Drilling while pregnant

Use of force is a “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” issue. “This one is too little. This one is too  much. This one is just right.” Campfire Tales From Hell



NO, I am not pregnant. Let's just get that out of the way right now. Whomever was thinking that, go rinse the inside of your skull out with bleach.

Evening BJJ in Bellevue.

Chrisanne and I were whining in the locker room about how our thighs ached after last night (interestingly, we both ached in different AREAS of our thighs), and commented that we hoped we would not be doing anything tonight involving that same half-squat.

Well............

Same knee-push-through standing pass.  I actually didn't mind this too much because it's one of my favorite passes, and I don't think I will ever get tired of it even if it hurts a bit.

Then we did the one from last night where you prop the opponent's thigh on top of your thigh- only this time, we passed on the opposite side. After passing, we sat on opponent's shoulder with one hip while facing hir feet, and bent one leg to hook hir near ankle. As soon as the foe turns hir attention to this distracting question of "what is s/he trying to  do with my ankle, and how can I get it out?" you pop into front mount.

Then: same entry as above, only you fake being sloppy with capturing the near arm. (This was pretty easy for me, as that was the detail I was sloppy with anyway). That arm ends up between your knees. After you catch side control, fake giving opponent a little space. When s/he goes to roll into you and single-leg you, hop your butt over hir body and plant it beside hir opposite hip. Catch that arm as you go over- armbar. The catch in this was, you don't turn the same way you turn 99% of the time you go to do an armbar from a position like this. You turn the opposite way. It's very weird. Of course I didn't catch that odd detail on the first go-round, and I was turning the regular way when I drilled it.... and I had just begun instructing my poor hapless white belt partner in how to do it wrong when Carlos stopped us and fixed me.

For the previous two technique drills, I did not have that hapless white belt partner, because I had Lindsay- girl Lindsay, who has been off the mat since December. It was so nice to see her. She is- not HUGELY pregnant, but BIGLY pregnant- and I had to modify my drills accordingly. I wholeheartedly approve of continuing BJJ (with careful partners, and within reasonable parameters) until a pregnancy is advanced enough that it is mechanically unworkable. Drills, that is.... I wouldn't want to spar (even slowmo flow rolling) with someone who was far enough along to be showing prominently. Lindsey had vanished off the mat as soon as she found out she was expecting. I think she was nervous about it. So I was quite anxious to not only be careful enough to avoid causing a guard-pass-induced miscarriage, but  moreso careful enough to reassure her that it's okay, you can do this, we can work around it and you will be fine. I felt confident about it- I have good control. (However, it made me feel a little jittery when Chrisanne got a text in the locker room before class that her sister had miscarried....)

I had done a warm-up flow roll with Casey before class, and after class I rolled a while with Chrisanne (going kind of hard and competitive) and then another while with Casey. Then Casey wanted to play with an extremely complex technique and use me as a demo dummy, which eventually led to Carlos jumping in (despite having already changed into street clothes) and demo'ing several terribly evil and convoluted techniques on both me and Casey.

Turns out that one of the brand new white belts I had worked with a little last week was a guy who works (as in, career-type "work") with Casey. Apparently he had been all excited and telling his colleagues that he got his first sweep on the mat. Further details revealed a feminine pronoun.
I find myself a bit annoyed. I'm not certain, but I'm guessing that the white belt in question was the one who performed a very nice upa on me, so I let him have it. That's how I usually work with white belts. I don't try to pwn them. If they do a technique well, I will usually give it to them. I'm aware that 1)it's a Big Deal to white belts when they start seeing their techniques work on the mat, 2)It's a Bigger Deal when it's a colored belt you're doing it to, 3)The white belts usually can't tell when we are going light on them and handing them stuff,  and 4)They don't realize that it's douchebaggy to run around telling people who you tapped (or who you swept).  I don't care if he runs around telling other BJJ people that he reversed me, since the other BJJ people for the most part understand corollaries 1 through 4. What bothers me is hearing that he was boasting to his non-BJJ coworkers about it, who now- since they don't understand corollaries 1 through 4- probably genuinely think this guy really scored a sweep on a purple belt girl at his second ever class. It makes women MA-ists look bad. And Gods know the non-MA public already has for the most part a crappy-ass view of a woman's ability to be a competant MA-ist.  Now I kind of wish I *had* pwn'ed him. Sigh. No, not really... I think the way I work with new white belts is encouraging and educational to them, and I don't mind sacrificing some ego. But yeah, this tweaks me.

I think part of the reason this is getting to me a bit was a conversation I had last week with one of *my* colleagues. He's an older guy with some (long) past MA experience, a pleasant fellow, but a bit old-fashioned. He knows I train, and at some point the conversation got around (jokingly) to "what if" it ever came down to me versus him. He laughed. Not just laughed, but hooted. Could barely get out (between peals of laughter), "What do you think YOU could possibly do against ME??!!!?" Now, he is bigger than me and outweighs me significantly, but The Incredible Hulk he ain't. He also must have about 20 years on me (and *I'm* old), and has not trained in decades. I get the impression he did not train nearly as long as I. I'm fairly sure I could take this guy, if it came down to it. I also realize that he's from a bygone generation and has some of the casual and unthinking misogynist brainwashing common to that generation. But man.... he hooted. And I was pissed. This shit again.... and again, and again, and again. And again and again.

Although I spend not-inconsiderable reflection time mulling over various verbally-disemboweling responses to stuff like this, the truth is that usually the offender is someone that I would prefer to not verbally disembowel, for reasons of social civility. In this case, if I offend this guy too much, the water-purification system on my clinical Chemistry analyzer might not get its filters changed on time.
So I usually end up letting it go, or letting it go with such a minor protest as to not be taken seriously. And then I burn inwardly, and feel it chip away another bit of my confidence in my MA.

 In this instance, in response to "What do you think YOU could possibly do against ME???!!??" I pulled out my Spyderco, flicked it open, and gestured to his gut (which, I might add, is carrying some extra fat... seriously, this would not be a fair match-up).  But I wish I had felt like I could call him out on being misogynistic (I'd leave out the "delusional" part). Even more, I wish that so much of the world was not so damn misogynistic.  It feels like a riptide that never, ever, for a single moment stops fighting against me. I wonder what it would feel like to have a penis and be taken seriously- either on the mat or in the street-  just once.

Front mount to S mount

Fighting is almost always ego driven.  –Rory Miller



I'm doing Vic's 30 day plank challenge. Starting today at Day 2 because I just now found out about it. I flatter myself that I have halfway decent ab muscles, but I do not plank, so it's entirely possible that I may be in for a rude awakening.

My trick wrist- the one that Carlos wristlocked when he first came here- was troubling me yesterday and today. Mostly during the open guard butt scoot warmups yesterday. I was mostly fine during the sparring. I'm wary, though, as the wrist tends to give me problems for a few weeks at a time once it starts hurting. Hope it won't affect the plank challenge.

Saturday no-gi at Kirkland.

There were some painful techniques on tap today, and Cindy told me to be grateful that Dave was there to be the demo dummy.... and I truly was, as they are things that Cindy has done to me before and the memory of agony is fresh.  I feel terrible as I watch Dave's face contort. The vein on his temple starts bulging out and turning purple, too.

 I was drilling with Andrew, who is fairly large, but he was very nice to me and careful. Dave, though, didn't hear me say "tap" during the positional sparring, and continued to pull something that torqued the sheet out of my ankle and knee until I yelled "TAP- TAP- TAPTAP!!!!!"  I know he would never do that on purpose, but dang, that hurt.

First we did some pummelling, then triangle drills, then armbar from guard drills (lawd I hate those!)
Front mount to S mount with seatbelt grip. Then front mount to S mount to armbar. Then front mount to S mount to torquing opponent's own arm around hir neck and bellying hir down to the mat.

I struggled with many things today. Several of them were very basic white belt errors that I should not be making. Others of them were failing to correctly follow all the steps even after multiple explanations and demos. Cindy was getting frustrated with me, to my dismay and chagrin.

Positional sparring from front mount. Then a roll with Wayne. I haven't done no-gi in a long time, and found myself frustrated with the lack of grips.

"No pants! No pants!"

Self-defense is far more difficult emotionally than physically. The mechanics, in other words, are simpler and for most people easier than the will aspects. –Rory Miller


Saturday no-gi in Kirkland.

Partner drills- hip-ups, armbars from guard, pummelling.

Arm drags from standing, take the back. Partner pushes down your 2nd arm as it comes around, steps out with hip thrust, turn to face you.

You in butterfly guard, partner on knees. You arm drag and scoot under to deep half. KEEP THE ARM (this was my error). Hook the foot and move shin out. This torques the person's knee and makes them unlikely to argue when you pull them into back mount.

Same entry, this time you post and brace forearm across hir collarbone. Scoot butt out a bit. Bring foot (on the opposite side as you have the armbrace) underneath and hook toe on the outside of opponent's knee. Swim your armbrace to underhook as you place your forehead against the collarbone instead. Plow forehead into opponent's chin  (this sucks mightily to be on the recieving end of, and distracts you from protesting the rest of the technique) as you grab hir tricep to keep hir from posting and butterfly sweep her to front mount.

KOTH from back mount. I was sucking so badly here today, badly enough for Cindy to notice and get disgusted with me. I recieved a long lecture on my persistant 1)failure to mount any offense, and 2)insistance on being too nice to my partners to the point that I am not doing the techniques correctly out of reluctance to discomfit them. This discussion was accompanied by tactile learning aids in the form of a brutal elbow to the breastbone that forced some embarrassing sounds from me. I was informed that I do not need to be nice to Pedro or Aussie Dave, who both assured me smilingly that this is true. Aussie Dave is just one of the downright sweetest people I know, and my mind quails from the image of me grinding my forearm into his throat.

One spar with Aussie Dave, then I watched Cindy roll with Jill. I yelled at Jill that this was no-gi and she had to let go of Cindy's pants. For the rest of the roll, she kept grabbing pants and then letting go like she'd been burned, squawking in dismay, "No pants! I forgot! No pants!"

Ankle is a little worse today. It seemed to be doing reasonably okay on Thursday, but it did not like Friday or Saturday training. I can still see visible swelling. Must dig out ankle brace.
 

It's illegal

 Stealing from the gods the fire of passion and creativity to lighten our life is just the first step of the trip, not the destination. Passion and creativity are not our private property, not our very own toys. They are the sparks lighting the fire of a big tribal camp. Having talent and not cultivating it is a crime, but cultivating it without sharing its fruits with others may be even worse. In its highest form, the way of the warrior is that of the bodhisatva: putting one’s talent at the service of a superior destiny. Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



Lunchtime no-gi at Kirkland.

Some pummelling, some double leg setups. The double leg setups we were doing today.... 1)begin with feet square so as not to telegraph. 2)begin at very close range. 3) from pummel, make sure you trap or duck under opponent's wrist on that side when you drop. 4)Step FAR in. I never step far enough. Foot should be between opponent's feet and BEHIND them. 5)placement of the OTHER foot is eternally problematic for me. I tend to step *too* far forward with that one, and also too close to opponent. (See how I have exact opposite problems with each foot? Welcome to my world.) The hand placement, the upright back, and the head pressure I seemed to be doing (mostly) right this time (note this is about the eight millionth time Cindy has gone over this technique on a personal and intensive level with me).

Keylocks from front mount. I was corrected for failing to use the thumbless "monkey paw" grip. Also for not having the elbow close enough to the opponent's head. When jumping from low grapevining front mount to high mount in the armpits, move more quickly. Pull the head off the mat to keep opponent from bridging.

If opponent joins hands to defend the keylock, go to kimura grip. I need to focus on keeping opponent's arm folded firmly. S mount. Take the foot closest to opponent's head and fold the shin back along hir back. Pull opponent's head and shoulders into your lap. This rolls hir over your shin, which you can now use to pin hir arm. Opponent is now in a triangle, facing away from you, with hir head and shoulders in your lap. Choke way up to right under hir armpit- you do not want opponent's ribs inside this triangle. Now you can let go of the kimura grip and grab your own ankle as you post on the mat with your other hand. Readjust the triangle so that your shin is shoved horizontally right under opponent's chin. Now you have to scoot yourself all the way around hir head until you are lying on your side and can grab one of opponent's legs.

This particular technique makes me very, very relieved that Dave is now usually the demo dummy. This one hurts. Badly. In all sorts of ways.  

A few rolls- Dave, Cindy, a guy I don't know. I wasn't doing very well today in the sparring. Last night I had been marvelling that I felt competant in sparring, so I'm not surprised... it is common to have a "wow, I suck" day right after you start to feel like you might know what you are doing. BJJ likes to keep you humble that way.

Cindy also informed me that the bicep slicer that Prof Herbert showed us last night is illegal. Dang. I liked that trick. Herbert failed to mention that it is illegal. I'm really glad she told me that before I did it to somebody.

Chopped off all my hair today. Feeling kind of self conscious. With the long, long, red "mermaid hair", that's all everyone ever looks at. Now I feel like people might notice my body and clothes or something.  It's sure going to be nice to be able to do BJJ for a while without that spandex cap, though. And without having wet hair for three hours after the shower.

Setting the record straight

The Warrior is not afraid of being afraid. He accepts it, looks it in the eyes, and challenges it.  Refusing to be a hostage in the hands of one’s fears is the act of a Warrior. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


If you see Cindy running around with a black eye, she is going to spin you some fish story about how I attacked her and tried to bite her eyeball out.  FYI: she double-legged me and decided to make double sure I'd go down by adding a gratuitous face-slam. She almost knocked my two front teeth out- however- I am told that this is not so serious because teeth, unlike eyeballs, are replaceable.

Friday lunchtime at Kirkland. I was late, and got there just in time to do some reps of the following sequence with Izzy:  double-leg takedown to side control to mount, partner upa sweeps, you pass guard to side control, partner squirts out under your arm and goes to the back as you turtle.

Positional sparring from front mount.

One roll with a white belt, one with Cindy, one with Dave (no jackets).

Kirkland

’Feeling’ other people’s intentions when there is no time  to comprehend is not a special talent reserved for enlightened masters.  Only a bad relationship with our perceptions and a poor regard for our intuition can take this fundamental weapon away from us. Centuries of strict rationalism and skeptical philosophies have contributed to undermine our natural sensitivity. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



Evening class in Kirkland, under (purple) Dave.

Opponent standing, you on your back with feet on hips. Opponent pushes your leg to the side and steps to the side, you cross far leg over top and replace the open guard. Over and over.

From closed guard: spider guard to triangle to armbar to omoplata to triangle.

From side control: near arm under opponent's head, sit back on your hip, grab pantleg. Mount, grapevine, arm under head, dismount in "kickstand" position. Then side control. Rinse, repeat.

Basic back mount escape. Don't forget to grab the pantleg and push it away. Also, noting that tilting the head to the side and then pressing it back against opponent before rolling onto the side makes a big difference.

Same, only this time opponent grabs half guard. Sit back on hip, clear the arm, CROSSFACE (very important), shoulder pressure. Now scoot butt back as you use free arm (and your other foot, if necessary) to clear the half guard.

You are in turtle, Opponent is sprawled on you N/S. Hug one thigh, pop head out on that side side and press it against  opponent's shoulder blade. Step the outside foot out. Pop your body out and lie back on opponent. Twirl around to hang off hir side, as s/he is now turtled.  My biggest challenge here is remembering to circle the elbow back as I pop out.

Same beginning pose. This time grab both thighs and scoot in close. Pop head out, step out on that same side, use OUTSIDE hand to grab the near ankle. Push with shoulder (be very upright) and lift to spill opponent over. Take side control. There is a good opportunity here to also trap both legs on top of your thighs.

Sparring: Twice with a white belt I don't know, once with Dave. With Dave, my amazing skills from this afternoon continued to reign. I did worse against the white belt, go figure- even though he wasn't being smashy or ridiculously heavy. He had good basics, good guard passes and really good top pressure. In our first spar, I did loop choke him in about twenty seconds, which inspired much hilarity (him included). 

No-gi evening

Despair is an indulgence.   –Karani


No-gi in Bellevue. Fortunately Kelly and I had coordinated to both be there. Apparently she has gotten stuck with some rough partners in the no-gi class to the point where she is going less often. It was good that she was there for me to work with, because the only other people there were Luis and Tagir. Both are on my "safe partner" list, but the size/strength disparity is considerable.

Pummeling. Then Single-leg setup drills.

You have side control. Foe turns into you and sticks lower knee in. You move the arm closest to hir head OVER, then turn your hips toward hir feet and use your hip to move the knee. Grab hir far knee/thigh and pull it toward you as you mount.

Same entry, but when you turn toward the feet, your opponent brings hir elbow to the mat. Turn BACK toward hir head, grab the bicep and yank that puppy outta there. Close your arm over it so that you are in a modified scarf. Take a moment to make sure 1) the inside of opponent's elbow is toward the ceiling, and 2)shove hir head so that it is lying on your thigh. Now step your other leg over hir head and armbar.

A roll with Tagir and one with Kelly.

Spent quite a bit of time on my butt while Tagir tried to come in on me. Normally I'd get up and work standup as soon as we detangled enough; but I wasn't feeling up to getting thrown by Tagir tonight. As we handfought, oddly enough I found myself falling into Snake hand guard positions. That hasn't happened in a long time.

Note that Tagir is working on guillotines. He tried one on me and I managed to squirt out, but he got one on Kelly and kept it clamped on her for a few minutes before she finally had to tap.

I seem to be doing better against Kelly than I have done in the past. A year ago, she dominated me every roll and tapped me sometimes. Then there was a several-months-long period where I didn't work with her, and now- while I'm not tapping her very often, she's not tapping me hardly at all and she's not on top of me the entire time. I'm starting to wonder if she's coming up against that wall- the one that people tend to hit when they are gifted and start out doing very very well in their first couple of years.

Damn your spider guard

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

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

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

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

I wore the ankle weights all day at work again.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Ron: Errrk....Oooh!

Kitsune: Are you okay?

Ron: Yeah.

Kitsune: Seriously- am I being too heavy?

Ron: Good shoulder pressure.

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

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

What Ron wants me to do

As conscientious martial artists, we must be fully aware of the power we hold
over those underneath us. Lower ranks look up to and often too lightly lionize
those of higher rank. The reality is that the more advanced have been practicing
for longer, started earlier, and nothing more. In the eyes of the new student,
though, particularly the young one, these people may as well be superheroes
with powers they cannot fathom possessing. More than knowledge, these more
advanced students hold the power to control others, harming or not harming,
assisting or ignoring them as they see fit. Even if it isn’t discussed, that is a
deeply primal thing in the mind of a person. It is not to be abused. –Ryan Hall


Tuesday evening Advanced class, Belle.

Tone was back tonight. I didn't get to work with her today. She did two classes yesterday. I hope she doesn't burn herself out or get injured. She still seems very enthusiastic.

King Of the Hill from mount. Then rotating spars.

Ross is getting very good. He tapped me twice.

Crisanne stuck her head right up into my favorite collar choke. I cheerfully throttled her and told her to never do that again. Otherwise, she was doing quite well.

With Ron:
Kitsune: "I can tell you're trying to bait me into passing your half guard on the right. I've been rolling with you too long, Ron. At this point I'd rather stay in a shitty position than do *anything* you want me to do." Rolling with Ron continues to feel like trying to balance on top of a golf ball on your heel. Blindfolded. On ice.

I worked with a tall white belt guy with whom I spent almost the entire time gripfighting, with a few interludes of me grabbing closed guard and trying vainly to sweep him. He had good base, good choke defense (as I told him). He kept repeatedly apologizing for not knowing what he was doing, and for just being defensive, and for his percieved suckage. I hope he believed me when I told him he has nice basics and he's doing great, that he should just keep doing what he's doing.

I got an omoplata on a blue belt, which I'm pretty excited about. That's not a sub I get very often. I don't get *any* sub very often, especially on a colored belt, but when I do it's usually a choke. He made me work for it. He was trying to summersault out of it, but I grabbed his gi and hung there, and kept tightening it up till he tapped.

Casey nagged me about my belt. I have't been back to Seattle yet, and I wanted to look for it myself before having to buy a new one. But I asked Cindy to look for it last week, and she didn't find it. I went ahead and ordered a new one online tonight, but it will take a while to get here. Casey told me I'd have to start going into the basics class. Good Lord, does he think that's a punishment? He doesn't know me at all, does he?

I now have a King County library card. I apparently have to physically go to the library and show them ID before I can borrow Kindle books. By searching free Kindle books on the web, I found a couple of really old and fairly short ones that count as "reasearch": One on old Chinese religion and one of old Chinese fairy tales.

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.
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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!)
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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.

Monday morning

The 70-80%  level of technical excellence can be achieved relatively quickly; however, to attain the remaining 30% or 20% requires a disproportionate amount of time and effort.  Tony Gummerson, "Teaching Martial Arts"

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!  Bryan has been promoted to black belt!!!!!!!!!!
(and I missed it! *sniff*)

Griff black-belted as well.



Thursday FOD: Kiu 2

I spent all morning at the allergy doctor.... only to be told yet again by yet another White Coat in yet another exam room that- despite the fact that we can cure some cancers and give people robotic eyeballs and all sorts of wonders- there is no help to be had for me. We can try allergy shots again- but no, sorry, they have not changed from a quarter century ago. So if they didn't do diddly squat for you then, you can expect the same (non) result now. Once I get re-employed (and re-insured), I might go ahead and get the shots again just for sh!ts and giggles, but the doc was no more optimistic than I. I'm just F'ed.

I know there are people who *do* have cancer, or were born blind, or with no arms or legs, you know, *REAL* medical issues who would rightfully tell me to quit being such a whiny baby about my stuffy nose. But ****DAMN**** this sucks!!!! I wish I could BREATHE!!! This is not fair!!!!!!   WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! (Throws rattle and pureed carrots, bangs furiously on highchair tray)

Side note of humor- when they poked allergens all up and down the insides of my arms- and the two "dust mites" spots instantly swelled up in blisters and developed angry pink coronas the size of golf balls- the nurse came in with a tube of Benedryl and asked "Does it itch?" I had to laugh, although I did restrain myself from replying, "What do you think, Sherlock?!??!"  It was kind of nice to see my cats exonerated, at least (altho getting rid of the cats was never on the table).

Not so humorous: Housemate has been coughing up a lung for a month, and I've been congratulating myself on not catching whatever she has. As soon as that nurse walked in, he was coughing, and I thought, "Uh-oh....." After he had spewed his germs all over the exam room, he left me in there for over an hour to marinate in it. Then of course, he was the one administering the scratch tests. There was a Purell dispenser on the wall, and I did my hands half a dozen times, but tonight my throat feels a little sore- so I think he got me. Now, can I fight off the dreaded rhinovirus or will it tap me out?  Decided to skip class tonight so as to not regift germs unto my teammates, should I indeed be infected.

Friday: Ugh. Sick. That is all.

Saturday: Second verse, same as the first.

Sunday: WIP- I have finally figured out how to get rid of the corpses.

Monday: Lunchtime BJJ at GB Seattle. I got to call Bryan "Professor" and watch him make a passing-a-kidney-stone face.

Also- Pat is now brown, and Jimmy Lee is now brown.

Knee- I was hoping that my knee would have healed fully during my rhinovirus hiatus, but it still winced a bit when I placed that foot on the opposite knee.

Standup: pummeling, clinch, inside reap. Feedback- don't curve body to the side, drop the knee that you're reaping with to the mat.

Armbar from mount drills. I am starting to see that one of the reasons I rarely go for these is that I am paranoid about hitting my classmates in the face with my shin or (worse) my heel. Angela instructed me to be tighter, especially with the foot placement. Being loose and sloppy decreases chaces of an accident, but it increases chances of the opponent escaping.

Keylock from mount drills. I managed to whallop Angela right in the mouth with my elbow, then I got really timid and slowed way down.

Positional sparring from mount- escape versus armbar or keylock. My go-to mount escape is not the greatest on an opponent with short legs. On top- I think S-mount is the key to my top game. I need to find ways to expand my options from here.