No Five Guys tonight.

Many people train and prepare by walking along the way of the warrior, but never discover, or maybe just forget, what battle they have been training for. The battle rages in front of their eyes and they don’t realize it. The small psychodramas of daily life distract them to the point of taking away their global vision and making them forget why they set out walking the warrior’s path in the first place. Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Friday lunchtime BJJ at GB Sea.

Carlos is competing this weekend. He mentioned it while we were lined up. Someone commented, "I guess you won't be going to Five Guys tonight." Oh, that guy got such a glare.  ;) I spoke up, "No- he's already wearing a saran wrap shirt under his rash guard!" Which he was!

Same stuff we did yesterday, only we started from standing double-legs (grab the calves, not the thighs), and the attackee was to snap the attacker down and end in sprawl with hands hooked under attacker's armpits. (My bad wrist wasn't very happy about being thrust to all fours repeatedly- and I had a fairly enthusiastic partner. Bruises on knees too.)

My partner tried to tell me I was using the wrong arm and leg, because I was working against her post... I knew it was the correct arm and leg, but it took us a while to figure out that if you leverage it correctly, the opponent can post till the cows come home and it won't make any difference.

I also figured out today (don't ask me why this didn't occur yesterday- but this is why I like doing sequentials of the same class) that HALLELUJIA, in live rolling I don't actually have to strain my brain to remember which arm and which leg it's supposed to be- because if I do it one way, it's this technique- and if I do it the other way, it's the sweep that Carlos showed Ben and me a few weeks ago. Even better: to defend one, the guy has to lean in one direction, and to defend the other, he has to lean opposite. If only I can keep my wits about me, I can try one and then switch quickly to the other and have him help me sweep him.  I've been trying to not turtle so much, but now I want to turtle all day long and try to catch somebody with this.

Did you puke?

Stealing from the gods the fire of passion and creativity to lighten our life is just the first step of the trip, not the destination. Passion and creativity are not our private property, not our very own toys. They are the sparks lighting the fire of a big tribal camp. Having talent and not cultivating it is a crime, but cultivating it without sharing its fruits with others may be even worse. In its highest form, the way of the warrior is that of the bodhisatva: putting one’s talent at the service of a superior destiny. Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

4:30 basics class: no teacher today, so we just did round-robin sparring. Ben repeatedly gets around-the-neck gi chokes on me, mostly from the back but also other positions. Must work harder on defending that, with him.

5:30 competition class: we did the same thing we did this morning, and also a variation: stopping at the hip-to-hip with you in turtle and opponent having your lapels: you trap the arm on the side nearest the opponent, stick the OPPOSITE leg out, and then place the shoulder nearest the opponent onto the mat. Now you do the same thing we did this morning. It was just enough difference to confuse me. Also, the stupid side is REALLY REALLY stupid with this technique (both variations)! I am letting my arms fly up and back too much while rolling on top of the opponent- when I tried it on Carlos, he trapped my arms over my head (Twice!).. embarrassing!!

Drills of both variations for a long time, switching partners.... then short spars with everyone (no closed guard or half guard allowed- keep moving)... then shark tank with Casey in the middle. We all walked around and around in a circle as he sparred Carlos. Every couple of minutes, a guy on the sidelines yelled a different number, and whichever person was assigned that number jumped in while the previous opponent jumped out. Casey had to bail after a while, and the rest of us got a turn in the shark tank. I find this game really fun, although being in the middle sucks mud.

Saw Casey again on the way out, looking green.... "Did you puke?" "Yeah, a little."

I usually eat after I get home and shower, but not tonight- gonna have to wait a while, because I think if I tried to eat now, I'd puke, too....  You know you've had a good workout when you think you're going to puke....

Apparently Ritchie choked Ron out in last weekend's tournament- golly. He used the same cross-collar choke from guard that he got me with when I fought him in the "mock tournament" a couple months ago.

I'm going to show you how to tap

In addition to physical confrontations, symbolic forms of fighting between reality and individual desires are the daily bread of anyone who is alive.  The physical violence that the hero … has to deal with is the most dramatic example of  something that everyone experiences in daily life: conflict. Conflict with friends, lovers, people who cut you off in traffic. Internal conflict with one’s laziness, weakness and lack of discipline. Conflict between desires and possibilities. Conflict between dreams and closed doors. Conflict between one’s ideals and ones’ behavior. Heraclitus was right when he said that conflict is at the root of all things. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Saturday FOD: Little Red Dragon
Sunday FOD: Frolic Of the Five Animals
Monday FOD: Spear Hand fragment. Note that it is the right arm that does the rising block.
I'm counting today as an exercise day. One of my instruments was busted, and I had to hoof samples to the hospital across the street. It's six minutes there and back if I hustle. The back corridor is about a block long, and deserted- so I did sprints.

Tuesday FOD: Southern Mantis fragment. This one seemed particularly rusty.
Shin splints from the sprints! Ow. (Can you say that six times fast?)
Wednesday FOD: Bung Bo Kuen

From the Insights list:

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2/1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/2nd-1st-farewell-their-fallen-comrades-with-a-huge-haka.htm
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Wow. Incredibly moving. The power and emotion on every face, in every movement.



Thursday lunchtime BJJ at GB Belle. Ambushed John for a little warmup before class. I do this to people regularly, but I guess I haven't done it to him before. I sneak up behind them and take their backs and (slowly, to give them time to react) slide in a choke. He just sat there.

"Are you just going to sit there and let me choke you?"
"Oh, am I supposed to fight? I thought you were going to show me something."
"Yeah- I'm going to show you how to tap, in a minute, if you don't do something."
"I already know how to tap- it's my go-to move!"

Opponent in turtle, you sprawl on top N/s. Thrust your arm down beside hir neck on the cross-side (ie, your right arm goes on the rt side of hir neck). Tiptoe to the side that your arm is on, so that you are hip to hip, and grab both lapels under hir arms. Note- do not put your knee down here. For some reason I thought I had to wedge my knee up against the opponent's, but prof wants us to stay on the toes.

Now, jump your FAR knee to touch hir knee and use the lapels to pull hir over so that you are sitting in back mount. I continue to struggle a bit with remaining upright while doing this- I tend to want to roll too far onto my back.

Escape back mount: grab the feet and push them backward to force the opponent's knees to bend. PLace your left shoulder on the mat right outside her knee and roll onto it intil you are upside down and your toe touches the mat. Now thrust both feet in the air and throw your body across opponent's lap. You should be facing the feet. Hug the thighs. Do not try to skip the thigh-hugging step and go straight to side control. I asked why I could not do this, and Carlos kindly demonstrated why I could not do this- he easily escaped long before I could get in position to secure him in side mount.

Also- you cannot get too hasty and cheat the shoulder-stand or toe touch, because if you do, it's harder than heck to get your body all the way across the opponent's body.

Drills of this, to exhaustion.  Apparently we looked really good and were working hard, because Carlos kept telling us how proud he was of us (this of course makes me work even harder- I love to hear this).

I lost a stripe during the drills, and the prof- who is a huge stickler for having all your regalia neatly in place on the mat- pulled me off the mat and made me stand there while he replaced all of my stripes himself... apparently they were too ragged, and two more of them had squished together, so at that point it looked like I had TWO stripes instead of four.

Your underpants are on Candid Camera!

…Violence… is the most international and oldest language there is. It is common to all societies. It is attached to the very fabric of life. Depending on their fighting ability, every animal on earth ends up taking on the role of predator or prey. Not only nearly all animals fight, but even the cells inside our bodies fight against germs and bacteria. No one who lives in a physical body can completely ignore the language of violence. Whether by choice or not, anyone may have to deal with it. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

I did just the competition class today. Got in five min early and watched the end of the basics class. That white belt that I don't want to roll with because I think he's too spazzy and slams subs on too fast- he slammed a sub on JP. JP yelled "!!!TAP!!!" and snapped something a little snippy at the guy and walked out. My analysis was correct.  If I ever get assigned to work with this guy, we are going to need to have a little talk before we start.

I rolled with Casey for a while, just easy flow-rolling.

Then An came in wearing street clothes and carrying his camera. Carlos asked him where his gi was- both gi's in the laundry- so he made An put on a loaner gi and get on the mat. I think An had just wanted to hang out and take some pics. ;)

He took some pics of Casey and me rolling, and Casey got markedly more energetic- I said, "Ha ha, you don't want any pics floating around of you getting subbed by me!! Thanks a lot, An!"

Then I rolled with An while Carlos took some pics. At one point, I was in top half guard and An's pants were creeping down in the back enough to show a few inches of his blue plaid boxers- Carlos came right up and took a close-up of this. An was turned the other way and he couldn't see, but I started cracking up and said, "You're going to find a few surprises on this roll of film!" He said, "Hey! I have kids!"

Between the two of them, I spent an hour of nice, not too intense sparring. Tried the baseball bat choke a few times, and didn't finish- but I got a couple of chokes and an armbar on An.

Wednesday

 

’This is my way; where is yours?’ – thus I answered those who asked me “the way.’ For the way- that does not exist. –Nietzsche

Monday FOD: Iron Needle.
Tuesday FOD: Free choice. I picked Touch Bridge.

Pic on the GB site: Bryan got another stripe! I'll have to ask him if he can smell that black belt yet. I'd so love to be there when he gets his black belt. But since I'm only at about 1 in 4 of the particular classes he hits (at best), I have about a 25% chance of catching it.

(Ye gods, is this promotion cycle ever going to end? Before anyone starts eyeing *ME*? Usually they do a bunch of promotions over the course of two or three weeks, and then let it mostly lie for three or four months. This batch of promotions has been dragging on for two months straight.... everybody and their sister and their dog are getting promoted.....eeeee.....)

Some e-mail discussion between the Turtle Drum facilitators about adding more formal ritual elements to the event. They really want to do so; I lean toward simplicity. we agreed to do a little experimenting and see how it goes over.

Lunchtime BJJ at GB Sea.

Before class, I used the mat to run a couple reps of the rolling portions of 5 Points Of the Star and Wood Monkey. Also sneaked up and choked Steve from behind, leading to a short warmup roll.

People I have not seen for a while- Z and Bree. Unfortunately I did not get to work with either, and we lost Bree by the second round of drills (she was honking on her inhaler before we even started).

Positional sparring from back mount with one hook in. I was with Angela, so I did not have great success here (and better on escaping than on attempting to hold/sub).

Eight minute spars- Angela (triangled AGAIN, dangit!), Steve, a small purple belt guy (Carlos was working me today, putting me with all higher belts!) I got subbed a couple times by each of them, but also spent some time on top, and am not displeased in whole.

 I am really noticing that I feel much less defeatist when I have people in guard. I can't say I'm actually PERFORMING better, but my mindset is more "Okay, I have guard, time to work on this," as opposed to "Okay, I have guard, now I'm F'ed and it won't be long now,"
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Wednesday evening BJJ at Sleeper. Eric and Lamont were teaching. Grip fighting, standing arm drag to the back, pendulum sweep, sparring. Lamont hurt his back and thus did not leglock me tonight.

I sparred Sonia three times. Lamont wanted me to run a clinic on her and see how many points I could rack up while he practiced refereeing. I couldn't do it. She's only been training a couple of weeks. When I roll with a brand new person, I want to let them work some- not just smoosh them.
Hey, I got a triangle on Terry. That was cool.

I Youtubed a little baseball bat choke from mount. I was looking for a good, easy no-gi choke from mount that would not fail due to short and weak forearms or a light frame that is easy for the bottom person to buck off. I didn't find one right away (suggestions, anyone? I need a CLEAR and English-speaking vid, preferrably with different viewpoints so I can see), but I found this and decided that I wanted to choke somebody with it. Unfortunately I did not get front mount on anyone this afternoon, and the only person I got it on tonight was Sonia- but I am going to continue trolling for victims.

From: Lamont

From: Lamont- Subject: Training on Wednesday
Are you going to make it in?
From: Kitsune- Subject: Taining on Wednesday
I'm going to try.... You need somebody to leglock?
From: Lamont- Subject: Training on Wednesday
Absolutely. See you tomorrow

Saturday

Remembering who I am is the only thing I really need, but it is a never-ending task, because forgetting is very easy and equally easy is not realizing I have forgotten. Maybe our ideas, words and opinions remain the same, but inside a light fades. We are still who we are, but just a little less intense, less passionate, less alive, less of the person we can be. When this happens, what we need is to go through an experience that turns the switch back on. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path

Saturday no-gi at Sleeper.  I did indeed seem to have a better class today for having rested. As much as I like Friday and saturday lunchtime class at GB, and Friday and Saturday evening class at Sleeper- I think the timing of trying to do all four is just leaving me scraping the bottom of the barrel (physically, mentally, emotionally) every time I get over to Sleeper. I think I might train more effectively if I just pick one class on Saturday and one on Sunday.

You are in opponent's closed guard. Make L's out of your hands and socket them in opponent's armpits. Place forehead on opponent's belly button. Stretch arms and back. Stand up. Crouch back down (posturing up) with one knee up in the hole you have just created. Break guard and pass to the side *OPPOSITE* the one with with the knee up. Make sure to get the underhook. Side control.

Same opening, except after you break guard, back out. (Note: when backing out, keep the feet wide apart so that opponent can't sit up and capture both of your feet.) Sidle back in with the rt toe in front. Grab opponent's rt foot near the toes with your left hand. Dive outside hir rt hip (rolling on the shoulder closest to hir head). You want to catch opponent's left knee with your rt leg as you go over. Once on your back, figure-4 your legs around opponent's left leg to keep it out of your way. Now you can do a figure-4 on hir rt shin and brace on it while you use that toe hold to bend the ankle TOWARD the big toe. The pain should be in the ankle. (Note- tap early with this one, as it is one of those subs that doesn't hurt until it's almost too late)

You are standing, opponent sits up and threatens one of your legs. Step backward and swing your butt towards hir, and squat down right beside her with your arm around hir neck and palm over the ear. Sit back and apply Shoulder Of Justice. You have your other arm and both legs to keep opponent's near leg in the air. As long as that near leg is in the air and you have good shoulder going, that person ain't getting out nohow. You can leisurely jack hir far arm up and try to pin it with the same hand you have around hir neck, then kick your legs free and take side control. Cindy does this to me ALL THE TIME. I never want to sit up and threaten her leg while standing- because the next thing I see is her butt coming at me, and then I'm tied in a knot and tapping.

Rolls with all three of the men who were present. I got tapped a few times, and I didn't get any taps, but I still feel reasonably okay about my performance (esp as it's no-gi, my weaker aspect). I did a bit of guard playing with one guy (I'm trying, Carlos).  I'm just trying to get out of the mentality of feeling defeatist in that position.


At one point, one of the guys trapped my arm between his legs while I was in top side control, and then tried to stuff my head down there. I said, "Oh no you don't... Jalen's gotten me with that one too many times." The guy said, "Oh my GOD!" and we both started cracking up and commiserating about suffering some of Jalen's more painful favorites.

 I really need to perfect a non-gi choke from front mount. Or better yet, a couple of effective options. I can't really muscle these men into keylocks, and I keep trying to do forearm chokes (one in front and one behind) and not succeeding. When I try to cross-collar in gi, I often can't get deep enough to finish before they buck me off.