BJJ Grrl

Just could not wake up this morning. When the alarm went off, I set a new one and rolled back over. (That probably didn’t help.) Finally got up and out. Couple of guys were standing around outside; no one there to let us in. But Justin pulled in right behind me.

As I was walking in, I saw my old boss and his wife driving in to go to the next door fabric store. I waved and smiled and continued in to class. Right as Justin called for us to jog it out for the warmup, I saw my old boss heading for the door of the academy, so I pulled out to wait for him. Talked to him just a few minutes, but it was good to see him and let him know that I’ve moved on and am doing well. It’s one week shy of a full year since I was laid off from there.

Very small class. Short warmup, though I was gassed fast. Did get two runs on the squat jumps, and again feeling as if I was doing them better. But then only one run on alligators, and then that wound up being the last thing.

To rolling. With Guillaume first. Could not breathe. Ugh. I was so slow. Somewhere got him turtled and got the Peruvian necktie on. Remembering what happened with Will the other night, I held on even when I thought I was doing it wrong, and did finish it. Had a D’Arce, too, that I think I did right, but couldn’t finish. Meant to ask him later, but didn’t remember. Couple other places where I was just bleh and slow.

And good gracious, I can’t type worth anything, either. I must be more tired than I thought — I keep thinking one word and writing another (I just did there: thought “word” and typed “work”). I think I’m going for a nap in a minute.

Another roll, with the little kid. I caught him in bottom half-guard early, and he tried to jump over to mount, as he normally does. (It’s hard to keep tight on him and yet still allow him to move — his legs are about as big around as my arms, and his hips are narrow and tiny. So I’m generally pretty loose, since the other option is to just shut him down completely, and that’s not fair.) Justin stopped our roll to show him the cut-through half-guard pass. So then I tried to catch him in half guard throughout the rest of the roll so he could practice; first few times, he wanted to jump again, so I more aggressively blocked off the far side with my knee and elbow to force him back the other way. He finally caught on, and then was hitting that pass more consistently.

Also got him under mount, where he started spazzing again; I clamped down and said, “Knee-elbow;” he got it mostly right. Tipped him over a few times when he was off-balance, being really careful that it wasn’t any muscle. I turned in once, I think intending to go in to his guard, and stuck my neck way out there; he caught something — I don’t think it was actually a guillotine (maybe more like an Ezekiel in arm positioning? I wasn’t in the best position to see ) — and while he didn’t actually lock up his guard, he did keep his hips under me and his legs on either side of my body, which prevented me from escaping unless I used more pressure than usual on him. (Maybe should’ve tried a bit until he locked up his guard. Just thought of that, though.) So, good job on him for catching my lazy head.

Drilling was knee-elbow escape from mount again, this time going to butterfly instead of full guard. Then those of us who knew elevator sweeps could come up and do those. Same knee-elbow escape to get to the half-guard. Then hip further out; bring your top foot inside their near thigh. Use that hook to lift while bringing the bottom knee out to your elbow. Hip out the other way and hook in the other leg to butterfly guard.

Drilled with the kid. My turns took me through the elevator sweep and in to mount, so then he went. He missed the week we did elevator sweeps, so he just drilled the knee-elbow escape a lot.

Rolling again. We had an odd number, so I sat out. After that round, Buddy #1 showed the kid the bump sweep (which he has seen, I think). One more round, and back in with the kid. Trying the same as before, to catch half guard and go to mount. I got lots of work on shrimping around under him, so I’d bump over and lock up the half-guard. Had to block him again from jumping in the half guard until he remembered. He tried jumping from side control a few times this time; got my leg up to catch him up there and float him on that hook. More tipping, too. I think he’s trying to submit me with shoulder pressure in side control (?), but he way off-balances himself, so I just sit up and over he goes. Went to mount once; he spazzed again; clamped down again and said, “We just drilled this.” Then he got it, and got back to guard. I postured high, trying to let him go for the bump sweep, but he was more interested in the guillotine option. (Of course.) Reminded him of the bump sweep again afterward.

I tried the north/south roll escape that Scott showed me a long while ago, but couldn’t get my rolling to work. Also tried what we were defending against on Tuesday (if the opponent is turtled and grabs for your far arm hooked around his ribs, wanting to roll in to you and flip you over so he comes up in side control) since I was turtling a fair bit; he conveniently left his arm in deep every time, but I couldn’t quite get to side control before he’d scramble away.

Then we sat around for a long while. One of the guys there today, Kevin, used to train about 10 years ago, but work and wife have kept him away. He was trying to remember everything and was asking Justin about things he half-remembered. In between questions, Justin and Buddy #1 were drilling straight ankle locks and escapes.

Some time in there, after the kid had left, something came up and Buddy #1 commented on how hard it is to do choking submissions on me because my neck and shoulders are so much smaller than everyone else. (This is from yesterday). I mentioned that it’s probably the same size difference as I see with the kid (and actually, with the new girl — they’re just both so much smaller than the guys who I’m used to). Buddy of course said that when he rolls with the kid, he doesn’t even try submissions, just plays positions and getting him in situations where he knows what to do. Some of the guys, I’ve noticed, do actually do everything they can on the kid — pressure, force, jerk on submissions. Meh. (But I talked to the kid and his mom several weeks ago, and they said they’ve noticed that when a guy beats up on him, that that guy generally gets a beatdown in the next round. Tim and the instructors do watch out for us, but they also don’t want us to get used to being rescued every round. If they think it’s getting out of hand, they’re standing by to step in.)

My Hokies somehow won despite their best efforts. They got as many penalties on offense and defense as they could; the officiating was completely against them; they even had fumbles! Sheesh.

Late update: 18 months of jiu-jitsu today. My new joke is that I do in fact have a boyfriend, and his initials are BJJ.

More small anniversaries this week: 1 year since being laid off of my old job and 7 months since starting my new one.