Faster, faster, faster!

When the senses wake up, people talk about altered states, but actually nothing about them is altered. The only real alteration is the sleep into which we often let them fall. Bringing them back to life is the only natural thing we can do. It is as if we defined the starting of an engine as an “altered state” only because we consider normal leaving it turned off. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Weds: 127

I'm not losing any more weight, yet my jeans won't stay up. The SMALLEST on my spectrum of jeans, mind you- not the "fat day" jeans.

Forearms still very weak and sore. Grips are poor enough that I decided it wasn't worth going to class. Frustrating. The rest of my body- and brain- wants to be on the mat.

Thurs: 130  (Geez)

Grips feel recovered enough to try class today.

Carlos: "I donno why you always go with the two hunnert feefty pound guy..."  He took that guy away from me and gave me Daniel instead.

Whew.... Day Of the Dreaded Drills.  Spinning armbars; bullfight pass setups; Step into sitting opponent's half guard and push hir down with a hook hand over the opposite shoulder while "sliding into home" with the near knee, then all the way around to N/S.

We started out with a nice mellow U2 soundtrack which Carlos threw out and replaced with pounding, driving electronica. He ran around getting in our faces and yelling at us to go faster, faster, faster!!!!

Next time I think I'm dying in jiu jitsu, I'm going to picture Daniel's face doing those bullfight passes.... I **KNOW** how tired and hurting he was- because I was too- and he was just a machine. We both kept up a cheerleading patter which I hope helped him half as much as it helped me.

I would have tossed my cookies when we were done, but that would have required a core muscle effort that I just could not manage.

"Twang"

“Cats never regret anything.” –Tybalt, King Of the Cats



No-gi at Bellevue. Crisanne is sick, and I emailed Kelly but she was busy. I thought I was going to be the only one there- which could, depending on Carlos' mood, turn into either a private or a cancelled class. As it was, Ben showed up. Ben is great to roll with, although it is an exercise in humility! So we just rolled for an hour.

With Ben, your number one goal is to stay out of his half guard. I knew this, but it's difficult. I usually charge in on my opponent immediately after the fist bump- and when Ben is sitting there on his butt with his knees apart, there's really no place else to go. With most people, beginning by stepping into their half guard is ducky.... because I'm good at passing top half guard, so we start the roll with me getting passing points and then side control. Ben, however, does not follow my script. 

He did show me an option which involved hugging below his butt- which you have to do fairly snugly, gripping one wrist with the other hand. Sprawl hard, sink weight down, pry/kick leg out.

At another point, he was observing that having my butt posted a little ways out helped me defend the sweep or roll. One of the things I'm trying to pay more attention to lately is my habit of pasting myself as closely to the opponent as possible at all times. 95% of the time, this is exactly what you want- but there are a few positions where you really need to scoot your butt out a few inches. I am trying to be more aware of figuring out those specific situations.

Another learning moment: being in the head and arm choke. I had the free arm- the one on the side closest to Ben- wedged in there horizontally with the elbow against his head, and it seemed like it would let me hold out for a bit. He suggested that instead I cover my ear with my hand. That didn't make practical sense to my brain, but I went ahead and tried it- and yeah, it was better. I was cooked either way, but the hand-over-the-ear bought me a little more time.

Straight ankle lock- he's playing with a  figure-4 grip here. I tried it and liked it. This might work better for me than the standard.


Coach Dynamo saw me standing on the mat doing toe-heel, toe-heel, and asked if I was doing ballet. I said no, I have plantar fasciitis. Turns out he has had it too. He poked at my foot a while. It was fairly painful after the afternoon standup class.

I'm sure CK- who often makes things in my back go "twang"- would be amused to hear that the coach actually made something in my HEEL go "twang". We found a knot in the bottom of my heel. It felt like a marble deep in there. Something is really skewed in the world when you can have a KNOT in the bottom of your HEEL. That can actually be twanged. That is just wrong.

I saw Pam in the locker room getting ready for the next class, and that made me want to do the next class. I actually felt fairly okay at that point, but I was pretty sure that after the warmup I would crash hard. Reluctantly I decided to pass.

Pam told me that every time she makes eggs, she thinks of me.

"Don't hurt me- I'm only a white belt."

Spiritual are those who are not satisfied with surviving, but want to turn daily experiences into sources of ecstasy. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Monday lunchtime, Seattle.

Standup- Bad Guy roundhouse kicks to your ribs. You move in the same direction as the kick, but stay square with opponent. Catch leg, make sure knee is bent at least a little, and use heel of hand on inside of thigh just above knee to press while you step back and pull for takedown. Bring your foot on the OPPOSITE side as the trapped leg in and stick your toe right under hir butt. Your other foot goes to her hip (on the trapped leg). Drop onto your side (facing away from foe), reach under the calf and grab your own wrist, side bak so that the top of hir foot is right in your armpit, turn your forearm so that the bone is digging into hir leg, and bow your back like a swaybacked pony.

This reaction to the roundhouse kick is contradicting my Kung Fu training, which has me rushing in to press up against the opponent where the kick has no power.

Next: You are in closed guard. Opponent has deep cross lapel grip. You use the arm on the same side as the one s/he is using to cover hir arm, grab hir lapel, and bend your elbow forcefully to your ribs and downward. This should force hir grip downward on your collar at least a bit. Now grab the pants with your other hand, at top thigh. Take a moment to makes sure that 1)your elbows are both inside, and 2)your knee- the one on the side with all the lapel-gripping- is outside opponent's hip so that s/he can't shrimp. Now: Turn body toward pants-grabbing arm and break guard. Slide lapel grip down, slide pants grip down to knee. Keep your knee on the ground UNTIL you bounce to your toes (plank position- now your feet are too far away for opponent to catch half guard), then tiptoe around the pants-gripping side to side control.
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Somewhere between leaving the mat in Seattle and stepping back on the mat in Bothell, I lost my belt. I think I left it in the locker room at Seattle. Hope to God I didn't drop it in the parking lot or something. Carlos is *NOT* going to be amused. Anyway, I was a virgin white belt in Bothell tonight. I have been rather jealous of Ginger Snaps for getting to start over at white belt. It felt so odd. Less pressure? Even though most of the people in there know what rank I am.

Same techniques as this morning, with the addition of passing top half guard with shoulder pressure, butt in the air, and using free foot to pry yourself loose and go to front mount. Grapevine, hip down, active hands above opponent's head.

Positional training from closed guard. Paper-scissors-rock to decide who's on bottom first. One guy and I did about 10 rounds of ties before my paper finally beat his rock.

I also got a purple belt whom I didn't know. I said, "Don't hurt me- I'm only a white belt." I'm so evil.

A few spars.
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Working on the antlered headdress- sewing garnet strings along the edges of the hide scraps (Ooog, I hate sewing so much. And this is painstaking detail-work-type-sewing), and glueing velcro strips to the headgear to better anchor the antlers as well as to secure the hides. I have enough velcro on there that asteroids are getting sucked out of deep space to stick to the back of my head.
 

Greedy Business

You need to distinguish between damage and distraction.
 If you let yourself get distracted, it works. And if it is novel, people tend to get distracted. -Rory Miller


Okay, I am TOTALLY, thoroughly and superbly pissed off.

I showed up today in my french vanilla gi. Carlos had said yesterday that the white one was okay. I was ready to say to Casey, "You happy now??!??" Well, he still wasn't happy. He says I can't even wear the white one. It's a white gi, with Gracie Barra patches all over it- but that's STILL not good enough. Because it is not a white gi with Gracie patches all over it that was bought from the Gracie Barra Evil Overlord Monopoly.

I am now down to *one* acceptable gi (WTF am I supposed to do when I take more than one class in a day? Wear it dirty? Wear it wet?) with an atrocious fit that I'm not sure can be altered- and even if it can, it's going to involve taking the big back patches off and then sewing them back on, which will cost a mint. If they think I'm ever going to compete in that thing, they're nuts.

ATM I am *way* too torqued off to even consider coughing up more money to the "You are not a student to us, just a dollar sign" GB  (the GB stands for "greedy business" in case you ever wondered) conglomerate. But even if I end up caving on this in the long run, I swear to Sweet Baby Jesus I will quit before I let them put me in one of those GB rashies- they are all made by MANTOS. Yes, the porno-ad company. I wouldn't take one of their products as a gift, and run around wearing the Mantos name on my body. Hell will freeze over first.

Did I mention that I'm really really irritated??!?  Seriously.
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Lunchtime BJJ, Greedy Business Sea.  Rolled a bit with Crisanne to warm up; had her do the upa. She seemed to have it down, so I started pressing her to do it faster- within three seconds of the mount.  Also rolled a bit with Casey, who is kissing up to me because he knows I'm annoyed (although I refrained from describing in depth to him exactly *HOW* annoyed), and doesn't want me to hate him.

Standup: Judo grips, Yank down on the lapel side while tapping sole of foot below knee, then yank down on sleeve side while stepping hip to hip and reaping. Setup only. 40 reps. "Relax" says Angela.

Shoulder throw, opponent's bicep locked between your bicep and forearm (NOT beside your neck). Make sure to turn the ENTIRE 180 degrees. My biggest challenge continues to be having the feet planted parallel between opponent's feet and close enough together. Today I was managing both turn and positioning, but with way too many little time-consuming adjustment steps. 40 reps.

Cross step, turn 180, kick back with the same foot you cross-stepped with, pull opponent over your leg for takedown. 40 reps.

Pass half guard: opponent on hir back, you standing at hir feet with one lapel grip and one leg cuff grip. With your trapped leg, push knee fwd into back of opponent's thigh. Then kick it back like a mule. Set it down beside opponent's ribs. Stick your other leg out. KOB. A million reps. (Well, maybe not a million, but it felt like a million)

Same setup, only after you pass half guard, opponent turn in to you. With the same leg that you were KOB'ing with, stick that one straight out back. Now place your shoulder on opponent and carwheel over to hir back. Do not at any point let go of those pants cuffs. Like the previous technique, once you are passed, your arms are in an X.

Angela is going to be fighting Sijara Eubanks again this year, it looks like. And she is excited about it! She has a great attitude.

22 people from GB Seattle are registered for PanAms. Last year it was only 10.

Wednesday

Happiness is being high on the food chain.


Class schedule changes. Thursday "study hall" has gone adios, as has the Friday Old Farts' class. Sigh. They are adding a few more no-gi classes, but you have to wear a GB rash guard to these- which I do not have, and I resent being forced to purchase.  Grrr.

Wednesday lunchtime BJJ, Gracie Seattle. Rolled with Vince to warm up. Drilled with Sabrina- it was nice to get a chance to work with her.

You are on the ground, standing Bad Guy On the Street passes your guard and takes KOB, rape-choking you with the near hand while punching at your face with the other. You push the choking hand to the outside while rolling to the outside- yeah, this is turning your back to hir, but better to be punched in the back than in the face. Roll your body back toward the Bad Guy, Hip up and get your feet on hir hips, push away. Sit up with one knee up. Brace that foot on the floor while straight-leg push kicking Bad Guy's knee with your matward leg. Scoot forward and kick hir again. Tactical lift.

I always try to kick with the top leg. I think this is a my-legs-are-so-damn-short mindset (Sabrina did it too)... I'm thinking I can get a titch extra reach using the top leg, and my personal goal always trends toward kicking someone in the head, belly or groin rather than the knee. As Carlos points out, however, using the bottom leg to kick means that you can keep that knee-and-elbow shield up to guard your opposite side. You are also more mobile his way- once you catch on to the body mechanics. I still need to work with this more.

You are in turtle, with opponent hanging off your side and hugging you with two lapel grips. Use your near hand to grab hir pants at the far knee, while straightening your near leg behind hir (it is now diagonal, foot on floor). Post up on your free hand, crutch out to the front a bit (if you need to- we stubby-legged flexible foxes don't really need the extra room), sit out, grab closed guard. The detail that made an amazing difference: that arm that you use to grab the pantleg, pull your elbow in to your ribs. It puts the opponent off balance and restricts some of hir movement. Also, if you get lazy and leave that elbow flared, that opens up some unpleasant possibilities for your foe to change hir grip and mess you up.

You are sitting back mounted, opponent is hugging you sash-style with one arm over your shoulder and the other under your arm. You grab hir arm on the side where it's against your neck, and pull down to defend the choke. Lie back and bridge. (detail note: if you get up high on hir body here, it's harder for hir to choke you). Go to the side that *ISN'T* the "pillow side". Push the matward hook out with your hand. Swing your feet and butt out. Opponent grabs half guard. You turn in to hir, get your arm around hir neck and under hir head, and try to get some weight on hir as opposed to lying on the mat beside hir (Shoulder Of Justice is possible if you squirm with alacrity). Grab hir pants at the far knee. Push that leg away. Use your free leg to pry hir half guard off. Get side control.

The challenge here for me (Sabrina too) was trying to keep my weight on the person while compromising my balance by using that second leg to pry. After many failed attempts, I was able to do it, but only by being pretty rough grinding into Sabrina's neck and putting too much weight on her. I did not try that again, because I have about 20lb on her and she was making a few involuntary little sounds of pain. I need to refine that on a bigger drill partner.

Many drill reps. Techniques 2 and 3, I was able to work both sides. #1, I only tried the stupid side once. I was still too clumsy to be ambidextrous with that one.

One roll with Bryan. I was pretty tired. I left too many openings for him to trap an arm above my head.