BJJ Grrl

So, Tim has been home all week recuperating from something. I finally found that out tonight. We will have this talk eventually…

Nicole, the girl who got knocked out by the Cannonball Kid, was back tonight, but at Krav Maga and not jiu-jitsu. She seems to be okay. Several of us stuck around to watch their class so we could talk with her afterward (and so several of the guys could flirt with her. ). I didn’t get to talk to her (*snort*), but I talked to the two other girls who were doing the class and who have also been doing some of the kickboxing classes. They said the Cannonball Kid has called them names and has hit them too hard, too — but, oh, he’s such a cute little kid!, they said. (I wonder if he knows they think that way about him… Anywho…) They said they’ve thought about trying jiu-jitsu, but their two fears are that 1) they won’t make it through the warmup and 2) he will tease them for it. I told them not to worry about it, that I didn’t make it through my first night, either, and that if he teases them I’ve got lots of guys who will choke him out. At which the guys perked up, so I explained, and they said, “Oh yeah, not a problem.”

I think when nearly everyone in an academy would love to knock the snot out of a particular person, that something should probably be done… maybe non-violently first, to let him know that he is, in fact, the problem.

I ate more carbs today. I try to eat low-carb, mostly fruits and veggies; today was Mexican at lunch, half a sweet potato around 3pm, and 3 scoops of CarboMax in my protein shake (~50 g carbs just there). Thank goodness I did.

Good group of guys tonight. No newbies, no knuckleheads. Just a group that works hard. Good.

Justin took a page out of Tim’s pre-tournament handbook. O. M. G. Not even sure I can remember everything.

Warmup. Jogging, high knees, butt kicks, side-to-side, bear crawls (2 laps! ugh). Stop where you’re at: jumping jacks, situps, triangle situps with guard pass, squat jumps. Mountain climbers between sets of pushups, 10, 5, 10. Was on my knees after the first set.

Then on the wall. Single line, starting at one corner. Go up the one side, across the top, and down the other side, back to the wall. Alligators (!), backwards bear crawls, forward rolls (I only rolled the two sides — too dizzy!), duck walks, lunges. Maybe something else near the beginning. Actually feeling pretty good until the duck walks and lunges. Quads burning! (But everyone else was equally demolished.)

Are we done? We’re not done. Rolling. Now? Pooh.

Started with Will. Sat down and had to shake my legs out; they didn’t want to move! Um… No idea, really. Seem to recall being stuck at the end of his open guard a lot (what else is new?). Trying to use Scott’s advice and get inside as if after a guard break. Not so much luck; he used lots of hooks. Swept lots. Under side control, turn to my side, top elbow in to defend the D’Arce. Want single leg, can’t reach legs. Pfft. Did get one, though he wedged in for the D’Arce as I did; I took him over, but he pulled me in. Don’t remember if he finished it or if he let me escape. Tapping lots all night, though. Right now trying not to “just fight” a tap; if I have a defense, try it; if not, eh, whatever, just tap. No big deal. (And it’s funny how suddenly it really does become eh, no biggie.) The rest of the round, I have no clue.

Twenty pushups. Now we know for sure what kind of night this is.

Guillaume: Rolled with him later, too, so fuzzy (and brain still tired). Got his back at one point, got him flattened, and got the choke. He tapped with just his thumb; if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have known. Advised him to tap more obviously. Oh, goodness, oxygen needed. Later got mount and could hold it pretty well (thanks to having what I needed to do spelled out by Meg and Penny Thomas). Trying for an americano — and, in my opinion, not doing too shabby a job getting his elbows to pop out and then pinning the arm with my entire body while my arms went to work. He could press his arm out, though, so we finished the rest of the round like that.

Partner drill — one partner stands to start. Other partner shoots/crawls through their legs, then turns. First partner bends over at the waist (and tucks their head!). Second partner then plants hands on first partner’s back and bounds over. 10 each.

Justin: Wanted to try to match his recent fast pace. Had trouble getting anything started from the knees, though, as he’d hand fight if I was hand fighting and defend if I tried to sweep or pass. So really had to wait on him to initiate something, either pulling me in to butterfly or coming in and taking me over. Caught several times, though don’t remember. Did, though, tap early since I didn’t want to hear any more pianos! I think I had a few escapes and defenses that were somewhat okay, though mostly I was defending under side control and knee on belly (ack, knee on belly! Ribs still bruised.) He wasn’t going quite as fast as he had been the last few times, either because he was a bit tired (after practice conditioning last night was apparently brutal, plus he was doing everything with us) or because he was just playing. Some decent posturing up in his guard, though immediately swept with pendulum sweeps. Right to my side, though, and working knee/elbow escapes, not that he stays still long enough for it to work.

20 squat jumps. Was slow. Quads/hips so tired. Was last. But finished.

Sundance: Really starting to get tired now. Justin calls out for all of us to keep pushing, keep going. Oh. Okay. I do it. Don’t remember much except that we actually rolled in to the wall at one point. He caught several things; I tapped early.

20 pushups, 20 situps, 20 squats. Was not last. Could finally see that the guys are gasping and having trouble, too.

Done yet? Not done yet.

Will again: He let me pass his open guard and half guard several times. Once, though, he worked near my back and caught a reverse armbar and nearly had an omoplata later. Got to work knee on belly, though he did the escape from Saturday; tried catching the guillotine off that, but always lost his head. Hmm. He let me transition for a while between side control, north/south, other side control, and knee on belly — a bit stuttering, but moving. But surprised myself too much and didn’t know what to do. Caught his far elbow flaring and wanted the spinning armbar, but he sat up in to me. Tried to get to his back; actually had both hooks at one point but couldn’t pull myself around. Tried to change it up to a triangle, since I still had that arm, but couldn’t work out which foot goes where. He finally escaped and I ended up under side control again. I might have actually made him work a bit there, though. Kept trying to get to X-guard with everyone, but no one really wanted that and moved far away.

Something in there, I think, but don’t remember what.

Guillaume again: Surprising myself with a guard pass right off and lots of transitions. Eventually took his back with the technique Buddy and I worked a little while ago. Couldn’t get the choke because he was peeling my arms off. Tried switching to the armbar, but didn’t do something right with my legs and got the bottom one trapped. Pooh. Took mount instead. He did the knee/elbow escape and got to half guard. I passed his half guard! Had his far-side arm near kimura’d, since he’d handed it to me like that, and pressure in his throat to help with that one. Then tried to finish that kimura, actually trapping the near arm correctly first; he could still lift me with it, though, so switched to knee on belly. Far elbow flared, so went for the spinning armbar. He grabbed his hands. Went for the Oh dearie me triangle (where you “mess up” the armbar to get them to sit up into the triangle), but he wouldn’t sit up. Finally shifted to mount and got that triangle locked up. That thing was deep, and it was tight, and he didn’t tap. Pulled him over (hmm, on second thought, sitting on his face was probably the better choice… gravity on my side), and tried to finish there. (Just remembered, I’ve been pointing out getting the angle to guys, and I probably could’ve had a better angle — although, that thing was tight.) Still no tapping… Ah, okay, there it is. When I let go, his face was purple! He said after class that he’d been trying to see how long he could hold out before he passed out. (Had a talk with him about that.) I think I got back to mount to finish off the round.

On the wall. Nearly crawling, but I got there. Partner up. 5 lifts, then carry down; 5 lifts, then carry back. Partnering up went a little odd, and it was going to be me and Big Tom… Um, that’s not gonna work (5′2″, 125lbs with 6′2″, 220lbs. Yeah, no.) Justin switched us around a bit; I got to work with him. Getting dizzy on that last set of lifts, but managed to catch my breath, clear my vision, and get them done.

Almost there. 3 trips each of single legs and then single leg/sprawl and then done. So. Slow. So. Tired. Everyone else finished. Big Tom and I did the last two runs together, slapped hands, and immediately eased down to the mat. Ow.

After class, Justin and Will wanted more punishment and did pyramided kettlebell swings. Then everyone sat around to wait for the Krav class to end to check on Nicole.

That’s when Guillaume told me he’d been trying to hold on as long as possible in that triangle. (He wasn’t trying to escape, just to hold on.) I said that that wasn’t very smart and that I did not want to choke him out, that I would feel very badly about it. I said that it’s okay to work escapes when you’re rolling with someone who you know won’t try to hurt you for it, but don’t just try to hold on and see how long you can last.

Also talked a bit with one of the other guys, who was asking me how long I’d been training and when I’d gotten my blue belt. (The natives are getting restless… Most guys under Tim get their blue in a year; a year and half, like me, is getting toward the long end, though there is currently one guy who’s trained at least a few months longer than me and is still white.) He said he “can’t wait” to get his blue. He’s a smaller guy, so I just laughed and told him how, yeah, it’s great and all, but then everyone starts smashing you as hard as they can because they want to prove that they can beat you so they should get theirs, too. Reminded him that you usually get your blue belt as soon as you quit worrying about it and just focus on technique and rolling. (This guy, last I rolled with him, was starting to show some good technique. So if he keeps that up, I think he won’t be too far off. I’ve been meaning to roll with him, too, to check on him. Will have to do that soon.)

Ran across this article yesterday from Scientific American. What I got from it is: you learn better when you try but get it wrong (and then, of course, get the right answer), rather than just memorizing the right answers. You know, I remember studying in college and taking the practice tests; on the real test, I always seemed to do better with the questions I’d gotten wrong and had to correct on the practice tests. Hmm… Something to that… Of course, they did this with book learning and not with jiu-jitsu, but still.

Have had some free time at work (!) the last few days and so gave a piece of my mind a new home. Usual ramblings, this time on being a woman and training. Comments, insights, violent disagreements — all welcome.