BJJ Grrl

Yesterday was Brandon’s birthday, so we went out after class last night. Didn’t get home in time to write and get decent sleep, so I went with the latter.

Had decided to work on using my hips — and my hips alone — to control positions and pull off stuff.

A light warmup, and since I already have a few nagging hurts (knee (1) and neck (2)), I was being nice and non-judgmental on myself. And so of course, I was keeping up decently.

Straight to rolling. With Brandon first. Doing okay with the hips thing, mostly, though still under everything and not getting position right for sweeps. A time or two, I went up with him when he stood, but my knee didn’t like the pressure so I dropped. And then he went for an armbar from mount and, while pulling his heels back in, knocked me square across the bridge of my nose (3). Seeing stars, eyes watering, whoa. So Tim let me sit out and put Clifton in with Brandon for the rest of the round.

Next round with Guillaume. Doing better with hips; had some sweeps. Even worked for a few submissions. But he kept landing square on my calf, which had been hurting a bit since the tournament. After the round, I looked at my leg, and there’s a huge bruise across the back of my calf (4).

Then we drilled the move of the week, a counter off their counter to your scissor sweep, more like an elevator sweep from the scissor sweep. When you go to scissor sweep, they post out their leg on the same side as your top leg. Hook under that knee with your top foot; sweep them back toward your opposite shoulder while lifting on that leg. Land in mount.

Worked with Guillaume again. Went to hook under his knee once and instead stubbed my toes right on his shin, and that’s the toe that was once dislocated (5). Ouchness!! He also kept landing on my calf when he did it, and my knee tweaked a little, too.

Another roll, Guillaume again. Got that sweep straight off. A few other sweeps, though not usually something I tried to set up. Trying triangle/armbar, but he was defending; finally remembered to switch to an omoplata. Took a bit to set up, but finally got it. Got to mount once and wanted to do something besides the armbar. Remembered a gi choke and worked for it; ended up having to switch to the knee-up version because I forgot about the top arm.

Drilling again. A choke from side control, and a transition to a baseball choke if the first isn’t working. From scarf hold, grip around their far shoulder. Your near hand feeds deep in their near collar, turning over so your four fingers are inside. Move around their head to the other side, ending by their head with your down leg on your knee and the other leg posted; your forearm should have rotated under their chin, wrist straight. Drop that elbow to the mat to finish.

If that isn’t working for some reason, your elbow dropping should have opened the back of their neck/collar. Feed the thumb of your other hand into their collar below your choking hand and on the other side of their head. You should now have a baseball grip. Straighten the thumb-in arm while continuing the elbow-down motion with the other arm.

Worked with Guillaume. Just general choking, though I have a little patch of irritation on my throat from it all (6).

Rolling to finish up. First with Mark. I caught the baseball version of the choke. He went for an armbar and did it fast and my shoulder got jerked a bit more than it needed (7). Rolled for a minute or so trying not to use that arm, though it was okay rather quickly. He also caught me in the face with a foot (8), though not as painful as Brandon’s. I did have a sweep, I think, in there, and at some point got mount — and then got myself completely confused about what I was trying to do and where I was. At some point, I noticed that one of my toenails was scraggly and splitting (9). He had me turtled for a while and was trying to get his knee in, but I wasn’t letting him. He called me “Nick” (who has a great turtle defense), which I take as a great compliment.

Last round with a guy who comes randomly. My brain wanted to work hooks and sweeps, similar to the move of the week. Hit several and got to half guard or mount. He’d usually lock on and roll me, though I did have the half guard escape we’d drilled last week and to side control; don’t remember where we went from there. He also landed on my calf frequently, and my knee was unhappy with some of the things I asked it to do. At some point, a chunk of skin scraped off one of my toes (10). And at the end of the round, one of my fingers was bleeding from a scrape (11).

Not sure when it happened, but one of my fingers is also sore/strained/something — it hurts (12).

Then we hit the wall again for single legs and single leg sprawls. I just went slow, since everything that I hurt during class was hurting right then.

Wow, 12 new or exacerbated injuries in one class.

Multiple injuries aside, though, I think I manage to play my game in most of my rolls (although, getting squashed under side control and mount isn’t really my favorite part of my current game). Kept it nice and easy, mostly, with a few bursts to capture a position. And could breathe! Always helps.

When I got to work yesterday, I was planning to call to get a massage. Then I found out I had a meeting for pretty much all of that afternoon, and they only offer massages on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings. So I didn’t make an appointment. Today, the meeting was rescheduled for tomorrow morning and Thursday morning, from pre-coffee to post-lunch. Much pout.

And so far it’s a meeting where I have little to contribute and am just taking a few notes… and writing blog posts.