You will be cleaning up your own puke.

Having a perfect body is not nearly as important as learning to listen to its voice.
-Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



Plantar fasciitis continues unabated. Mostly the right foot. Drat it, I don't have the time or patience to massage my damn foot for 10 min every morning before getting out of bed!!! Plus my cats would get together and lynch me. Their expectation is that at the first ding of the alarm, I am catapulting out of bed to start getting their breakfasts ready.

Lunchtime at Seattle.

Another day of feeling pretty tired- and it was hot again. Not quite as hot as last night, but very hot.

Positional training from side control- pass vs sweep only. I was shocked to complete a sweep. Only one, but that's one more than I've ever been able to get before.

Carlos dressed me down for "not being fair" when he saw me hunker down to hug my opponent as we got started. He wanted the top person to begin in an upright position. Understandable. Yet the concept still boggled my brain. My partner was an adult male blue belt. A smallish one, true- but still- an "AMO" if you will (Since we were not going full bore, it didn't qualify for Georgette's awesome "FRAMO" classification: Fully Resisting Adult Male Opponent). I have the mindset that I am perpetually so far in the hole that the idea of me starting with any type of "unfair advantage" is laughable. If the guy started out hogtied, I'd still be at the disadvantage. That's why everyone is (still) getting such a hoot out of ragging on me for "grinding" on that little kid's throat- the idea that I would even have enough power to be *able* to be a bully is humorous. I've never even had to consider trying to be "fair". It's never fair- to me. Do I actually need to start worrying about being "fair" to AMO's? That sounds so ridiculous and pretentious.

I got a turn with a four stripe white belt girl that I've never worked with before- and after about 2 minutes, she had to excuse herself for dizziness. (Like I said, it was damn hot in there.) Carlos sent me into the bathroom to chase her down and caretake for her. She lay down on the changing room floor and I gave her a cold wet paper towel to put on her forehead. Then when I tried to return to the mat, Carlos sent me back in there AGAIN to tell her to come out and lie on the floor in the main room so that he could see she wasn't dead.  
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Evening in Bothell.

Review of the front mount escapes we have been working on this week. Upa, upa with opponent trying to collar choke you (trap hir forearm against your chest), my favorite leg combover escape).

Some positional training from front mount.

A couple of spars with really big guys. I just tried to survive- and because they don't know very many subs yet, I succeeded.

Burpees *AFTER* the spars. Ugh! I tried to negotiate taking my jacket off, at least- there was another guy in there dressed in no-gi clothes (whom I had just finished fighting, IN GI)... no luck!

Fortunately I have not as of yet had need of this knowledge, but I was informed today that if you puke on Cindy's mat, you will be cleaning up YOUR OWN puke. Even the kids? Yup. So try to make it to the back door.

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. ;)

White belts

I would rather get my ass kicked in BJJ than win at anything else. I love it that much.  - Parabellum


Ah, fresh white belts. Panting, straining, stiff-as-a-board white belts.

I still don't have enough technique to beat white belts who are bigger and stronger than I. Two years ago, I would have done my damndest to muscle back, and gotten frustrated when I couldn't prevent the manhandling. Today, I stayed relaxed and for the most part serene, with only a few momentary flashes of frustration.

Went to the Bothell pod for the first time. Got lost- late for two classes in the same day, that's a record. There's a girl there! Panting, straining, stiff as a board... but seems gung-ho and eager to learn.

Same comb-over escape from front mount to replacing full guard as this morning.

Upa escape from front mount- this time beginning with opponent gripping cross-collar. You clasp hir elbow to your chest.

Headlock escape on the ground. Turn slightly into opponent and pull that elbow down to ribs/mat. Hook top leg over hir top leg. Roll toward opponent and get on knees, driving forward to make hir headlock-gripping arm difficult to maintain. If you can keep the arm, armlock behind opponent's back. If s/he pulls arm under hir, sash-grip under one armpit and over one shoulder and hike your knee up so that it's pressed against hir back, high up. Pull hir into back mount.

Two points!

The world would never have been the same had any of the Western prophets been struck by the same intuition that myth attributes to Bodhidharma. Probably, the entire Western culture would be drastically different. No rivalry between spirit and body. No tug-of-war between the soul yearning for Heaven and the body restraining it on Earth. Rather than wasting our energies quarreling with our bodies and with the natural world, we could let spirituality and sensuality dance cheek to cheek.  -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Wednesday lunchtime BJJ, GB Sea.  Got trapped behind that dang train again, and walked in right during the bow-in. Got reprimanded in front of entire class. Embarrassing.

Front mount, upa escape while holding opponent's belt.  Noticing that it's difficult to trap opponent's posting leg when you are working with a petite and short-legged opponent such as Angela. Angela also says that I need "More hip, more hip, more hip."

Opponent has front mout. You gable grip hands, turn slightly on your side, press palms to opponent's thigh. Extend matward leg to the side, pushing opponent's leg out with it. Cross your other leg over top and place sole on mat to trap opponent's foot. Shrimp. Pull your outside leg out from under opponent. Turn in. Take half gaurd. Pinch knees together but do not lockhalf guard. Get underhook. Push opponent's far knee with hand. Pull your remaining leg out and replace full guard.

Angela wants me to push and shrimp more at the very beginning, but I found that this placed her center of gravity very low on my hips and it became very difficult for me to cross my leg over.

Positional training from front mount. Noticing that I expend a lot of strength and energy if I try to fight my way out of front mount. I tend to wait till they move for a sub, then try to escape then. Another thing: As usual I can't give Angela as much of a challenge as I would like to, but as far as positional training goes, it is probably more helpful to her if I give her some variety and refrain from pushing my Plan A over and over. Today I tried to do some different things, even if I felt I was more inept at some of them.

During one of the breaks, I came up behind Lindsey and RNC'ed her. She did not defend vigorously, and I was about to start goading her when someone called me away. Right before we lined up to bow out, Lindsey came up behind me and RNC'ed me in turn. I calmly hauled down on her elbow (using the susequent small motions of her body to zero in on her center of gravity) moved my hips into position, and launched a perfectly pristine shoulder throw. Everyone paused to admire. Carlos signalled two points for me. Cindy signalled DQ (for "mean").

Friday evening

…Without Constant Reader, you are just a voice quacking in the void. -Stephen King




Friday night no-gi at Sleeper.

SSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired. It really does work out better for me to skip lunchtime at GB when I'm going to go to Sleeper in the evening.  But I feel like I was actually helpful to Angela today in drills, even though I turned her down for sparring after. I want to be a good teammate to her, and help her out as much as I can.

Upa escape.

Then, straight-arm opponent's hips from mount and shove hir into butterfly guard. Sit up, underhook one side and put your arm around hir as if s/he is your buddy. Scoot butt out just a bit. Now your knee is up on the hugging side, and down on the mat on the other side.  Next: grab the opponent's arm so that s/he can't post, and roll hir, lifting with that butterfly hook. (You may also slide the matward knee under you and use it to drive off of.) End in front mount. (Sometimes I ended in side control, but Cindy advises mount.)

Next- same, only begin by elbow-escaping out from the mount before taking butterfly guard.

Sparring. I was very ineffectual tonight. Just too tired.  Wei got me in that same armpit choke that he's tapped me with for the last 4 classes in a row. I was watching for it (he did it to someone else a little earlier tonight), and he still got me.

Upa

The next phase of my martial growth would involve turning the large into the small. My understanding of this process is to touch the essence (for example, highly refined and deeply internalized body mechanics or FEELING) of a technique, and then to incrementally condense the external manifestation of the technique while keeping true to its essence. Over time, expansiveness decreases while potency increases. I call this method “Making smaller circles”. - Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of  Learning”




Sunday's FOD: Tiger Versus Crane
Monday's FOD: Long Qi

Monday lunchtime BJJ, GB Seattle.
I have definitely harmed my left knee. I went to place my left foot on my right knee to do those elbow-to-knee calisthenics during warmups, and the left knee went "OOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW, Don't BEND me that way!!!!!!!!"

Upa's. Opponent starts in side control and goes to front mount. Upa hir back the way s/he came from. Punch hard under the armpit as you hip up. Do not get sloppy or hurrying and neglect to trap the opponent's foot before upa'ing.

Next technique: as opponent goes to front mount, you grab the pantleg at the ankle and leave your near leg down flat to bait hir to mount. As s/he mounts, run your flat leg under hir leg and use the pantleg grip to guide hir leg right into your half guard. Scoot far enough out the side to push on hir far knee with your hand, stick your leg in there and get full closed guard. I had trouble trapping the leg while opponent was mounting from my left- partly because I couldn't resist the urge to keep putting my knee up. I felt clumsy on that side and thus vulnerable. I also had more trouble than I should have had replacing guard. Lord knows I'm tiny enough that I should have had no trouble maneuvering around under there, but I was having some difficulty. You don't want to straighted your body out while you're trying to stuff your leg in, because the opponent will just flatten you out. You have to stay close in and under hir.

I asked Bryan to look at that spider guard sweep, and he didn't have any answers either. Maybe it only really works if the guy is coming at you with his weight moving forward?