No-gi marathon with Angela

Mild nagging physical issues: Knees still ache from Monday (note- ICE THE KNEES before and after class when Tiger drills are involved!). Right big toe hurts. I've been noticing that for a few days; I don't remember doing anything to it. It seems to be getting worse, though. Need to try to baby that a bit for the rest of this week. The muscle just below the knee (on the back) keeps siezing up (just the left one, often- but sometimes both) after the frog jumps in Cindy's warmup. Sometimes it then continues to niggle a bit later in the day. Maybe a little extra stretching of that one right before class is in order.

Wednesday lunchtime class at Cindy's. Wednesday lunchtime is supposed to be gi, but Cindy's school is so heavily geared toward no-gi... many of her students don't even *own* a gi. We rarely do stuff that actually requres a gi- and even when we do, Cindy always has an alternative work-around version for no-gi. For today, I knew that Frank and George were going to be there, and they don't own gi's. So I got rid of my gi jacket before the warm-ups!

Moderately intense version of warmups today. Lamont is having trouble with the Dead Bugs. I had to give him a little flak. Lots of ab exercises. The ones where you lie on the floor and hold your partner's ankles, and lift both legs straight up, then back down (don't touch floor) then the same diagonally to the sides. Wheelbarrows. Partnered triangle drill. Lie on the floor and hold partner's ankles again, lift legs straight up, and pop hips up to touch your toes to the partner's outstretched hands. Ab conditioning exercises can get pretty grueling when you do a whole bunch of different ones in succession.

We reviewed the scarf hold escape #1 again- push face, hip out, lift leg over opponent's head, push down. Rotating reps with every classmate. Abs hurt, after all the exercises!

Then, side control escape. Frame up (make sure to cup the shoulder, don't just let the hand float uselessly there... also, tip the elbow up against the jawbone), bridge, get crossways underhook (shrug it HIGH on shoulder), Roll over to get to knees (you can walk the feet out first if you want). Opponent whizzers, you pull his ankle out and hop both your knees behind it. Now you can limp the arm out and take his back.

I have been thinking that it might be worth laying off sparring for a while and just doing drills, in light of my frustrations. Just a break. The problem is, I can't really avoid the positional training- which is just as frustrating (if not worse, because I have fewer options). We did positional training from closed guard, side control, and back mount. I did bail after that, though... there were only 15 min left in the class, and we had done class from 2 to 4 today instead of 12-2... so I actually did really want to get the heck out of Seattle before 4pm and the height of Rush-Four-Hours.

I had just enough time to go home, shower, and change before evening class at Gracie's Bellevue. I had told Angela I would be there to work with her in no-gi, so I had committed myself to show up. I thought I was going to be completely zombified, but it was actually BETTER (this time, anyhow) to just keep the momentum going. The problems arise if I have time for a nap between lunchtime class and evening class!


Gi hour followed by no-gi hour. I worked with (white belt) Kevin for the gi class. I haven't seen him in months- it was nice to have him back.

I did something _right_ in warmups today. I try to do everything on both sides, on general principles... except of course in the case of things I've never seen before and am fumbling to do correctly on *ONE* side. I also know for a fact that it's important to Carlos that we try to do things on both sides. He even switches sides every time he does a demo.

Today we were doing sprawl, sit-out, grab guard, tactical stand. I am still fumbling a little with the leg motion of grabbing guard, but I did my best to do alternating sides. After the exercise, Carlos pointed out me and two others as being the only ones in the whole class who had done the technique on both sides as we all should. So it's cool to be on his "nice" list instead of his "naughty" list for now!

We started with standing same-side lapel grip and elbow grip- pull guard. Remember to put the foot on the hip on the same side that you have the opponent's ELBOW- that way he can't grab your foot.

Then let go of the lapel and grab the cross sleeve cuff. The elbow grip moves up to the armpit, Yank the opponent forward and across you. Don't forget to use your legs to help you yank him forward.

Hip out, let go of the armpit and reach across the opponent's back to grab under the OTHER armpit. Do not let go of the sleeve, or the opponent will get back on top of you. Get half guard.

Get on top and get hooks in. DO NOT post your arms over the opponent's head. Linger long enough to get your points.

Roll opponent over and cross collar choke. Remember to not be under his arm. If he pulls that second lapel out of your reach, THEN you grab his arm, stretch it out, and place your hand on your opposite bicep to choke. DO NOT place your hand on the back of his head- this can be seen as an illegal cervical crank.

A little positional sparring- Ron and Ritchie. Neither of them tapped me tonight (I am really fighting hard to not tap to Ritchie). I seemed to do slightly better than usual against Ron. Ritchie and I got each other into a bizarre position where we were angled north-south and simultaneously
triangling each other. Neither of us could quite finish, but we were both afraid to move for fear that the other would finish.

No-gi. Starting with standup pummelling. Then standup forehead-to-forehead, hook behind the neck and grip just above the elbow. Push and pull back and forth. Then as your opponent pushes, you change your level, push her elbow up, duck under and get the back. At the same time, you are dragging the behind-the-neck hand with all your weight on it. This ends in a takedown with you on the back.

It is important to be in really close while you are stepping past the opponent and going to the back. Professor Carlos came over to correct Angela and me on this point. He had us do the technique up against the wall so that we had to step in close. Thank Rickson the wall is matted- because the first time Angela did the technique, she slammed me headfirst right into the wall so hard and fast that I couldn't suppress a squawk of suprised dismay.

Having Angela hanging her weight on your neck and grinding you to the floor is no joke. I was going down HARD on my hands and knees (hurt my right wrist a bit). She has either done this one before, or picked it up quickly, because she was able to help me out when I fumbled.

Then we went right into timed spars, which vexed me a bit because my idea of laying off sparring for a while is not going so well. There isn't really an "open mat" on Wednesdays at Bellevue, and we had started the no-gi a little late anyway, so I thought I'd be off the hook- but we ended up doing an entire HOUR of timed no-gi spars. I didn't want to bail out on Angela. I fought her, then some white belt guy, then Angela again.

White belt guy was playing teacher, and he let me have a couple of taps- although he was pretty resistant to chokes. I had to give up on a few, and persist on a few others to a crazy extent.

Angela- I know that I want to avoid her closed guard, and I had moderate success at that, altho she got me a few times. The reason I don't want to be there is that it usually ends in a triangle- and she got me a few times with that as well, although I managed to escape before tapping. She transitioned to armbars a few times, though, and I didn't do nearly so well escaping these.

Note to self- do not engage in wars of strength with Angela. She is stronger than me.

Things are bad for me when she gets on top- although she has short legs, which I was able to exploit a few times by getting ahold of her foot. I also managed to whisk out the back door more than once.

I got front mount and side control on her a few times, but I couldn't do crap from there. Tried a few chokes, with no joy. Keylocks and armbars, likewise. Almost got her turned enough to try for a kimura once, but not quite. Got a KOB once, although she shrimped out before I would have gotten points.

I spent quite a bit of time dancing around her, trying to get in on her without ending up on the bottom. Note to self, trying to control her foot/feet is a bad idea. I tried that a few times, and it ended very poorly for me. Several times, though, I managed to disengage and get to my feet to try to come in on her again while she was sitting.

Another note to self- if she starts to get to *HER* feet, pounce. She got to her feet once, and I thought, "This does not bode well." She guillotined me and yanked me up on my toes trying to finish it. When I wouldn't tap, she tiptoed me over to the wall and shoved me up against it, trying to finish. Still no tap, so then we moved on to the cupping-the-back-of-the-neck and hauling down hard with her weight behind it. Down hard on hands and knees again, but I'm happy to say I still did not tap. She was on top, though... time ran out before she could smoosh me again.

It was a long, challenging no-gi session with Angela... good stuff.

Carlos teased me because my water wasn't pink tonight (I often have zero-cal pink lemonade or fruit punch Crystal Light in it). Then he tried to talk me into coming to next Saturday's group picture and BBQ, and teased me about my reluctance to have my picture taken. The last time someone was taking pictures at the school, I skulked away.

(pic- Jim)

Gingerbread milkshakes!

Back up to 130 on the scale. I blame my stress-fueled candy 0rgy on Friday after the vet's; and the fact that I hit Pizza Hut on Sunday in between work and Lindsey's class because I didn't have time for anything else; and then lunch with SK after practice yesterday. Although I WILL note that the first thing I saw when we walked into the Red Robin was a cardboard table tent advertising gingerbread milkshakes. Red Robin has good milkshakes and malts. With whipped cream, and they give you the metal cup of leftovers that has almost a second full shake in it. I got a salad and a water. The salad was one of those big ones with breaded chicken tenders, cheese, bacon bits, and honey mustard dressing- so it was not really a healthy salad. But it was healthier than a gingerbread milkshake- which I had to watch SK devour. It's not fair. He can eat whatever he wants, and he's still going to look like a Calvin Klein underwear model. I am going to have to watch it this week if I don't want to find myself climbing back up into the 130's again. To make matters worse, some Bad Santa filled the jar on the kitchen counter with mini peanut butter cups.


Tuesday morning no-gi at Cindy's. I was dragging a bit- feeling tired, sore, and I had a little headache which slowly got worse as the afternoon went on.

We did some more of the same scarf hold reversals that we'd done last night.

Then start in scarf hold, get the elbow down, get one hook in, punch your top arm over the opponent's shoulder, and get to knees. You may be able to armlock that arm; but if not, take the back.

Then: pretend you're going for scarf hold reveral number one, and walk your hips out. The opponent scoots after you, chasing you. Hug him with both arms (there's that gable grip again), tuck your hip under his, and roll him first up towards his head and then over to reverse. His own scooting momentum should help you roll him. I've drilled this one a few times before at Gracie's, so it was familiar.

Positional sparring from closed guard. After being pwn'ed by Cindy, George, and then Frank, I lost it again. When I found myself being helplessly mounted by Frank for the eleventy-eighth time, I exclaimed, "God DAMN it!!!", extricated myself, and stormed out the door to sit on the steps for a few minutes and collect myself.

While I was outside, Cindy must have told George to throw me a bone (or maybe he took the cue by himself), because when I came back and restarted, I tapped him four times in as many minutes. I appreciate that people are trying to be nice, but it really doesn't make me feel any better- it's not like I don't *KNOW* they're letting me have stuff. Then Cindy again- she didn't give me any subs (I don't think she ever has handed me a sub), but she went light on me and let me have some positions.

(pic- I don't even know any of these women, but I thought it was a great picture. Look at those guns!)

Kiu Two clinic

SK and I went to my (non-MA) gym today and spent two hours on Kiu Two and Tiger drills. Then I repaid him for the lesson by buying him lunch.

Tiger drills probably lasted 30 min- maybe not even that long- and yet my knees are in agony. I'm glad we did them *after* working on Kiu Two. Note for the future... don't start the lesson with these, if you want to get other stuff done.

I also was disappointed that they didn't come back as swiftly as I expected. They were pretty rough. Yeah, I've neglected them for too long, but I did practice them a LOT up until summer. I'm glad I got this refresher before we start our Tiger/Crane semester shortly.

I have wonderful detailed notes on all of the Tiger drills (the ones from SK's class and also the ones from CC), but I was vexed to not be able to find the file. My housemate did an "upgrade" (ahem) on my computer while I was out of town in June, and now I can't access the majority of my own files. Some of the ones I *can* access appear to be earlier versions- they are missing stuff, and the formatting is all fubar'ed. Shoulda stuck to the paper notebook. I'll have to do some more digging around... I hope that stuff is not lost for good.

Kiu Two:

Don't do the Peter Rabbit bouncing-up-on-the-toes routine on the strikes. Keep heels on the floor and head one one level.

Extend the strikes fully. (Yes, I'm still reminding myself of this, because I'm STILL not doing it right)

Part A:

At the beginning, at the cover and draw back (right before the wrap)- the Snakes are at a sharper angle, not as extended as I have been making them. This is a defensive position.

On the first kick to the knee, turn the hips sideways.

Sweep.... After the little hop back, SK had me set my foot down closer to my support foot. This really made a dramatic difference- in fact it may be the key to getting this thing whipped into shape. It made it much easier to keep my balance throughout the spin, because my weight was better centered above the foot. The momentum was also easier to keep going.

Note- aim for the opponent's FRONT leg.

I didn't get to work it as much as I wanted it to, because my knees started hurting too much.

The pak sau/axe hand strike at the end- lots of twisty wrist movement, but very little arm movement above the wrist.

Part B:

The defensive leg circle swings outward, but not as much as I have been swinging it. Bring the knee up more through the middle.

Kick- the hips are also facing the side in this one. Make sure to target the back knee. Make it snappy, and then do not let the knee bend going into the spin. As the kick is extended, let the toe of the support foot turn back. This will make the spin much easier.

After this spin- this is another place where the Snakes should not be extended quite as much. Draw them in more.

Snake strike sequence: Make sure the nonstriking hand is still in front, in Snake formation, like a regular Snake gaurd.

The last part of Section B:

After the bong sau strike, the left hand comes up and over in a crossways bridge-crashing, striking with the little-finger side of the heel of that hand. Right hand chambers.

Crossways press block with the right hand. Left chambers.

Left crossways Snake strike, waist level. Right chambers.

Pull hands back to right hip, weight on right foot, cat stance. Regular Snake closing, just like part A.

Note for both closings... After feet are together at the end, do an extra arm circle inward, end palms down.

After working on both sides for a really long time, we worked it together. SK kept stopping to ask if he was hurting me too much by bashing me with his splint, but I was more worried about him getting carried away and putting too much power into his techniques... he's off work because he is supposed to be RESTING his broken wrist, not abusing it even more than he would be if he was moving furniture at work!

I had to make a lot of adjustments the first several times through to make sure I was at a proper distance... many times I found myself out of range, especially as SK does not need to be in so close due to his much longer limbs. For the kick sequence in particular, I had to make an extra little hop inward to have any hope of reaching his knee.

I also have to pay close attention to not pre-empt the opponent.

The end sequence- once we got it smoothed out- was OFF THE HOOK. A flurry of complex Snakey strikes back and forth, really fast, and correlated perfectly. It was so cool, and much fun. We just kept going faster and faster!

Tiger drills.... I'm going to search some more for the files with my notes, and if I can't find them, I'll try to recreate descriptions of the six that we worked on today.

The one with the side kick: It's okay to strart bringing the leg back *before* planting the hands on the ground. This solves the persistant problem I was having in the past, with both of the possible hand positions creating problems for getting that leg back smoothly.

The one with the reap- don't circle the leg around so much, bring it more up through the center.

The one with the twisty takedown: Take a wider stance with the scissor stance; if you don't put your leg back far enough at that point, you will have to readjust while you're trying to complete the turn.

The one with the elbow strikes and hammer fist- that first elbow strike comes from right under your chin and hits with the end of the elbow.

For all- don't get so focussed on your primary
striking hand that you forget to keep gripping the opponent's wrist and holding it OUT where you want it.


Later......................


Monday night gi class at Cindy's. Lamont forgot his gi AGAIN... and several of those other guys don't even own gi's... so there were only about three of us gi'ed up. As soon as I saw that we weren't doing techniques involving the lapels or sleeves, I shucked my gi top.

Escape from scarf. Grip the opponent's shoulder (I always forget that). Press his face to make him look away. Walk hips out, throw distal leg over opponent's head and press down/back. Sometimes you don't even have to use that leg; if he's going down, just go with it.

After we'd drilled that, we worked on some arm attacks from scarf.

Assuming you have opponent's right arm across your lap:

Grab the wrist with your left hand and cover the arm with your right leg. Triangle-lock with your left leg. Shoulder lock.

OR: Step over opponent's head with your left leg. Get your foot under his head and tighten everything up to hold him there. You may be able to triangle him. Or- attack his arm. You can keylock or straight-armbar. Also- you can sit on the head and switch to kimura.

This was all a lot for me to remember, but I got in a lot of reps, so I hope some of it sticks. If it sticks, that's a lot of nice options to choose from, and if one doesn't work, I can go to plan B or C or D, which would be nice.

We didn't have much sparring time because the capoeira class follows us at 7:30 on Monday nights. I only got a few minutes with George. He basically just crouched there and let me try to choke him from the back. I remembered to try to get the hooks in first (well, okay, I remembered more often than I forgot), but I wasn't doing too well finishing the chokes. I tried a few guillotines, too, but he kept moving to the side and not letting me get half or full guard to have the leverage to finish it.

(Pic- that's my LEFT arm today, the one that wasn't photographing well before. The bruising has darkened up quite a bit.)

"Does not participate well"

Lindsey's class.... which I stayed for the entirety of, for a change, since kung fu was cancelled today.

We did a number of basic BJJ moves.... turtle to side control, seated ankle pick to guard pass, bullfight, triangles.

I worked with Jeff part of the time, and thus got to push it a little.... although he injured his ribs snowboarding, so we had to go slightly lighter than normal. He told me that he was going to recommend that I recieve a "Does not participate well" note for this class, as many of our drill reps sort of turned into sparring. Hey, it takes two, buddy!

Some of the time I worked with one of the new young ladies. There are two or three who seem like they might actually have some interest and aptitude for BJJ- including the long-legged gal I worked with a bit last week. So in those cases, I was tutoring a little. I think coming into a small subgroup like this and learning some basics must be easier for new women than doing the sink-or-swim in the regular class with all the big guys. This class could be a good source of some new female BJJ students. Lindsey had them actually gi up today, too.

The no-stripe blue belt guy came over to give her some instruction too... but if I may be so bold, he didn't explain it too well- and he gave too many details too soon. A triangle is a complicated technique for a newbie. When he wandered away, I could tell she was lost, so I said to her, "Just focus on this first part for right now." We drilled the setup without finishing the triangle, and when she seemed like she had that down okay, THEN I would add one detail or one new part at a time, and we would drill it some more till she was comfortable.

A little king-of-the-hill positional training, with Lindsey and blue belt guy on the middle and the rest of us cycling through, starting in top side control. Mission: keep top side control. (Jeff was sitting out by then... his ribs were getting more painful as the class went on).

I don't think blue belt guy was taking me very seriously (this is the same guy who jumped the line on me last week), but he seemed to be reassessing the situation after I cycled through him twice and he had a bitch of a time getting out of my side control. Once, he finally got my pantleg and pulled me into his closed guard with it. The next time, after we'd wrassled there for a long time, he resorted to the no-technique-all-muscle-pick-up-and-flip-over (I am no longer going to dignify this maneuver by calling it a "sweep"... I shall have to come up with a sardonic moniker for it).

When I got Lindsey, I tried to stay light, keep moving, and stay on top- and did fairly well. I stayed on his back quite a bit. Tried to be better about getting and keeping hooks, and about not trying to go for chokes unless I had both hooks first. Lindsey let me tap him a couple of times... once with one of those choke-from-behind-while-pulling-the-pantleg things.

The king-of-the-hill was nice, because it worked well for the varying levels of people present.

I am now alternating each class between my orignal CK tornado ear guards and the new Brute ones. As soon as I puzzle out the Gordian Knot straps on the new pair of CK's, I'll add those to the rotation ("easily adjustable!", my butt!). My latest hematoma is almost gone- it is going away by itself, thank Rickson- but I'm going to hold off on using the Asics earguards for a while longer, since they rub right on that area.

(pic: Santa and Mrs. Claus visted the Clackamas County Animal Shelter this week to have pics taken with some of the canine orphans. The Clauses bear a remarkable resemblence to RS and TS.)

Gracie Barra Death March

Pic: This is part of my right arm this morning. The left arm isn't photographing very well, but it sports an impressive purple and green area twice the size of this one.


Friday morning "competition class" at Gracie Seattle. Um, yeah. More like The Gracie Barra Death March.

I was pretty tired this morning, and it was a struggle to get out the door for class. If I'd known what awaited me, I'd have stayed in bed for sure.

Fred is back! He has been gone for five months. I thought he was dead. He wasn't training at all for those five months, either. Today almost *did* kill him.

Carlos (yet another Carlos) is back too- haven't seen him for more like eight months. He brought a girl with him. Good. I hope that means he won't be hitting on me on the mat any more. (Said girl did not come in to train, of course... she came in to sit on the edge of the mat and text, and look bored.)

Run, run, run. High knees. Kick heels. Inside shuffle. Outside shuffle. Three in, three out. Run, run, run. Lots of running is the worst for me, with my reduced lung capacity.

Cardio-Till-You-Puke. Jumping jacks. Jogging-in-place-to-sprawls. Triangles. Come in late- 20 extra pushups. Squats. Lunges. More pushups. It's okay if white belts pause momentarily to hunch hands-on-knees, gasping for air- but that is NOT ACCEPTABLE for blue belts on up. Burpees. Sprawl-to-sit-to-tactical-lift. Faster. More pushups. Armbars from guard. No water allowed. Bicycles. Post on supine partner's chest as you go KOB on one side, then the other. Faster. Chewing gum on the mat- 20 extra pushups. Side control to KOB and back to side control. Partnered triangles. If you are too slow, you AND YOUR PARTNER get 20 extra pushups. Bridges. Crunches. Armbars from mount. Fumbling on what grip to use or which arm to grab? 20 extra pushups for you AND YOUR PARTNER. Leapfrog over partner's back and then crawl between his legs. More jumping jacks. More pushups.

Then we were divided into five groups by size, and given a king-of-the-hill positional training exercise. My group's assignment was to start in high mount with cross collar choke. Top person: finish choke. Bottom person: escape. Bryan was in my group because he is still on the "light duty" injured list. He says my cross collar choke grips are still not deep enough. He also pulled Bree off me once because he thought I'd gone out. I was pak-sau'ing her left elbow in (that pak sau comes in darn useful on the BJJ mat) and she wasn't getting the choke... but I'd closed my eyes because her lapel was scraping my contact lens out of my eye. Bryan said, "Keep your eyes open so we can see you're conscious!"

By the end, I felt weak as a kitten and in no shape to stay for any open mat.



I missed Cindy's Friday night no-gi class because my diabetic cat had a hypoglycemic emergency and I had to rush him to the vet. He is fine now... I think the only lasting damage is to my Master Card and the percentage of grey hairs on my head. He scared me pretty bad, though. The incident stressed me out so much that instead of going to class, I spent the rest of the evening in a bubble bath with an enormous bag of York Peppermint Patties.

Two-person strike/block sequences

Thursday morning no-gi at Cindy's. Frank is back! He's been out for more than a month with an injury.

More bottom-half-guard escape. I wasn't doing quite as well today as I did yesterday; my focus just wasn't there for some reason. It was good to get some reps on Frank, though- he's a big guy and a vastly different body type to practice on.

Relay sparring. I wasn't having a particularly good day with this, either. Cindy was whizzering my arm and then sweeping me, dumping me on my back without letting go of the whizzer- and the first time she did it, my shoulder made a dramatic popping sound. It scared Cindy pretty bad; she thought she'd broken my shoulder! But it didn't hurt at all.

Note to self- don't let her get that whizzer. But if she does, make sure you hold her foot down so that she can't sweep with it. For some reason I kept thinking that if I moved over to the side, everything was going to be fine- and it never was.


Later................


Thursday evening kung fu.... It was just SK, Nemesis, and me. SK said that DD was going to show up later, but he never did (color me surprised....not).

The University of Washington classroom that we are using is not the greatest environment. Besides the tile floor, there is the STATE of the floor. Apparently there are no janitors. The garbage appears to be collected once in a while, but the rooms get cleaned ONLY between semesters. Yes, that's right- there is an entire semester's worth of dirt, food, spilled soda, papers, styrofoam coffee cups, broken pencils, and other detritus on the floor. It's disgusting. Before class, I have to crawl around and try to pick up all the sharp staples, paperclips, and other dangerous hazards. The soles of my feet are BLACK by the end of class.

What money the college is saving by not hiring janitors, it is apparently channeling into heating the building to a temperature just shy of SAUNA. I don't know how anyone can stay awake through an hour's worth of lecture in these rooms. And we're WORKING OUT in them.

It was a rather intense class tonight, full of things I'm really bad at- namely, memorizing sequences. Luckily, the focus that I was having trouble finding this morning came back to me for tonight, and I was able to keep up. I felt like my brain was going to implode by the end, though.

We started out by doing short timed periods of striking the pad- trying to keep up a steady flow. Arms and legs, then just legs, then just arms. Holding the pad for Nemesis is always a teeth-gritting experience. He didn't knock me down, although he did kick an audible grunt out of me once.

Then the sequences....

First, a two-person Hung Gar style strike/block exercise.

1-Right arm- ridge hand inward at waist level. (contact thumb side of forearm)
2-Continue circle till palm is in front of nose. (contact thumb side of forearm)
3-Retrace the circle back down (contact little-finger side of forearm)
4-Continue THAT circle around till your palm is in front of nose again- this that one involves turning the hand in a Crane-like fashion as you make the upward arc (contact little-finger side of forearm)
5-willow palm to opponent's face

Repeat with left arm.

After we'd done this about a zillion times as a line drill, Nemesis and I did it on each other. Mama Mia. Among the many attributes that make Nemesis *NEMESIS* are 1)he hits really hard, and 2)he is a BONY mofo. It was like being beaten with a couple of iron bars.

Next up- a two-person Wing Chun attack and defense drill.

Part A:
Right palm-heel to solar plex
Left straight punch to chest
Right uppercut to belly
Left punch to nose (only with the thumb side pointing up this time)

Trying to keep all four strikes flowing in an even tempo, with the chamber of each powering the next strike and the energy bouncing back to recycle all the way through the sequence.

Part B:
Left Midgate bon sau
Ton sau
press block down
Crane's neck straight up to forehead level

Again, trying to get the timing and energy flowing flast and smooth.

Then both parts mirrored (ie, start part A with LEFT palm-heel, etc).

After a jillion reps of that one, Nemesis and I each took one part and did them on each other- all four ways. I had to ask him to lighten up, more than once, especially towards the end.

When we were finished with these two exercises, I doused both my forearms in Jow. It'll be interesting to see what they look like in the morning. I hope they will be functional for lunchtime BJJ at Gracie's.

The final 30 min of Thursday class is for individual forms practice. Nemesis wanted SK to teach him the last little piece of Kiu Two, which he's missed on Sunday due to being absent with his injured knee. I figured I could use more practice on that myself, so I joined them.

Notes to self-

After the sweep and the block-up, block-down: That first Snake strike, don't chamber the left hand. Have it out front like a regular Snake guard. Also, I'm still not extending my Snake strikes far enough.

I'm still wanting to put too much upper-body movement into the whole holding-the-ball part.

The axe hand is actually moving to the SIDE (towards the midpoint of the body), not as much downward as I have been doing it.


SK is off work for three weeks- the doc doesn't want him to lift heavy stuff with his broken wrist. He's bored out of his gourd already. He was whining tonight that he can't even play video games. He offered to get together and practice sometime during the weekdays. Yowza! That would be great. In fact, that might be just what I need right now to kick-start my kung fu again. The only thing that makes this less than perfect is that we can't spar. (sigh) But I'll take it.

We talked a bit about some of the things I discussed with RS, and what we might do to improve the class. He agrees heartily with the assessment that he is "up to his ass in alligators". I suggested that I might possibly try e-mailing RS, and see if he would be willing to talk to SK and maybe give him some advice and support. SK greeted the idea with enthusiastic relief. That would be great, if that worked out.

(pic- Renzo and Julie)

Gi, gi, no-gi

Amusing interlude in dreamland....

On Sunday, I had inadvertantly gone to work without my folding knives. For the last six or so years- since I took my first knife class- the times that I have left the house without my knives could be counted on one hand, and have fingers left over. I feel so naked without them!

Last night, I had a dream in which I was attacked. I reached for my knives, and thought, "Oh, crap! That's right, I forgot them! Wouldn't ya just know it!" So I had to fight the guy off empty-handed. I'm pleased to say that I beat him anyway, though!


Wednesday morning at Cindy's. It was just the two of us today.... love it when that happens. I asked if we could drill the bottom half guard escapes that we have worked on, so we did that for a good while. Still haven't quite cemented the habit of getting the underhook, and getting it high enough. Still fumbling the legs a bit, too. But getting better. The drills are helping. The most important part of the sequences is getting the legs locked down correctly and tightly, and making sure you're wedged right under the opponent's butt, so that when you start doing the accordian motions, you move HIM and not YOU. Move him around and mess with his balance, and depending on what he does to try to stabilize himself, that will tell you which of the techniques to use- take the back or the sweep.

We worked in a third variation, that is reminiscent of the "Old school sweep" in that you get in really deep, grab the foot, and feed it to your opposite hand. Then hug the knee in tight, and once more it depends on what the opponent does to try to compensate- you either roll him or bulldoze him onto his back.

After we'd drilled all these quite a bit, I started in bottom half guard and we did some low-key positional training- in which I had to do the opening moves that are common to all these sequences, and then decide which of the finishers to choose based on what Cindy was doing. That was REEEEEEEEEEEEALLy helpful. Of course as soon as we started something that seemed more like "sparring" than "drilling", I started wanting to panic and rush and skip steps and get sloppy.... every time I did that, Cindy made me stop and go back. Thinking on my feet (so to speak) is one of my big weaknesses, and this exercise was making me do that. It was also making me look at my opponent's balance and where she was posting, and analyze where I had to make her go based on that (another thing I don't do very well under pressure). In this case, there was just enough pressure to make it more real, but not enough to make me panicky- and since I only had three options, my brain didn't short out trying to decide what to do. I'd like to work this exercise a lot more.

While we were working on this, I was able to figure out exactly what went wrong in my second Revolution match. Wish I had video, but I'm pretty sure I know now. I was in bottom half guard, and I had my top leg wrapped and locked around Rachel's leg. I had my body shrimped out to the side pretty well, but I was afraid to unwrap my leg and release her leg- and I kept trying to turn my body belly down enough so that I could get to my knee, but I couldn't do it without unwrapping the leg- thus I was stuck. Rachel must have had her arm around my neck- I don't remember that detail, but when Cindy did that to me, it was like, "Oh yeah, THIS is how that was". As soon as I got rid of the arm by shoving it over my head (or by shoving my head under the arm), I found that I was able to turn my body enough to get to my knee without releasing my leg wrap. It was a surprising discovery. I had thought the situation was all about the legs, but it wasn't- it was all about the HEAD. My focus had been on the wrong body part.

After bottom-half-guard positional sparring, we just sparred. When I found myself in Cindy's guard, I remembered the frustrating situation with the white belt guy last night (a recurrent fustrating situation)- where I had one arm in trying to control the thigh, and he just grabbed my sleeve or elbow and yanked the arm forcefully forward so that he could fully close guard on me. I asked Cindy what I could do to stop that, and she told me not to- to stop hunching low in people's guard and trying to keep one of their thighs pressed down. She had me do it, and showed me how easy it was for her to triangle me without even having to jump her hips up. I felt stupid... but I guess a lot of the white belts I work with just don't know enough to nail me with that on a consistent enough basis for me to make the connection. Instead, Cindy wants me to just accept the closed guard, posture up, and start working from there. (However, she is a big fan of doing whatever you can to stay out of the opponent's guard in the first place.... she always says that it's more work to get out of it than it is to KEEP out of it.)

Knee-on-belly was a topic of discussion as well. I tried to do KOB while hunching low, and found myself in a particularly unpleasant headlock followed by being flipped over onto my back and having Cindy roll right over my face and end on top. Okay, I can see THAT's not going to work. No low-hunching KOB. In fact KOB in general is probably not a great option for me.

Another thing- when a roll (or even positional sparring) begins, Cindy wants me to be more assertive about getting a little jump on the other person by immediately getting into whatever position *I* want (and paying attention to the details of where I want each appendage to be) instead of letting the opponent decide where he wants to go. For instance, make a habit of thrusting that underhook in immediately. Apparently, I'm being too polite and retiring... "After you!" "Oh, no, I couldn't, you really must go first." "I insist!" "Please do precede me."

We also ran into a few situations where it was beneficial to me to grab the foot and control it, like we had been doing in our new technique sequence earlier. "Clinging isn't necessarily BAD, we just have to make sure you're clinging to the right things." LOL.



I feel like we got a lot of really good work done today. I always feel that way after a private class with Cindy, but wow does it ever tire me out. It always makes skipping evening class look very attractive (sometimes too attractive to resist)! However, I had already committed myself by having told Angela that I would be at Gracie's Bellevue for no-gi. So off I went.



Wednesday evening in Bellevue is 1 hour of gi followed by 1 hour of no-gi. No open mat. Often I am too tired after an hour of gi to stay for the no-gi. Tonight, I had already set myself up, so I was determined to last it out.

One guy was late, at Carlos made him stop at the edge of the mat and do 20 pushups before he joined the class. Something to keep in mind when I'm straggling to get out of the house. Although I'll tell you, having Rodrigo be so nice about it and take extra time to help me with technique made me feel WORSE about being late than doing punishment pushups would make me feel!

I got a lot of corrections today, but I didn't get a sense of being picked on or anything (any more than usual, that is). JB thinks that maybe Carlos holds a grudge against me for the duel-repping thing. I'm not getting a sense of that. When someone reprimands me, or makes me aware that they're unhappy with me, I tend to cringe under that person's eye for a good long time afterward. But one thing I figured out early on with Rodrigo is that even after he reprimands you, you don't feel like he's looking at you the next hour, or the next day, thinking "There she is, who did that stupid thing before class...." It's like he reprimands you and then the matter is closed and in the past. You don't have to linger in the doghouse. I like that. Maybe Carlos is the same way. Maybe it's a cultural thing.

Note to self, Carlos prefers people to wear shorts to his no-gi glass as opposed to gi pants.

I was relieved that we were not doing the clock chokes again. The skin along my jawline is still raw and stingy from last night, and I wasn't looking forward to another dose of that.

We did pendulum sweep and triangles from guard. Only one quick demo, because apparently most of these people did these same techniques on Monday. I wasn't here on Monday. When my partner forgot to step his leg up for me on the pendulum sweep, I forgot about that as well, and was trying to sweep him without it. Much trickier. I also needed a correction on the grips. I was okay with the triangles, and tried to help my partner with them (he was a triangle virgin).

A little positional sparring from closed guard. Person on the bottom- triangle ONLY. Person on top, pass guard. If triangles are difficult, they are even MORE difficult when your opponent knows you are trying to get one, and that's all you're allowed to try. Angela had little trouble triangling me, but I was able to escape twice with an aggressive stack. She is not as flexible as JB. Then I got put with another white belt triangle virgin. I let him try a few, which I likewise escaped by stacking him. He got one on me without doing the body turn, and was trying to tap me by squeezing it. He was big and strong, and it HURT, but I try hard to not tap to white belts who are doing the technique incorrectly. Tapping to incorrect technique and excess muscle builds bad habits in the beginners, I think. So I let him squeeze till I got a bloody lip, but I wouldn't tap. Before I gave any advice, I asked him if he knew why it wasn't working. He said he did know, so I kept my mouth shut and let him try it again. I'm not sure he actually *did* know, but time got called before I had a chance to help him out.

No-gi. First we did some standing pummelling, then arm-drag to take the back. I got corrected on standing too close to my opponent- Carlos wants us to stand with our butts sticking out and our feet back while we're hugging the opponent from behind, so that we don't get taken down. He was also chuckling at me because I physically couldn't use my elbow to raise the opponent's arm and duck under it- when my partner's arms were in pummelling position, he was already tall enough that I didn't need to displace his arm to duck under his armpit (although I went through the motions of doing so anyway).

Then kneeling arm-drag. Drag the opponent ACROSS you and lock your arms around her sash-style, under one arm only. Gable grip (here is that grip again; why do I have so much trouble with this? I had to pause and re-orient my hands every time), use the elbow that is on the person's back to press her DOWN. I had a lot of trouble with this, too- half of it was cluelessness and the other half was not being able to get my stubby little arms all the way around my partner's torso. One you press her down, hip out a bit and get the second hook. Pause long enough to get your points (I got a lecture on that.... with both Cindy and Carlos on my case about that, hopefully it will sink in soon). Then choke or armbar. Angela had to help me a bit with the armbar... I needed to move my body out a bit in order to make sure her elbow was braced on it before levering. Then I needed help from Prof Carlos with the choke; as it was a head-and-arm choke where you brace your hand on your own bicep, and once again my stumpy dwarfish arms were inadequate to the task. Carlos had a work-around for me, though.


I am starting to make batches of food again which consist of things other than chicken breast and eggs. Still doing the chicken and eggs a lot, but trying to introduce a little more variety. I made some beef stew over rice, with extra mushrooms dumped in it- but I used brown rice instead of white rice. I don't like brown rice much, but I'm trying to make the healthier choice here and there. I divided the food up into my little one-cup-volume tupperwares. I make myself stop and reassess my hunger and how my body feels after one. I sometimes decide to have a second- or an hour or two later, I'm hungry again and have another- but it's better than sitting down with a big bowlful and just working through it.

I find that I can indulge my candy/baked goods cravings, within reason, and still keep my weight steady- as long as I am careful about meal portions. Controlled meal portions really seem to be the pivotal strategy for my body. Even with the chicken and eggs, part of what makes it work was that I had ONE chicken breast or TWO eggs at a time- it was a set, modest portion.

(pic- Jesse)