat in front of hir belly button, and the other knee on the mat behind hir head. Do not let go of the pants!

Bring the behind-the-head leg around as you sit, and now you have both legs wrapped around your prisoner's chest. If you can trap one or both arms, so much the better. (I hate this sub; it's another one of the subs where it can be nearly impossible to tap. You are also being choked, so you can't verbally tap! Ack!) Do not let go of the pants! Choke.

If opponent reaches a hand up to try to pry off your arm, Let go of the choke and trap the arm. Armbar. Still: Do not let go of the pants!

Drills to exhaustion. My stupid side is stupid. Also, Angela was trying to update me on the UFC standings while I was trying to count the steps of the drill- a conversation made even more difficult by the fact that I can't hear very well through my headgear. She also had to ask me at least 4 times (with increasing levels of vehemence) to please grip lower on her lapel so that she could allow me to finish the technique without tapping or dying. I guess it's good that I am so hardwired to get that high grip, although it seems that my listening skills could use improvement.

Head and arm... or arm and head....?

Problems set in if the performer has a brittle dependence on the safety of absolute perfection. -Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”




Form Of the Day: Catherine Dao

Friday evening no-gi at Sleeper Athletics:

The take-away for tonight was "You don't EVER want to have one arm trapped up by your head." You won't merely get tapped, you'll get tapped and you'll **SUFFER**.  Point in fact: when I performed my first drill, my partner's response was "Dear God, please stop."  Kitsune: "It's gonna be a three-ibuprofin night, I can tell already."

We began with the same thing we'd done Wednesday, from the snap-the-head-down- only this time, I was confused in very short order because we were encircling from the ARM(pit) side of the head-and-arm instead of the HEAD side. I immediately thought, all right, now every time I consider doing *any* of these techniques, I'm going to be paralyzed with confusion over whether I should reach around HEAD-AND-ARM or ARM-AND-HEAD. Cindy informed me that I am thinking too much. It will work either way- I should just secure the grip, and then hopefully the following step will be apparent.

Another one of these, starting from a double-leg attempt.

Then: You have side control. Move to scarf, then back to side control (with elbow on far side of opponent's head), in order to get the near arm isolated and sticking out of the opening under your armpit. I had a little trouble with this until I started keeping hold of the arm during the transition. Now, shove your elbow into the side of your foe's head and tighten everything up so that hir head is off the ground, lying on your thigh and clamped there with the back of your arm.

Now, take the arm closest to opponent's feet and place it on the mat at opponent's hip to control the hip. Your other arm goes behind opponent's head, grab your own leg.

Edge your way into a north-south position, bringing opponent's arm across hir own throat. Take a moment now to adjust the arm and make sure it's right where you want it before you do "RNC" grip and start squeezing. Sprawl. Hips down to the mat.

All of tonight's techniques employed what I think of as The Cindy Three-Prong Attack: 1)It'll make you tap, 2)it HURTS like hell, and 3)you are so wrapped & tangled & immobilized that often it is difficult to tap at all (including having your neck kinked and restricted so that you can't verbally tap). Those are scary.

Another important point with these: employment of the blade of the forearm- as well as the little knobby bone on the outside of your wrist- is a key. It was easy to make each of these techniques more A)chokey, or B)nerve-grind-y. I myself am quicker to tape to nerve point pain than chokes- but if I have someone that I know is not gonna want to tap, it might be helpful to steer for the chokey version instead.

Rotating spars with everyone. Lamont was not there tonight, but Terry was, and Cindy was rolling too. I told everyone to leglock, kneebar, and footlock me- but slow enough so that I could try to work escapes. Cindy and Cord both caught me in head-and-arm stuff, which was exasperating. I feel like such a moron when I get nailed with the Technique Of the Day. I once got Cord in a head-and-arm situation, but did not have quite the correct grips. I was able to hold him there, but I knew if I eased up enough to correct my grips, he'd escape- so it was a stalemate. I tried to muscle-finish it, and it didn't work.

I do not heart leglocks

When we have worked hard and succeed at something, we should be allowed to smell the roses.  They key is to recognize that the beauty of those roses lies in their transience. It is drifting away even as we inhale. We enjoy the win fully while taking a deep breath, then we exhale, note the lesson learned, and move onto the next adventure. –Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”

This is for Wednesday evening. I was too damn tired to write it up when I got home last night. And then just as I was about to hit the hay, I had to drive an acquaintance to the ER vet so that we could watch the cat she was babysitting for die. Fun evening.

Wednesday Form Of the Day: Bung Bo Kuen. A few fast reps, a few "tai chi speed" reps. Also did a couple reps of the Spear Hand frag, since it's a Mantissy day.

I thought Ginger Snaps (who apologizes to people for submitting them) was the ultimate BJJ apologist. But "Bunny Jiu-Jitsu" is officially the first BJJ blogger I have ever met who feels bad for her opponent because her feet are cold while being footlocked (Google her and see her blog post for yesterday).


Wednesday evening gi at Sleeper. I'll write what I can remember... if I don't do it as soon as I get home, I start losing chunks....

You are in turtle. Opponent is sprawled on your shoulders NS. Poke your head up beside hir ribs on one side. with your OPPOSIDE side hand, grab hir knee/pantleg on the side that your head is poking out. Post out with your leg on the side that your head is poking out. With the other, bring it under you and sit through on the back of your hip. You do not need to raise your body and bench-press the person up during any of this- you can stay hunched low. When you sit out, you need to end with yout body all the way out from under the opponent. Turn and take hir back.

You are in turtle. Opponent is sprawled on your shoulders NS. Perhaps s/he is scooted too far ahead on you. Grab one of hir legs and scoot your body forward (still low, still turtled) till you are under hir pelvis. Bring yourself upright on your knees, adding your second hand to brace the same leg. Now you are in a "wheelbarrow" position with the opponent, only you are turned the wrong way. So turn around (toward the leg that you are holding). There are several ways s/he could fall. Try to pin the legs and get overtop of them.

Same technique as Monday ("We're going to call this a choke." Cindy comments, using much the same conspiratorial expression that Rodrigo uses when he looks at us and says, "This is not illegal, guys.")

Then, a variation using the same opening as Monday: you are kneeling facing opponent, hook hand behind head, snap down, get head and arm. This time: gable grip. You now have a sort of baseball-bat-esque arm formation, with your forearm pressed on the back of hir head. Tighten and suck in, then pull opponent forward a bit so that ideally s/he is faceplanting on the mat. Press and twist with that forearm on the back of hir head to put hir down (Jalen was doing a complete somersault, I was just  kind of flopping over on my side like a dog that'd been shot- which confused me at first, but either was fine. I did need to visualize the somersault in order to remember exactly where to apply pressure). NOw, the arm that is under opponent's head- inch that through a bit more until you can do an "RNC" formation with your arms and squeeze. If you need to, you can sink your own body down toward the mat to finish.

Rolls with everyone except Lamont. Sony did much better tonight with the KOB tutorial. Better shrimp escape, quicker reaction time. I also had her defending chokes, and upa escaping from my front mount (which she had to do clean- trapping the posting arm well and sticking ONE hip up, not two- before I let her reverse me). I got one choke tap on Jalen, but it seemed like he let me set it up for some reason. He got me with that incredibly fast, hard triangle- then, after I commented on it, he promptly did it to me AGAIN. He's not setting it up from guard, which is part of what's confusing me. And again, it's coming in so goddamn fast that I can't even SEE how he's setting it up. If he keeps hitting it on me, I'm going to have to ask him to demo it for me in slo-mo so I can see what the heck I'm dealing with.

Cord tapped me several times as usual (including several leg attacks). This time I was ready for his fast continual flow, and I tried to play his game a little. It seemed to go marginally better than before, but only marginally.

Then I got Terry, who was an exercise in frustration. I was already annoyed with myself for getting caught in several leg attacks by Cord, and then Terry tapped me about eight times- all with leg attacks.

I continue to freeze up whenever anyone attacks my legs. 1)fear of serious, long-term, debilitating and expensive injury, 2)general cluelessness about what is being set up, how it works or how to escape it. It has now progressed to a significant emotional sandtrap situation, which bloats the problem beyond all reason. I really need to fix this. It's crazy to be at purple belt and still be so helpless with leg attacks. Terry and Cindy were trying to help with a few specific escapes when I asked, but Lamont made a snarky comment from the sidelines about the fact that he's been trying to teach me those simple escapes for two years and I'm still clueless (which is true- although shaming me about it isn't really helping my emotional barriers around it).

Anyway: If they have the leg pinned against the front of their body, I need to get my foot on the opponent's butt and use that to pry the leg out. If they have my foot in their armpit, I need to kick the heel forward as if I'm setting a parking brake- not a huge movement, I don't have to sink my leg up to the crotch- but just enough that they're now holding the shin instead of the ankle. Now, remove opponent's foot from your hip hip and hop your butt over it to the outside.  A lapel grip can also help.

To perform the foot-in-the-armpit: have the forearm oriented so that the ligament in the back of opponent's leg is grinding on the blade of your forearm. Slide it down enough so that you're seated in the "natural handle" at the back of the foot. I was trying to do it too high up on the shin (although I think that's a different legitimate sub). Place your foot (on the same side you have their lag trapped) on opponent's hip (on the outside), roll onto your side on THAT side, and arch back, looking over your shoulder (the one that is on the mat). 

I did get a couple of choke taps on Terry (including the gi tail baseball bat, and the sloppy single-forearm-under-the-jaw-and-lean-over-the-head thing that I know is kind of douchebaggy, but I was getting frustrated). I also got one funny armbar that was not an actual technique- it was a creative improvisation, which I am not good at, so that was a thrill. But it was mostly him running a clinic on me, which frustrates the heck out of me.

I also tried the gi-tail baseball bat choke on Cindy. She let me get it almost all the way set up, then abruptly started yelling, "Oh no! Oh, no! I saw that one on your blog! I'm not letting you get that one!" And then she escaped. Razzafrak!