Del a Heevas, redux

The moment in which you know the real measure of your power, you don’t have to put on a show to prove your worth. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Class #2: basics
"Fireman's carry" takedown. I did not do very well with this one today. Even with Ritchie- who is the shortest and lightest person in the class aside from me- it worked better when I just squatted instead of knelt. 

Head and arm choke from sprawling on N/S on turtled opponent. We did it with going neck-to-armpit first, then armpit-to-neck. Grab your own bicep. Sometimes you can finish the choke right there, sometimes you can pull hir into your lap and finish it there, sometimes you do an alligator roll and then run your legs around to catch hir legs- that is very unpleasant.

Note that getting the opponent's shoulder collapsed in and getting your first arm in DEEP are the keys.

We have done this in Cindy's class before; it is more challenging in gi because there is a lot of extra bulk. I could barely reach my own bicep doing it on Ritchie, and only with a lot of shifting around and adjusting while he held still for me. I don't know if this is going to be practical for me to use on anyone bigger than an eight-year-old in a live roll.

Rotating spars with three or four different people.

Class #3: competition

All spars.  Again I was able to spend a decent amount of time on top, but only managed to finish one sub.

The prof put me down hard several times in succession, and informed me that he is going to keep doing it until I start pulling guard and working off my back.

After that, I had Adrian, and I was afraid to do anything *but* pull guard and try to work off my back, in case Carlos saw me and chewed me out for not listening.  I didn't get anywhere, of course, but I didn't spend quite as much time lying helplessly as I had feared I would.

I don't know what to do with this instruction. I suck so badly on the bottom that I really do not want to be there. I know that I'll never get any better at it unless I embrace it, but geez.... I'd be happier about going back and working on my worst aspects if only my BEST aspects were more adequate than they are.

Note, though- when I roll with Carlos, pull guard and try to work off my back. Sigh.

Class #3: I wasn't sure about this- I hadn't eaten much today, but for some reason I felt like I had the energy to do a fourth class. I started pooping out in warmups, though, so during the water break I drank half of a SlimFast.

"Del a Heevas" again: You have spider guard, feet on opponent's hips. Move your butt to the outside of hir left foot. Grab the heel and hook your rt leg around the outside of hir leg, with your toe on the inside of hir thigh. Use your other foot to  push on opponent's rt thigh just above the knee. You can also switch that sleeve cuff to your opposite hand (so that you're pulling opponent's arm between hir own legs) and get a lapel grip with the first hand.

My most common sin continues to be forgetting to grab the heel. Theer are just a lot of steps in this sucker to remember.

Note that a good lapel grip and pull twists the opponent around to make it even more difficult for hir to catch hirself. This is a very unpleasant takedown.  Done correctly, it results in a face-plant from standing- and a fairly vigorous one. If you do manage to stick part of an arm out to try to catch yourself (It's really hard to resist the urge), it's a good way to break a wrist, elbow or shoulder. I was not very happy to be doing this on my trick wrist, and I got fairly battered, but I lived through it. We were finishing in side control, and my partner was heavy enough to make me scramble to get my elbows framed up firmly on my tender ribs. My partner was groaning every time he hit the mat. As time went on, he started groaning as I braced myself to topple him- just to get a head start on the groaning.

We did a Brazillion reps of this, to exhaustion.... and I was just as glad to not have to do any additional sparring after that- as the capoeira folks were waiting to get on the mat.

That Guy!

Just like animals attack when they perceive fear and weakness, people can unconsciously feel a person’s power and will probably avoid conflict with those who are animated by deep self-confidence. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

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Friday:
Sore thighs! The ThighMaster has nothing on upa drills!
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Saturday FOD: Catherine Dao
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Sunday FOD: 5 Points Of the Star
Allie (the Clear Belt) has been purple-belted. I missed the announcement- because she didn't MAKE ONE.
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Monday FOD: White Crane Walking the Path
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Tuesday FOD: Kiu 2. I am happy to say that I did not mix up any of the parts today- all of the pieces of part one were in part one, and all of the pieces of part two were in part two.
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Wednesday FOD: Tai Chi short form.
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Thursday lunchtime BJJ Gracie Bellevue. I wish there weren't so many restaurants on this block. On my way in and out of class- and sometimes DURING, if it's hot and the door is open- I can smell all sorts of delicious food cooking. This I don't need, especially while I'm trying to watch my weight.

I was able to do pushups today, but the trick wrist continues to pop in and out. I almost screamed this morning when I sat up in bed and leaned on it.

There was a recent thread on Jui Jitsu Forums about bullies on the mat, and I referenced That Guy: the one that I knew- as soon as I saw him walk into the room- I wanted to stay far away from. He walks with his arms held away from his body as if he's holding a football in each armpit. He also walks bowlegged, as if he's trying to give the impression that his junk is so outsized that he has to swing his leg wide to clear it with every step he takes. You've seen this guy. I've seen him a hundred times, wearing a hundred different faces, and behind every one of them is an egotistical jackass.

Well, I resolved to never go near That Guy- but to my surprised dismay, Carlos paired me up with him today. As the guy bowlegs his way on over, Carlos says warningly, "You know how to go gentle?" Guy says, "I am a gentleman." Hmmm. We'll see.

Four seconds later, we all saw- as That Guy shoved my head down and sprawled on top, then picked me up in a bear hug and hurled me aside as if he was going up against Brock Lesnar in a ten million dollar NHB match. I don't think I've ever rolled with anyone who used anywhere NEAR that much muscle. Spazzy as heck, too. Fortunately, I was expecting exactly that- and while it was not much fun, I have enough experience at this point to be able to take a beating and mostly protect my breakable parts (ribs!). Carlos stopped us immediately and reminded The Guy to go gentle. I think he watched us the entire eight minutes, and stopped us twice more- once to tell The Guy to not knee-ride me so hard, and once more to tell me to pull guard (???!). I know that's considered the "safe" option, especially against a big strong spazz, but for me it's the worst place to be. Doesn't he know by now that my sweeps suck, and that once I'm on the bottom, I'm just going to be lying down there till I get subbed? I'd rather end up in the guy's guard. My guard passes are decent, even if I can't break his guard and I have to wait for him to open with an attack. I know I need to work on my bottom game, but Hell, most of the time I wind up on the bottom sooner or later anyway- I don't need to intentionally *PUT* myself there.

It would've been really sweet to tap this guy (or put him out- I'd actually be really surprised if he would lower himself to tap to me)- but t'was not to be, at least not today. I came really close to setting up that alligator-roll cross choke on him, but he scooted out just as I was hesitating for a second wondering whether I dare actually go for it. But he didn't sub me, and he didn't injure me, and I didn't have to ask him to lighten up.

Eight matches total, eight minutes apiece, no breaks. The only person who subbed me was Ben, but I didn't get any subs either. I did spend significant time on top with almost all of my opponents (even That Guy, who did get a little less spazzy albeit no less muscley with the Prof's watchful eye on him).  That sweep from turtle- I tried it twice and did not succeed, but look forward to trying it some more. Now that I have a plan from that position and don't feel so helpless, I also noticed that if I have one of the opponent's ankles in my half guard, I may have the opportunity to roll him when he tries to pry me off with his free foot. I tried that on Max and didn't succeed, but I scared him, and he had to move.

Ees eet the belt?

If you don’t give up your power and your dignity, no one can take it from you. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Was tired this afternoon, and didn't feel much like going back to class. The 4:30 basics class has been doing less technique drilling lately and more sparring and positional training- which would be fine, except that the class tends to consist of a handful of spazzy white belts plus Ritchie. Having safe, considerate partners (like Dave, whom I had this morning) really makes a difference in both enjoyment of class and in getting anything valuable accomplished. Thus this is turning into one class that seems more skippable of late.

Comp class: all spars. Prof said, "Try to keel each other." Then looked at me and started to explain very seriously that this was only an expression. He also called me "Keeller Keetsune" which is what Lindsey always calls me (without the Portugese accent, of course).

I had cut my nails before class, but still somehow managed to scratch my own face severely enough to bleed all over the mat and have to take a break to hold paper towels over my nose for a while. I also kicked the Prof in the side of the head- medium-hard.

Ben- I remembered to stop lunging right into his half-guard- although that resolution met with mixed success as he often pulled me into it one way or another anyway. I also remembered the defense he showed me for that sweep that he likes- and he didn't get that one on me at all today. In fact, he mostly had to do different things today instead of getting me with the same handful of techniques over and over. This I count as progress for me.

I was in turtle at one point, with Ben on my side- I tried to do a sweep that I've drilled a few times over the years, where you capture the arm that the opponent has wrapped overtop of you, grab the pantleg that s/he has stretched out, and roll hir overtop of you. You end up on top. I have really liked it every time we've worked on it, but I've never managed to pull it off live even though I try it constantly. This time, when it didn't work, I stopped Ben and asked him what I was doing wrong. He didn't know... he said that he's never managed to get that one either. So after the timer went off, we asked the prof to go over it with us.

Turns out you DON'T grab the pantleg (at least for the variation he showed us tonight)- you trap that arm HARD, to the point of overbalancing the opponent if you can. Then (here's the salient point that I was flubbing) you have to stick your leg out behind the opponent. *THEN* roll.  Geez, I really want to get this on someone live.

Lindsey (different Lindsey- girl Lindsey- I've never worked with her before). She seemed a little lighter than me, and I think I was a little bit of a bully with my weight. But I so rarely get a chance to be on that side of the equation! She has an interesting flexibility that allows her to persistantly hook and trap a foot from bottom half guard, which was proving pesky for me.

The Prof- he actually gave me a clue today as to what he wants to see from me when I spar him. He says that I am way too tense and stiff and use too much strength. He seems to think that I roll with him differently than I roll with other people- that I don't do this quite as bad with others. I think I do it with everyone, and I know it's a bad habit to work on. He asked what was intimidating me so much to spar with him- "Ees eet the belt?" No, a major part of it is his long arms and legs. Each limb seems about a mile long, and yeah, that's hella intimidating, especially to someone whose limbs are very short and stubby.

Another part of it (I didn't tell him this; I didn't even really start to parse it until I was ruminating over it on the way home) is that I don't want him to think I'm not working hard. I feel like if I go in relaxed, it'll look like I'm not trying, and/or that I'm a wuss, and he won't take me seriously.... which is lame, since one of the main goals of any MA - but BJJ in particular- is to relax- it actually MAKES YOU BETTER! But it's one of those things where your brain intellectually understands it, but putting it into practical practice is a little trickier.

John's turn to POP

“Ask me about my bruises.”

Lunchtime BJJ Gracie Belle.

Wrist was okay except for pushups. Pushups were not happening.

I showed John that choke before class... the one I got the white belt with last night... regretted it later, ha ha!

Same pass from butterfly guard that we did yesterday. Note that the knees much be on the mat during the sprawl and tiptoe, otherwise the opponent may replace guard.

Another variation, with the same beginning: After you get the opponent's shin glued to hir own thigh and you grab the foot and the lapel, step over that pinned leg and straddle it, clamping it between your thighs. Now let go of the foot and reach UNDER opponent's far thigh (make sure you trap that foot while you're at it), and try to get the belt. The best I could do on a much larger drilling partner was the gi tail. Now sit out (facing opponent's feet) and go to front mount. I struggled with this one, as far as getting the steps in the correct order. I'm really glad I was in class yesterday and had seen the first technique, otherwise I would have struggled even harder with both. Felt bad for the brand-new white belt, who was as lost as a wide-eyed toddler all alone in the forest.

Notes on the upa: don't let the guy get all settled in on top of you before you go for it; buck him off WHILE he's mounting. As soon as he goes to hug your head, wrap your arm around his upper arm and grab your own lapel. This takes a little advance planning, as you often need to feed the lapel with your other hand. Resist the urge to grab his shoulder or gi with the other hand. That hand should be punching hard into the air right under his armpit.  I am being way too slow with this technique. Prof kept coming over to stand behind my head and call mount points for Dave because I wasn't bouncing him off in under three seconds.

One roll with John. I mostly stayed off the bottom. I tried to not get too locked up with him (which tends to end in strength-on-strength struggles, which I usually lose), and instead sort of skate and bounce around on top. In the cases where I did find myself on the bottom or in turtle, I forced myself to move and try to get out. Yes, it did open me up to worse- trying to get out of turtle almost always ends with me either in bottom side control (damn!) or back mounted, with those hooks in nice and deep- which is frustrating. But I have to try to get out, and just resign myself to tapping a lot more often while I'm doing it. I need to congratulate myself more for trying to get out- and tapping- than for fetal-positioning and avoiding the sub.  Maybe I just need to try to imagine we're on the street- and if I fetal-position, the assailant is just going to stand up and kick me in the head with his steel-toed boots. This may be one case where the "sport" aspect of this BJJ school is messing up my self-defense mindset. Lord knows I never fetal-positioned in Kung Fu. That's a good way to get the shit beaten out of you. You're not trying to avoid a sub in Kung Fu. You're trying to avoid getting slaughtered.

I set up that choke on him, but when I tried to do the roll, he fought it and ended up in top side control. Rats! I said, "I would have finished that if I hadn't shown you my cards before class!"

Something John is doing really well- and I told him this after we were finished- is that he conserves his energy and waits for me to make a move to sub. As soon as I do, he exploits either the space I created to make the move, or the energy I'm using to power it- or both! to do his own thing. It resulted in me getting intimidated to commit to an attack, because I knew as soon as I did, he'd explode into action and use me against myself (Cindy does that a lot too). He was also doing the "exploding" part really well- you could feel him relax, and suddenly, "POP!!!" He's of an age with me, and I observed to him that this is a really good old-folks' game for us to be playing instead of going strength vs strength on these young-uns.  I'd like to incorporate these lessons from John's game into my own game. I also really enjoy being able to say to some of my favorite high-blue-belt peers, "Here's something specific you're doing that seems to be really working well for you."  I think that's really valuable feedback (not to mention ego-pumps), and I hope more people will do that for me in the future.

There was also a one-stripe blue in there that I've never seen before; mental note to stay far away from that one. He made Glenn yelp during drills, and he was going balls-to-the-wall on Dave later during sparring- really rough.

Pop, pop

Inducing a certain state of mind is sufficient to control those who don’t know any other way than reacting to stimuli. - Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


Wednesday evening BJJ at Sleeper.

Opponent is in your closed guard. Grab hir rt lapel with your rt hand(cross grip) and hir elbow with your left. Hip-bump to place hir rt elbow on your belly, if it's not there already. Climb or jump the legs up so that you have hir rt shoulder trapped. (I continue to struggle with this- I wish I had longer legs.) Hir elbow should describe a 90-degree angle. Curl your  body to the left like a Cheeto to lock the wrist/elbow. If that doesn't get the tap, and s/he tries to pull the arm back the other way, let it go and turn your body 90 degrees with it. This is a very committed and decisive thigh thing here.... you should be cranking forcefully with both thighs in a scissoring motion and forcing hir head right down. Note that the toes need to point up (I got called out again on "ballerina toes" here).
Move the foot and finish the armbar.

Alternately, from when the opponent tries to pull the arm back the other way: let it go (helped along by your hand locked on the wrist) and quickly hoist your top half over hir back and grab hir lapel (the one nearest you) around her neck. Push into hir- most people instinctively push back- let hir own power roll hir over you to the other side. Now you have hir in clock choke position. You can also get an armbar from here just by catching the arm and straightening up (bonus if you put your hand behind hir neck), or another armbar by lying down and bringing your foot over to finish that way. I like the choke, though.

And yet another option- as they pull that arm back, you throw your knee over it to straddle the arm (the top of your foot is resting on the back of the opponent's neck), then continue the roll till you're on your side. Try to finish the armbar from there. Note that you really need to be tucked up to the person for this to work. If you don't get the tap here, you may be able to force the opponent into a roll, then finish a foot-over-the neck armbar once you have hir on hir back. I think this could be a good one for me- it seems to favor my short legs, and I feel agile enough with the movement to pull it off without kicking the person in the head.

Several spars- everyone twice, except for Drew (only once). Tried to keep moving, even though I was getting tired. I was delighted to tap a guy with that choke where you begin sprawled on top of the shoulders, get a collar grip and and under-the-armpit grip, and then roll them over you.... the one that I almost broke my own nose with by rolling that big cop over my own face a few weeks ago. It worked this time, and I didn't roll the guy over my face, although he didn't tap immediately upon being rolled and I had to crank it around a little. I seemed to have him well restrained, though, so I was able to adjust until he tapped. He was impressed. I also got him with a keylock. He got me with an armbar.

At one point, my trick wrist popped out, and I had to stop for a bit. Then it seemed okay, so I went back in, but it is being troublesome on and off. Usually when it does this, it pops in and out intermittently for a week or two before calming down. Resting it doesn't seem to be helpful- in fact I'm starting to think it has a better chance of popping back in if I keep working- so as long as I'm not screaming in pain, I guess I'm going to just try to work through it.

Lots of gi burn from the chokes tonight. Crossing fingers that we will not be working any gi chokes tomorrow.

Triangle City

The best commander attacks when the least skilled is still busy making plans. –Sun Tzu

Tuesday FOD: Silken Needle. (2, 2, 1)

Wednesday lunchtime BJJ at GB Sea.

Walked in and there was Vince in a brand new white belt. I said, "What the hell are you wearing? I saw your promotion picture on the web." "I forgot my belt." "ALREADY???!!" I teased him mercilessly for the whole class. He'll never forget it again!

You are in opponent's butterfly guard. Lie on hir stomach and have both elbows on mat tight to hir sides. Kick one leg back (make sure to turn the hips to the side as you do it) and bring the knee back alongside the other knee so that you are pinning one of the opponent's knees in. reach around the thigh and grab the foot. With the other hand, grab the lapel and MAKE SURE YOUR ELBOW IS ON THE MAT. Sprawl. Tiptoe around to the side. Transfer lapel grip to hug the neck. Transfer foot grip to far pantleg. Front mount. Then the bottom person upa's you off. Rinse, repeat. Note that when you are the bottom person, as soon as you know you are about to get mounted, start sliding that hand in for the underhook... don't wait around and think you can get it later (or- worse- grab around the neck instead).

I got to drill with Angela, and we hustled so as to get a ton of reps in.

Positional training from same opening- start struggling after opponent grabs your foot.  It was triangle day for Angela. No matter where the trip started, the last stop was always Triangle City. At one point I jerked my hand out and said, "Oh no you don't, not again!" And before I knew it she had triangled me on the *OTHER* side instead.

After drills, I took my jacket off and sat on the wall to take a break. Carlos was pairing people up for sparring, and he pointed at me. I said, "I need to take a rest first." He shook his head and told me to get on the mat. No one takes a girl seriously when she says she needs a break! So I went with Angus. He usually pounds me, and when I'm really tired it's worse. But it didn't go too bad this time.  

Right rear high rib injury- still hurting.... I had missed a couple days of training last week because I had to work extra, and I was hoping that the extra rest would make that go away....

Creativity

’Feeling’ other people’s intentions when there is no time  to comprehend is not a special talent reserved for enlightened masters.  Only a bad relationship with our perceptions and a poor regard for our intuition can take this fundamental weapon away from us. Centuries of strict rationalism and skeptical philosophies have contributed to undermine our natural sensitivity. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


YOWZAA!!!! Angela has been promoted to brown belt!!!!!!!!!   I'm so excited!!!

Vince got his blue! (He said to me most pathetically just about 2 weeks ago: "I'm *never* going to get a blue belt.")

Friday FOD: Five Animals. Both ways.

Turtle Drum- went well. Several attendees raving about how it sounded like there were voices and extra drums, extra flutes playing, but you'd walk around and realize that what you were hearing was coming from nobody corporeally present. Cool when that happens.

Some guy walked in off the street and played for a while. He obviously knew his way around a drum better than any of us there- he had all the fancy slaps and soloing going; unfortunately he was completely toasted and thus could not really color within the lines very well. He was a very interesting interlude, but I was just as happy when he wandered off again.

We had a couple of dancers- which we don't always have. It's always better with dancers. I hope they come again. I think they were a little freaked out by the wasted guy, though. The perils of running public events.... sigh.

Sunday FOD: Plum Blossom Fist

Spent a lot of time today researching Chinese mythology. The main takeaway- there are some European elements I've been using that I didn't really realize were QUITE that European. But lo and behold, every single one of them has a Chinese counterpart. I didn't really want to make my WIP *too* blatently Chinese because I'm terrified of making gross historical errors, and I didn't really want to do a crap-ton of research.... but I'm starting to slide toward a greater commitment to just ride with it. Definitely lots more research, though.   :(

There seems to be a strong call for more cultural variety in fantasy fiction.... but on the other hand, writing about non-white or non-hetero/non-monogamous characters still apparently makes some readers automatically pass up your story, and makes it harder to find a traditional publisher if you want to go that route.

Still, some of the crap I've seen lately.... As I commented recently on Mythic Scribes, nothing drives me like reading bad fantasy fiction. I read something and think, "I can do better than this... and this got published."