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.

How do I stop you????!!??"

I write for love, but love doesn't pay the bills. -Stephen King



Thursday evening BJJ in KIRKLAND. It was nice to see Dave again.

I haven't been here in a while and it was weird to walk in and have all these white belts (and a couple of  early blues) staring at me.

I know that we learn best when we are getting our tails kicked by better MA'ists, and I am constantly conscious of how very fortunate I am to have so many excellent people to kick my tail for me. It's a very different experience to have a roomful of whites and baby blues that you've never laid eyes on before, and wondering, "Okay, how is this going to go? Are they going to try to prove something on me? Am I going to find myself in WW3 in here tonight? And if I do, can I keep it together?"

Standup: straightarm push to opponent's right shoulder while snatching left shin (that's SHIN, not thigh or knee). Lift and dump.

Triangles from guard. I just don't use these, and while I'm excellent (in drilling) on one side, the other side is just not happening. OF COURSE, OF COURSE OF COURSE Prof Casey (whom I barely know and I doubt knows my name at all) walks over to look JUST AS I try it on the stupid side and make an idiot of myself. WHYWHYWHYWHYWHY????!!!???!!! Now I have made a stellar first impression on him as a purple belt who cannot execute a simple triangle in drill.

Cross chokes from guard, gripping the wad of gi at the back of the shoulder. My favorite.

Spars with a white belt guy and a blue belt girl. Was able to handle them both easily, although Blue made me work- she has lots of energy, flexibility, strength, and is in good shape. She kept beginning by pulling me into her guard, so after two or three of those, I made a point of pulling HER into MY guard instead. She seemed deficient on front mount escapes, so I showed her my favorite no-fail one and then skated around mounting her repeatedly and making her do it till she almost died of exhaustion.  Had one embarrassing moment where I KOB'ed her and she rolled the "wrong" way to escape. I was so surprised, and my balance was a little off, so she got me fair and square. It was a good reminder. Gracie Barra tends to be pretty formulatic, and I have really gotten used to "If I do A, he's going to do B." The only exceptions to that are the white and black belts, and I rarely work with white belts. When I do A and they do P instead, I need to not get caught flat footed. This is important as a defense-oriented MA'ist. I have to remember that if I get into a defensive situation, it is likely that the other guy will NOT be a trained grappler, and when I do A, I need to be ready for him to do P and R and UDK and aardvark and 74 instead of B.


Me: (setting up a keylock) "Don't let me do THIS again,"
Blue: (wailing) "HOW DO I STOP YOU??!?"


The white belt was newer. On him, I did my standard "This is KOB. I get points for this, so as soon as I do it to you, you need to turn toward me and shrimp out before I count to 3." And then skated around KOB'ing him repeatedly and making him do it till he almost died of exhaustion.

Both of them thanked me sincerely after, and said that they had learned a lot. I love that.

Besides making a point of teaching/drilling one thing (him, KOB escape; her, front mount escape) hard- which I make a point of telling them that I want them to retain and do to me next time- I feel that it's educational for the lower belts for me to tire them out to the point that they are reeling when we are done, and I'm not breathing hard. Of course probably THE most important thing they need to learn is "relax and breathe", and this is a good demo of what they are shooting for.

This did, however, leave me mulling a dilemma as I left. Is it helpful or not- on a purely selfish level- to make a point of going to Kirkland regularly so that I can work with lower-ranked people for a change?

Of course you learn things by teaching. And it's a thrill to have your techniques actually WORK for a change instead of getting shut down every time even if you're doing it right, just because the other person is six skill levels above you. But I wonder if my behemoth challenges- confidence and self esteem- would be boosted by doing this regularly, or would it be just a sop to my ego? I would love to find things that would genuinely boost my confidence and self-esteem, but I do not have time and energy to watse on band-aid ego sops.

I wonder if it would be helpful to come here to work on my weak bottom and sweep game with the white belts.

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.

He's asking for a roll in the hay.

Violence works. It is something that bad guys use to get what they want. When people look for the sources of violence or seek peace, this is the elephant in the room that everyone ignores. As long as violence works, some people will use it. -Rory Miller


Evening BJJ in Bellevue. Almost everybody was watching Amy win her MMA fight, so it was a very small class. It's been a long time since I've worked with anyone other than Chrisanne. I was hoping Peter would be there, but he was not.

One of the warmups that Doug had us do tonight was a logroll all the way down the mat with hands and feet both up off the mat. I looked at that and thought, "What's hard about that?" I did it really fast, twice (one direction and then the other). All was well until almost to the end of the 2nd run, and then quite abruptly I stared to feel nauseous. It was very odd. I have always done a ton of MA and dance and acrobatics and all sorts of stuff, and I have never had that issue. I guess I will limit the logrolls to once across the floor (half one way, half the other). Nausea persisted through class- mild but distracting. I had to skip the sparring, which sucked because I love to get a chance to spar with Doug.

From bottom half guard: Get the underhook, then go deep (get your face waaaaaaaaay down there to avoid being crossfaced out). Grab opponent's far foot and pass it to your other hand, behind hir butt. Underhook hir other knee. Rearrange your feet- CAREFULLY- you have to make sure you keep that foot trapped- so that you can roll onto your stomach and scissor your legs for the sweep. Go to side control around either side, you can keep the foot if you are able.

From bottom half guard: go for the kimura. (If opponent is sitting up, yank hir forward with your legs so that s/he has to post.) When s/he sticks hir hand in hir groin to defend the kimura, keep ahold of the wrist but use that over-the-shoulder hand to grab the back of hir belt or pants instead. Now loosen your legs just enough to make the opponent think s/he can pass. As s/he does, hoist hir overhead and to the side (like an upa). S/he ends on hir back, you can keep the arm and finish the kimura from the top. Or take top control, or armbar, or whatever (I was ending up in N/S, which was fine with me). Note that this takes about as much effort as wafting a feather. The opponent's own effort to pass lofts hir over. You are not using arm strength to heave hir, and you are also not dragging hir over your face. Doug does this to me ALL THE TIME, so it was nice to learn it. I will have to ask him for a defense. I hate finding myself being swept when I know exacly what's coming and can't stop it, but the alternative seems to be park there and allow yourself to be kimura'ed. There must be another option.

Doug likes to end his classes with a choke. This one was from closed guard. Pull opponent forward with your legs and do a double circular parry in front of your face so that as s/he posts, you whizzer one bicep. Clamp it nice and tight and grab hir opposite gi lapel with the same hand. Stick the thumb of your OTHER hand into the lapel just above your first grip. Slide it up to the back of hir collar, then whip the forearm over hir head and choke. This is a sublime choke. The guy was tapping almost immediately, and there was still miles of room left to add more pressure. When he did it to me, I noticed that because both hands are on the same side, I didn't immediately register it as an imminent threat. Also, once he started applying it, I held out for a bit thinking "It's fine... it's fine..." and then ALLOFASUDDEN there were the black roses blooming in front of my eyes. Once it was truly in position, it was damn quick.

All three of tonight's techniques begin with positions that I find myself in frequently but then get stalled in because I can't quite remember what to do. If at least one of them sticks and I can remember to try it live, I'll be very happy. In particular, my brain seems to have an extraodinarily difficult time retaining the mechanics of gi chokes- an area in which I would really like to expand my practical toolbox. I can't wait to try this one on Chrisanne.

Doug (as Hozier comes on the sound system): "This music has got to go."
Kitsune: "You don't like this one?"
Doug: "No... it sounds depressing. And I'm not sure what it's about."
Kitsune: "It's about sex. He's asking for a roll in the hay."
Doug: "Really?!?"

"She's tough!"

Perfect is the enemy of  good.  - Voltaire


Saturday competition training in Seattle.

Lord, this comp class wipes me out. I don't know how long I am going to be able to keep doing this. Usually I have to bail on the second hour- which I went in today determined to not do- but the cardio, at my age and carrying the ten extra pounds I'm currently carrying.... UUUUUUUURGGGGGGGGGGHHH.   I was whimpering as I climbed out of the car back at the Mount Index Daunless Outpost after class. Right now my thighs ache the way they usually do the morning after. Which means tomorrow morning is going to suuuuuuuuuuuuuck. But what a great week of training!

Chrisanne hasn't had a chance to work with Georgette yet, so I told her she could have first crack at asking Georgette to drill. She's like, "Oh my God, no, I'm just a blue belt... you go ahead..." so I went to the locker room and told Georgette that Chrisanne really wanted to drill with her but was too shy to ask.   ;)   I had been hoping that Z or (short) John would be there today, but none of my favorite men were there (unless you count Lindsey and Griff, whom I can't really ask to drill unless they offer). I also didn't want to shanghai Casey, because we had already used each other to warm up before class. Now that Pat is brown, I feel a little awkward asking him to drill an entire class with me unless he offers first. This put me with Emma, a white belt that I seem to recall working with once or twice before. She had weight on me as well as enough skill to match if not dominate me.

Standup- one lapel grip that you can't let go of; try to get a takedown. I couldn't get anything on Emma, who has very superb reaps and was also trying a few other things.

Standup to pulling half guard.

We were doing some rather complex multi-step drills, and it was a struggle to get all the steps.

Opponent has spider guard. You pull back, squat, and pass your left hand UNDER the leg to grip inside of pantleg. Step to the opposite side and stand/yank upright, then crouch so that hir thigh is trapped atop yours. S/he tries to roll away, you take the back. It flows really well *IF* you shove your right knee between the floor and hir waist just as s/he rolls- the momentum seems to sorta suck you right into the gap and there you are with your hooks and choke sunk.

Opponent has Del a Riva. You turn your right knee (the one s/he has trapped) to the outside. (This same detail was in one of the techniques Carlos did with us earlier this week, so THAT step at least was easy). Then kick that same leg in the opposite direction, and pass to that side. DO NOT LET GO OF THE PANTS during any of these passes, until you are well past and the position is secure- otherwise s/he will just roll away from you.

Lots of drill reps, interspersed with about a zillion more periods of takedown sparring, and some random positional sparring. All the takedown fighting, combined with the repetitive get-up-get-down of the half guard pulls, and all the get-up-get-down of those spider guard passes, had me reeling with exhaustion. I made a very poor account of myself against Emma, which was kind of embarrassing. I really notice how tired I get when we do drills that involve a lot of having to stand back up over and over, as opposed to drills where you just stay on the ground and roll/wiggle back into place after each rep.

I had wanted to get at least one roll with Georgette, but she had to go (which was probably just as well, since I'm not sure I had the energy left to fight off a newborn kitten at that juncture).  I sat a while (mainly because I was wishing someone would come along to carry me out to the car), then noticed Lindsey sitting on the mat with his back to me. So of course I had to take it.

He stuck his head right up into my favorite gi choke, but I still couldn't finish it on him. He explained that if I can crawl my guard up a little higher on his back and/or teepee my feet up a bit, I might be able to get that little bit extra enough to finish.

It was amusing to have both Chrisanne and Georgette come up to me separately afterward and say of one another, "She's tough!"

I am considering calling out Anica for the next Revolution- not because I'm ready to compete again or because I think I can beat her, but because having a comp on my schedule seems to be the only way I can reliably discipline myself to get my weight back down to normal. If Georgette competed, we could have a three-woman purple belt bracket between 120 and 140.

This got me thinking again about my defeatism problems and my utter lack of making any progress on them. I don't know what to do. I'm considering pinging Side Control (Dave) on FB and see if he has any advice. I don't really have any reason to think he has the answers to this issue, but I'm just not feeling comfortable discussing this with any of the other black belts right now for some reason. I can't really imagine any of them dealing with persistant and serious defeatist mindsets. Dave is at least near my age and he says he has a cruddy comp record at black, so maybe he would at least be able to relate a little easier than some of these BJJ machines.

Cancellation.... and some TMI

I don’t think conflict is a physical problem most of the time, and even when it is a physical problem, there are minds and social rules and the world involved. The more of those elements you can manipulate skillfully, the better off you are. Sometimes you play the cards, sometimes you play the person and sometimes you play the table. –Rory Miller


Well shazbot- Amanda's a no-show. There are no other female purple belts registered. My gi bracket is cancelled.

Evening BJJ in Kirkland. I'm giving myself points for effort, but it really just does not work to try to do MA classes the day after working a graveyard shift. I took a Nyquil and did get a few hours of sleep, but it was just not enough. I felt like something on the bottom of someone's shoe.

Unfortunate timing of hormonal cycles means that this week- today in particular- I have felt as if I had two gigantic, swollen, painful pumpkins sitting on my chest. It seems as if they are taking up the entire room. It hurts just standing still, nevermind being squooshed beneath Izzy's excellent top pressure. (Sorry for the TMI, men... but you should take this moment to thank the patriarchal deity of your choice that you don't have this crap to deal with, because it's terrible.) I really hope I make weight, because another unlovely aspect of this time interval is randomly gaining a few extra pounds of water retention overnight.

Same keylock/armbar/kimura sequence as Monday. For some reason I had the idea that the kimura wants a 90 degree elbow. When you're doing it flat on the mat, the arm actually can/does go almost straight by the time you start pulling up on the elbow. Cindy notes that I am being sloppy about making sure the opponent's wrist is pasted to the mat throughout. Also, she recommends "monkey grip" (ie, no thumb).  I feel insecure with this grip, but I can't get a decent grip on 99% of people with the normal grip (their wrists are too big around) so I guess I have nothing to lose.

Flow drill: side control, keylock, backsit with good "kickstand", front mount, dismount with backsit (mind your kickstand again), side control, keylock, wash, rinse, repeat.

This was cool: From side control, isolate the near arm with your elbow and thigh. Sneak your own gi tail into the hand nearest opponent's feet. Feed it over opponent's chest and beside hir neck and grab it with the hand behind hir head. Palm down. Bonus points if you can keep the tail hidden under your cupped hand and/or dig into your opponent's face to obscure the fact that you're sneaking it in there.

Now: Give a little tug to snug it up. Mind that your arm around opponent's head is snug enough that s/he can't pop hir head out. Now lean away, toward hir feet, making an X shape. Don't worry about that near arm now, it doesn't matter. Place forehead to mat beside hir hip (if you even get that far).

A little positional sparring from side control. I was not doing well against Izzy, and feeling more and more exhausted. I had really, really wanted to ask her and Dave to roll with me afterward (no-gi), but I was just limp.

More asymmetrical than ever

Martial arts are one among the many means to come in contact with our perceptive potential. During the practice of martial arts, we go back to a primordial simplicity. No need of drugs, objects, or external substances to help us. We are left alone with our bodies. We don’t have to wait for things to happen, we make them happen. It is like Zen archery or like climbing mountains: we use the body as a takeoff runway for inner skies.   -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

127

Tuesday lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue.  It was pretty amusing to see all the tape and Advil getting passed around before class, among those who are doing the evening training camps.

Standup: opponent throws cross jab. You throw up "Black Crane" type elbow shield and change level. Scoot in and try to get an elbow strike to opponent's ribs. Then grab for double-leg takedown. Opponent defends by spinning out and grabbing headlock. You grab behind knee and around waist and take down. Now: same headlock escape and armbar as yesterday. Today we grabbed the pants as we sat back for the armbar.

I had some issues with the way that this differed from what we did yesterday. I didn't like the reaction to the headlock not involving fighting the neck hold at all. I can see that if you take the guy down, most of the danger is past- but if that headlock is on well and good, I'm concerned that he might break my neck or choke me out or otherwise put the screws to me before I can take him down.

Asymmetrical choke, again. I actually got praise for this by Carlos.

King Of The Hill from top side control and then bottom side control. I got really destroyed by everybody today in KOTH. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to get destroyed by Otavio Sousa. Maybe another morning.

Asymmetrical chokes

What’s your opponent’s strength? What will he be relying on? Deny him that. While remembering that, if he’s good, he knows you’re going to try to deny him that, and will be devising ways to prevent you from denying him that- while trying to deny you your strengths too. -Campfire Tales From Hell



129

Lunchtime BJJ Kirkland.

Standing headlock. Fight the arm at your throat while turning your face into enemy's ribs. Do not turn face toward crook of elbow.

Place free arm about hir waist. Swing your leg back and go to one knee to put the party on the ground. Side control. If s/he clings to the headlock, grab your own wrist and post on hir face while you posture up to pry it off. Note that to use the full strength of both arms, you want to use the hand on top to clasp the wrist on bottom.  Note also that if you are a tiny Kitsune, this may not be sufficient against a behemoth and you may have to resort to some squirming and twisting to pop your head out.

Side control flow drills. SC with gable grip, backsit, front mount, dismount, SC. Rinse, repeat.

Same, only no gable grip- elbow in the ear and opposite hand controlling the hip nearest you.

Asymmetrical choke. Side control with your arm under opponent's head. Grip gi at far shoulder. I found an ouside grip better- ie, I tended to get too bound up if I tried to grip in the lapel. But you have to be able to keep hir down, so do what you need to do. The arm nearest opponent's feet, push that under and across your own chest until you can grip behind the collar. Now flip your first forearm over hir face and choke with forearm. You need to make sure you dig in well under that jawbone, because s/he is going to be straining hir chin down as soon as s/he realizes what you're doing.
Some positional sparring from side control.

A roll with the new guy (I think he's another "John"- I need to retain his name, because he's a really nice guy. He uses a lot of muscle, but he is aware of it and chagrined by it. He's very polite. He seems to be having a lot of fun. I hope he stays.) and one with Cindy (no-gi, with copious standup). Almost got a tomoe nage on the new guy- it wasn't very clean and I couldn't get on top after, but I did manage to loft him over. Too bad- it only works on each new person once, so I blew it!

It was much fun to watch Cindy rolling with the new guy, while I heckled from the sidelines.

The tangled web we weave

Stacking: a skilled fighter will use many things in combination. Strikes and gouges can both set up a throw and do damage during the execution. You can lock a limb while sweeping a leg. You can use a lock to slam the threat into a corner or over a coffee table. It’s all good. –Rory Miller





Fri: 128.   Okay, so maybe it's a LITTLE funny.


Friday evening BJJ in Bellevue.

Standup: Judo grips. Push and pull back and forth a few times to make foe step back and forth. Then as s/he is stepping forward with the foot on your elbow-grip side, pull DOWN with the elbow grip and UP with the lapel grip as you use your same-side foot to sweep opponent's ankle between the two of you. You want to do this very suddenly, after s/he has committed hir weight to the step but before hir foot is down.  (Note: stupid side is phenomenally stupid.)

Now: Top side control. Use knee to isolate the arm. Go for KOB, but it's a trap!!!!!! As opponent puts hand on your knee, you pin it to hir belt. That knee you have on hir belly, stretch it all the way behind you and then sweep it in a huge glorious circle around to stick your foot behind opponent's neck. You are going OVER TOP of hir arm. As you put your foot behind the neck, grab your own ankle with the other hand.

(Note: as you do this sweeping circular motion, you can also yank the opponent's head and shoulders up a bit to make it easier to stuff your foot in there. If s/he has turned toward you a little in order to try to shrimp out from under your KOB, this will also make your life easier. Thank you very much.)

Now roll. DO NOT LET GO OF YOUR ANKLE!!!! Place your other foot on opponent's hip. Opponent is probably helping you at this juncture because s/he has now realized your dastardly plot, and is trying to get postured to defend the triangle.

As long as you have kept that ankle, you ought to be able to complete your adjustments in a leisurely fashion. 

You can also finish the triangle without rolling if you wish.

Opponent is in turtle, you sprawled on top N/S. Place left arm against the left side of hir head and scoot to that side. As you are sinking the crossface, go ahead and secure a grip on hir OPPOSITE bicep.

Now reach under hir with your free arm and hug both hir biceps. Pull hir arms towards you and dump hir on the mat on hir back. If you stay nice and tight, and focus on placing your kneeling thigh under hir biceps, you can keep those arms trapped- which is a great position from which to do all sorts of mischief to bring about a finish.

Finally: gi choke from closed guard. Break opponent's posture and grips and lock hir right bicep under your left armpit. Linger there at smooching distance while you get the fingers of that same hand into hir opposite lapel (you can use your other hand to feed it if you need to). Don't tighten it up to the point that you don't have enough slack for the next step: stick the thumb of your right hand into the back of the collar right at the tag. Now whip your forearm over hir head and choke.

One roll with Daniel, one with Ron, one with the visiting black belt.

Ron seemed to be doing some catch and release, to the point where I was like, "Come on, finish your subs. Tap me, dammit. I'm competing next week." He replied, "I'm ALWAYS trying to tap you, Kitsune."  He was also doing a lot of inverted guard. I sprawled heavy on his face (sorry Ron) and used his gi tails to wrap up his shoulders and neck. I did not have a cohesive plan with that- my brain isn't that geometrically clever- but I did manage to get him so tied up that he found himself unable to transition into any of the nasty little tricks that he likes to set up from inverted guard. As we panted there with our faces about two millimeters apart, and I watched him try to move one way and then the other while dismay began to creep into his eyes, I whispered, "Oh, the tangled webs we weave."

So after two ten-minute rolls with Daniel and Ron that were tons of fun, Doug goes to put Mario with the visiting black belt, and Carlos stops him. "He's been training hard all day. Geef heem a break. Let heem go weeth Keetsune."

I couldn't decide whether to be insulted or not. On the one hand: Sparring me is apparently considered a "break" or at least markedly less work than sparring Mario, who is the same rank (taller and heavier, but it's not like he's a grizzly or anything). On the other hand, since Carlos is the one who is ranking me, one would think he wouldn't want me to roll with his buddy if he thinks said buddy will pull him aside after class and ask him, "Dude, what kind of bad acid trip were you on when you gave that chick a purple belt????"

So anyway, I fight the visiting black belt- who is a smaller-size guy and turned out to be great fun. He was letting me work some- even let me have a choke tap. I seemed to be rolling pretty well, and I got the sense that he didn't think I sucked. He also gave me a split lip, but it was well worth it.

It was a fun night of training.

Public service message: Paul Thomas Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing MMA school (Katy, Texas) has indicated that Nick Schultz (the guy who raped a teammate at TLI and left her semiconscious on a cement parking lot in the middle of a winter night) is welcome to come back and train there (he has trained at Paul Thomas before). Please help spread the word that Paul Thomas Jiu Jitsu Kickboxing MMA welcomes dangerous and immoral asswipes onto its mats to troll for their next victims among its students and their families.  Please also indulge me as I will be using this blog on an ongoing basis to publicize schools and sponsors who support rapists. We need to get this out into the light where everyone can see.

Ego games

Most people are not beaten. They give up. –Rory Miller


Mon: 128.5

I know I *could* get down to 124 before the Revolution, but I'm starting to think I just don't currently feel like dealing with the level of deprivation it's going to take.

Casey, on Facebook: Ben, you think life is only 1/2 guard!!!!!
Kitsune: When you roll with Ben, your life is 1/2 guard whether you like it or not.
Aussie Dave: At least it can be deep.

Today I got my ass kicked by some brand new white belts.... and I am currently feeling fairly mentally/emotionally healthy about it.

As a blue belt, this occurance tended to invoke one of two reactions: steam-shooting-out-of-ears frustration or black-hole despair; both accompanied by a running mental commentary about how epically I suck and how that will never change no matter what I do. I didn't feel worthy to step on the mat or breathe the air in the school.

Today- at one-stripe purple when I might be expected to feel *more* pressure to avoid getting ass-kicked by new white belts- I am feeling "Okay, so I got ass-kicked by white belts. It happens sometimes. We all cool."

I suspect part of my newfound maturity has to do with the fact that the white belts in question were polite and respectful, and didn't act like dicks either during or after the ass-kickings.

Interestingly, what bothered me more was when Casey performed demos with- not me as the senior student in the room- but some of the more junior guys. I'm fairly sanguine about that when Carlos does it, because he's about eight times as tall as I am and it's just clownish for him to do demos with me. When other teachers pass me over for less senior students, it still presses restimulating buttons- although I am able to clearly recognize the reaction as such.

Standup: foes throws haymaker. You step in and use both open hands to block bicep. Overwrap same-side arm over foe's attacking shoulder. Shuffle quickly to stand against hir ribs on OPPOSITE side as you hug that arm around hir waist. Step near foot in front of hir, squat, load, hip throw. Keep the arm. KOB. Figure 4 armbar.

Cross-collar chokes from closed guard.

Gi choke from guard: right cross-collar deep grip, open guard, foot on foe's hip on the same side that you have the grip. Turn body. Get handful of gi on back of opponent's shoulder. Square up and choke. This is one of my favorite subs, and very successful on white belts, although anyone I've ever rolled with more than once knows better than to stick their head up for it. I don't do the body turn, though. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It seems like opening my guard gives the opponent more chance to escape- although doing it this way might make hir less likely to recognize what I'm doing so readily.

Ezekiel from closed guard: Hug opponent to your chest, right arm right around hir neck. Use right hand to grab inside left sleeve cuff, FINGERS IN. Slip left blade hand under foe's chin with little finger side against throat. Pull choke and straighten legs to help it along. This choke is one that I haven't quite solidified enough to include in my game yet, but I love it, so I hope it will gel this time. I think it might be good for my small hands.

A little positional sparring from closed guard- sweep vs keep from being swept- and a couple of short spars. This is where I got my ass kicked by brand new white belts. Still doing relatively okay with it.

I wanted to ask Casey to roll a little no-gi with me after class, but he was busy answering questions from one of the new guys and it looked like he would be a while, so I took my leave.

Return of Terry

 We can choose to step out and avoid everything painful, but that is a form of soul loss and only will make the journey longer and more difficult. - Tasara



Walked to work and back. I wasn't working today, but I had two little biopsies done. I am corpse-pale and heavily freckled, so melanoma loves people like me. Folks, do not wait to have any funky-looking mark checked out. Things to watch for: asymmetrical borders, a variance of colors in the same mark, bigger than a pencil eraser, and a spot that changes appearance over time. You do not need to see all 4 of these to start worrying. You don't even need one- anything that looks the slightest bit odd, have it looked at. Now, not later. Melanoma can be very deadly and fast-moving. Don't forget that you can also have odd marks on your back, scalp or other places that you can't see for yourself. Okay, that's my public service health care message for the day.


Friday evening open mat at Kirkland. No Lamont, to my disappointment. No Shannon, either. Apparently she injured her shoulder. But Terry was there! He brought his girlfriend Chelsea, who is a white belt. We also had Wei, blue-belt Lindsey, and Casey. I got to roll with everybody except Cindy today.

Terry- constantly moving; he makes me tired just watching. "What the hell do you eat to be like this?" "Gluten-free, lots of coffee." I was on the bottom constantly, but I tried to keep moving, because he gives me a bunch of shit if I Clench-N-Cling.

Wei- always a challenge, but I feel like I held my own with him a little better than I usually do.

Casey- I asked him to deep-half me, and I had some semi-successful practice at both defending it in the first place as well as trying to respond to it in ways that DIDN'T involve conceding the sweep and dropping back on my kiester. He showed me a baseball bat variant using the gi tail to wrap-n-trap the far arm. He had me KOB him weirdly high up on his chest- the idea being to bait the person to push your knee with the free hand, whereupon you pin it down with your leg and then choke the snot out of them. Forehead to the mat beside opponent's hip.

It's a bad day to be wearing canvas pajamas.

Even sickness and bad luck run away from tigers.  –Barry Hughart


I felt up to tackling BJJ today, although I thought it wise to attempt only one class. Evening in Bothell. Man, was it ever hot. When you're sweating before the warmups even start, you know you're gonna be shedding some water weight today.

Sit-up sweep from guard. Major point for me today: foot placement. Get that extraneous foot out of the way; plant the other one with commitment.

Kimura from guard. Major point for me today- pay attention to pressing opponent's shoulder down.
Cross collar choke from guard. Major point for me today: "Fluff" the collar, don't haul down on the lapel so that you prevent yourself from getting your hand in there.

Griff brought over a bunch of guys (and one girl) from the Edmonds pod for us to beat up and get beaten up by. Note that if I ever spar Megan again: she has infruriatingly flexible shoulders. Armbars and keylocks are possible, but she's gonna make you work for them. I didn't even attempt a kimura. You have to choke this lady.

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.
-------------------------------
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. ;)

The new girl teaches

It is time for an athletic philosophy; a philosophy forged through muscles and heart, a philosophy born out of the union of body and mind, of pragmatism and utopia, of sweet sensitivity and a warrior's determination. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Wednesday lunchtime BJJ, GB Seattle. A 4th serving of the back mount to bow and arrow. Dessert: If the person you're B&A'ing paws at your arm with their matward arm, ignore it. If they paw at you with the upper arm, ARMBAR CITY.

Note that if the person is riding too low in your back mount, the center of gravity is misaligned and you can't get them over on their side. When you switch your base, it is vital to make sure that your knee is in front of their knee ("in front" meaning closer to the opponent's head).  

Positional training from back mount. To try to be a good partner to Angela, I attempted to do something different with each restart. However, eventually she had tapped me enough times that I ran out of stuff to try. I also had to tap once to the face-squash. I tapped verbally, and then kept tapping verbally about six or seven more times, because she couldn't stop the remainder of her body from sliding over my face.

One roll with Casey and one with Ed. Casey wasn't going to roll at all, because he has 2 injured shoulders, but Carlos suggested me. I like being the safe partner that you can roll with if you're injured.

Ed: I suggested that we start from standup. Very swiftly, there was a sole on my shin and then somehow I was lying on the mat. He says, "Oh, did you know I'm a Judo black belt?" Uh, no, I didn't, but now I'll ask you to work standup more often because now I'm sure you're quite safe. Although this means *I* will never get a throw. Oh well. Defense always needs practice.
----------------
Wednesday evening BJJ, GB Bothell. A 4-stripe white guy forgot his belt. I informed him that if he lost his belt, he had to start back at the very beginning. Then Cindy realized that she had left her belt at the Seattle school. It'll take her a long time if she has to start back at the beginning!

Kitsune: "If someone new comes in tonight, we'll just say that we're having the new girl teach tonight."
Cindy: "Just as long as you guys still take me seriously."
K: "We'll take you just as seriously as we ever do."
C: "Thanks a lot."
K: "I love you Cindy!"

Armbar from guard, with opponent putting one knee up for you to underhook. Finish either before or after you lay hir down.

Sprawled on turtle, to back mount, to Bow and Arrow (Gawd, AGAIN.... I'm doing this in my sleep). This time, so not do the S-mount- just turn the body so that you are perpendicular.

Also, back mount to clock choke; and failed clock choke to the one where you catch the arm and then choke with your hand behind the guy's head.

Got to drill some with Cindy and some with Vince. I have been very fortunate in great partners lately.

A little positional sparring from back mount.

Spars- not doing all that great tonight, but I was pretty tired.

Vince had the double-sticks guys (who have class right after us on Wednesdays) do a little demo for us. It was way cool. After they had done at it for a while and somehow did not break either of their heads open like melons, someone asked, "So how long does it take to learn how to do it like THAT?" Teacher (straight-faced): "Two lessons."  Haha.

-------------------
Disguise: I think I'm going to end up using soot along with millet flour; I'll need to have them mix something in the flour to make it stick better. Blood may also be involved, either intentionally or accidentally.

Antlers: I think I am going to have to try to procure some smaller ones. I'm not happy about it, because I've done a lot of online shopping, and the selection and sources for small sizes is kind of sucking.

....and still more back mount

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.
-Karl Popper


Monday lunchtime BJJ, GB Seattle.

You are sprawled N/S on opponent's turtle. Cross your arm over your own chest and place your forearm against the side of opponent's neck before scooting around (keep your weight down on hir).  Get double-under lapel grips.

Switch your base so that you are sitting on the thigh FURTHEST from the opponent. Pull hir into your back mount. Be sure to get both hooks in.

With right arm, reach OVER opponent's shoulder and grab opposite lapel. With other hand, grab hir pantleg.

Lie down on your side (away from pantleg grip) and kick your matward leg back. If you can now get upright (I struggled a bit with that part), you are in S mount. Be sure to cinch the front shin right up against your opponent's chest, and your back leg right up against hir shoulderblades.

!!!!!!DO NOT LET GO OF THE PANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do not lie down on your back! Remain upright, posture up for bow-and-arrow.

Aside from my perpetual driving need to let go of pants, and my difficulty getting upright to S-mount (you really have to do everything quickly and utilize the momentum from the lie-down-and-kick.... step by step ain't gettin' 'er done on this one), my challenge here is another familiar one: when I try to pull people into my back mount, I have a tendency to roll onto my back. I have troubleshot this issue before, but could not immediately recall the solution. So I adjusted a few things and experimented a little, and I'm actually pretty pleased that I was soon able to figure out what I needed to do. When switching base, I needed to plant myself further away from my opponent than would seem proper. Also, a little further up on hir body (closer to the head).

Seemingly endless dreels, then positional sparring starting from the double-under lapel grip hanging off the side of the turtle. Angela was laughing at me and seeming to have a lot of fun today. She said I was "fiesty" and that she likes it.

I tried to sit out the first roll of open mat to catch my breath, but Carlos was having none of that and told me to get on the mat. Cindy was egging him on. This is a downside of having Cindy back at GB; now she and Carlos can collude against me and gang up on me.

I rolled with Z, whom I wish would show up more often- he is just my size and has all sorts of cool sneaky tricks. He tapped me a few times; I got one choke sunk in that felt right, but I couldn't get him to tap (he said nothing was wrong with it, he was just being stubborn).

Then one with Bryan. Once again, I found myself with my arm crossed over my own chest. "Keep doing that," I told him, "Until I learn." Then I went and did it to *myself* while I was trying to turn my body under his mount, and didn't even notice it for a while.

Friday evening in Bothell

We are stuck within a system that gives all the power to the mind, and just the leftovers to the body. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




Friday evening BJJ at GB Bothell.

Worked with a few of the older white belt guys tonight, and they seem nice. There's also a very good blue belt from Edmonds. He did an interesting gi-tail choke on me twice in a row. I said, "Keep doing that until I figure out how to defend it." He did it to me again, and I still can't even see it coming. Once you're in it, turning either way tightens it more, so you're hosed. Note: next time I spar that guy, ask him to keep doing that choke on me.

Review of stuff from the week: armbar from mount (note that you don't *have* to hold the arm as I tend to do; you can post both hands on the chest and as long as you quickly plant your crotch on the guy's shoulder, he can't pull the arm out), keylock from mount,  Failed keylock transition to armbar, Front mount to back mount with choke, Cross collar gi choke from mount, Cross collar gi choke with the 2nd hand on the outside of the gi shoulder. Note that if you put your forehead on the mat for those cross collar chokes, it is supposed to go on the same side that your uppermost arm is.

Spars. I had told everybody that I have a minor rib injury and to not go too heavy. Everybody was fine. Eric still being really muscley, but I don't expect that to improve for a while. At one point we had about 20 seconds left on the clock when we reset from a spar, and after the clap-and-bump he lunged and hit me like a speeding freight train. It hurt a bit, but it was also so over-the-top that I spent the last bit of time trying to defend while laughing my butt off. 

Cindy and I were teasing each other a lot tonight, which is fun, but I need to be mindful to not go too far- because I know she's trying to maintain at least some of the more formal decorum of Gracie Barra Land. I guess I could come off as sounding disrespectful to people who don't know us, and I certainly don't want that. For some reason, when it's largely over-forties on the mat, it seems okay to me to loosen up more. 

Also note: at Sleeper, Jalen and Terry usually cleaned the mats. Here, with the present crew, I need to remember that if I walk out without helping to clean the mats, I'm being kind of a jerk.

This was a very good couple days of hard training, Five classes in two days. Now I am sore, tired, and bruised from head to toe, but it was good stuff.

You want to watch this. It's adorable and funny. Have the sound up.

 

Cross collar chokes from mount

The road to hell is paved with adverbs. To put it another way, they're like dandelions. If you have one on your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day... fifty the day after that… and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is TOTALLY, COMPLETELY and PROFLIGATELY covered with dandelions. -Stephen King


My ineffectual rolls on Friday night were interspered with enough frustrated fruitless straining that I twinged not only my old right-upper-rear rib injury, but a twin on the other side. It's not that bad, just a dull ache, and it's difficult to find a comfy sleeping position. That right upper rear thing is going to be with me till death, I think. There must be a big honkin' knot of scar tissue in there. It feels like lying on a lead tennis ball at night.

Lunchtime BJJ, GB Belle.  Many of our teachers and coaches are away for Pans all week, so Aussie Dave was coaching.

Cross collar choke from mount. It is easier to take a low lapel grip and then slide it up. Sauleh suggests a Leopard Fist (he didn't call it that, but that's what it was) lying on the guy's ribs, the sliding up under the lapel. If you're having trouble getting it all the way up there, brace your elbow on your belly and lean forward to use your weight to force it in there. (Sauleh is a small guy... these little tricks are part of the reason I'm totally annoyed that he won't work with me. But I guess verbal instruction is better than nothing.) Press your elbow to the opponent's breastbone. Post with your other hand, on the same side of the guy's head. Slowly crawl your posting hand to the other side, watching your balance. Use your elbow to press the opponent's face so that s/he's looking at your first grip. Now you have room to insert the second grip. The second hand goes in thumb inside, palm down. If you can't get it in there, you may still be able to finish by grabbing a handful of gi at hir shoulder (my most high-percentage choke), or even just the shoulder itself- If you can keep hir head and shoulder pinned, you can make it happen with the pressure from the first grip hand.

More options: try to slide your knee up so that it's under the shoulder blade on the side that you have the first grip. Leave the second leg where it is, or use S mount. Now, if s/he tries to bridge away from you, s/he is handing you the armbar. If s/he tries to bridge into you, s/he is exposing more neck for you to slide that 2nd choke grip in.

I was drilling with Donkey Kong. He has 4 stripes now. Still having a little trouble being a good partner. He said all the right things, went too gentle at first, then when I reassured him, he overcorrected and started going too hard. 

The higher my rank climbs, the more I find myself feeling some kind of responsibility to attempt to retrain people who don't know how to be a good partner. When I was a stale white and fresh blue, I just said to myelf, "I'm simply going to avoid working with white belts below three stripes, and also this list of rough guys above that rank," Now I think, "What if this guy ends up rolling with Crisanne or Lindsey and injuring one of them.... I ought to roll with him and try to get him housebroken before he kills somebody who is more fragile than me." 

I'm also finding that the brand-newbies are usually easier to train. Once they get three or four stripes on their white belts, they think they know everything. If a guy makes it to blue and is still being an asshole partner, it's very hard to fix him after that point (witness Hostility Boy).

There is a cadre of high whites/low blues at Bellevue that were working with me almost from their first week, and they really know how to drill and roll appropriately with a smaller person without being buttholes. The better partner you are, the better for your own progress as well as the safety and progress of everyone around you.

King Of the hill from front mount. Sucking on the bottom, although I can fend off the choke for a while. A bit better on top, although still can't reliably finish the choke, and armbar is worse (the guys bicep-curl right out of it). Still getting reversed too easily and too often, although having some limited sporatic success with S-mount.

"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).