"Don't tell the ESL guy that!"

Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face.” –Mike Tyson


Friday evening women's class in Bellevue.  It's a little awkward to have this new women's class right before Friday night class, as I love Friday night class and it's going to be nearly impossible to do both back to back. I just don't have the stamina/cardio unless I phone one of them in, and I can't do that because it's cheating may partner. Unless maybe I have a really really REALLY new white belt for the first class.

Tonight that was NOT happening. We had an odd number of people, and so I drew Professor Doug. So much for phoning it in! I was like, "Okay, shoulder to the boulder now,"  He did a few reps but let me have most of the drilling, and we were moving at a fairly good clip. I was quite exhausted by the end.

Standup- choke from behind. Pull down on forearm and get chin down. step to the side while shoving elbow up. Shuck the elbow over your head and secure opponent's arm in a figure 4 (snug up really close or s/hell wiggle out). This was difficult for me on the stupid side.
Knee to face, then take down and armbar.

Pull guard from standing, then situp sweep. By the end-of-class drill reps, my abs were howling for mercy and I had to reprimand Doug twice for rolling over for me instead of MAKING me do the technique correctly, even when I was struggling.

Standup, judo grips. Yank foe toward you with the lapel grip and try to reap the leg. Bad guy steps out. Pick the other leg. At first I was anxious about getting kneed in the face while leaning over to pick that second leg, but Doug proved that *if* you get the person off balance enough first, they are too busy trying to stand on that leg to be able to life it up and knee your face.

A little QOTH (Queen Of the Hill), pass guard vs sweep.

Prof. Carlos started out by calling us "women" but then switched to "girls" on Doug's advice. (sigh)

Me: Don't tell the ESL guy that!
Doug: (puzzled expression)
Me: Tell him to call us women! Anybody over 12 should be "woman" not "girl".
Doug: (pointing at the single pubescent girl in the group) What about her?
Me: Since she's in a group of adult women, just include her in "women", don't single her out and make her feel weird.

In the locker room after, one of the white belt WOMEN was talking about how I had instructed her to relax and breathe during the QOTH, and another one exclaimed, "Oh yeah, you told me that same thing two weeks ago!!" Then another one started talking about how she was afraid to spar because she felt like she did not know what she was doing, and the whole roomful looked at me like I knew something, LOL.

I told them that I had gone a really really long time just drilling before trying to spar, because I felt the same way, and it was okay. That they just needed to work with the right people, and I could point out which men were careful and helpful. "NO WHITE BELT MEN."

Me: (In private message):
Doug was teasing you, Professor! You should call your women's class "women" and not "girls"!
If it is an informal situation or people you know well, it doesn't matter as much. If you are talking to me and Chrisanne in the lobby and you call us "girls", we won't be mad. But on the mat where we try to be a little more formal, and with new students you don't know well enough yet to consider them friends, it's polite to call any female over 12 "women" and not girls. Sometimes calling them girls makes it sound bad, like calling a class of men "little boys".

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.