Unicorns

 

 

This is how a book or story has to start. Something rings in my head, like Great Tom. A knell.

Or sounds in my brain like a horn. A call to battle.

Sometimes two characters argue in my mind.

Sometimes it is a character tapping me on the shoulder.

Sometimes it is a vision, a picture in my head.

Only when I hear that ringing, that battle horn, that clear argument, or feel that tapping, or see that vision do I know there is a story I have to tell.

Then I must invoke the magic word. Oh, yes- there is one. All truly successful writers know it.

I shall whisper it in your ear: BIC.

It stands for Butt In Chair.

Really. Hard work is the only real magic there is... if the book in your head is going to get onto the page.

-Jane Yolen

 

 

 

Friday women's class: I was too lazy to blog it and now I can't remember what we did, except I remember doing double-leg setups and upas.

 

Thursday lunchtime class: Pulling guard and using one foot to strip one opponent's grip, then scissor sweep.

 

Same, only use pendulum sweep.

 

I had some issues here, and at first I was irritated that we were doing both of these in one class because I kept sticking elements of the scissor sweep into the pendulum sweep. I tend to try to turn everything into the scissor sweep; the pendulum sweep feels like one of those "this will never work for me live" things (I think partially because of the emphasis on powering it with a lateral-to-medial shove of the thigh which feels like a very weak movement to me, and also I am always wanting to hip out). It turned out to be annoying-yet-educational because it forced me to focus on the differences.

 

Scissor sweep- I am decent at this; I just need to remember to keep my knee toward the ceiling. I want to put it too low across the opponent's ribs, and a decent player is going to just flatten it (and me behind it) and squash me. I usually end up trapping the posting arm adequately, but I need to be more mindful and assertive about it.

 

Pendulum: Do not turn on my side. STRAIGHT leg, up to the ceiling, socketed assertively right into opponent's armpit. Another mindful and assertive post-trapping. CUP the knee (you do not need to try to remove this grip). Also, Carlos adjusted my angle of launch from sideways to upper-diagonal (like the upa). The sweep comes from that thigh shove PLUS the lifting of the opponent's knee with a flaring of the elbow. That elbow flare was the one thing I didn't really get enough time to iron out to my satisfaction after ironing out the rest of my problems.

 

Both sweeps could also use a lot more more lower-leg shoving.

 

A little king of the hill, pass vs sweep. I got very excited because I was able to not only hold off John for quite a while, but eventually SWEEP him (gasp!). True he wasn't going 100%, but he wasn't babying me around, either. My expanding ego was swiftly returned to earth like a popped balloon by my next opponent, a while belt guy who shoved past my guard in about 4 seconds.

 

Carlos instructed the 4 large male white belts to not even engage the women. While I understand this, I was a little peeved  that it wasn't "be careful", it was "don't go near them at all". I don't want to encourage the male white belts to refuse to work with women. There is no reason they can't learn to be careful. (Carlos added, "Oh- except for Keetsune," and I was like, "Yeah, bring it,"- but then he said he was kidding. I wasn't.)

 

Friday women's class: same techniques. Good. Was able to get my shit together better this time.

 

In addition: Failed double-leg to bear hug and lift; uke hooks foot around attacker's shin to foil the lift, then bend down and grab opponent's ankle and lift for takedown. KOB.

 

I am feeling hungry for more sparring; we don't do any sparring or much KOTH in women's class. I'm having some stress at work, and could really use the sparring. I stayed after class Thursday and did one spar with Camille, in which I was able to handle her well and mount her repeatedly to troubleshoot her sorry upa. 

 

One of the fresh blues said to me in the locker room- in a tone that should be reserved for unicorns, Jesus, and Cindy Hales- "I want to be just like you."  I don't know how to react to this. I still don't. I managed to not laugh.

Six Thousand Details

There are thousands of things that can be used as weapons, and there are lots of ways to use them. –Rory Miller



3.5 Minute Plank. OMG. That hurts so bad. But thrilled that I can do it.

Fri evening BJJ in Bellevue.

The longer I do BJJ, the more complicated it gets. What used to look like a very simple basic guard pass now has about six thousand little details that you have to remember all at once.

Pulling guard, then basic (ha!) pass from 1)knees or 2)standing. Most persistantly troublesome details for me tonight:

1)Don't try to use brute strength to haul opponent's sleeve cuff up while you're trying to posture standing in hir guard, brace your elbow against your body and straighten your back.

2)Then move your knees closer together.

3)Don't grab the pants at the knee to push it down, grab the knee itself. Christy was having the same problem, so eventually we both started whispering "No pants! No pants!" to one another every time we began the pass.

4)Control the near arm using the sleeve as you take side control. I already have a good insinct to get that shoulder off he ground and keep it all nice and tight, but the process sure is a lot easier and works better if I remember to deliberately address that arm first and do the right things with it.

I was infuriated, frustrated, mindboggled and despairing to find that I was a pound up this morning despite having eaten tragically little *and* done BJJ **AND** went for a walk. I honestly do not understand how this is possible. I ate even less today. Spent much of both days feeling hungry, distracted and resentful.

Tripod sweep

Changing the world has nothing to do with altruism or with trying to be a good Samaritan. Ultimately, since everything is connected, helping others inevitably means helping ourselves. At the highest level, there is no difference between egoism and altruism. It is a karmic ping-pong game. All our actions come back to us. Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Friday lunchtime BJJ at Kirkland.

Tripod sweep: Begin in standup with judo grips. Step on opponent's hip on the side that you control hir elbow. Drop to back, swing free leg out, bring it back in and place on opponent's other hip. Now: remove your first foot and stick it between opponent's feet. Trip that foot while you grab the other heel. As s/he falls, let the momentum pull you up, take side control.

I like this sweep- it's so technically beautiful- but I have always struggled with it because there is so much going on at once. That one hand grip remains, so that's easy- but you have the other three limbs doing three different things, and it has to be simultaneous and smooth. I think this is one of those things that's not really going to click for me until I get a few more levels up, and can see the big picture logic instead of stressing about which leg to hook and which hip to be on.

Same setup, only now the opponent steps hir foot back when you try to grab the heel. Quickly scoot up so that you're sitting on hir foot and hugging hir shin with the INSIDE arm. Fold your legs to the outside. You can post with the free hand- you don't have to try to hang onto hir. Fold hir leg inward and move to side control.

For both of these techniques, a familiar problem arose- I continue to let go of the far pantleg. If I can remember to keep that, it will prevent hir from scooting either into me to replace guard or away from me to escape.

Third technique: pull guard from standing, yank opponent down on chest, when s/he postures up, go with hir and either kimura or situp sweep. Dave points out that I am not assertive enough about controlling the opponent's arm. I tend to get fixated on trying to haul my elderly butt up far enough to bear the opponent's trunk down, and I fail to grab the arm firmly enough, pull it deep enough, or clasp it close enough. Sometimes I forget to grab it at all.

This was an exhausting class because of all the up-down-up-down-up-down. Dave is a great partner, always encouraging when he sees I'm getting tired.

A little KOTH from standing- try to pull guard. Whomever succeeds them tries to sweep or submit, while the pull-ee tries to pass.

I was too exhausted physically and mentally to spar afterward.

I registered for Proving Grounds, in my usual bracket even though I'm right on the edge and have only 1 week to make sure I make weight. I almost registered one weight class up just to be safe, but that one was 135-155. I really do not want to fight 155-lb people. Although it probably won't matter, we will almost certainly be combined anyway.

Move your head.

Stopping violence or potential violence is a separate issue from  “justice”- motive and mental competency are keys to determining the level of criminal culpability, but are irrelevant to whether someone must be stopped before they hurt somebody. –Rory Miller


Thurs "advanced" class in Bellevue. This turned out to be a combined class- Prof Carlos is at Worlds, I think.... Prof Jamie taught us.

Cross collar choke from guard, Kimura from guard, situp sweep from guard, hip throws, pulling guard from standing, pulling guard from standing and then transitioning to armbar. I was working in a trio with Nadine and Chrisanne, and was able to give them some good hints and feedback (such as, MOVE YOUR HEAD TO THE SIDE before you swipe someone's posting arms off your belly and yank them down on your chest in closed guard). As amusing as it can be to watch white belts bash their foreheads together, I just don't have the heart.

Positional sparring from closed guard and spider guard.

One spar with Casey and a couple with Chrisanne. Chrisanne was working tighter tonight. I did have to remind her to assertively jump on me right off the fist bump instead of sitting back on her haunches and waiting meekly to get shoved to the mat. But she was feeling really heavy on top tonight, and doing a good job controlling all my parts so that I couldn't effectively get out of her scarf or side control.

I will unfortunately be missing Friday evening class- my cat is having surgery tomorrow, and I will have to stay home in the evening and keep an eye on him. I'm all out of good library books, and most of my PSG packing is finished- so maybe I will actually get a little writing done? Made another batch of cat food last night with the tape player going- the stirring of the creative juices put an intriguing new scene into my mind. Need to stay out of the kitchen, at any rate- especially with the missed class. I'm going to have to be really careful if I want to make weight for next weekend. I'm right on the edge. My fridge is full of eggs, but all I want is pizza!

Talking smack

When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are *not* the story. -John Gould


Only one sugared/caffeinated pop yesterday, and only one today. Go me.

Danger spot for this: after class. There is just nothing like coming home from class sweaty and bone tired, and cracking open an ice-cold can of REAL pop and taking three or four humongous swigs. It feels like an orgasm, I swear. Yesterday I was at work, and I had my one REAL pop in the morning (time to work off the sugar and caffeine before bed). Today, I knew I would want one after class, so I saved it till then.

Danger spot for overeating/snacking: after working a noon-to-nine-pm shift or a 3pm-to-eleven-thirty shift. I can usually be pretty good in the mornings before work, and once I go to work, I'm stuck with whatever I brought- or didn't bring (there's a vending machine which I have been known to patronize occasionally, but I'm usually too cheap to buy from those overpriced things). However, by the time I get home, I'm tired and grumpy and feeling all deprived- and the urge to eat and have some REAL pop is difficult to resist. This is the worst possible time to do it, too- right before bed.

Another danger spot: the break room at work. Why do hospital staff have such horrible dietary habits??? Too many people are leaving M&M's, girl scout cookies, and other crapola out for communal grazing. I have some little 100-cal bags of popcorn, and I went to the bulk foods place and made a nut mix (cashews, hazlenuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds). Nuts have a lot of good nutrients- and are certainly a better substitution for M&M's or girl scout cookies- but they do have a lot of fat calories, so you can't go to town on them.

Danger spot- crackers and Crispix. I love crackers- but aside from the fact that it's difficult to stop once I start eating them, they have a very visible and dramatic effect on my weight. The Crispix cereal was yummy in the first batch of nut mix, but likewise.

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Three classes today. It was so nice to be back at Gracie's- I think for only the 2nd time in 4 weeks. Unfortunately, it seems that Cindy had preceded me and was talking smack about me all over the place- I didn't even have my coat off before Casey was ragging me about beating up a little kid!!!

Basics first.  You are in bottom side control. Get the lockdown (this is a bit of a struggle for me; I think partially because of my short legs), push opponent's front half (arms) over to your side on that same side, underhook hir leg, and sweep toward hir head. (Yes, s/he has both arms free and can post over there. You must sweep diagonally. S/he can post for a while, but eventually will be shoved onto hir shoulder.) KEEP THE LEGS. You may now be in top half guard, or in hir open guard with one of hir legs on your shoulder. Pass from here.
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Next: no-gi. The schedule had said women's class, so I was confused. I sat on the wall, but I guess the prof was so happy that I'd shown up at all, he let me in even though I didn't have a GB rash guard *or* shorts.

Standup: hook behind head and on 1 bicep. Step on the hip, on the side that you have the arm. Pull guard, keeping the foot on the hip and wrapping the other leg kind of high on opponent's back. Note that your knee (on the foot-hip side) should be outside opponent's arm, not crushed inside.

Next: you go to step on that hip, opponent steps back with that leg. Keep the head grip, let go of the arm grip, and smoothly (heh) drop to your knee, grabbing opponent's cross heel (the HEEL, not the knee!). Stand up, take down, KOB.

Next technique: You have butterfly guard, opponent is down on your chest. Shove your forearm under hir head (hand on the side where hir face is) till your forearm is across hir throat and you can grip hir shoulder. Push hir torso upright. If you cannot, use your second hand to brace the wrist till you succeed. Scoot your butt out a little. Swim the forearm under hir armpit (keep the elbow glued where it is) and hook your hand firmly over hir same shoulder. Open up your butterfly guard so that one knee is up, one leg on the mat. Use your free hand to control opponent's wrist. Kick your MATWARD foot under yourself as you roll to your belly, while pulling opponent's arm toward you, and using the remaining butterfly hook to lift/push opponent over. Again, you may end up in top side control, but that's okay. Pass, then transition to scarf. (Note: prof tells me to not lean my head/torso backward so far while I am in scarf).

I suck so bad at all things butterfly guard, yet I am continually awed by how effectively short-legged, stubby little Ron uses it. Which means it should also be good for short-legged, stubby little Kitsune. Need to develop this.

I drilled with a nice teen boy, orange belt.

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"Black belt" class (I think this is for blues two stripes and up?) and basics class were combined. Mock tournament. The Revolution is this weekend.  Big guys at one end (Jamie reffing), little guys at the other (Carlos reffing).

Before we got started, there was some rules discussion. Always helpful. I continue to be baffled by the points system, but am very slowly picking up a little knowledge.

First fight, me and Kelly. Kelly always plows me. I got on top a few times, but she dominated. Didn't see the final score, but I'm pretty sure she won on points. 

As usual, just getting up there and facing off in a "tournament"- even a mock one- gave me that rush of nervousness followed by the feeling of all my strength running down my legs and into the floor, leaving me weak as a kitten.

After watching a few of the guys go at it, me and Crisanne. She's doing well, but is still a white belt, and I have considerable weight on her. I didn't smash her or anything (she even got a nice sweep), but I did get a bunch of points and then tap her with a gi choke. Afterward she was having trouble catching her breath- anxiousness, I think. Then I felt bad and thought I should have gone lighter still. Won't deny that continually getting my clock cleaned by Kelly makes me feel frustrated. I should have made sure to expel that emotion before facing a smaller white belt. I made sure to give her positive feedback afterward.

Me and Ron. Well, you *KNOW* how that's gonna go (I wonder if this was Carlos' revenge for me going a little too hard on Crisanne). He was nice and didn't sub me to death in three seconds. One thing I was happy with- He was on my back at one point, and I got a slightly modified version of the technique that we did two classes ago at Sleeper: I grabbed the back of his head and pulled him into a summersault over my own head, then drove into him. He tried and almost succeeded to gain inverted guard, but I eventually was able to maneuver us into N/S.

All three of my opponents pulled guard on me. I did poorly at defending this, and need to pay attention. I don't like not being able to fight for the takedown, and I don't like being trapped in closed guard.

Open mat- Dave. Having trouble getting out of his closed guard, and getting a bit frustrated. We each tapped each other once (me with the gi-tail baseball bat choke).