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.

"No matter how fast you do eet, you still have to stay here for an hour."

Peyton Quinn’s rules of conflict:
Don’t ignore him.
Don’t insult him.
Don’t challenge him or accept his challenge.
Leave him a face-saving exit.


Thursday lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue.

Being the last kid picked for the kickball team today landed me a black belt drilling partner (Sean). I managed to fall/roll over his hand and also clock him in the forehead within the first five minutes. Sometimes I think I should be wearing a clown suit on the mat.

Carlos had the heat cranked up to "Brazilian Beach In July" again today. We did a long sequence, adding a new piece every 10 min or so, but always starting with the double-leg from standing.

Double leg from standing. I continue to suck at wrestling takedowns. I know I'm not getting close enough to the opponent during the setup- and also, going down (and- especially-getting up again) is difficult on my bad knees. Sean wants me to change levels as a distinct step BEFORE sticking my lead foot between his feet. As I am doing the double-leg, I can't help thinking, "Good lord, his thighs are like cement pillars." I hope I have cement pillars someday.

Failed double-leg to circling to the back and bear hugging. You lift opponent's feet off the mat, s/he wraps one shin around your shin to prevent being picked all the way up and dumped sideways.

You have no choice but to put opponent down. S/he reaches between hir own feet and grabs your ankle, pull to take down. (Note- when you are being taken down in this fashion, do not attempt to keep the bear hug. All that will get you is the opponent thudding down on your ribs like a cement mixer.)

Opponent steps out and pivots (with bent knee, not a big straight-leg spin that will expose the leg to grabbing) and goes to KOB, then front mount. After waiting 3 secons in each position to get points, s/he sinks one cross collar grip.

I had learned long since that one does not want to push the choking hand across one's own throat- thus telling your opponent, "No, buddy, don't bother to choke me- let me choke myself! No problem!" So when Carlos told us to put one hand on the wrist and one on the elbow, I thought I knew what I was doing. But he wanted us to do something that felt counter-intuitive.... PULL the wrist cuff away from the choke. This necessitated switching hands for me. I still have enough Tiger mentality that the world is all about PUSH to me... it rarely occurs to me to pull. I had to pause at this step the first few times and think it over.

Upa. After that bobble, I was so eager to move on that I explosively upa'ed the crap out of Sean, and the next thing I saw was Carlos' face.

"Why you breedge that way?"

"Uh, that would be stupid because he can post with that hand."

"Then why you breedge that way?"

"Because I was in too much of a hurry and didn't think."

"No matter how fast you do eet, you still have to stay here for an hour."   Which actually was kind a revelation, which I will try to keep in the forefront of my mind.

After upa, guard pass. A few different variations of leg spaghetti, involving trapping the opponent's arm across hir own body and keeping both  hir legs stretched out. I felt really off balance during the pass- like it would be easy to tip me onto my back- but Sean explained (and I saw for myself when he took his turn) that the opponent had no leverage for even the tiny push it would have taken to tip me over.

A little King Of the Hill, starting from side control. Top person try to sub, bottom person escape, catch guard or half guard. Camille got a legit sub on me. Awesome. She did a couple of abrupt switches on me- when we were straining in one direction, she suddenly switched to something else in the opposite direction and caused me to use my own force against myself. I love that, and still struggle to work it into my own game. Both white belt girls are giving great Shoulder Of Justice. They will need that, as tiny as they are.

A roll with a white belt who was delighted for me to school him in a Bunch Of Things That I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Was a White Belt.  I told him that the best way to thank me would be for him to do these things to me next time we rolled. I love it when somebody kicks my ass with something I taught them.

Your heep need to move

People get very uncomfortable around people who are very comfortable with force. -Rory Miller


Thursday no-gi, Bellevue. I had to skip last week because my tattoo was still too scabby. I did considerable exercise-like yard work, though.

Mount escapes.

1)Basic upa, begin by yanking down on foe's shoulder if s/he has it wrapped around your neck. After you land in hir guard, Push one of hir knees to the mat and slider over hir thigh, your inside knee first. Underhook far arm. Side control. Mount, without ever lifting pressure from hir chest/shoulder/neck.

2)Mounted foe is scooting high on you, Grab your own wrist with opposite hand and form a frame to push hir hips back. Place feet as close to butt as possible and pop hips in air as hard as you can, keeping your frame in place.  (Professor Carlos: "Your heep need to move!!!") Pull your knees in and put opponent in butterfly guard. Now straighten legs to shove hir back. Sit up and scoot in (land on your hip NOW to avoid an extra step later),  hug under hir arm, grab opposite bicep, buterfly sweep.

3)This was a new and tricky one. Same entry as above, only you get just one knee between Bad Guy's legs instead of two. Stretch out to shove hir away. S/he should land with one knee up- the one opposite the side you have YOUR knee in. Swing your free leg around the OUTSIDE of hir other hip and place your foot on the hip. (Be careful to not cross- or get shoved across- hir centerline). Now pinch hir thigh between your knees and roll hir to hir outside hip, Ankle lock. (Make sure to use blade of forearm on ankle, not flat).

I had to take some allergy meds before class, so my brain was feeling a little foggy- primo conditions for injuring someone or myself- thus I elected to bow out of sparring.

Use it or lose it.

Recognize when you have time. People get hurt when they try to plan without time, and unnecessarily hurt others when they have time to plan and don’t use it.  –Rory Miller


The Stripe Fairy is loose again at GB. John (who got his purple belt on the same day that I did) is now up to 4 stripes, and I am still at 1. After a momentary knee-jerk surge of competitive frustration, I remember that I do not WANT to get promoted. Must remember to duck into bathroom during bow-out for the next week or so.

Later.........

So I ducked into the locker room and took off my jacket when it was time for bow-out, and darn if Carlos didn't come chasing into the lobby and tell me to get back in there, and the entire class waited for me.   :(   It sucks to be the only woman in the room. It makes you way too memorable and makes it more difficult to sneak away when you want to.  So that tactic is not going to work.

You have butterfly guard, opponent lying on your chest. Do a little hip bump to get your horiz. forearm across hir clavicles and push hir up (you can get kind of mean with this....). Sit up, scoot back a titch and place the outside of your knee on the mat on the side that you are NOT bracing your opponent's chest.

Swim that arm under hir arm (remember to keep that elbow posted hard to keep hir from coming in on you) and grab the belt at hir tailbone. (This turned out to be the bugaboo detail for me.... I don't like to grab the belt. It moves around too much, and sometimes it isn't there at all (like in no-gi).)  with your other arm, grab hir bicep and hug it to you. The more you can get hir shoulder twisted around, the better (tiny but critical detail). Sweep.

If s/he puts a foot up  to catch hirself, you can underhook that knee, HOOK HIR OTHER ANKLE WITH YOUR TOE and sweep hir the other way. This was hella cool, but one of those things that my subconscious was resisting because it doesn't seem like it should work. Important detail: try to keep that leg-underhook as you roll, because it leaves you in a much better position at the end... otherwise you often get caught in half or full guard. It also puts more weight on opponent's chest and gives a better angle for a little Shoulder Of Justice.

One spar with Chrisanne, one with a blue belt who got two straight ankle locks on me. I had started to put myself right into the second one, like a total moron, and then checked myself and tried to go into DLR instead. He neatly hooked up my foot and did it to me again. Dammit. Then one spar with a tall skinny white belt guy I have never seen before. I got a gi choke tap on him- otherwise held him at bay with spider guard.
--------------------------------------
I was feeling distinctly torpid by the time I arrived at evening class in Kirkland, but arrive I did. Some white belt guy was there who immediately remembered me from one class LAST WINTER and was a little put out that I didn't remember him. (again with the "only woman" thing.... do you have any idea how many white belt guys I see come and go? About a bazillion prillion quagfillion. No, I can't remember, I'm sorry.)

Upa. I stuggled with the upa, which was embarrassing... but I do not EVER use this. I always go to half or butterfly. I don't like sticking my arm out like that, and it takes too much time for me to remember which leg to trap and how to do it. Which says that I need to practice it more. It also seems like way too much effort to do that big ribcage-straining bridge. And it feels like it is never going to work. Again... I obviously need to drill it more.

Fortunately, we next did the combover escape from front mount to half guard... which is my go-to if they actually manage to get full mount, and I can make it work on almost everybody (even the higher belts). Which tells me that I need to quit doing it all the time and work on the upa instead.

Escape from headlock. Dave reccomends an under-over braiding of your arm after you trap the guy's arm behind him, as this gives you more control for either a shoulder lock or choke as you choose- I generally avoid getting entangled to that extent with an opponent, but it's difficult for him to muscle out of this because of the crappy angle.

We replaced closed guard from there.... I usually try to squirt out the back.

One spar with Edwin.

You can take it.

Never, in a self-defense situation, do anything half-assed. If you are going to run or hide or bluff or fight, do it with your whole heart. Hesitation is failure. –Rory Miller



Thursday lunchtime BJJ in Bellevue. I was late because I had to wait half the morning for an electrical inspector to show up and do a mandatory inspection that took literally two minutes.

They were doing positional sparring, various positions. I had to wait a while, but eventually was able to jump in.

Several rolls- Ed, Dave (no-gi), Ritchie, Suranjen. Nice to work with Suranjen- it has been a while. Surprised to see Ritchie again. Thought he washed out. He's not my favorite person (too rough, enormous ego)- but it does take an ego sublimation to come back after you've been out for a long time, so maybe there's hope for him yet. He gave me a tap right away. Not sure what was up with that. But okay. He was fine for the rest of the roll, too. No spazz, no attitude. Okay, keep this up and we're all cool. You don't even have to hand me taps. I just don't want you to act like Kanye and then tear my arm off.

Went back home and moved some heavy things, dug some holes, ripped off half my left large toenail on a rock in my garden. Hope it will be okay for tomorrow. Will have to tape it up nice.
-------------

Saturday no-gi in Kirkland.

Since it was a work day, I had to give myself a serious talking-to in order to get to class. Part of the reason I decided to go was that I figured Jill would be there to work with- so I would not have to get flung and bashed around, and I could sort of coast. Well, turns out Izzy was there too- which is great- but that did land them together and me with Pedro. 

Honestly, as soon as I saw the kid on the mat, I was this close to sidling up to Dave and saying, "Dude, can you keep me away from Pedro today.... I am just not in the mood," and this urge intensified when I found out that we were getting our lesson from an actual visiting wrestling coach today, on actual wrestling techniques. I stood there in line feeling weary and anxious.... and with a sigh, decided "Are you or are you not a warrior? Then woman up. You can eat a bit of a beating from a 14 YO- it's gonna hurt but it won't kill you. Quit whining." Okay. Bring it. I came into class with the wrong attitude. I should never come in thinking, "I'm just going to coast today," Sometimes it seems like that's the only way I'll get in at ALL... but it's not constructive. The Universe decided to smack me down for that today. Point taken.

Takedowns. Wrestling takedowns. With a strong, rough, spazzy and egotistical teenage boy wrestler who has more energy in his smallest toenail than I have in five of me. FML.

I reminded him right at the start: "Be gentle. I'm an old lady." There was one really really bad one, where he hit me like a freight train with a load of bricks on board and I hit the ground *very* hard, partly on my head. One other gnarly moment where he came down in a spinny scarf really hard on my ribs (my most vulnerable part). I crawled grimly to my feet after both and reminded him again to go easy. The instructor also came by once to watch us and tell Pedro to go lighter and me to go harder. Miraculously, I seem to have come out without injury from both of those bad takedowns. But yeah- they hurt. Toldja this was gonna hurt.

 As one of my tenants of being a good partner, I do not condescend to anyone regardless of age or rank or ability, and try to both give and take good feedback. In this case, I asked him plenty of questions, since he *is* a wrestler, and understands many of the concepts even though it seemed that today's particular techniques were new for him. It seemed like we developed a little better rapport as the class went on- or maybe he realized that he doesn't have to prove he can disassemble me in order to get respect from me- and he started taking care to drop his weight on his elbow instead of on my ribs. So he *can* do it. The boy likes those "faceplant" style takedowns, though.... the ones where you take the person down really hard and fast, with driving downward momentum, and in a fashion that ties up both arms or otherwise sends you hurtling at the floor face first with about a nanosecond to try to twist your pinioned body an inch around so as to  absorb the initial impact with something OTHER than your front teeth. Cindy likes those too.

I did a few reps with Jill, but before I take down white belts I always ask them if they have good breakfalls. If they don't, I am not going to take them down. Jill didn't, so we spent most of the drill time on that. She still needs more work on them. Note to revisit that again with her next time.

Before the sparring portion, I did sneak up to Dave.....

Kitsune (whispering): Give me some NICE people. I'm tired.
Dave: (laughing) Okay. After Jill, you can go with me.
Kitsune: I said NICE people.
Dave: You're the one who clocked me in the nose last time we fought.

I worked with Jill some more on the upa, which I had shown her the last time I worked with her. She is improving, but still not doing a quick enough or forceful enough hip pop.

Dave: to my disgust, I noticed myself putting that damn arm up three times. He failed to capitalize on it (he seemed to be working on an agenda of his own), at which point I stopped and said, "Every time I do that, please sub the hell out of me as fast as you can- and make it hurt a little." Note that I need to ask that of all of my colored belt sparring partners for a while, till I break myself of that habit.

Shins ache now- it's typical to get lots of impact on them doing wrestling takedowns, even if you do it right (which we didn't always).

You will be cleaning up your own puke.

Having a perfect body is not nearly as important as learning to listen to its voice.
-Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



Plantar fasciitis continues unabated. Mostly the right foot. Drat it, I don't have the time or patience to massage my damn foot for 10 min every morning before getting out of bed!!! Plus my cats would get together and lynch me. Their expectation is that at the first ding of the alarm, I am catapulting out of bed to start getting their breakfasts ready.

Lunchtime at Seattle.

Another day of feeling pretty tired- and it was hot again. Not quite as hot as last night, but very hot.

Positional training from side control- pass vs sweep only. I was shocked to complete a sweep. Only one, but that's one more than I've ever been able to get before.

Carlos dressed me down for "not being fair" when he saw me hunker down to hug my opponent as we got started. He wanted the top person to begin in an upright position. Understandable. Yet the concept still boggled my brain. My partner was an adult male blue belt. A smallish one, true- but still- an "AMO" if you will (Since we were not going full bore, it didn't qualify for Georgette's awesome "FRAMO" classification: Fully Resisting Adult Male Opponent). I have the mindset that I am perpetually so far in the hole that the idea of me starting with any type of "unfair advantage" is laughable. If the guy started out hogtied, I'd still be at the disadvantage. That's why everyone is (still) getting such a hoot out of ragging on me for "grinding" on that little kid's throat- the idea that I would even have enough power to be *able* to be a bully is humorous. I've never even had to consider trying to be "fair". It's never fair- to me. Do I actually need to start worrying about being "fair" to AMO's? That sounds so ridiculous and pretentious.

I got a turn with a four stripe white belt girl that I've never worked with before- and after about 2 minutes, she had to excuse herself for dizziness. (Like I said, it was damn hot in there.) Carlos sent me into the bathroom to chase her down and caretake for her. She lay down on the changing room floor and I gave her a cold wet paper towel to put on her forehead. Then when I tried to return to the mat, Carlos sent me back in there AGAIN to tell her to come out and lie on the floor in the main room so that he could see she wasn't dead.  
---------------

Evening in Bothell.

Review of the front mount escapes we have been working on this week. Upa, upa with opponent trying to collar choke you (trap hir forearm against your chest), my favorite leg combover escape).

Some positional training from front mount.

A couple of spars with really big guys. I just tried to survive- and because they don't know very many subs yet, I succeeded.

Burpees *AFTER* the spars. Ugh! I tried to negotiate taking my jacket off, at least- there was another guy in there dressed in no-gi clothes (whom I had just finished fighting, IN GI)... no luck!

Fortunately I have not as of yet had need of this knowledge, but I was informed today that if you puke on Cindy's mat, you will be cleaning up YOUR OWN puke. Even the kids? Yup. So try to make it to the back door.

"Tool him!"

Beating up on myself was the only fight I knew I could win. –Elena Stowell


Wednesday lunchtime at Seattle.

So tired. Often when I start out tired, I'll forget about the tired once I get going. Not this time. Tired all the way through the class and even more tired by the end.

Upa.

Then: opponent tries to front mount you, you stuff the leg into your half guard, then replace full guard. I use this a lot, so it was flowing pretty well for me- but with the tired, I was noticing more than ever that you really have to get your moves started before the foe SETTLES.

One roll with Cindy. I tried to keep moving, and also tried to not go where she was baiting me to go- although sometimes I think this resulted in even worse positions for me. She never runs out of Plan B, C, D, E, F and beyond.
----------------------------------

Evening in Bothell.

Same two techniques from afternoon, plus a basic headlock escape- elbow to the mat, turn belly down, overturn opponent, pry opponent's arms off, armbar.

One roll with a huge white belt. He even *looks* like a sumo wrestler. I know this guy could have squished me like a cockroach, but he was being nice with his weight. I got one bow and arrow. I couldn't get his pantleg because we were jammed up against the wall, so I had to use little jerks to reposition us till I could get enough leverage to finish. When we were done with the entire roll, he sat up straight and went "Oh my GOD!!!!!!!!" (which was gratifying)

One roll with a brand new guy. He was lighter than the other, and also being nice about not using muscle. His buddies were all lined up by the mat good-naturedly urging me to tool him. I don't usually do that... but the guy was laughing and having fun, the mood was light, and it seemed like he wasn't going to be traumatized or anything if I did tool him. So I tooled him probably more than I've ever tooled anybody. This is something I just don't get to experience, EVER... it was so bizarre that I'm not even sure if I had fun or not.

Then, lest I get a swelled head- a roll with Will to keep me humble. He's not as good as Jalen (yet), but I have to bust my buns to keep up with him. He knocked out a couple of really nice technical tricks today. Always enjoyable. I hope he doesn't grow too fast.  ;)

With the white belts: I used some spider guard, as it seems to fairly reliably flummox white belts more than anything else does. I wish I was better at sweeps from spider guard. Something to continue to work on. Setting up triangles is starting to become easier from here. I did set up a triangle on the sumo wrestler and two triangles on the other guy. Didn't finish any- still striving for that part. I tried to transition to an armbar or omoplata from the failed triangles. That didn't quite work out. I'm happy at having been able to conceive and try for a plan B, though.

Nice to see a few little girls in the kids' class today.

More back mount

“I have many skills.” –Xena, the Warrior Princess




Wednesday evening fundamentals, GB Bothell.

1)Bad guy is front mounted on you, punching you in the face. You do Black Crane cover, hip up and use knee to make Bad Guy post on the mat over your head. Overhook one arm, pinch it in tight, trap the leg on the same side, Upa.

I was the demo dummy tonight, and I made an obvious show of turning my hand over before getting upa'ed. To my delight, one of the white belts noticed and pointed it out. Insights Training, where I first learned an upa, made a big deal of this. I haven't seen this detail given much attention at GB, but I think it should be.

2)You are in turtle, opponent far back hanging on your butt. You turn slightly to get an angle, Grab hir pantleg, stick your opposite leg out to post.  Sit through, replace full guard.

3)Opponent is back mounted on you, double-under lapel grips. The s/he puts one arm over your shoulder for the choke.
You pull down on the elbow and roll to the side hir arm ISN'T on. Remove 1 hook, lie on hir leg. S/he starts to swing the other leg over for from mount. Grab the leg, stuff it between your own legs for half guard. Turn on your side, push hir other knee back, replace full guard.

Drills. So nice to work with Will. I miss Jalen, but Will is the same way about whipping those reps out and being really focussed.

Positional training from back mount. I had asked Cindy about this before class. She suggests that I try to keep moving around- if the opponent rolls to one side, keep the hooks and lapel grips and try to roll hir back. If s/he removes one of my hooks, s/he has to let go of it at some point- and I can try to get it back in. In the meantime, I can post off it and try to roll us around some more. I was still not doing very well during the positional training... I need more practice.

Spars. Tomoe Nage does not work on Will- dammit. I like to make them fly across the room once before they catch onto me. Will knows better than to push into me while we're standing- and if I try to yank him forcibly into the tomoe nage, he drops to his knees and goes into my guard. 

I got stuck in bottom half guard (yeah, what else is new). After a long time, he got really frustrated and stopped to ask me how the heck to get out. So I showed him one trick, and Cindy showed him a different one.  So, that is probably the last time I get to work *THAT* game on him. Also- he tried mightily to clock choke me, and was sooooooooooooo close, but I held out. After the clock ran out, I told him that if he'd grabbed my pants and pulled just a little, I would've had to tap.

I did not spar with Eric tonight, but I worked with a new (to me) large white belt, and James (whom I've worked with before). James got my KOB 101 tonight. We'll see if he remembers it next week. I got one sub on him- baseball bat (without gi- gable grip).  

After class, Cindy had Will work some bottom half guard sweeps using me as a dummy.

We didn't get time to clean the mat before another class came in. The Bothell school shares space with a Kempo school. They were doing single short stick! I wanna learn! Unfortunately, what these folks were doing was an exercise similar to what I've seen the kickboxing class doing: combos according to strings of numbers called out by the teacher. That is exactly the sort of thing that my brain does not compute. I would get #1 and #2, and after that it would be all over.

I made Eric do a triple-take tonight when he found out how old I am.

I am wearing a beard of aloe gel tonight. The entire lower half of my face is peeling off from gi burn.

White belts

I would rather get my ass kicked in BJJ than win at anything else. I love it that much.  - Parabellum


Ah, fresh white belts. Panting, straining, stiff-as-a-board white belts.

I still don't have enough technique to beat white belts who are bigger and stronger than I. Two years ago, I would have done my damndest to muscle back, and gotten frustrated when I couldn't prevent the manhandling. Today, I stayed relaxed and for the most part serene, with only a few momentary flashes of frustration.

Went to the Bothell pod for the first time. Got lost- late for two classes in the same day, that's a record. There's a girl there! Panting, straining, stiff as a board... but seems gung-ho and eager to learn.

Same comb-over escape from front mount to replacing full guard as this morning.

Upa escape from front mount- this time beginning with opponent gripping cross-collar. You clasp hir elbow to your chest.

Headlock escape on the ground. Turn slightly into opponent and pull that elbow down to ribs/mat. Hook top leg over hir top leg. Roll toward opponent and get on knees, driving forward to make hir headlock-gripping arm difficult to maintain. If you can keep the arm, armlock behind opponent's back. If s/he pulls arm under hir, sash-grip under one armpit and over one shoulder and hike your knee up so that it's pressed against hir back, high up. Pull hir into back mount.

Two points!

The world would never have been the same had any of the Western prophets been struck by the same intuition that myth attributes to Bodhidharma. Probably, the entire Western culture would be drastically different. No rivalry between spirit and body. No tug-of-war between the soul yearning for Heaven and the body restraining it on Earth. Rather than wasting our energies quarreling with our bodies and with the natural world, we could let spirituality and sensuality dance cheek to cheek.  -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Wednesday lunchtime BJJ, GB Sea.  Got trapped behind that dang train again, and walked in right during the bow-in. Got reprimanded in front of entire class. Embarrassing.

Front mount, upa escape while holding opponent's belt.  Noticing that it's difficult to trap opponent's posting leg when you are working with a petite and short-legged opponent such as Angela. Angela also says that I need "More hip, more hip, more hip."

Opponent has front mout. You gable grip hands, turn slightly on your side, press palms to opponent's thigh. Extend matward leg to the side, pushing opponent's leg out with it. Cross your other leg over top and place sole on mat to trap opponent's foot. Shrimp. Pull your outside leg out from under opponent. Turn in. Take half gaurd. Pinch knees together but do not lockhalf guard. Get underhook. Push opponent's far knee with hand. Pull your remaining leg out and replace full guard.

Angela wants me to push and shrimp more at the very beginning, but I found that this placed her center of gravity very low on my hips and it became very difficult for me to cross my leg over.

Positional training from front mount. Noticing that I expend a lot of strength and energy if I try to fight my way out of front mount. I tend to wait till they move for a sub, then try to escape then. Another thing: As usual I can't give Angela as much of a challenge as I would like to, but as far as positional training goes, it is probably more helpful to her if I give her some variety and refrain from pushing my Plan A over and over. Today I tried to do some different things, even if I felt I was more inept at some of them.

During one of the breaks, I came up behind Lindsey and RNC'ed her. She did not defend vigorously, and I was about to start goading her when someone called me away. Right before we lined up to bow out, Lindsey came up behind me and RNC'ed me in turn. I calmly hauled down on her elbow (using the susequent small motions of her body to zero in on her center of gravity) moved my hips into position, and launched a perfectly pristine shoulder throw. Everyone paused to admire. Carlos signalled two points for me. Cindy signalled DQ (for "mean").

Friday evening

…Without Constant Reader, you are just a voice quacking in the void. -Stephen King




Friday night no-gi at Sleeper.

SSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tired. It really does work out better for me to skip lunchtime at GB when I'm going to go to Sleeper in the evening.  But I feel like I was actually helpful to Angela today in drills, even though I turned her down for sparring after. I want to be a good teammate to her, and help her out as much as I can.

Upa escape.

Then, straight-arm opponent's hips from mount and shove hir into butterfly guard. Sit up, underhook one side and put your arm around hir as if s/he is your buddy. Scoot butt out just a bit. Now your knee is up on the hugging side, and down on the mat on the other side.  Next: grab the opponent's arm so that s/he can't post, and roll hir, lifting with that butterfly hook. (You may also slide the matward knee under you and use it to drive off of.) End in front mount. (Sometimes I ended in side control, but Cindy advises mount.)

Next- same, only begin by elbow-escaping out from the mount before taking butterfly guard.

Sparring. I was very ineffectual tonight. Just too tired.  Wei got me in that same armpit choke that he's tapped me with for the last 4 classes in a row. I was watching for it (he did it to someone else a little earlier tonight), and he still got me.

Tonight I'm a dummy

In all athletic disciplines, it is the internal work that makes the physical mat time click, but it is easy to lose touch with this reality in the middle of the grind. - Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of Learning”



Tuesday FOD: Leopard Three

Knee very sore in the morning. Decided to rest it and just go to evening class. My plan was to hit the women's class in Seattle, but traffic congestion took care of that great idea. Note to self- must leave earlier than 4:15 to make Seattle evening class. It's just not practical, unfortunately.

Having missed enough of the women's class to not feel okay barging in, and with a little time to kill before the evening roster, I found SIDE CONTROL lying on the floor wrestling imaginary opponents in the boxing ring. I asked him if he wanted a dummy to drill on, and we played with some half guard escapes. Then he ran through the techniques he was going to teach in the basics class. I asked him if he wanted to use me for a demo dummy in the class, and he said sure. I would have liked to go to Rodrigo's class, but frankly, after sitting in gridlock for nearly two hours, I'm tired and frustrated and not in the best mindset to try to learn complex things. So that worked out okay.

I jumped Z before class started. I did not tap him with my razzle-dazzle baseball bat choke, but I tore off half a fingernail trying. He put one on *ME* from the bottom- and had almost tapped me with it before people started lining up. I asked him to show it to me, but we ran out of time.

Upa's again. Always a good thing to keep working on.

Headlock escapes. Grab your own wrist and make a framed circle with your arms. Place the edge of your frame under opponent's jaw and use it to push hir head (and thus torso) up and back. Hip out away from hir back, and get on your side. Use your topmost leg to comb over opponent's head and bring hir down. As hir arm sides off your neck, keep it for an armlock.

I've never pulled off this escape live; I think I have not been hipping out enough or turning on my side enough. Dave made much of the fact that you have much more range of motion with the leg once you're on your side.

2nd headlock escape: Throw your topmost leg over opponent's posted knee-up leg. You now have 1 hook of a back mount. Now get your matward elbow down and punch upward with the other arm, as you turn onto your belly. Get to your knees and try to retain opponent's arm (which is now twisted behind hir).

One roll with one of the white belt ladies, Megan. She has done Muay Tai and hapkido in the past. She is only a few weeks old here, but she's pretty good. Long arms and legs, really strong, good base and body awareness/coordination, good idea of basically what she's trying to do in a roll. My knee hurt really bad at one point during this one, so I decided to not do any more tonight.

I had hoped that Rodrigo wouldn't think I was avoiding him or anything by not taking his class. I haven't seen him in a long time. But I got a hug, and he congratulated me on my promotion and said that I deserved it- which was really nice to hear.

Upa

The next phase of my martial growth would involve turning the large into the small. My understanding of this process is to touch the essence (for example, highly refined and deeply internalized body mechanics or FEELING) of a technique, and then to incrementally condense the external manifestation of the technique while keeping true to its essence. Over time, expansiveness decreases while potency increases. I call this method “Making smaller circles”. - Josh Waitzkin, “The Art Of  Learning”




Sunday's FOD: Tiger Versus Crane
Monday's FOD: Long Qi

Monday lunchtime BJJ, GB Seattle.
I have definitely harmed my left knee. I went to place my left foot on my right knee to do those elbow-to-knee calisthenics during warmups, and the left knee went "OOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW, Don't BEND me that way!!!!!!!!"

Upa's. Opponent starts in side control and goes to front mount. Upa hir back the way s/he came from. Punch hard under the armpit as you hip up. Do not get sloppy or hurrying and neglect to trap the opponent's foot before upa'ing.

Next technique: as opponent goes to front mount, you grab the pantleg at the ankle and leave your near leg down flat to bait hir to mount. As s/he mounts, run your flat leg under hir leg and use the pantleg grip to guide hir leg right into your half guard. Scoot far enough out the side to push on hir far knee with your hand, stick your leg in there and get full closed guard. I had trouble trapping the leg while opponent was mounting from my left- partly because I couldn't resist the urge to keep putting my knee up. I felt clumsy on that side and thus vulnerable. I also had more trouble than I should have had replacing guard. Lord knows I'm tiny enough that I should have had no trouble maneuvering around under there, but I was having some difficulty. You don't want to straighted your body out while you're trying to stuff your leg in, because the opponent will just flatten you out. You have to stay close in and under hir.

I asked Bryan to look at that spider guard sweep, and he didn't have any answers either. Maybe it only really works if the guy is coming at you with his weight moving forward?