Stubborn bitch

Intent
Means
Opportunity
Preclusion



Sat: 127
Sun: 127.5

HOLY FREAKIN' CRAP. Amanda Loewen did a sub-only comp today and went SIXTY FOUR MINUTES with TAMMY GRIEGO. Bow down.

Mon: 127.5
Tues: 127.5
Weds: 128.5 (I had a McDonald's meal after work.... it was a long day).


Evening BJJ at Kirkland.

Back mount escapes. Defend against choking arm, lie back to the NON pillow side (follow opponent's pointing fingers) on hir thigh, use matward hand to remove hook as you keep weight on hir chest, grap pants on the OTHER leg and remove that hook as well, take side control.

Same thing, only opponent is a little more of a barnacle this time- perhaps grabbing half guard- and you have to put your elbow back and grind on hir jaw. Cindy made a bit deal of emphasizing to Izzy that THIS IS NOT MEAN.

Now, opponent tries to mount as you escape. Grab the leg and shove it between your knees, replace full guard.

Positional sparring from back mount with Izzy and Chelsea. I am very obviously still slumping.... although I will say in my own defense that both of these ladies have very solid basics and are very strong, and at least a couple of weight classes above me. Must remember to not try to work standup with Izzy- JUDO ALERT. That did not end well for me. I did get a sorta-takedown on Chelsea, though. I couldn't set her upfor the livestock takedown nor the backtake with sit, so I ended up doing some crazy thing that incorporated both. Got her down and got side control. It was exciting. (This victory turned out to be very short-lived, as you will soon see.)

  Lamont and Terry had both come schlepping in during positional sparring, and would not let me leave. I was tired and slumpy and already frustrated, and not in the mood to get tromped by Terry and Lamont- but I almost never get to see them any more, so here we were.

I got put with Chelsea first... and almost an hour later, there we still were.

Trapped in bottom half guard a lot (surprise surprise). She doesn't seem to have good command of many sub options, otherwise this would have been a rout. She does not like to tap, either.... she did a couple of hard crossfaces and other things that I might normally tap to, but after we had been fighting for about eight years, I didn't want to tap to that. Nor did we want to quit, even though Terry offered to swap one of us out. Eventually we started good-naturedly calling one another "stubborn bitch", etc.

Then I was on top (holy cow) and trying to finish a gi choke, and she didn't seem to be fighting too hard. Thank you God, I'm finally going to get this. I could hear her and Terry talking to each other in coversational tones, and although I couldn't catch what they were saying, I assumed he was coaching her. Then she snarled abruptly, "Get **OFF** me!!!" and I popped off, startled. "Sorry! I didn't feel a tap." Turns out they had been discussing the looming end of class time (and the capoiera class that was wanting our mat), and had agreed something along the lines of "we're stopping now." only I was focussed on what I was doing and not hearing this. And of course the stubborn bitch would not signal this with a tap! Ha ha. I apologized again. I hope she's not irritated with me. It was a really good fight.

Terry wanted to leglock me a couple times before we got kicked off the mat. I was ready to fall over- tired and stupid enough to hang off his turtle with one knee between his feet, even though I know better.

Kitsune: "Your girlfriend is tough."
Terry: "This I know."
K: "And stubborn."
T: "Again......."

---------------
I keep having these recurring nightmares about my cats getting either lost or killed, or me searching frantically for them, or me forgetting that they exist and then remembering too late in a panic. I've had them all my life. This is one of the dreams that I tend to have in response to too much stress. I have assumed that the cats were metaphors for all sorts of things. Earlier this week I had one wherein I "forgot" that I had a cat, then went searching frantically for it later, expecting it to be dead- only I did eventually find it and it was alive and in good shape. That's the first time that ever happened. I didn't know what to think when I woke up.

Last night I had another one of the standard "forgot I had cats" dreams, only this time I actually asked someone to verify that I had had them.... I was trying to get some sort of explanation or at least confirmation of WTH was happening. I didn't get any answers, but again- deviation from the script.

I'm beginning to think that the cats are a metaphor for "soul loss". I have an acquaintance in the clergy who has a speciality in this. If I keep having these nightmares, I think I am going to need to gear up to ask him about it. I feel like there's nothing I can do about it because I cannot journey. But maybe he would have some suggestions.

Fat Man Roll

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

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

Wednesday lunchtime BJJ in Kirkland.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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.