Is she going to let me have a choke??!?!!

Often, the obsession for being fair and objective under all circumstances transforms our mind into a tribunal. We want tangible proofs and objective evidence to believe in what we already know. Unfortunately, intuition is not objective and offers no proofs. It travels on tracks that are much too fast to wait for the painfully slow speed at which logical analysis moves. Rational understanding arrives at the finish line hours later (if it arrives at all), only to confirm what intuition has already revealed to us. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path




I skipped Saturday "basics" class in favor of coming in an hour later for "comp" class, since Carlos typically whips us into such a froth in the first hour that I run out of gas and can't do the second, and lately Cindy has been coming in for the second.... so I miss her.

I was kind of wistful watching everyone busting a dire move for the last 10 min of Basics.... but it appears I'm not alone in feeling that the double dip is rough, as only about a dozen hardy souls stuck around for comp class.

All sparring. Some 4-stripe white belt guy that I don't know, Ian, Pat, Prof Dave. Felt competent but not stellar. I'm happy with "competant", considering the caliber of Ian/Pat/Dave.

Then I rolled no-gi with Cindy for a while, and worked the Livestock takedown (which I am ***STILL*** not doing right, Gods help me. I don't know how she maintains her patience with me. It must be like trying to teach a pig to sing.)

One hilarious interlude..... at one point I found myself behind her shoulder and my forearm clamping across her throat. I had about six incredulous seconds of thinking, "What the FUCK??!!?? Is she going to let me have a choke??!?!!" I have never tapped Cindy, or gotten a dominant position that she didn't gift to me, or held said dominant position for more than about three seconds. If you told me I needed to either tap Cindy Hales or fly to the moon, I'd be hopping around and flapping, because believe me my chances are better there. I was stupefied with shock. Then it suddenly came to light that Rodrigo was talking at her from the sidelines and she had paused to converse with him, only I didn't notice we were pausing. She then accused me of cheating, and I responded that Rodrigo and I had plotted out that whole double-cross before she arrived.

"You're Kanye"

Amateurs ask, “Could I take him?” Professionals ask, “How would I take him?” Campfire Tales From Hell 


There will be a Northwest Grapplethon at Gracie Barra EdmondsDec 6 and 7, to fundraise for victims of the Philippines storm.  You can sponsor me!     https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/adiC8
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Kelly sent me the vids of my matches. The only thing she missed was my sweet takedown (!) There wasn't much to see. Me on the floor and the other ladies riding me like a hobbyhorse.

I said to Kelly:
"As usual, I need to learn how to get the hell out of bottom half guard. Both of those girls were REALLY strong and had mucho face pressure on the whole time, which was making it really hard to do anything. But I have to start taking risks and trying to scramble near the end, because I have nothing to lose, even if if opens me up to subs. I knew they'd been on top the whole time and were surely up on points.

It's hard to shift from thinking "survival" (ie, don't get subbed) to "competition" (ie, pay attention to points).  I feel like I've accomplished something if I avoid the sub, but that's not really where my full focus should be in this situation."
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Sunday BJJ in Seattle.  There were two guys who weighed in at around 180/185. The rest were all well over 200. And then there was me. Peter apologized to me. I told him that he needs to recruit some smaller guys for his Sunday class. But it's okay. I don't mind working with the big guys as long as they're not going to put me in the hospital- and they were all colored belts, so I figured they'd be fine.

Kitsune: "I just have to sublimate my ego and realize that I'm not going to be doing a lot of winning today, that's all."
Peter: "And you have such a big ego, Kitsune. You're like Kanye."

Peter likes to run this class as KOTH from multiple positions, so that's what we did.

Cindy came in about halfway through. After class, she and I did about 15 straight minutes of no-gi takedowns. She wants me to COMMIT to the livestock takedown. She wants me to drive my headlocking armpit down like I'm spiking a football, and kick that foot out really hard and wide.  I'm still having hesitancies. I still feel like it's not going to work, and the failure will leave me with my back to my foe and my arm twisted behind me (which would suck mightily).  If it does work, I'm completely paranoid that I'm going to break my opponent's neck. (Cindy: "They teach this takedown to three-year-olds! This isn't mean!!")
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On top of sleeping poorly at the best of times, I normally have nightmares when I'm too stressed out (usually work-related). Since Autumn '11, I have had runs of nightmares from August through November. Had a dilly the night before the comp, and I thought it was comp nerves... nope, they are still coming. There's no place to run when one's own brain is acting as your enemy.  "Whatever you do.... DON'T...FALL....ASLEEP!!!"
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Holy crap. If you see a guy named Kevin Thompson running around, don't piss him off. He won the Revolution prize for "vicious submission" in gi (15 seconds) **AND** in no-gi (5 seconds)!!!!