Tim was in a relaxed mood tonight, so we rolled a lot. Tim kept stressing technique, nice easy jiu-jitsu, control, no headhunting, good jiu-jitsu.

Buddy #1 first. We played. He let me pass several times, and even go to knee-on-belly, before reversing me. I dropped myself in to several triangles, though he let me work out of those. Trying to remember that I know how to pass half guard by going backwards, instead of always trying to drive forward. This round felt good, nice easy jiu-jitsu, good pace.

Steve next. More of the same, though I did have to make all my own passes and escapes. And so I did. Good jiu-jitsu again, and active. He could get my back and his hooks in; I’d get Saulo’s “scoop”; he’d get to mount. Realized later I was dislodging both his hooks, so he was free to move around me; need to let him keep that one to control him.

Big Jesse next, and he let me practice tapping. Kimuras, RNCs, armbars, triangles — lots and lots and lots. He also nearly finished me off with a few body triangles. After a while of losing position straight off, I tried to pull guard; got my legs in place, but couldn’t close my guard! Then tried to fight to the top when we reset, but not much luck there. Did some things decent; did most things not quite well enough. Tim was also rolling this round, so this was a looong round.

We stopped for a water break, and I thought, “Oh well, no one’s getting promoted tonight.” Tim started to have us drill, but then sent us back to find another partner and another roll. I knew then that something was up.

Steve again. Tim’s still repeating no headhunting, nice easy jiu-jitsu, good positions. I nearly had a standing guard pass — couldn’t quite get past, but had all the pieces right.

End of that round, Tim promoted Yoshi the Energizer Bunny to blue belt. He was stunned and could hardly talk straight the rest of class.

Drilling. Sweep from half-guard. Get to your side. With your bottom hand, grip on their pant leg, palm up. The elbow there comes to your hip and stays there. Hips go back so your top foot can hook inside their knee. Bump your hips under as if you’re going to go to X-guard. Instead, do a sit-up toward your hooked knee and drive them that way (where they have no base). You come up on top, holding the pant leg of their far leg and hooking over their near leg. (Be careful of coming up too far and into their half guard!) Transition to side control.

We also worked a variation: once you’ve got them up and floating, kick your free leg around and drop them in your guard. They’ll probably go a little toward the side you were hooking. Hip out and come up to take their back.

Drilled with Steve. Very helpful, since he’s probably the closest to my size, which means that bump over at the beginning is easier to do. I’ve tried it on guys with 50+ lbs on me, and I really have a hard time getting under there unless they first give up the space.

One more roll, with your drilling partner. Hey, there, you look familiar… I finally remembered that we’re rolling gi, and that I can use mine and his. Got my lapel out after being unable to get his out. Didn’t do much with it at first until I got back to guard and managed to trap his arm with it. I want… a pendulum sweep. Had tried it the other night and concluded that my hips hadn’t been out far enough, so focused on that. Took a few tries because I kept messing something up, but did finally get it right and to mount. Squee!

All night long, I was also working that single-under pass. Even had one that went to the inside! Still flaring my elbows, as Jesse pointed out many many times.

Afterward, Tim was saying that while it’s good that we roll hard and aggressive so much, that sometimes you just need an relaxed but active night, to which we all whole-heartedly agreed.

Off tomorrow as usual. Will probably make it to Thursday’s class (will depend on cars — I’ll have turned my rental in at that point), and then taking off for wild & crazy adventures on Friday.

I woke up Sunday and could hardly walk down the stairs — inside of my legs and my hammies, ow. Then later in the day, my arms got in on the soreness. And today, my shoulders and quads joined.

Adam led class tonight. He likes crazy warmups. We did crazy warmups.

And I was done at jogging. Uh oh. This is gonna be a long night. (At least Will and Jesse were feeling it, too.)

Jogging, high knees, butt kicks, side-to-side, alligators… Alligators?! Around. The. Whole. Mat. Crap. Then to bear crawls. That is one tough transition. Then to army crawls. Then I’m a little mixed up. Maybe: circled up, jogging with high knees, sprawling when he called it; eventually stayed down and did mountain climbers; then stayed in that position while, one at a time, ran around the circle and jumped over everyone else. … Yeah, that sounds good.

Somewhere in the alligators/bear crawls, I think, I landed oddly on my left wrist. It was not happy all night. Really not good during the holding position part of that last one. Also, shoulders were really complaining by then.

Then partnered up on the wall, pistol-grip the sleeves, and gi drags. When I got home, the inside of my fingers was all cut and scratched up; it must be from this. An odd number, so I sat out the first rounds and then dragged Will when he was done. I did one trip, and ohemgee so tired. I wanted to stop then, but Adam said, “C’mon, one more,” and the guys started cheering for me. Ack. Must do. Got him down, turned around, and couldn’t get the momentum to get going again; he had to help me by pushing with his legs. So. Tired. Collapsed. Finally got up; legs were shaking.

Rolling. Adam said I could sit out… except, oh, wait, one of the guys can’t roll yet (he had LASIK a few weeks ago), so I’m in. Seriously? I mean, sure, I got technique, but I still at least have to be able to move around.

Rolled with Will. He just swept me around and could do nearly anything he wanted to. He caught something, I can’t remember what. I flopped like a fish all night. So bad. But so tired. I think I had moments of pretending like I could play spider guard, but my legs couldn’t keep up any pressure at all.

On the wall for shrimping.

Then a round with Big Tom. Adam started calling out 30-seconds bursts during the round, where you both went as hard as you could. Erm… yeah, this is all I got. Then at the end, he called out “Submit and done!” Sudden death. Loser owed pushups. Tom wasn’t pressing nearly hard enough; he should’ve finished me much sooner. He’s too nice. He went to catch a kimura and accidentally dropped his elbow in my temple instead. So I didn’t tap out, I nearly got knocked out. We stopped, though.

I think we drilled next. Gi choke from side control. Pull out far lapel; bring it under their arm and behind their head. Come up to knee-on-belly; switch hands on that lapel. (They’ll probably bridge in to you and drop you on your knee next to them.) Reach across with the now free hand and grab on their shoulder. If they didn’t bridge and drop you, drop your knee for yourself back down on the near side, right by their ribs. Pull your elbows to your hips and try to drop all your weight on their face. Walk around a bit toward their head if you need to, to finish.

More rolling. Guillaume first. And… nothing. A few moments of control. Possibly a sweep? I think I mostly flopped on him in half guard. Saw mount for a little bit, but couldn’t finish the armbar. Several other near finishes, but just had no energy or strength for that last bit.

Then we did partner lifts. You start in guard and grip their belt; they grip your lapels. Bring one leg up, then the other, and then lift. 10 each. I could barely hold my guard around Guillaume, and then I could hardly get any lift on him. I could get a good base and pretended I was deadlifting and could feel my muscles straining, but he didn’t budge.

One last round. Got Scotty. More 30-second bursts. He was going harder in those, but still letting me work. So much tired. He said I’d rolled good, but I’m not really sure I what I did, if anything. I think I tried some spider again, though it did nothing for me.

Nearly everyone crawled off the mats, which made me feel a little better. At least it’s not just me thinking that was a hard workout.

Car update: My car is fixed! It’s also still in Philly. But, my best friend, who lives near Richmond, is in North Carolina on a business trip and is coming back this way on Thursday night. And, because she’s super awesome, she volunteered to drive me to Philly to get my car, provided I go back to RVA and spend some time with her on Saturday and Sunday, since we missed that last time. So, if this wild and crazy adventure works out as it should, we’ll drive up on Friday, possibly spend the night with a friend of hers or drive back to Richmond; then she has plans Saturday morning so I’ll go train with Chrissy, leaving us Saturday afternoon/evening together; and then Sunday, church, maybe, followed by more jiu-jitsu. And I hear there are lots of girls coming in for the weekend. Sweet!

Came in early to watch the guys spar. Adam, the guy from RAM, was back today and brought a teammate, Caleb, who has a fight in two weeks. So the guys rotated through light rounds with him. Then since they were there, and everyone was dressed out nogi to spar, class ended up being nogi, as well. The one day I don’t bring shorts… *sigh*

Short but intense warmup. Tim pretended to forget about us while we were doing duck walks around the mat. Ooo, not funny. Then some partner stuff — shoot/leapfrog followed by jump-overs (partner on hands and knees, put hands on their shoulder blades, jump from side to side).

Drilling, a choke from the back.

Then rolling, with arbitrary round lengths. I think most were about 10 minutes.

Started with Steve. Right off, he caught a triangle. I must’ve fallen asleep or something; totally didn’t even see it coming. Had a few sweeps in there and got to the top a few times, though couldn’t pass his half guard and would get swept.

Then Justin, and I felt so slow and dumb. I could see most of it coming, but couldn’t do a thing about it. Omoplata, twister, D’Arce (probably, though not sure), and many more. I might have escaped my hips right once and come around to the open side once instead of battering at his defense, but that was all.

Yoshi last, and more D’Arces. I guess I need to ask someone to look at my defense there, because I really thought I was doing it right. Might have had half a pass at one point. Felt like I was always half a step behind again.

On the wall for single legs and alligators. (Maybe one more? Don’t remember.) Then circled up for sit-ups to finish it out.

Big Jesse wanted to do some APC, a version of mini-Cindy. Me, Will, and Justin joined him. 3 pullups, 6 pushups, 9 kettlebells swings, 5 minutes x 3 (1 min break), for rounds. (We just got a new set of kettlebells, so there are a bunch of 20-lbs ones. I used one of those. Justin used the 52+-lb one.) I lost track of rounds real fast, though I know I was going slow. Might have had 5 rounds per 5 min segment, but maybe even less by the last one. I was very tired very quickly.

Sometimes I read the “search engine terms” that WordPress gives me — a list of things people searched for and then clicked on a link to me from — and I wonder 1) who was looking for that, 2) how’d it direct to me, and 3) what else did they find?!

Not too many of us there today, and the first four were already paired up and going when I got there. So I just warmed up and stretched until Buddy #1 got there and was ready to go. Got to roll with him twice (really, once with a ~5 min break in the middle), and both times for a good long while, maybe 45 minutes total. We played! Fast-paced and fun. I had some good escapes and passes in there, and some good moments of getting to top and even sprawling well. Also got caught in a lot of D’Arces, among other things (triangles, arm triangles, a RNC). But he said at one point that he’d just really gotten the D’Arce down and so was taking every opportunity to work it.

I was still underneath a lot, but I was really, really working my escapes, mostly turning in for the single leg, which he was giving up for the chance at the D’Arce. He turtled for me several times; I kept trying to work the Peruvian necktie, I don’t know why, but never really had it well enough to try to finish. Should ought to have tried to take his back, but didn’t think of it. And I even had a couple of pretty good elevator sweeps, though he wasn’t defending them too hard. Oo, and I fixed a hole in my basic guard passes that I’d noticed the other night, finally getting my head in the right place. Lots of little things that I was very happy with.

Also worked the von Flue guillotine defense. He caught that guillotine tight, though his guard wasn’t quite closed, so I thought, Well, I can at least practice the defense for a second or two until he finishes it. I could get my arm around to his back, but my shoulder was nowhere near his neck: my elbow was just over his shoulder; but I went through the motions anyway. And then he let me out and we went on until he caught me in something else. When we reset, he said that had been a good guillotine defense; I asked if it had really worked, because I was so far away from his neck that it seemed as if I had no pressure. He said that yes, that all that pressure had been in one spot on his chest and had kept him from being able to finish. (Unspoken: without resorting to extra strength.) So, add that back in the arsenal. I’d set it aside for cases in which my shoulder would reach their neck, but now it appears to work without that. Not that I’m gonna go around looking for guillotines to stick my neck into to practice…

Just a really fun “this is why I do jiu-jitsu” kind of day. Yay!

and it’s going up, and up, and up…

Currently, I’m out of my weight class. Usually I’m toward the middle or low end. I’m at nearly the same weight I was when I started jiu-jitsu, and it’s not that I put back on muscle. Part is just water retention from all the chicken noodle sodium soup last week when I was sick. And Thanksgiving is between me and Sub Only VI. And my manager’s wife bakes. A lot. And sends it to work. And we’re going out to eat a lot since we have remote workers in the office the last three weeks.

Oh dear.

So… I guess I need to cut hard for Thanksgiving so I can not worry too much, and then Sub Only VI the following week. (And then US Grappling is switching to IBBJF weight classes next year, so I’ll have to aim even lower.)

New guys are just silly. What is it, some ego thing? Why the need to “prove” that you know jiu-jitsu? You don’t; you’ve never been on the mat before. So why this need to “impress” everyone? All you end up doing is ticking everyone off because you’re being rude and intentionally trying to injure people, and so they’ll stop rolling nice and introduce you to the not-so-gentle side of the gentle art.

I just don’t understand.

Medium size class. One visiting guy (salesman, I think, so he travels a lot; he’s been here before. Brown belt in judo apparently, and Tim said after class that he’d be a blue belt if he could ever stay anywhere long enough to get it awarded). One idiot new guy.

Warmup. *le sigh* What is wrong with me? I can’t breathe. There were knee-to-chest jumps. And then burpees. (Hmm, that might explain it.) So slow. Missed many reps on down the mat drills.

To rolling. Big Jesse first. I think I did something right that I was happy about, but I forgot what it was. Pooh. Felt as if I was moving okay. Was trying to stay on top when we started, though once I get under him it’s tough to get out. Not only is he much bigger, but he’s also good and tight.

Then Steve, who I’ve been meaning to roll with for a few weeks. The last time we rolled, I was surprised at how good his technique had become, and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. He’s closer to my size (I think, though I’m terrible with guessing) so it would be great if I could get a good training partner. And it was no fluke — technique, no muscling, hurray! … Well, rats, I know I was thinking during my rolls tonight, and I was acting and reacting and I knew what I was doing… but I can’t remember any of it now. Oh, well. At least I know I have a good training partner. (He did bellyflop on my ribs once, which knocked the wind out of me for a moment, though he paused and apologized and let me catch my breath. Then right back to it. I appreciate a partner who is paying enough attention to know he just potentially hurt me and who pauses to check instead of taking advantage of the moment and ripping off my arm.)

Then we did some positional rolling. Justin had been talking to Tim before class and saying that he’s started letting guys take his back so he can work escaping from there, since no one can get there unless he lets them, and he was now remembering how hard it is to defend and escape from there. So we worked that. One partner sat up; the other put both hooks in and started over/under (seatbelt grip, maybe? I dunno the name). In front had to defend/escape; on the back, to submit.

Worked with Steve, Yoshi, and Adam. I managed one escape over all 3 rounds. Got caught multiple times with everyone, and never managed a submission of my own; they got away lots.

More rolling. Started with Jesse again. And remember nothing. Again. I think I had some moments where my hips moved well. And again fighting to top and to maintain it, though it was shortlived. Oh, and I hit several single-under passes! All night long! And only one ended in a triangle (here, against Jesse).

Then got stuck with the guy who injured my ribs. Fabulous. But he was focused on trying to get X-guard from all the wrong ways, so it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, and I did get several passes and to top for a good portion of the round. I thought at first he was trying some 50/50 variation or maybe some funky Eddie Bravo stuff (this guy loves to watch stuff on the interwebs and then come try it out even though he still doesn’t have basic jiu-jitsu down); I had no idea what it was, but my knee and ankle wanted no part of it. He was trying to set it up with me in Sitting-Up Guard and him on his butt. Nothing doing. He laughed after he failed many times and told me what he was doing; I pointed out that his legs were backwards and that he probably needed to enter it from half guard, but he didn’t bother to change them.

Last roll with Steve again. Very similar to before. He doesn’t try to kill me if I get a sweep or a position. Huzzah! In a scramble, this time he elbowed me in the face; apology again; I said I was alright, but thanks for checking. (Must reinforce good behavior.) Quite an active round, too, and we were both escaping well. He also doesn’t Hulk out on me and actually does the proper escape. I think I might have managed to maintain top position for the majority of the round. Wowzer.

On the wall for single legs and alligators. Then circled up for running in place, with random sprawls and single legs as Tim called them out. Getting… tired… legs… so… heavy…

There was a lot of gurgling going on all night — no one seemed to want to tap to anyone. Even in the positional rolling, lots of guys holding their breath to avoid having to tap.

Pout: My car won’t be ready until next Tuesday or Wednesday.

On the bright side, that Charger is rather fun to drive.

Funny story, passed on from work (not us or any of our clients): So every time Company A started the system, there would be a couple of error messages about one particular component of the system. So they contacted the makers of that component and asked them to take a look. Company B came back and said they fixed the problem. So then when Company A started the system, hurray, no error messages. Except… it still didn’t work. Hmm. So Company A checks some more and finds out that the problem with the component is still there… Company B just removed the error messages…

*headdesk*

*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.

Car update: lots of little things that will cause basically the entire front to be replaced. Also, transmission fluid needed. About $1500 total ($500 deductible). Probably won’t be ready until the end of the week, at which point I have to figure out how to get back up to Philly and get it…

My insurance pays for a rental car, and the only thing they had available at the time was a Dodge Charger. Sweeeeet! (Although, I’m a paranoid driver now )

(However, it is a very looong car — it barely fit in the garage!!)

Small class tonight. Short but not-so-fun warmup: jogging, high knees, butt kicks, side-to-side, bear crawls. Then Justin got in front of the line. At one corner, we started duck walks all the way around the mat. Then random jogging until we were running in the opposite direction. At one corner, alligators all around. Got stuck after turning the first corner and couldn’t figure out how to start again; finally got it together, though I backed up most of the class. Had to pause in the middle and walk/stretch out legs. Then single legs, forward rolls, backwards rolls, and squat jumps. (Nothing after rolls, gah!) Really had to work on catching my breath during/after all that, too.

Rolling. Started with Marine Mark, who apparently also missed all of last week, so the warmup had wiped him out. I was able to keep top position most of the time, and was even trying submission after submission — clock choke, kimura, armbar, americano, triangle, a gi choke, RNC, and many more — and transitioning every which way and even transitioning between submissions. Whoa. Even had a few sweeps. He did get a sweep or two, but I was immediately moving and out, once even taking his back from there. Also looking for knee-on-belly, using the two points like Emily showed us; used them to re-establish side control when he tried to turn in, too. Who the–? What the–?

Then grabbed Scott. Got the hook sweep from the seminar though couldn’t follow through and get top. My follow throughs need work. (He also pointed that out afterward.) Underneath more with him, but pushing more to get out; felt better about it even though I didn’t have much success. Accidentally kneed him in the face because I was really working to get my leg out. Apologized. Mostly played defense and positions, though did get briefly to top several times. I was trying the Sit-up Guard stuff we worked during all rolls tonight, especially for starting or after a scramble. Threatened the chokes a few times with Scott, but mostly didn’t get anything. Tried to hit X-guard a few times, though couldn’t lift his leg enough; I bet I was lifting in the wrong direction (that is, lifting toward where he had weight, rather than to the light side).

Drilling was a guard sweep. Your partner breaks your guard and gets his front knee/shin up. Pistol-grip the sleeves. The leg that’s on the same side as their up leg, keep up behind their shoulder. The other foot drops to their hip. Hip out to that side. Pull the foot off their hip and feed it in front of their arm and then down behind the hamstring of their posted leg. Pull that arm in so that their elbow is in front of your leg. Hip back through to the other side. Post your free leg far off to the other side, and then kick out and/or lift a little with your hooked foot. (I found that kicking straight was easier for me to do, and they’re off balance anyway.) They’ll land on their side, falling to the side where you have the arm trapped. Switch grips on the arm you’re sitting on; with the now free hand, reach across and grab their lapel. Slide your hip/leg further over their arm as you pull up on that sleeve, so that your weight in on their bicep. Pinch your knees up and together.

That’s where the sweep itself ended. We added, for the first time we drilled, coming to side control. Then Justin showed us several transitions and armbar, triangle, & omoplata entry points from the end of the sweep. We drilled a transition to S-mount/mount: From that ending position, transition your far arm to their near hip. Now pop up onto their chest (sit squarely in the center, not hanging on with just one cheek). Keep hold of that arm. Swing the leg nearest their head around to the side, to S-mount. Transition to mount if you want. And you still have their arm.

More rolling. Yoshi first. And he was playing technique tonight! Yay! (Seriously, dude, roll like this with me in front of Tim. Es muy bueno. Fast track to blue belt, I promise.) Got to use Emily’s visualization tips several times here — be light like a feather when I wanted to float on top, be heavy as a boulder when I didn’t want him to move me. Worked sometimes, too. Ended up playing lots of spider guard. Me, playing spider guard in class and having success with it? Whoa. Did the guard recovery from spider guard several times, when he thought he was around, though he kept a knee in at all times so I couldn’t get to guard; did get back to square, though, and back to controlling from spider guard. Remembered to keep my control points at different levels and moving. He tried the sweep from class several times, though I’d land on my side facing him and could come right back in. He stopped the first time and asked why it hadn’t worked; I pointed out he hadn’t gotten my elbow through first. Oooooh. Second time, same thing. Doh. Afterward he laughed that I’d played so much spider guard, so I told him we’d worked it at the seminar.

Last round with Sundance. He still has to wear a big purple boxing glove on one hand when he rolls, though he’s able to do more of the warmup (like bear crawls and alligators). Also playing technique tonight. (Again, play with me like this in front of Tim. I think it’s the last bump you need for that belt.) More visualization, though he took advantage of my “light” visualizations to dump me over. Doh. He was trying to play spider guard with his one free hand, so I practiced my open guard passing from last week (um, holding down pant legs with my weight is not working so well, hmmm… Had trouble with Scott, too.), though didn’t get anywhere. Maybe on top half the round (?), mostly in half guard. Worked my two points and also worked on crossfacing with a little more insistence.

After class, I played around on Sundance, using him as a grappling dummy to practice some of the stuff from the seminar.

So, very good class. Very happy. I know jiu-jitsu! I can do this!

So, I did in fact get my butt in gear and to Philly for Emily Kwok’s seminar on Halloween. (Well, to Richmond (3hrs) on Friday, and to Philly (5hrs) on Saturday.)

I also got lost 3 times on the way to Philly, so arrived a little late (though they weren’t started yet). And then on the way home, while following Tori out of the city, I had my first ever car accident when some idiot driver stopped on the On ramp, which caused the car behind him to slam on his brakes, which caused Tori to slam on her brakes, which caused me to slam on my brakes, which wasn’t done quite quickly enough — and wasn’t helped by the wet roads — and I rear-ended her. Her little Honda came out better than my SUV and just had a little dent. We pulled over on the teensy-tiny shoulder, noticed that my car was spewing red fluid all over the road, decided that was probably a bad sign, and started the round of calling parents, insurance, tow trucks, and police. The tow truck driver said red fluid was probably transmission fluid. So my car is currently sitting at a dealership somewhere in Philly. Sad.

Tori offered me a ride back to to her home in Maryland, near D.C., and graciously put me up for the night and fed me breakfast. We didn’t get to her place until about 2:30 a.m. Thank goodness for Daylight Savings Time — an hour of extra sleep! We did get to talk a lot on the way back (2.5 hours!). My sister lives in D.C., so she came over in the morning and picked me up; we drove to meet our parents, who brought me back here. (I do have a great family, too.)

Tori and I have decided, however, that next time we’re going to carpool on purpose.

There were about 20 girls there. Anne (“E”) came from Ontario (I think), but actually had a shorter total drive than I did. But Jessica wins — she flew in from Omaha, Nebraska, just for the seminar! (That’s half the country!) There was also a girl there for her very first day of jiu-jitsu ever. Very good beginning.

When I got there, there was a girl who looked familiar; when we all introduced ourselves in the beginning, even her name was familiar. We talked during the break, and she was who I thought — Shannon had trained with me back in the first few months that I did jiu-jitsu. But she’d moved back home to the other side of the state. (Shannon is on the left in the front row.)

Emily wrote up a set of notes for us, which is really helpful now that I’m trying to remember (especially since jiu-jitsu was pretty much knocked out of my head for the last while).

First we worked on securing side control and north/south, just working through different hand/arm positions. Emily also mentioned not to commit too much to a grip if you don’t really have control with it, else when they move they’ll trap your hand or arm without even meaning to. (Happens to me a lot, so…) Side control: knee/elbow, knee/elbow (both elbows down by their ribs toward the ground and pinching in toward your knees); top hand under head, bottom hand under far arm, palm to palm, shoulder pressure; then top hand under head, shoulder pressure, bottom hand on near hip. North/south, all gripping the belt and pinching the elbows back: over/over; under/under; over/under. We drilled these briefly with our partners, moving between the three control positions for each position.

Then a hip movement drill. (I think they did this at the Women’s Grappling Camp in August?) Start in side control. Sit through to front scarf hold. Back to side control. Sit through to backward scarf hold. Leg over to mount. Walk hands around to the side you were just on, and dismount to the other side, through reverse scarf hold to side control. Sit through to front scarf hold. Turn your hips over to come up to north/south. Walk around just a little toward the other side, then sit through to front scarf hold. We drilled that with our partners for a while.

I had never seen dismount actually explained and so found that the best part of that drill. To dismount: first walk your hands to the same side. Then stretch the leg on the other side out and drop that hip to the mat. Open your hips to bring your leg over; now you’re in reverse scarf hold. Come up to side control.

Then two submissions. North/south to shoulder lock: First pinch your elbow in on one side, sliding the arm up until your hand meets the fabric along their torso; grab. Now, similar to the end of the previous drill, sit through from north/south to the side you’ve trapped, but this time, to reverse scarf hold (so post out on one leg and swing the other through the hole, with this leg going straight along their body). Your hips should point to the ceiling and you should still have their arm tight. Take your inside leg over and then down between their legs. Arch your hips up (not toward them, which is the tendency) to finish the shoulder lock.

Scarf hold to armbar: From side control, sit through to scarf hold. Slide your hand up to their wrist, then sneak your inside knee over their bicep, then sneak your whole leg over. Keep control of their wrist. Pinch their arm between your legs, being sure that their elbow stays above your legs. Good control position here (and they think “What in the world is she doing? She’s got nothing.” Ha!). Secure that trapped arm however you like your armbars, then push off them and spin your feet over their face to assume the armbar position. Feels a little weird, and so needs some practice, but a nice unexpected armbar setup.

One more control/position drill, this time when wanting to come up to knee-on-belly or when someone tries to push in to you from under side control. Emily talked about finding the “points” on your partner’s body that you can use to control their entire body. So, to get up to knee-on-belly, put one hand on their near shoulder and one on their far hip. Drop your weight through your hands as you pop up. Then, when you have side control and they’re trying to turn in, instead of trying to wrestle them in place, place one hand on their far shoulder and one on their far hip. As before, drop your weight through your hands.

Then king-of-the-hill sparring. Six or seven ladies (the highest belts — one brown, a few purples, and then blues) started out there and could sweep or submit. Those of us going out started in side control and had to mount or submit.

We took a short break and then came back for the second half of the seminar.

Emily started by talking about how to train: training with the right partners and having a plan/focus when you train to get better faster/more steadily. One suggestion that came up (from Jessica) was to train without arms, since our upper bodies aren’t comparable to the guys’ (and Jessica was actually bigger and stronger than most of the rest of us, and she said the guys still overpower her all the time). Emily also said that you’re only as good as your biggest weakness, so work on your weaknesses.

Then she talked a bit about visualization: how, if you want to float on someone, imagine that you’re a feather or a cloud, or if you want to be heavy, imagine that you’re a tree or a rock. Or if you’re trying to keep someone in close, imagine that you’re a vacuum cleaner.

Then back to drilling. Open and spider guard. Started with an individual drill, in Sit-up Guard (never knew it had a name), and then just moving around as she called out commands: “Forward,” “Backward,” “Left,” “Turn right,” etc. Then with a partner — one partner working the Sit-up Guard (with either a quick cross lapel choke or a sliding/clock choke, though from the front), and the other attempting to pass.

Next drill was using your feet to re-guard. Partner started standing in side control; reach your outside foot to their farther hip (toward your head); use that to turn back to square. That on both sides. Then partner stood in north/south; cross your legs and swing them over your head; get your feet on the outsides of their legs; then push off their legs to uncross yours and swing back to square.

Next drill was switching between positionings for the hook sweep and sickle sweep. (I actually didn’t know either of these coming in.) Start on your back, with your partner standing in front of you. One foot on their hip, the other behind their knee. Keep the foot on the hip; turn to the other side, dropping the foot from behind their knee to behind their opposite heel and grabbing the outside of the other ankle with your hand. Back to foot on hip, foot behind knee. Switch feet. Do the same thing on the other side.

Then we actually did the sweeps. Hook Sweep: One foot on their hip, the other behind their knee. Get sleeve control on the same side on which your foot is behind the knee. With the other hand, grab behind the ankle on the other side. Push on their hip, pull on their knee. Follow their momentum over to top half guard.

Sickle Sweep: One foot on their hip, the other behind their knee. Get sleeve control on the same side as the foot on the hip. Keep the foot on the hip; turn to the other side, dropping the foot from behind their knee to behind their opposite heel and grabbing the outside of the other ankle with your hand. Push on their hip while sweeping through with the bottom leg. Follow their momentum over to top half guard or side control.

Next we played with Spider Guard. Emily talked about never letting your four points of control — both hands and both feet — be in the same plane at the same time, else it’s too easy to break through. It’s like playing with a marionette — keep him moving.

First we just played Spider Guard with our partners. Then we worked an outside-in sweep: push one arm/hip point away. Pull the other leg out and wrap it over their arm and under to hook their triceps with your foot. Pull that leg in to collapse them. Move the other leg down, putting your ankle in front of their ankle, at the same time that you drop the other hand either under their leg or to the outside of their leg to grab the fabric. Drive your legs to the far side to sweep them, coming up to knee-on-belly.

We finished with a quick re-guard from a single spider guard hook (one sleeve/same leg) (for when the sneaky fast guys think they’ve passed), and then a simple palm-smacking duh! actual pass for when someone has a single spider guard control (one sleeve/same leg)… which I’m not going to mention yet because I think this one, more than anything else at the seminar, is what most girls are taking home to spring on their training partners. I’ll tell you after I get it multiple times in class this week.

Then we did a few more rounds of king-of-the-hill sparring followed by 3 three-minute rounds of full sparring. I got to spar with Liz (orange gi), Anne, and Shannon.

Dinner afterward, at an Italian restaurant a few blocks away, then followed Tori until I rear-ended her car. But she took me home with her and fed me. Definitely worth going.

Also, check out BJJEdge. They were recording parts of the seminar and said they would post some later.

Oh, right. I had to wash my belt. It reeked after being trapped in my bag for so long. Sadness.

• Goose Girl, Shannon Hale. After the “meh” Piers Anthony books last month, I needed something I knew was good. Read it before, own it, and still read it over and over. Love Shannon Hale. Makes me much happy.
• The Beginning Place, Ursala K. Le Guin. A little strange — and even the main characters haven’t figured it all entirely out by the end — but interesting. I read her Earthsea novels a few years ago when the miniseries came out and have a book of short stories around here somewhere; I like how she writes and how she connects things.
• Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale. Another that I already have. Tided me over until the next library run. Also very good.
• The Floating Island, Elizabeth Haydon. I’d read Rhapsody a few years ago and wasn’t impressed — so slow and, frankly, boring. And while this, a YA novel, is also slow developing, at least this time the characters and situations themselves are slower, if that makes any sense: plot and characters go at the same pace.
• The Thief Queen’s Daughter, Elizabeth Haydon. Sequel to The Floating Island (and more to come; hints and teasers are liberally scattered throughout both books, with just enough fulfilled to keep you happy but wanting more). I’d say my one complaint is that the premise is that these are supposedly translations from a lost journal (with reproduced passages and sketches from the journals mixed in with the “reconstructed” story), and yet the journal writer continually reminds us of what he wrote about in the last journal entry. If the reminders and backstory had all been in the “reconstructed” part, it would have been fine. It worked in the first book because we knew nothing about Ven and his past and his world — and his readers are not entirely familiar, either; also, Ven is odd even for his world — so he could include all that; in this second part, which is meant to be like reading the next journal entry, it’s clunky and distracting. Thankfully, those parts are short. So far, the story is about collecting — friends, enemies, magical objects, stories, histories — and so far, I do like it.
• Piratica, Tanith Lee. My library has a bad habit of having only parts of series, which is very frustrating. Piratica II has been on the shelves for years, but I’d never seen the first volume there until this last trip. Snapped it off the reshelving cart. And I liked it very much. Now let’s see if they still have the second one when I go back…
• Imager, L. E. Modesitt, Jr. New series from a favorite author. Some places where the world description was more of a “huh, wha-? I hope that’s not important because I don’t get it.” But, in general, pretty good.
• The Ships of Earth, Earthfall, and Earthborn, Orson Scott Card. The rest of the “Homecoming” saga. Had to raid a library branch for the 3rd book. I found myself skipping large parts that seemed more philosophical discussion/technology explanation. Oops. Was interesting to see how many references to Bible stories he could fit in the entire series — a rather large number, and probably several more that I missed. The ending to the last book, though, wasn’t quite satisfactory; the last book had seemed to set up one particular scenario that wasn’t carried out. But, as always, very hard to go wrong with OSC.
• Enna Burning, Shannon Hale. The sequel to Goose Girl. More love.

A lot of these are Young Adult (YA)/Teen books. I enjoy reading them often more than books targeted at adults because 1) they’re more likely to cut the fluff and tighten the story to fit in a shorter length, 2) they’re less likely to write pretty-sounding but convoluted prose, and 3) I don’t have to wade through unnecessary sex, language, and violence (necessary is one thing; unnecessary makes me lose interest. For necessary — though very graphic and disturbing — see Stephen Donaldson’s books.).

And frankly, some of the writing is much better. Writers whose adult-targeted fiction I don’t like often write very good YA/Teen novels. (Shannon Hale, on the other hand, who writes largely YA, turned around and wrote a fantastic adult-oriented novel, Austenland.)

Still hacking and snorting. No oinking, though. Have been debating all day about going to class when I still can’t breathe and will be coughing on everyone. Throat is raw. Bleh. Should probably not go. That’s the smart thing… Not that that makes it any more fun…

Mostly sat around at work because everything I need to be testing is broken. So, double grouchy.