Bargaining

134.0




Kitsune:
It is very upsetting to learn that we will be evaluated and categorized based on BMI. BMI is a very simplistic tool which is inaccurate for many people.

I am an athlete who is almost certainly in the top 2% fitness level of those in the pool. Yet because BMI counts muscle as fat, I qualify as "overweight" according to this tool- which is deeply ironic.

I will be extremely displeased if I recieve letters or e-mails chiding me for being unhealthy based on my BMI. And if there are premium-cost or other sanctions, I will be filing a lawsuit.

Union Rep:
To put you somewhat at ease, the attempt here is to get at folks who need to manage their weight due to being overweight or obese.  We are negotiating exceptions to those with medical issues that prevent some weight management at the time it is measured (diabetes and other issues that may need medical management before weight loss can occur) and those who are exactly as you describe yourself where BMI is absolutely no indication of health.  We are contemplating ways to get exceptions to the processes that we have not agreed on as yet.
 If you would like more detail, or have any other questions, please contact any one of the Coalition team members:  (redacted) or myself, the UFCW Negotiator (my office number is below also).
 And thank you for letting us know your issue!

Kitsune:
Thank you so much for your response to my concern. This has been weighing (ha) on my mind, and I appreciate you taking the time to write.

It does indeed put me somewhat at ease to know that there is an awareness of the limitations of BMI, and that there will be avenues put in place to deal with people for whom this is not a valid measurement.

I'd be happy to submit to a body fat percentage analysis or other measurement of fitness that will not penalize me for being muscular. I realize that these other measurements are more expensive, though. Perhaps any doctor who sees us in-office at some point during the year (for anything) can sign a waiver after looking at our six-packs and verifying that we are not unhealthy.   :)

Union Rep:
That’s exactly what we had in mind – the six-pack waiver -  not a whole different test.  We bargain again on the 30th and now I know what we’ll call the “I’m healthy” waiver! 
Thanks for that!

What 100 calories looks like

The martial arts are one of the methods that can teach the body to reawaken the sleepy senses. Those smart enough not to put them back to sleep at the end of the training see their everyday life filling up with magic. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path





134.5 (again).

Snyder's Of Hanover honey mustard pretzel pieces: 100 calories = 1/6 of a cup. Do you understand how small 1/6 of a cup is???!!??

I don't like counting calories- but I am a scientist, and my brain wants formulae. I want to see "You do A, you get B." Solid, predictable cause-and-effect. I understand that. I can work with it. I can't handle days like the one I had a few weeks ago where I ate very little, did 3 BJJ classes and found the following morning that I had actually *GAINED* a half pound. That sort of thing makes me feel like it's not even worth trying.

Plus, I'd like to know how many calories I really have to stay under in order to lose weight- and have some factual vindication that I am some kind of freak whose body gains weight just by breathing oxygen. Not that that will help my situation, but at least I can play the martyr with more heartfelt bitterness.

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Sunday lunchtime in Seattle with (newly brown-belted) Coach Peter. He is quite unhappy at being promoted, BTW. Hee hee... Jiu jitsu artists are always so hot to get their blue belts, and after that they hate and fear each successive promotion more and more. I find it amusing.

There were only 5 of us today, all big men except for Angus (who is medium-sized); a brown belt, two purples, and two almost-purples.

 King Of the Hill from various positions. No real surprises for me here. A few things, I am very good at (passing top half guard); more things I consistantly suck at (holding back mount).

 I felt that I did a decent job staying fairly competitive today, considering the sizes and skill levels I was facing.

That's not very much.

Those who have never approached their bodies as temples have no idea of what they are missing. The frog at the bottom of the well sees only a fraction of light and believes it to be the whole sky. The same happens to those who have lost the address of their bodies.
-Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



134.5 and holding...


Housemate, upon viewing my breakfast: Oh, so that's your......uh, "food".... I guess....

Kitsune: Grumblegrumblegrumble

Housemate: Wow, that's not very much.

Kitsune: Grumblegrumblesnarl



Saturday at GB Seattle.  I got to see many people that I don't regularly see... Black belt Lindsey, John (whom I was able to congratulate for his promotion), Cornelia. Also, a bunch of the Bothell crew was there. There are many hardworking newbies at the now-defunct Bothell pod that I was worried about losing in the move, so I was happy to see this batch.

Same technique we did on Wednesday, only this time the attacker went to front mount and left enough room to entice the victim to try to turn out and escape- at which point back-taking happened.

I worked with Crisanne, who busted her buns (even more so with encouragement and urging). She is so small that I was able to make her catch air as I was hurling her to the mat... I kept asking "Am I hurting you? Let me know if I'm going too hard." I also advised her to not let me push her flat on her back- to try to keep her ribcage turned a bit toward me in order to protect her ribs. I learned that the hard way on Wednesday when I was grunting and gasping under Ron's side control.

Standup: foe grabs your lapel. You grap hir wrist with both hands, thumbs down. Step in and elbow to the face (if self-defense scenario), rake elbow down torso, step behind hir near foot and wrap near arm around hir waist while continuing to control the wrist with your other hand. Your head/shoulder should be against hir body so that you can use it to trip hir backward over your foot.

One roll with Cornelia, one with (blue belt) Lindsey.... Hmm, I think I did one more, but I can't remember with whom.

Peter was promoted to brown belt!

I haven't seen Kelly this week, and I'm worried- she had sworn up and down that I didn't injure her elbow seriously, so I hope that was the truth.

Study Hall- spider guard

The energy is always there within reach. It is a fire that doesn’t always burn in the open, but under the skin the coals are always lit. Anyone sensitive enough can feel the vibration. As soon as you enter a room, right away you perceive who is an individual from head to toe and who has never listened to the voice of the body. -Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path



Thursday and Friday: walk to work and back.


Friday evening "Study Hall" at Bellevue with Doug. It was "purple belt nite"!

Fun with spider guard.

Begin in closed guard, transition to spider guard. Work a little from side to side... one leg straight, one bent...fluid hip movement. John advises that I try to get my butt a little closer to opponent.

Let left leg slide past bicep and yank opponent's arm diagonally across your chest. Swing hips out so that your right ear is toward your opponent. Drop that outside leg to the floor and bring it back against opponent's leg as you lift to the ceiling with the other foot (still in spider guard position). Sweep. Take KOB (I actually preferred to front mount instead, as it seemed that attempting KOB was opening myself up to the half guard).

Closed guard to Spider guard again. Side to Side. Now drop right shin horizontally across opponent's chest. S/he will try to pass. Underhook hir lead leg and use it- along with your remaining spider guard side- to sweep.

Two 10 minute rolls with Daniel and one with Doug. Daniel wants armbars. I'm good at jerking my stubby arms out of those, but he got close a few times... then I started being more careful. Doug kept putting me in back mount, but he was being nice and letting me escape (although he did not make it easy by any means).

GB Bellevue has a grill sitting out front. They were already starting steaks during the open mat. I had to leave, as I am dieting.

I have survived all week on portion sizes that would not nourish an infant fieldmouse. I am down from 139 (at PSG) to 134.5 (this morning).

I have decided to cut down to 128 (still in the "overweight" category by the Bullshit Mass Index standards) and then take a bikini pic. I will hold a paper over my face that says "This is what an "overweight" BMI looks like". I will use this as a visual aid if I have to file a grievance with my workplace. I might get a body fat percentage done too, just for shits and giggles, as I'm sure that will be crazy low and will make the BMI Patrol look even more retarded.

Always double-check the "to" line

Kitsune (at work, e-mailing note to self):

“Victims who survived a violent confrontation against a knife-wielding assailant consistently reported that they were completely unaware of the existence of the weapon until after they had suffered stab or slash wounds. In essence, these survivors of edged weapon attacks state that they believed they were engaged in some sort of fist fight; only later, after sustaining injuries, did they realize that the assailant was armed.” - Lawrence Kane
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Kitsune (Realizing half a second after hitting “send” that autocomplete sent the frickin' thing not to her home e-mail addy but to some random address owned by some random woman at my workplace with the last name of “Fox”):

!!!!!!SHIT!!!!!!!!
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Kitsune (to random hospital staff member):

OOPS!!!!!  Sorry about that,  I accidentally sent a self-defense class quotation to the wrong addy. Apologies. (blush)
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Random staff member:

Haha I just read it was wondering HUH!!!
Have a great day  :)
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Kitsune:

I figured I’d better explain that one real quick unless I wanted to find myself in Human Resources, explaining it to a security guard.
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Random staff member:

At least we had a good laugh ;)
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"Pink Team" at Bellevue. Only Cindy, Lindsey and I showed up- so we just spent the whole hour rolling, round-robin.

Then "All levels".

Opponent is turtles, you sprawl N/S and then spin to side. Place you hip against hir hip. (This was where I messed up... in fact early on, Prof Carlos came over and told me to freeze, then he crawled *between* me and my drill partner.

Kitsune: "I guess I'm leaving a little too much space there."
Carlos: "Ten pushups. Purple belt......"

Okay, so you're hip to hip. now reach under hir chest with both arms and grab hir far arm. You have to get your near shoulder right UNDER hir, which was another awkwardness for me. S/he posts the leg out on the other side to keep you from shoving hir over. You swing your foot out in front of hir head, then swing it back hard and PULL opponent's upper body with you. Get in side control, staying heavy, but keep both of hir arms trapped under your arm. Turn slightly toward hir feet, pull on hir pants, front mount. Pull up on opponent's head and slide your body around behind hir shoulders. Secure back mount. Make sure both hooks are in.

Was drilling with Ron, and this seems like a good one for tiny, flexible people. He was very smooth, and since you usually get hauled up on your shoulder a titch when they mount, it can be hard to tell that that little compact body is sneaking in there.

Drills to nearly collapse, then we finished with an obscene amount of cardio.

As we lined up to bow out, I told the guys that I didn't think I had enough energy to life my forearm for handshakes. So they all started twitching a shouder up and forward to throw an arm up in the air.

I told everybody that I was thinking about competing again... maybe the sub-only comp next month, but more likely the Revolution in November. If I tell everybody, they'll keep on me and I'll be less likely to flake out.    :-P    ;)
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Ugh! My workplace's health insurance is now evaluating and categorizing people (with a goal of establishing sanctions) based on their BMI. I have a huge problem with this, since BMI is an inaccurate measurment for athletes (it counts muscle as fat). Although I'm probably in the top 2% of fitness for people in that employee pool, going by BMI alone will pigeonhole me as "overweight" and rank me below fat couch potatoes.

I'm going to try to appeal. If that doesn't work, I'm going to simply lie on my forms.

Triangles with Doug

A religion that forgives me for being a shit doesn't have near the impact of one that promises that whatever I send out is coming right back at me. -Anihow



Now that I'm not going to Bothell on my free Friday evenings, I have discovered that Prof Doug is doing a "study hall" at Bellevue in that time slot. We had a great group of mostly colored belts in there tonight, and worked on triangle setups.

First, some drills from guard, sans hands (Doug made us lace our fingers behind our necks).

Then: Start with foe in your closed guard, two cuff grips. Transition to a double knee shield or to butterfly guard (feet on hips). Act like you're going for spider guard on one side, and "miss"... transition to triangle. Yank the hell out of that cuff to help fuel your angle change, and try to get said angle change down to as few steps (and as quick) as possible.

Now: You are in top side mount. Make sure you have kneed the opponent's near arm atop your thigh. Slide your knee onto belly. when s/he pushes at knee with hir other hand, you grab the wrist/cuff and pin that hand. Yank your leg back, straight out, then hoist it up and over, shove your foot behind opponent's head. At the same time, with your free hand, haul hir head up (my partners and I discovered for ourselves that that was a lucious detail- very distracting to the victim). Roll. As you roll, grab opponent's other sleeve and lock the triangle as you finish the roll.

This intimidated me, as it looked complicated and showboaty. But when I tried it, it was nice and smooth.

Finally: You have opponent in armbar with your knees over hir face, but s/he is clasping hir hands together. Act like you're going to try to pry hir hands loose with your foot, but then shove the foot right through. Open your knee above opponent's forehead. This prompts hir to sit up. Let hir. This results in putting hirself right into your triangle. (Another tidbit we discovered during the drill... this bait doesn't work nearly so well unless you really act like you are going for the armbar, and keep your leg over the opponent's face. That way, as soon as you lift that leg and s/he sees daylight, s/he wants to lunge up into it. At first, my partner was not covering my face- and I had to think about where I was "supposed" to go for the drill.)

A roll with (blue belt) Daniel, a roll with Mario, a roll with Doug. Good competitive matches all (of course Doug was letting me work a little).

Nice gi choke from Doug: You are in top side control. Sneakily get ahold of your own gi tail (on the side closest to opponent's feet) and wait your chance to shoot it to the far side of hir neck. You must leave yourself plenty of slack, because you are going to feed this gi tail to your other hand, which is behind opponent's neck.  Grab opponent's pants at hir hip (same side as you are on), turn N/S, put your forehead to mat.

I adore gi tail chokes, but for some reason my brain is very impaired at retaining them.

The biochemical variable

Respect is for those who deserve it, not for those who demand it.



Friday lunchtime BJJ at Seattle.

I was relieved to see Glenn walk in right before the lineup, as it seemed to be "Big Boy Day" on the mat... there were plenty of people there, but they were all huge! Glenn's always good to work with, and I'm happy whenever I get a chance to work with him.

A vigorous set of warmups, including running laps. We had run laps yesterday as well, and my plantar fasciitis was feeling the effects. I did it, but it felt like there was a knife under my right heel every time it hit the ground, and I had a noticable limp. The line is being crossed between pain and functional impairment.  I think if I was asked to run laps again tomorrow, I would be physically unable.

You are under side mount. Bump up and frame your arms. "Talk on your phone" with the hand nearest opponent. Then turn into hir. At the same time, use your "phone" hand to control hir bicep (this was the detail I had to be corrected on). Continue turning till you are on your belly. (Note that this is *not* a hip escape/shrimp.) With the hand that is *not* controlling opponent's bicep, keep the elbow braced on hir. Allowing this elbow to move or collapse is what lets the opponent dump all hir weight back on you and squash you back under side control. Once you are fully belly-down, move *JUST THE FOREARM* to get the underhook. Again, keep that elbow in there.  Now you can get your knees under you. That all-important bicep grip (you've still got it, right?) will now let you yank opponent with the perfect leverage to help you dump hir over and get on top.  The sequence (which I had to say aloud with every rep to avoid rushing/skipping bits) is Up, Phone, Arm, Turn, Under.

Next: same entry, only now as soon as you turn into opponent, s/he tries to slide into scarf position. The key for you now is to get your matward elbow fully underneath your body as you are lying on your side. As soon as your foe's knee comes at you, grab the pants there and do that same roll onto your belly. You now have the pants in one hand and the shoulder/lapel in the other. Stretch opponent out. This will shove hir onto hir back. Resist the impuse to get to your knees too soon- the technique is actually tighter and more effective if you keep your belly *ON* the mat till you secure side mount. Now you can get to your knees.

Lots of drills. I've always struggled some with this technique, and the rolling onto the belly part is exhausting in a core sort of way. Glenn was getting tired too, and we kept up a cheerleading patter to chivvy one another through the last of the drills. He's good with that, and with helpful feedback during the drills.

Tired and ravenously hungry by the end, so I skipped the sparring.

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Between my new library card and my new Kindle, I have been availing myself of several Rory Miller books that I have not previously read. I have oodles of good quotes to share. One item that was brought up in my reading got me thinking about tournaments again.

Anyone who's been reading my blog for a while is familiar with my ambivalence regarding competitions. I'm a self-defense oriented MA'ist. I enjoy the aspect of "fun" in BJJ sparring, as well as the practical aspects, but am just not interested in the competitive sport aspect. I have had a middling performance in the comps that I have done, and it's not fun for me.

Although I don't really appreciate a discernable feeling of fear- and I'm fairly self-aware, so I feel like I'd know- I do tend to experience a rush of physical weakness at the beginning of a match and in the first minute or so. It feels like all the energy just leaks out of my body like water out of a holey bucket, and I feel like I weigh about 800lb when I try to move.

One of the Miller books briefly discussed the adrenaline dump, the "lizard brain" mentality, and other body chemistry things that happen in self-defense situations. It's a significant impairment that can negate all of your preparation at the one moment you most need it. That's sobering. It's scary to think that if I'm faced with an attacker, I might feel that same body reaction that I feel when I'm facing a tournament opponent across the mat- that rush of weakness and exhaustion.

This argues for doing tournaments, as often as possible, for the purely practical self-defense-oriented goal of learning to cope with and work through that crippling biochemical zap. From that viewpoint, it's difficult to come up with excuses to continue ducking tournaments.     

Well, except for one- my tenuous sense of confidence in my MA, which has all the solidity of a spun-glass figurine. If I start doing a bunch of tournaments and get my ass mowed into the ground over and over, is that going to drive me into despair bad enough that I might lose even *MORE* confidence...... or even give up and quit altogether?