Compact pendulum sweeps

Danger arises when people think in only two mindsets, conversation or combat. When one side is trying to deny that they are in a dangerous situation and are trying to talk their way out of it, the other side has made a choice on some level to do violence and is merely looking for an opening.  –Campfire Tales From Hell


Friday evening BJJ in Bellevue. Hot enough to fry an egg on the mat.

Grab-the-ankles sweep. Carlos scootched his hips right between his opponent's feet and used his feet on the opponent's hipbones. I tend to roll up almost onto my neck and use my knees, so it's good to keep in mind that there are other options.

Pendulum sweep. Instead of pinning opponent's arm across hir chest, we just pressed the elbow in with one palm. Tonight we were also hipping out much less than I tend to do, and using the bottom leg to shove much less than I tend to do. It looked very compact and effortless when Carlos did it. Didn't seem like it should work. But of course it did.

Opponent is in your guard with tight hold on your belt, elbows tucked. Grab hir wrist (same side) and hip up violently to make a space to slide your other hand underneath to grab your own wrist. Now you can push up and beak the grip. Yank opponent's arm across hir chest and hip out. Do not stick your far leg bewteen hir knees- this time we kept that far leg on the outside while hipping out quite a lot, then pulling opponent into back mount. Don't forget to trap the wrist once you have back mount.

I really wanted to spar, but it was just too hot.

Had a good online conversation with an artistic friend- music, books, writing. It's always stimulating to talk to other creative people.

Cliff Keene to the rescue

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


Friday evening, Bothell.

Pendulum sweep from guard, tripod sweep, arm drag from closed guard to squirt out the side and take the back.

Note the detail of grasping your own wrist to help wrench opponent’s grip off.

Although tripod sweep intrigues me, I’ve had difficulty with it in the past due to 1)the number of steps, 2)the grip changes, and 3)the fact that you have to use all 4 limbs at once doing 4 different things. This time it seemed somewhat more manageable. I hope that after it cycles through the curriculum a few more times, I might start to feel comfortable with it!

Worked with the white belt woman again. She is a feisty little thing! I had to remind her to not dig her nails in, to not bend my fingers back, and the difference between positional sparring (resistance) and drills (no resistance).  He h heh. She has a great grasp of some of the basics like shrimping, maneuvering her hips around, and jamming those knees in there. She is going to be very good if she sticks with it.

I was not able to complete the pendulum sweep when she resisted. At first I cranked at it, thinking I could/should simply bull her over…. If she weighs 120, I’m Beyonce. I couldn’t do it. That was a little frustrating, yet one could view it as, “If I can’t bull HER over, I should be able to resist such that other people can’t bull ME over.”

Somebody’s kid fell asleep in the lobby. When Cindy remarked on him, I suggested that maybe Will had sneaked out there and choked him out when none of us were watching.  ;)

I didn’t stay for sparring, as I had a pre-dawn work alarm set for morning.
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Turtle Drum. Parking in Ballard at night has become a nightmare in the last few months. I was on time, but had to drive around for 20 min trying to find somewhere to park. Like last month, ended up walking a good ten blocks. Left most of my paraphernalia in the car, since I was already barging in late.

Double guiro, egg shaker, Tiala (doumbek). Bells. Chanting. Everybody wanted to chant tonight, including several men, which was really nice. In most circumstances, the men are more shy about singing- which is a shame. It sounded incredible.

Kung Fu dancing- Black Crane (Black Crane 1) and White Crane (Walking the Path).
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The new antlers are here. Less awesome-looking, yet lighter and more manageable. I'm such a moron. I don't know why I didn't think of this before. But after half an afternoon of dorking around with coated wire, headbands and duct tape, it occurred to me to get out my old pair of Cliff Keene "Tornado" headgear. Strapped that baby on, wrapped the throat strap UNDER my hair at the nape of my neck and velcroed it there, wedged the antlers under the head-crown straps. Almost good enough placement- and almost stable enough- to wear just like that. Hallelujia. Needs some additional monkeying around... it would be really nice to completely remove the plastic ear cups, if that is possible... and it's going to take some creativity to camouflage.... but I think this is going to work.