Begging for an omoplata

 Japan has a concept called Shu-Ha-Ri. You can find it not just in martial arts, but in almost any traditional Japanese art.
The first stage is “Shu” which means “to preserve”. At this level, the student is expected to copy exactly what is presented until it becomes habit.
Then is the “Ha” stage, which means “to break”. Now the student starts to take apart and examine the material. With a strong base behind him, he has good examples of how things should be, and he has room to mess with things and determine the reasoning and principles behind them.
The final stage of “Ri” means “to separate”. At this point, the seeker is expected to take the core principles and make new expressions of them different from what he has been shown.  –Campfire Tales From Hell


Yard work in the morning.

Thursday no-gi in Bellevue.

The Revolution is in two weeks, so we are doing a lot of positional training and king of the hill.

I find KOTH in no-gi to be particularly frustrating, as my usual lag behind the curve is more noticable then ever here. When it's a "pass vs sweep", "sub vs escape" type exercise, there's very little room to recover from and compensate for the inevitable "I'm just going to hoist you over and place you where I want you because you're so tiny" maneuvers.

One roll with Ron, whom I have not worked with in a very very long time. Unfortunately it has not been long enough for *HIM* to forget that I like to snatch guillotines from standing, and he was able to defend successfully. We both caught ourselves sticking feet in one another's armpits begging to be footlocked. A persistant bad habit still needing more work.

Carlos pointed out another bad habit that many of us were doing... I'm not sure if I am doing it, but I need to pay attention and make sure I'm not... placing a hand on the mat beside opponent's opposite hip while passing guard, before getting fully past the legs. This is begging for an omoplata. You need to place the hand on the hip. It is entirely likely that I am committing this sin, as I tend to drape myself very low over the opponent while passing guard, and I don't like to brace on the opponent's body because I'm scared of getting swept.

"Oh my God...."

You and your weapon are a pair. Without your weapon, you are unarmed and can only do what meat can do. Without you, your weapon is an inert lump of metal. Together is all that counts. Comfort isn’t enough for that. It takes work and practice to make that pairing effective.   –Rory Miller

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Saturday lunchtime no-gi at Kirkland.

Guard passing. Double-unders; tripoding and then wrapping the guy's wrist behind his own back, the one where you push the guy's knees to his chin and then leap into front mount when he pushes back; the one where the guy is too smart to push back, so you sit on his thighs, then break-dance to side control.

For the leap-into-front-mount, I warned Dave sternly, "Don't you thump down on my ribs!" He was completely offended. Then on my first rep, I clubbed him in the head. I am the worst drilling partner ever. I will insult *and* brutalize you.

Positional sparring, pass open guard versus retain open guard. Positional sparring from closed guard.

King of the hill starting from some of the guard pass positions we worked on today.

A couple of short spars.

After sparring and water break, as we were lining back up, there happened to be a lull in the chatter just as one of the white belts trudging down the line moaned softly to himself, "Oh my God!"  We all broke up laughing.
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I went shopping wearing my clip holster. Which was- conveniently- an excuse to go shopping. I had been told that it is common for virgin concealed-carriers to feel like we're wearing flashing neon sandwich boards that say, ***!!!I HAVE A GUN!!!***  I wonder if I'm the only one who is afraid to bend my leg. I dropped a shirt on the floor and then just stood there looking down at it, thinking, "Damn... what am I suposed to do now?" Ha ha. Visiting a public restroom was also terrifying. I had very carefully positioned the gun in its high-quality, well-fitting holster, and it stayed put quite well, but I just can't get over the feeling that any moment I'm going to blast my own leg off. I think I may feel better about the belly band. I'm happy to have different options to try. I also stayed cool when two cops came marching into the store looking for a guy they were chasing. I left. Kind of nice to know that if I ran into the guy they were chasing, I was armed.