BJJ Grrl

*pout*

Not “I got beat up” pout, but “why can I hardly get a decent roll” pout. Gah. Actually, now that I look at it, only the first half were crappy; the second half were actually decent. I think I was just irritated by the first few and by my drilling partner (who was also one of the those rolls).

Warmup. Slow on the down-the-mat drills. Felt tired. Probably shouldn’t be a surprise, since I was out sick last week, sat in a car most of the weekend, stayed up really late on Saturday and didn’t catch up on Sunday, and am just getting back in to things. Still. Missed the second run on alligators and I think one other. And today I was the annoying person who ran straight back down the mats instead of circling to the side out of the way, so guys were trying to avoid me. Sowwy. The side is too far. No energy to get there. I didn’t run in to anyone, though, which someone often does to me. Grr.

Then rolling. Lots and lots of rolling.

First and second, two of the guys near their blue belts. And Tim was here tonight and wasn’t last night, so if he’s gonna promote anyone this week, it’s tonight, so they were rolling for their belts, with me at least. When I’m sitting back on my butt, I don’t consider it good jiu-jitsu if you grab my sleeve and jerk me forward so I fly and land flat on the mat so you can try to take my back. I think that’s muscling, and I don’t much like it. But, that was mostly how any resets seemed to go. Even if I’m pulling back, I got nothing. Grr.

Just tried to shrimp around, and really did try to get to top, though wasn’t there often or for too long. Tried to pass open guards again, and pinning their ankles isn’t working. One of them did, however, actually do decent transitions and didn’t try to muscle submission attempts for as long as usual (that is, until he gets it, even if it takes an entire round of arm-wrestling me. Hint: that means your technique is wrong.). Purposely avoided the pass Buddy and Scott showed me, since it caused one of them to go nuts a week ago. Tried not to threaten much, just defend and move.

Third, new/old guy. Had seen him out of the corner of my eye already, and in several other classes, and did not want to go with him. He rips and holds and slams. And he did. Pfft. Tried to play spider guard several times; he just grabbed around my entire ankle or foot and controlled it. Couldn’t get it back. Such fun, to just be held down, squashed, and manipulated, and there’s not much I can do. Couldn’t do much except escape. Oh, and this will be important later — he tried to rip my head and arms off several times, quite violently.

Then Big Jesse, and could hardly get anything without him letting me, which he did do toward the end, so I did get to practice. He tried kimuras from bottom half guard; that defense from Saulo works really, really well. (Tim was saying after class that Jesse has good and tight kimuras, that once he gets it, you’re done. So if the defense worked, then something must be right.) And then he would sweep me when that didn’t work.

Buddy next. Now we’re talking. He sunk a quick anaconda, complete with a roll-and-a-half, almost right off. (The half roll was for after I actually defended well on the first part. That finished it.) Overall, I felt more active here, and more purposely active — not just moving for the sake of moving, but knowing where I was going or what I was defending. I even attempted the shoulder lock from the seminar, though I didn’t get my trapping arm quite in position before sitting through and he escaped easily.

Last, Adam. He caught several things in there, though I can only remember a gi choke and a kneebar at the moment. Felt better about moving here, too, and even had at least 2 good single-leg sweeps from under turtle: one turning under and through when he defended, and the other taking him backwards. No good came of it for me, though; swept right back over. He got me in his deep half guard once, and I did work for the triangle, though couldn’t get my trapped leg out; that one ended in the kneebar.

With about 5 minutes left in the official class time, we finally got around to drilling. Gi choke from turtle. Your partner is turtled on their knees and elbows. Control both lapels to start with under/under grips, then slide your hand along the lapel closest to you until you hit the end. Pull it out even a little further to get more fabric. Now feed it across their neck to in front of their far shoulder; grab the lapel with your other hand. Slide your inside arm in front of their neck and take the lapel. Even this is tight. Far hand grabs the wrist/sleeve of their far arm and pulls it in and under them to break down their posture. Head goes toward the mat by their head on the far side. Sit your hips through and walk your legs around as if you’re doing a clock choke. Takes a little longer to finish than the clock choke.

Partners: remember that you can tap with your feet.

So, I get stuck with the guy I’d rolled with earlier, who tried to tear me into pieces then. The first thing he says is that he’s uncomfortable choking a girl. I wanted to say he’d tried to snap my neck and rip off my arm earlier; what’s a little controlled choke? Then, he lets me drill it first, except he starts out on his hands and knees and with his weight shifted all the way back so that I’m way off the ground trying to keep my weight on him and yet I have hardly any space to even try it. More like he was sitting on his knees with his hands on the mat in front of his knees. That is not turtle. Grr. When I went to grab his wrist to break his posture, he moved it away so I couldn’t reach it. Grabbed fabric instead and slowly hauled his arm in while pulling good on that far lapel so he’d forget about the arm. Did the choke, and he held out as long as he could before he tapped.

His turn on me, he slammed through the technique, so I just tapped fast. And then, the best part, is he tried to tell me all the things I was doing wrong, when in fact I had done all of them correctly. And then he wanted to make up his own variation on the choke. Grr and Grr.

Thankfully, drilling wasn’t all that long. And there were a few good rolls in there — just enough bleh stuff to put my mood off.

Will take a break tomorrow; I need to head back to the library.