Small group. Rolled with Guillaume to warm up, maybe 20-30 minutes. He had a question about trying to go to X-guard from open guard, then said he figured the best way was for me to just stop moving around. Lol. Yeah, no… Showed him the drill from Emily’s DVD, and then showed how I would set it up from there (get both hooks behind the knees, reach behind one ankle, then pull/pivot. He had been trying to dive in from having almost zero contact, and it was just too easy to step away.).

By the end of the round, I had a text back about meeting for lunch. (They had slept in, as I figured) I had time for one more round, so rolled with Sara until 11, then left to get ready and meet up with them. Really long lunch; I just got back a short while ago.

Something that came up during lunch was obsessions with hobbies. I’ve realized recently that I’m not very stressed out now when I miss a class. I no longer feel as if I’ll lose all my jiu-jitsu knowledge if I skip a class or as if I’ll miss TheOneCrucialDetail! that makes it all work. I’ve decided that I like having a life, even if some nights that just means sitting on my couch.

Went to get my hair done last night. My stylist wanted to do blonde highlights. However, my last color was a copper, and some of the color was still hanging around. So my hair turned pink…. Dude, not cool. She put a darker all-over color on it to cover the pink, though it also colored the blonde that was in. She said that the overall color will fade out in the next few weeks and the highlights should show through properly. Also, I’m leaning very strongly towards growing my hair out, so she actually didn’t cut anything, just styled it differently. I really like it this way; now I just have to remember how she did it!

Sent Andrew a text last night that I would miss morning class. Was a good thing, too, as another storm rolled in and battered my windows. I knew there was another reason I needed to miss the morning class, but couldn’t remember what it was. Found out when I got to work — 9am meeting. Oh. Crap. And I’m late…

Fundamentals Class, nogi

Several new guys: the guy I grappled last Friday, a guy who came a few times several months ago, and a brand-new guy — as well as one guy who just watched the whole class. They came in all at once, so I didn’t notice who came in with whom. (This will be important later.) A larger number of regulars for a Friday, too. Short warmup, then to drilling. A step-around guard pass, then added to knee-on-belly to north/south kimura, then added transitioning to the far-side tuck-knee armbar.

Drilled initially with Guillaume, then with the brand-new guy, who was wearing a “UFC” shirt. Maybe it was the shirt that first put me off, but my brain decided to assume that he had no training. And then when he did some things wrong in the drilling — like no pressure in KoB and going straight to the can-opener from KoB even though that’s not what we’re drilling — my brain decided to take these as further proof that he had no mat experience. (The can opener should have been my second clue that I was, in fact, quite wrong. The first was who he came with.) Drilled for the whole class.

Open Mat

Open Mat was actually structured tonight, with timed rounds & rest and most partners being picked (largely for the 3 new guys).

I was paired with the new guy I had drilled with. I sat down ready for maybe 50%, maybe 70%, intensity. (I don’t know why, exactly — I had gotten up to the right mindset last week when I knew nothing about the guy. Possibly because I wasn’t in as much pain as last week [whereas then I knew I would have to work hard to defend the injured parts], and possibly because I’d had those 3 nights off [and so thought I had a lot of energy to spare].) We slapped hands and he went for a fist bump. Some part of my brain started frantically trying to get my attention with that detail. But then he asked how did we start, from guard or from just wherever. (More brain frantically trying to get my attention. He said “Guard!” He knows guard! All ahead full! All ahead full!) I said, “Just wherever.” Then, because he’s asked a basic question about how to begin a round, my intensity & engagement with the upcoming round plummeted, despite all the warning bells.

(I know better, of course. New guys do not like having to roll with the girl first thing. I know this. I’ve lived this several times before. New guys who know nothing go bananas when seated across from a tiny girl. New guys who sneakily do know something come out 210% with all their cheap tricks.)

As I later found out, he trained with the guy I grappled last week. (At least he didn’t just learn it from watching UFC, as I for some reason began to fear during the round. Now that would have been embarrassing.) His game was different — a tighter top game and some knowledge of half guard and of leg attacks — and far more difficult to deal with, especially as I was also trying frantically to roust all the intensity-related pathways to come back online. (Although, like his friend, he does some basic things terribly wrong, as they’ve never been taught quite right. This, folks, is the difference a real Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor makes.) So the round was mostly me scrambling to catch up to this athletic guy (though going for far more submissions and sweeps than I ever used to against such a fellow) and seeing frowns of disapproval from Andrew, who was keeping time. Yeah, well, I’ve seen you caught off-guard by someone with more mat time than you thought, so don’t give me that look.

Couple more rounds, with Guillaume (who had been mocking my new hair style all night and so was due for a beating), Eamon, and Rob. Hit that pass from Emily on all three at least once. Eamon was tricksy tonight, though, opting for an active open guard, which made finding that sweet spot a little more difficult.

Anyway, was relieved at the end of class to see that this new guy and the one from last week had come together. So that means that he does have training time. And from the round, probably plenty. Okay, good, I did not just nearly get my clock cleaned by an “I train UFC”er. He actually does have some experience.

Note to self: NO NOT TAKING GUYS SERIOUS! NO MATTER HOW INNOCENT THEY LOOK!

Been steaming for a few days over a couple of “women in BJJ” forum posts. So to distract me from the scathing replies I’ve written (and deleted), here’s a couple of women-related BJJ stories:

• While rolling with Laura at the Open Mat last week, she asked me how much I weighed and commented to Chrissy that I was so little. Of course, I was thinking, “Awesome, a girl who’s just my size!” Apparently not. Seriously, I think my eyes + brain is broke….
• Aubrey and I had lunch earlier this week. She said that she actually had had no idea what BJJ was before she started. She had asked me if class “would be awkward.” I replied that yes, it sometimes can be, but that really it’s only as awkward as you make it. She let it go at that, and said she told herself that since I did this, it couldn’t be too bad. Then when she got to class that first night, she said she almost freaked out at what BJJ turned out to be. That whole first week she kept thinking, “OMG! Leslie does this?!!” Seems her version of “awkward” was based on the two TKD classes she had gone to in college, in which everyone had to stand up and introduce themselves and then “perform” what they learned at the end of the night. My version of “awkward” was something entirely different!

Round-robin rolling to warm up. I don’t understand how some people come in 110% smashy in the mornings. Dude, I am so not awake yet. Also, dislike.

Drilling was options from the overhook from guard: chokes, armbars, kimuras, triangles, guillotines, crucifix sweep, omoplatas. Good to be reminded of all those options. Important point: since you have their upper body locked down with the overhook, your lower body can (and should be) loose. Andrew also pointed out that all the movements — minus the swing over to the omoplata — are within a small box of space and are all small adjustments to the other person’s reaction.

Getting ready for work this morning was weird because I didn’t have to do all the usual preparation for evening class. So I feel like I’ve forgotten something, even though I forgot it on purpose.

Fundamentals Class, gi

Short around-the-mat warmup stuff. Then Andrew sent us all over to grab the UFC ground-’n'-pound bags to do the side control to knee-on-belly to switch to side control drill again for 2 rounds.

Drilling is centering around mount right now. Drilling was pendulum sweep, same as this morning. Then a choke for if they try to base away to prevent the sweep, then back to the sweep, then the choke again.

Choke to pendulum to choke: Pendulum sweep setup started from the overhook, with the option of grabbing the opposite lapel. Do that here. They are wise to your pendulum sweeping ways, however, and keep their weight solidly to the far side, perhaps even turning away a bit, so that you cannot underhook their leg. Well, now they’re exposing their neck. With your free hand, reach four-fingers in to the nearby lapel. Pull in with the overhooked hand while pushing out with the close lapel grip. Finish the choke.

Now they are wise to this choke, and when you try to set it up they square back up with you. Good, now the pendulum is available again. Keep the lapel grip with the overhooked hand all through the sweep. When you come up to mount, slide your knee over their free arm, then turn in towards them while pulling them up on their side. Other leg pops up on the foot and slides in behind their shoulders. The overhooked arm is pointing to the ceiling and they have no arms available to defend. Now grab four-fingers in the near lapel again; pull with the overhooked arm and push with the fist.

BJJ

Just rounds of rolling. 3 minutes, 1 minute rest. One person from each pair rotating. Seven rounds total. Aubrey, Andrew, Rob, Janet, Buddy, Robert, and Eamon.

I’m falling a little into playing people’s games again; need to watch that. Also notice that I’m actually working more standing guard passes. Huh. It’s because of “Defeating the Bigger, Stronger Opponent”; I’ve been working with this pass in mind quite a bit:

Mine’s not that pretty, though. Biggest problem, especially against blue+ belts, is that they turn hard to half guard when I step in, and their top knee drives my knee down, and then I’m snared in their half guard.

And yet I somehow woke up right before my alarm this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep. Rats. So dragged out the door to morning class.

The secondary heater was not working this morning. Apparently it has to be drained of water, and no one has done that. So Andrew first set about seeing if he could take care of that while the rest of us warmed up on the cold, cold mats. Ugga, so slow.

A roll to continue warming up. I started with Andrew, then moved over to Aubrey when she got there. Drilling was pendulum sweep. (My hips are apparently still shooting out too far to the far side. Tsk.) Then one more short roll, with Aubrey, to finish.

Cold, rainy, foggy day. Meh.

Lots of folks for rolling. Blue belt Thomas, purple belt Ben, purple belt MikeByrd, brown belt Keith, blue belt Brain, and blue belts Paul and Laura from Philly. I think I managed 12 three-minutes rounds (?). Definitely know I got 3 with Keith, which was awesome, as he is very close to my size (for reals, this time) and we engaged in what he called “Damn Little People” jiu-jitsu. I did have to take a couple of rounds and attack my left quad with a foam roller as it had one really tiiiiight and uncooperative spot.

Sunday by 1ish, we were back in action at the US Grappling Referee Certification. After the aspiring referees sat through the rules explanation and such, a fair number of us suited up to provide live grappling rounds for the refs to practice on. I ended up doing mostly nogi rounds as a whole bunch of people indicated they only wanted to do gi rounds. I did definitely like that there were fewer refs this time and lots more grapplers, so I did a total of five matches and didn’t end up wrecked by the end. I’ve been at Ref Certs before with lots of refs and few grapplers, and you end up dashing from ring to ring, throwing on or off your gi and jumping in for your next round.

First round was with Barbara, simulating women’s advanced nogi. (Did you know they have to grapple for 6 minutes in that division?! Holy cats! That’s a long time at tournament pace!) (And the ref kept muttering, “Oh my God, this is so hard!”) Then a round with James, another Yamasaki blue belt, and we played crazy monkey jiu-jitsu, which was a whole heap of fun. Between rounds at some point, Chrissy was showing us something off half guard and swept me over in to the coffee.

For the next round, Brain pulled me and James aside and asked if we would simulate someone being choked unconscious during a match. I was to the be the chokee. So when the round started, James started feeding in some tight chokes, but I wanted to give the ref a little more actual reffing first so defended them. And then he sunk in a deeeeeeep, tight choke, and I thought, “Um… I might go out for reals here. Uh-oh….” I really needed to tap, but instead did my best to go limp without sinking further in to the choke.

Someone on the sideline said, “Uh, ref, I think she’s out.” I heard the ref say, “I don’t think she is” (probably because I was giggling at the fact that I might actually be unconscious for reals aaaannnny second now). Then Paul, who was on the far side of the room, heard the guys saying I’m out, saw me (attempting to be) limp on the mat, and barreled over to pull James off of me. I tried to stay limp, but I know I was shaking with giggles at this point. But his actions galvanized the ref, and they both turned me over and started raising my feet… at which point I couldn’t control the giggles any longer and busted out laughing.

When he realized he’d fallen for a trick, Paul glared at me and declared a death match. Several other people also came over to check on me while the next match was going on, also thinking that I’d actually been choked out. Ah, good times.

My death match with Paul came with the next ref, in women’s advanced nogi again. (That was Brain’s compromise — I had to do advanced again, but Paul got to be a woman. Yeah, okay, that works.) And it was about as much death match as a kitten attacking a patient mastiff, lol. One more round — a “white belt” gi match, since most of the other grapplers had left — with MikeByrd, which was much like the previous match but with slightly more blatant white belt “mistakes.”

After dinner, I drove home in the fog and rain (ew!). Nasty weather continues this morning, too.

My hips have been giving me issues this week. I think maybe I have a gremlin or something running around inside my innards and picking joints to harass. (I’m sure there’s an appropriate sci-fi creature, but right now I can’t think of it.) So my left hip today has been iffy on whether it would support me when I stood up or walked. Lovely… Although at this very moment, the hip seems fine, but my right knee is doing the same thing.

Fundamentals Class, nogi

Short warmup. Then we each grabbed a UFC ground-’n'-pound bag from the corner (courtesy of the other folka) and dragged them out on the mat. Andrew said he didn’t want us to kill anyone’s ribs tonight. (Might have also been considering that the 280-lb dude was back tonight, and I think the rest of us combined scarcely weighed that much.)

Two timed rounds of going from side control to knee-on-belly, switching KoB, then dropping back down to side control. (P.S. That sucked.)

Drilling was taking mount from side control. First, going straight over. Second, turning towards their feet and sneaking your leg across. Drilled for the rest of the class.

Open Mat

Was paired up with a new guy. Not too much bigger than me (which could mean up to 30lbs bigger, though I think not quite that big). I steeled myself to be intense and ready to go, and it was a good thing, too, as he was immediately squirrelly and bouncey. Maybe has some wrestling: he played an aggressive top game and tried a lot to run around my guard; also some diving forward to one side or another. So my game was quickly one of getting hooks and chasing his hips, and squirming around to his back when he exposed it. After a couple minutes of me frustrating his guard passes, he paused to remark that my guard was giving him so much trouble and that he couldn’t pass. (And he used the words “guard” and “pass”, so I realized that he had actually trained BJJ somewhere before.)

Eventually he overcommitted and gave me his back. Lost it, got it again, lost it again, finally got it again and this time managed to trap his arms with my feet and finish the choke. He grinned broadly after he tapped, and we talked for a few moments. He said he has trained since 2006 at a school a few towns over that primarily teaches TKD but had some grappling. The instructor recently moved to Florida, though, so he’s been looking around for a new place around here, and is excited to have found us. (Also, our Friday class corresponds to his daughter’s gymnastics class, so it works out.)

We went again for another few minutes, pretty much a repeat of the first.

Then I rolled with Honey Badger-apparelled Jamie, who also has the claim to fame of getting to roll with Marcelo Garcia over the holidays. And Jamie destroyed any notion that I might have known anything about jiu-jitsu. Doh. (Personally, I’m going to make the excuse that it was the sheer awesome of the Honey Badger combined with lingering fairy dust from Marcelo. Yeah, that’s it.)

So I got a brief “Holy cats, I know some jiu-jitsu!”, followed by a “Holy carp, I don’t know anything!” Ah, well, that’s how it goes.

Awesome weekend ahead — driving up to Richmond for Open Mat in the morning, then a US Grappling referee seminar on Sunday. I’ll be at the latter to provide shenanigans.

One of the new guys showed up this morning. Short warmup. Then to drilling: mount to s-mount to sliding choke to bow-and-arrow, and then to the arm-wrap to the back that we worked last week or so. One short roll at the end, with Andrew.

Mornings. Suck. Doesn’t seem to matter how early I get to bed; getting up in the morning is hard. I crashed out again this morning and got the stink-eye from Andrew in class tonight. Sorry, yes, I’m pathetic, I know.

Will have to try harder starting next week, though, since Wednesdays will become MMA night then. And since I still really do like having Tuesdays & Thursdays to myself — I can do stuff! — then I’m going to continue taking those nights off. That means I’ll only be training two nights a week now, Mondays and Fridays, so I’ll have to get in in the mornings in order to make up that training. Ugh. Mornings…

On the other hand, even though I’m mostly asleep in the mornings, I do seem to retain the things we drill and the things Andrew reviews rather well. A lot of what I did at the last tournament came from morning classes. So my subconscious, at least, is learning.

Couple of new guys tonight, but classes still bled together. Warmup — though I gotta say, stuff like alligators really doesn’t warm me up; there’s still too much static holding or something going on, and I’m not loose afterwards. Anywho…

Drilling: single-leg takedown. Then eventually added passing to side control, and then later going straight to the bow-and-arrow choke. Started out with Buddy & Brandon, then later moved over with Ratcliffe (always fun, as he’s one the of the taller guys), and eventually to Guillaume.

Drilled for a long while, then one more roll with Guillaume.

My left hand hasn’t been hurting so much the last two days, but it sure didn’t appreciate the bow-and-arrow choke grip, nor was it happy about gripping in rolling later. Random knot has appeared under one shoulder blade. C’mon, body, stop with the breaking down already!

day off from work today. got some things done. then took a nap, which might have been a bad idea — possibly even more sluggish after that.

fundamentals bled over again. warmup, similar to this morning’s. got light-headed, too, which sucks. then in groups of 3 for round-robin rolling to warm up. three times through. drilling, same sequence from this morning. 2 more rolls to finish up.

hopefully this hand clears up by morning, since my whole job is pretty much typing. meh.