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No news is good news? September 17, 2009

Posted by leslie in Training Log.
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Can’t use my front teeth — any pressure on that top part hurts! So I’m having to cut my food smaller and slide it in on the side so I don’t accidentally bop the tooth. Although, I can’t completely chew my food because I sometimes knock in to it with the top teeth, so I’m swallowing my foot more whole. Liquid diet, here I come. *le sigh* Also, my nose is bruised all around the bridge. Very tender.

The little 14-year-old kid’s dad asked me before class how my tooth and nose were. He’d seen both hits. Said he was glad my nose wasn’t broken; he’d been a bit worried. As for my tooth, he had heard my teeth snap together from the other side of the mat and had sent Tim over to check on me.

I’m really starting to enjoy Thursday nogi nights — small class size and not too many knuckleheads. One new guy. (Apparently Wednesdays are huge classes with lots of knuckleheads.)

Short warmup. Only one run on squat jumps, but pushed through all the rest. Slow, but finished.

Then to hand-fighting for double unders. First with the little 14 year old. He’s a wrestler, and he was going pretty hard, so I turned it up to match him. This is more his element. Then with Guillaume. I did hit an armdrag to get his back a couple of times until he figured out what I was doing. Then with Will, who’d had to come in late and so was fresh here. My arms were tired.

After class, I noticed that my neck was hurting from all the clinching.

Then to drilling. Armbar from guard. Worked with Will. As we were drilling, Justin came around and stood over us and watched for a minute or so, and then walked off. We looked at each other, and Will said, “I guess no news is good news?” I agreed and said that’s usually how I interpret it, too. (Although, with the knucklesheads, no news means “you’re hopeless.” But when I mess up, they’re always quick to tell me.) We both got a “Very good” on his second or third lap around the class. (Good news is good news, too. ;) )

I made a comment near the end of drilling that I wished I could do it like this when I rolled. And then Will said that that’s probably hard for me because most of the guys just go Incredible Hulk on me. Then when we starting rolling, he tried to pretend he was hitting Hulk rage. Didn’t turn green, though.

On to rolling. With Will first. Trying to pass his open guard. Bleh. That might’ve been most of the round. He got a triangle at one point. I tried what I’ve been trying — overhooking the leg with the arm that’s trapped. Even grabbed it with the other hand from the bottom, but couldn’t quite keep control of my elbow; he was doing a good job with his hips and that leg of pushing my shoulder and getting the space. Justin called out for him to do an omoplata; I tried to set up the nonoplata but he had too much pressure on my arm, and then tried to walk around before he sat up, but he caught my hip and then came up. Then he got control of my free arm, and I was done. Good, though. Then back to trying to pass his open guard. Pfffffffffft.

Next with Guillaume. Felt as if I was transitioning well. He tried to stuff me into an armbar or triangle from guard; we stayed in the triangle for a while. He even asked me after class what he’d needed to do/was it tight, but I couldn’t remember; I might have had the other hand in. (I finally really need to remember something that happened during a roll, and I can’t! I suppose now I have to start paying attention to that sort of thing.) I got near side control and knee-on-belly several times, but he was bumping and pulling in knees and elbows, and I could never quite consolidate the positions. Did transition to north/south once and tried the kimura, but his shoulders are still too flexible. Did remember (!!) the kimura off the kimura, but messed it up and lost control of the arm and then lost him. Did catch a half-spinning armbar from north/south (instead of from knee-on-belly/side control), though he caught hold of his arm. Tried Mark’s suggestion from Monday, but I didn’t get my feet quite right; instead of sitting up into a triangle, he sat up into the end of an armbar from guard — and I saw it and snapped it up. North/south again later, this time on his even more flexible shoulder; I had my kimura grip backwards, so I was pulling his arm instead of pushing it across (maybe that’s what I was doing wrong on Monday, too); once I fixed the grip and transitioned around to his front just a smidge, though, it was right there.

Afterward, I thanked him for not trying to “get revenge” on me if I catch him in something and explained that most of the guys would. He just smiles, acknowledges that he got caught, and then continues to roll at the same speed, maybe a smidge more intense, but never trying to tear my limbs off. He said for me, he would work very hard this next week on trying to get mean. Silly boys.

Last round with Justin. I got my butt kicked royally. Whohoo! It’s not that I mind being submitted in class, because I certainly don’t (I’m a big believer in teaching someone what not to do by submitting them when they screw up); it’s only that I’d rather it be with something that I can eventually learn to defeat through technique. And there were plenty of those: D’Arce, anaconda, 2 armbars, heel hook (set in very slowly, and he made sure I could see what he was doing), kneebar, Twister, and at least 2 others, probably more. Long round, too, because he was also the timekeeper. I kept trying the elevator sweep from butterfly, since he was letting me start there, but he’d just float on my hook and maybe do a headstand before passing. (After class, I asked him where I was messing it up, and he said I wasn’t; he was just defending. But he did review it with me and show me how to use the underhook to pull them down and sideways [not on top of you].) I caught several half-guards, though couldn’t sweep him; usually was immediately defending D’Arces, and then he’d pass to side control. Did even catch the deep half-guard he’d worked on me Tuesday when he was trying to get fancy with something, but he knew the counters better than I could vaguely remember the one sweep (Homer Simpson, I think) that he & Yoshi had played with before class Tuesday. Even defended my back decently for a while until he’d completely set up the Twister (and it came just when I thought I’d figured a way out. Doh!) One armbar came after I’d defended several other armbars; he finally spun and caught an arm that had gotten out of position.

And then afterwards he said I was rolling really good. Squee! And he has definitely picked up the pace and intensity with me, which is further proof. Double squee! Good news is good news. :P

After class, Spin-the-Wheel pizza. I totally forgot about my teeth and so tagged right along. I won a cookie, and they had to cook my pizza, so I started nibbling on the cookie. Guillaume laughed at me for breaking the cookie off in little pieces, asking if I was trying to not eat too much before my pizza came. I told him about my tooth and how I can’t bite down with the front teeth. Then I got a bit of ribbing from Justin for not wearing my mouthguard (*snort* like he’s one to talk — he doesn’t wear one, either), and then even more teasing when I had to cut my pizza into itsy bitsy bites. Geez, pizza takes forever to eat that way…

Girl Sighting

The girl who wants to do everything finally did show up last night, though she only did Perry’s kickboxing class. Perry has a couple of other college girls in there who are giggly (and I really want to punch them sometimes), but he said this girl really worked hard and didn’t giggle.

So after class tonight, Yoshi was telling someone that the guy had missed it last night, that there was a “smokin’ hot girl” in Perry’s class. I commented that that was probably the girl who has said she wants to do jiu-jitsu, to which Yoshi responds, “Awesome — we’ll have a hot girl in jiu-jitsu!”

I pretended to be offended. “Hey now! Wanna amend that statement?” Yoshi: “Huh? Wha…?” The guys standing around with him were a little quicker to catch on and started laughing with me. He still stood there looking around saying “Huh?” until I pointed at myself. “Oh!! Right. Um, so, um, we’ll have another girl in jiu-jitsu…?” “Oo, burn!” Mock kickboxing battle ensued. Yoshi surrendered when I feinted a kick to head level. (That always unnerves them.)

There were a few more side comments that they didn’t think I heard about how “hot” this girl is, and this from several of them who were there last night. So apparently she is. I guess we’ll see how that goes…

Achy June 18, 2009

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I’d decided to go to class, and then all day everything was achy. Never quite loosened up in class, either. Blergh.

No one to let us in early. Nick and I were there before everyone else again, so we sat in his car and waited. A few more guys showed up and hung out outside the car until Justin got there to let us in. More guys came in after even that. A little larger group than last night. Most of the new kids came back, and they brought a friend.

Warmup was normal, though we went longer on the single legs because they weren’t getting it.

A round to warm up. I went with Guillaume. Started feeling rather bleh in the middle of the round, though. Started from butterfly, trying for a sweep, but didn’t quite have my hips right and had to go to guard. Got his back (he tends to overextend his arms). He expects the RNC, so just worked on positioning. Switched to mount, though he was on his side, but then he gave up his back again, this time on his stomach. Easy slide in for the choke. Tried for several triangles later — did pivot the right way this time — but I have no control over the arm that’s in, and I can’t figure out how to get it when one arm is underhooking his leg and the other is grabbing my shin. I need a third arm. My free leg is turned in, knee pressuring toward his armpit, but he (and everyone else) just circles that arm out and I can’t stop it. (I seriously just went to look that up in Jiu-Jitsu University, to make sure I’m doing it right. Seem to be…) From one of those failed triangles, I got the foot of the leg behind his head to wrap under his arm as he was pulling it out; switched sides and underhooked the other side, and he fell right over. In a funky mount, though, and couldn’t quite work out how to get out or what to do. He got to side control at some point, and then I noticed I was feeling even more bleh than before. Tried breathing more. Didn’t do much.

Drilling next, and I thought I was going to puke or pass out. Lovely. Usually I stand and walk around during the technique portion, mostly as a clue to new guys that it’s okay to move to see better (they usually get it, too, and start moving to the right side); today I sat and half-listened. Thankfully, it was Old School, which I’ve done. Did try to see if there was anything I’d missed before. Maybe the detail of driving your shoulder to the mat as your leg sweeps through.

Nick grabbed me to drill so he wouldn’t get stuck with the new guys (and maybe so I wouldn’t, either). Even though he’s the biggest guy in class, this is kind of easy for me to do on him. He had a harder time getting in tight on me; his arms were too long. It’s always amusing… Did feel better after drilling for a while.

Then a roll. With Nick. At some point, he tried to stand up in my closed guard, and I got up with him. He got lazy with one arm, and I was able to pop under it and got halfway shimmied around to his back. He started laughing (Adam looked up from his roll and laughed, too), but then he shook me off and we went back to the ground. He tried a choke later (don’t know what) that I defended correctly. Then later he got my back and got his arm through; tucked my chin, though, so he’d squeeze, then try to shimmy down, then squeeze, repeating until time was called.

Last roll with Adam. Was either ineffective under his side control or lost holding guard. I’d get back to guard when he let me escape side control, and then I’d totally blank on what I know from guard. Tried an armbar once (and he let me set it up), except I just could not seem to pivot worth anything — and first had to remember what I was doing and figure out which side was which. Blergh. At one point, I only had an open guard, using my feet to keep contact anywhere from his knees to his hips while he tried to pressure in and pass. Hips seemed to wake up and start chasing, so I think I did that well, at least. He pulled back one hand as if he was going to drop down and start striking — practicing for his fight next weekend. I felt slow, though, and sloppy.

I might stop by tomorrow and see if anyone will drill armbars and triangles with me. Don’t want to roll (well, want to, but am trying to be at least semi-smart). Then class Saturday.

I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow to go with my mom to the doctor. She called me today and asked me to go with her; she just failed to mention that this particular doctor’s office is 45 minutes away. She has to be there by 6:30. Ack. Can’t sleep in cars, either. Do have my work laptop, so I may get a jumpstart on the day. Or may fall asleep in the waiting room. I should be sleeping now, but was still a little too wired so decided to write first.

The problem with taking a day off… June 17, 2009

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…is you lose that low-level “everything is hurting and tired” buzz, and things that really hurt start to come through. The good news is that I had energy tonight, which I needed.

The kickboxers are off for a tournament tomorrow night at Virginia Beach (who does tournaments on Thursdays?!), so neither Perry nor Gary was there for the kids’ TKD classes (since they’re the coaches), and Perry’s wife wasn’t there for the cardio kickboxing class. I totally forgot about that and got to the academy at ~5:45. The lights were on, but no one was home. Locked out.

Nick showed up a while later; he’d wanted to work out before class. While we waited, we swapped stories of rolling with girls: my weekend vs. his last summer/break at home, when he rolled with Emily Kwok. One of the kids got dropped off, and then three new guys walked up. Adam and Tim are both at church most Wednesdays, so we had to wait on Justin to get there from work with a key. By then it was nearly class time. Then the new guys had to sign waivers, and then another new guy showed up, so we were late getting started.

About 10-12 in class, I think, with the 4 new guys, two newer guys (including the kids), and the rest of us. Nick started the warmup, but he needs more practice. Couldn’t remember the calls. I was teasing him. Some purple belt. I admit I felt a little smug on the bear crawls when I could blast past all the slow new guys. I think I lapped them all.

With new guys, it’s either a brutal warmup until they puke/pass out/drop out or a very repetitive warmup because they don’t know how to do anything. Today, thank goodness, was the latter. Not that it was any less work, just that there’s less chance of me joining them for the puke/pass out part. Shrimping: lots and lots, with Justin and Nick both teaching the new guys and telling them that this is the key to jiu-jitsu. They looked skeptical. (Smug again because I could get 2 runs before the new guys finished 1. [I know, they're new; they don't know how to do it. And Adam & Justin would've had 2 again for each of mine. I try to write what happens and how I reacted then, and not just give you the cleaned-up holier-than-thou version. You can have your holier-than-thou moment pretending you wouldn't have thought that way.]) Of course that also meant I did a whole lot more trips down the mat than they did. I just kept going until we moved on. Eventually on to single-leg shots; same deal: lots and lots and lots. Then alligators (ow, my quads!), only 2 runs on those; I’m not crazy. Then squat jumps, 2 again.

On to drilling. Pinch pass first. From inside their butterfly guard, get your head and weight down, pinching elbows to knees to prevent them from moving their hips. Shoot one leg straight back to lose their hook, then bring it back in to their other shin, so now you have both knees on their one leg. Pinch your elbows to your knees. If the other guy has longer legs (and/or you have short legs), slide/shimmy down toward the knee you have trapped, using your weight to push that knee toward the floor. When it’s low enough, slide your knee that’s closest over and around their knee, so now their knee is between your knees. Pinch your knees in. (Notice a theme? There’s a reason it’s called a “pinch” pass.) Arm on that same side goes across their body to their armpit; open your hips to pass while planting your weight on their upper chest/face. Other knee remains at their hip to block. Your other hand slides in where that knee is; then come in to side control.

Second, side control to mount. Top arm under their head; bottom arm under their far arm; grip palm-to-palm. Shoulder pressure in their chin. Further knee comes in toward their sternum. When it’s almost across, torque up on that far arm to, one, take their arm away from defending against your knee and, two, to give you more space to come across. Knee now slides down toward the floor by their opposite hip, using your shin to keep pressure. Leg comes completely over, and come up to mount.

I drilled with one of the kids. He has gotten funny this last week, and I’m not sure he realizes it: he’s suddenly perky and bubbly and everyone’s best friend. He knows my name (although, 1 girl = not hard to learn) and talks to me all the time. Before class, he was talking about having so many new guys. I wanted to mention that he’s still considered a new guy, but I didn’t. (He’s still clueless about so many things, but it comes in a cute puppy package, so you can’t not like him.) Then we got to the technique, and he wanted to work with me; Justin told those of us who knew the pass to work with the new guys, so I started to walk off but then remember that, oh right, he is a new guy and didn’t know it.

Again with the questions about techniques, which is fine; I answered again with, “Well, try it.” Ooooh. Always a good way to learn. He asked me how long I’d been doing jiu-jitsu; when I told him, he asked me when I was going to have my first fight. I replied that I really wasn’t interested in fighting. He said, “Then why do jiu-jitsu?” Because it’s fun. Because I like it. I compete in tournaments. Then he asked if there’s such a thing as “women’s MMA.” I said that yes, there was, and it did not involve mud, jello, or bikinis. He said, “Well, darn.” I think he was mostly serious, too. *shakes head* Kids these days…

We were supposed to drill the first, then the second, and eventually work them both together, but the new guys had no clue, so we stayed on the second longer.

Finally on to rolling with our drilling partner. First time rolling with him since he introduced himself the first night and accidently insulted me. I’m not holding it against him, I’m really not; but until some other guy says something idiotic before rolling with me, he gets to keep this distinction. Anyway, he has calmed down considerably since that first night. Soon he may even start doing jiu-jitsu. Since he’d questioned the usefulness of butterfly guard on Monday and I hadn’t been able to show him, I started from there tonight so I could sweep him. Had quite a few of a leg lift/cut the leg sweep, which always seemed to surprise him. Even somehow passed to mount at one point, using the technique from class, though a spazzy roll swept me right after. He had mount at one point, too, from a pick-me-up bump sweep, but he had told me while we were drilling that the only thing he knows from mount is the kimura so I was watching for it; “the key to jiu-jitsu” got me out.

Went the wrong way, though, half-thinking of setting something up, and gave up side control. I moved a little, but mostly waited to see if he could recognize the position and get to the side-control-to-mount that we’d worked earlier. He did get to side control and get his grips right, to which I said, “Good,” but then tried hopping over to mount. Tsk, tsk; now I take half-guard. Shrimped to guard. He said when I got there that he didn’t know how to break guard; his first attempts, thankfully, were neither slamming nor elbows nor ripping my feet. He was doing lots of hand-fighting; I was doing lots of pulling him off-balance with my hips. (Thought later that I should’ve opened my guard, if he didn’t know how to break it, but didn’t realize it until after class.) I tried bump sweep or guillotine, but was coming down between them; I think I need to bait the guillotine, since he knows it and overreacts to it, and then hit the bump sweep as his weight jerks back. He did eventually reach back for my foot to break guard, and I got my hips up and my leg over and almost had that triangle right; pivoted the wrong way though (doh) and couldn’t recover. Tried switching to the armbar, but was too loose and was losing him.

Second roll, jumped in with Nick. Time to play. A few sweeps on him, too. Even working some Z-guard, though I’ve never drilled any sweeps from there. (Seen, yes. Done, no.) From butterfly once, he let me take his back; rolled him over, got my hooks, and tried playing from there. Got a reverse hook (foot goes from outside to in), but then went the wrong way with it (toward the ground on my side instead of going across) and he got away. Hips were moving pretty decently, I thought; caught a few half-guards when he tried to use his long legs to get around and got some decent shrimping action in and out and around. And avoided a D’Arce, which are way too easy for him to grab since his arms are extra long.

I may sneak in to class tomorrow (!), skip Friday, and come see what they’re doing on Saturday. Adam’s fight is next weekend, so Saturday probably won’t be too intense. Next week is Karate College, too. Paul Creighton and Renzo will be here teaching; I’ll probably get over for both of theirs. Maybe take Bill Wallace’s classes, too, since he is also awesome. (But I haven’t worked my kicks in a long while, and last year I was sore for a week after his class! And that’s when I was “in shape” for kicking!)

7 months of BJJ, and Backwards Night November 3, 2008

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As of today, November 3rd, I’ve been doing BJJ for 7 months. Still love.

Three mini-goals for today:

  • scissor sweep pass
  • north/south roll escape
  • triangle-armbar-triangle

Hey, that’s a pass, an escape, and a submission. Probably a decent list composition.

Warmer day today, so we weren’t all freezing waiting for class to start. A few guys who haven’t been around for a few months or week showed back up tonight.

Tonight was Backwards Night. Rolls first, then technique, then warm-up (er, down?). Tim kept calling out “Light rounds. Technique. This is for warm-up. Go easy,” during the rolls because a few of the pairs jumped out full-speed.

The whole night, I was thinking of some advice Georgette got the other day: Never start your from-the-knees matches on your knees! I couldn’t work the angles so much, though, because everyone kept moving. I guess they do tend to do that. But the upside was that I wasn’t getting pulled straight in to guard by the guys who tend to do that, and Justin and Adam couldn’t start their (annoying, obnoxious, and hard-to-pass) butterfly guard immediately. (Okay, so really I just need work on my pinch pass. Don’t know where I’m screwing up — probably not enough pressure down — but lately I’ve been getting tired of always having to start with the pinch pass with them when I can’t get it to work. Need to ask about it.)

Also worked hard on staying tight and in on everyone. Need to learn to move while staying there, though; don’t just want to hold them, but when I move, I’m losing that tightness. Hmmm…

Started with Adam. Just going easy. Definitely easy with him, because I don’t want to do anything stupid on accident and hurt him right before his fight. (Although, he got some of the full-speed guys later and was going hard right back at them.) He took north/south once, and I got in position for the roll escape — and then he had a D’Arce, so I went nowheres. He gave me a chance for the scissor sweep pass once, though he immediately defended.

Partway through our round, a guy came in late. Tim asked me to slide out and put him in with Adam. But then Tim N. came in late, right before the second round, so we were even again. When he came in, and we’re rolling, he looked at me and said, “I’m not that late, am I?” So I had to explain that we were doing things backwards.

Second roll was with Tim N. We kept having to stop and move because one pair near us was a little overzealous (and Tim stood near them, watching and shaking his head and repeating, “Still warming up. Go easy,” only they didn’t hear because they were going so hard). Tim N. tries the leg-toss pass a lot, only he doesn’t always get his head outside, so I drop right back down and in place for a triangle; got him with one once. I was actually planning to make it the triangle-armbar-triangle switch from Saturday, but he tapped at the first triangle. Got his back somehow later and got in the RNC, though I don’t think my hooks were in great or my lower arm completely in place — but he’s big enough that I’m not sure I could have gotten them.

Then Justin. Really, I want to work to position and on keeping pressure on him, but he doesn’t hold still! I know, I know, he’s not supposed to. He used to, though, to let me think and work, so again, I’m taking it as a sign that I’m at least a little bit better. He did let me get the triangle-armbar switch, but I was having trouble getting back for the second triangle and so started to drop it and move on; he held me there, though, and told me to keep working between the two until I got it. I finally did, and later I figured out what my problem was (same problem from Saturday with Nick) — not pinching my feet/calves down on the armbar! Same thing Tim had pointed out over a month ago. So by not pinching my feet down on the armbar, I was sliding out of position and my foot was ending up behind his neck so I couldn’t grab my shin to switch to the triangle. Elsewhere in the round, there were lots of sweeps that sent my feet flying over my head, and lots of catch-and-release on his part again.

Next round, I was waiting on Nick, who’d gotten his nose busted by one of the strong-arming guys on the first round; he’d had to run to the back after the previous round. But before he got back, one of the strong-arm guys came over to me; he’s not usually one of the really bad ones, though, so I’m alright rolling with him. However, I think he’d been in already with some of the worse ones because he was definitely rougher than usual. He jerked out something that was probably modeled on the concept of an Americano, from inside my guard, except all the pressure was in my formerly dislocated elbow instead of my shoulder. My other arm was pinned between our chests so I couldn’t tap; had to say, “Tap,” only he didn’t hear me the first time and I had to repeat it louder. Oh, uh, sorry, didn’t hear you. Yeah, I was only looking directly at your ear as I said it. Elbow hurts now.

Last round, Tim jumped in with me to start with because some of the full-speed muscling guys were heading my way; missed what was going on, but then he switched with Justin, so I got him for another round. (Tim even said that he was keeping those guys from rolling with me.) This round was similar to the first. Got in the scissor sweep pass a few times — he drops to that position as soon as [he lets] you break his guard — although he was countering some on all of them. Tried for the triangle-armbar-triangle again, only this time he didn’t let me. I was trying to push his arm through, and he grabbed the bicep of the other hand and then said, “Don’t force it. There’s other things you can do from there.” I took too long figuring what that might be, so he swept me off into something else. (Figured out later, with his arms like that, he’s set up for a regular armbar from guard; just sweep the hand that’s pushing over his other arm to the wrist and drop the hand behind his head to this elbow). Again, he’d take me to the tip of a submission — right where I could see it and say, “Rats” or “That was a bad idea”, depending on what I’d done immediately before, which was usually something dumb that set him up — and then he’d let me escape. My escapes need work, though. Couldn’t remember which way to roll on the hitchhiker escape from armbar; again, though, remembered it later.

Oh, this was also the round where Justin used me as a sit-n-spin: he’d gotten my back, and I was more or less turtled (legs were a little awry), and he just move and spun and I don’t even know what. My ribs had started hurting again in an earlier round because almost everyone does side control and movement around side control on that side, and the ribs weren’t happy during this. I tried to just brace and wait for an opening to move — he had to stop at some point — but he saw me grimacing (I was trying not to!) and stopped and asked what was wrong. Ribs are still hurting even now, 3 hours later. Ugh.

THEN we worked technique. A Paul Creighton move, Tim said. From butterfly guard, for some reason you can’t sweep the guy, but if you bring him down on you, he’s going to smash and pass. Slide in tight as if you’re going to do the elevator sweep — so you’re on one hip, arm inside the higher leg, other arm out behind you for balance, your head in under his. Instead of reaching around his hips with your inside arm, post it on the near hip. Push in as if you were going to do the sweep; he’ll probably push back on you. Explode out, pushing off the hip and off his legs, swinging your hips through and back so that you end up on your knees. At the same time, the hand on his hip comes up behind his neck and snaps him down; he ends in turtle, more or less. (Or, if you’re not that fast, like me, you underhook the same side arm and use it as leverage to snap him down; just be sure to get that arm out again.) Sprawl briefly to keep him down. We worked moving to the side, back leg in, front leg posted, over-under arms, but you could continue with anything else you know from there.

We worked that for a bit. My “explode” was more of a series of hops; my brain knows what it wants to do, but it doesn’t seem to be pushing the right buttons. Oh wells.

And THEN we did part of our normal warm-up. It was actually past the end of class at this point, but Tim kept us going. Jog, knees up, heels back, side-to-side, bear crawls. On the wall: alligators, singles, single with sprawl, shrimping, squat jumps. Circle up: pushups, mountain climbers, pushups, situps. Done.

The corner is in sight… October 2, 2008

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BJJ, last night

Warmup was a little more like an advanced class warmup. It’s been kind of light for the last few weeks. Probably because there are so many new guys coming through still. Medium-sized class last night.

Two warmup rolls. Justin first, which meant I opened with technique, which helped me get started off right. Every time I roll with him, he increases the difficulty of the roll for me. A few times, I’d move for a position and he’d get out; realized later that I wasn’t keeping any pressure down on him as I moved.

Next roll was with one of the guys who attempts guillotines from all positions. Decided (I don’t know why) to work butterfly guard with this guy; he’d been my partner for drills in butterfly guard last week, so maybe that was why “butterfly guard” popped in my head. Kept trying to reset to butterfly guard and get the elevator sweep or the one we’d worked last week. He kept going for guillotines. I need to keep my head, neck, and shoulders in tighter on him so he can’t get his arm under there. (Figured that out, of course, after the roll.)

At one point, he got to side control. I tried the bridge/thread the needle move from Saturday, but he grabbed my head and pulled it in so I couldn’t get my knee back through; then he was able to flatten me, so I was on my stomach. He didn’t know to take my back, and I don’t remember how we progressed from there. But Tim was watching my roll and decided to show a technique from that situation instead of whatever he had planned.

It’s basically a single-leg takedown on their near leg. When they flatten you, grip in tight around their leg, back elbow over their calf and pressing toward in the mat, head inside their leg. Knees come under you and in; your body is at less than 90º to theirs (how far depends on how their leg is bent under them). Post your front leg up; stay tight on their leg and rotate toward that front leg. Their leg should come under and they get dropped on their butt. Slide your front hand up to their calf and slide down to side control. He also showed something to do for when, after the thread-the-needle move, you can’t get that bottom knee back through because they’ve closed in: top knee inside their hip, shrimp out to make that space again, and then bottom knee through.

Then rolling. Rolled with Perry first. We twice got to the same position we’d drilled; he paused a moment so I could do it on the first, then defended on the second. Then rolled with Tim. Rolling with him is like those space ring amusement park rides that spin you in every direction at once; you don’t know which way is up or down or even where you are. (It’s hilariously fun, and I find myself trying hard not to laugh.) He moves so fast, there’s hardly any chance that I can even register what position we’re in; I just try to move my hips and not flail too much.

Oh, and a “silly girl” on me: some of the guys have said my half-guard is pretty good and they can’t get out of it. So a few times, I’d snag Tim in half-guard (complete luck, I know) and the little voice in my head would start with, “Ha, I’m going show him my great– Hey! What the– Where’d he go?!” Yeah, so it’s still a half-guard that can only catch white belts. Oh, well. :p

Third roll was with Mike, another TKD black belt. I guess because I’d worked butterfly guard earlier, I was still thinking about butterfly guard, so I was trying it on him, too. Also just worked on being calm and on moving my hips. He’s a little heavier than the guy I’d drilled the moves with, though, and I ended up having to go to guard a lot.

After class, Tim pulled me aside and said I’d done well. He said he thinks I’m about to turn a corner in rolling with the strong-arming guys. Awesomeness! So I’m going to work even more on staying calm when they knock me around, on keeping my hips moving, and on getting my techniques right and tight, one step at a time.

Supposed to stay for the kickboxing techniques class after, but even though they were standing there in front of me, I totally spaced out (probably still thinking of that corner) and went home instead. Doh.

I’m trying to work on the little voice in my head so it’s less Joe Rogan spazzy (“Oh, he’s gonna take the back! She’s in trouble here. He’s got her back!”) and more analytical (“Okay, he’s defending this pass. What other one do I know from here? Oh, right…”). I’m still only able to think to the very next technique I want to try rather than purposely chaining them together; I can chain them, but only by thinking about every single one as it comes up. For example, I’m not yet able to think, “Okay, I want to work armbar from guard, so I’ll go for the armbar, switch to triangle, and then back to catch the armbar.” Instead I think, “Okay, I want to work armbar from guard. Darn, he’s defending. Um… Wait, I can try a triangle. No, he’s got that defended, too. Back to armbar?”

The “knocking the snot out of each other” part from Saturday, I found out, was mostly for Gary, the kids’ TKD instructor, who was in every round. I noticed that he was on Saturday, but didn’t know why until I talked to Perry last night. They’d already done ~3 hours of work outside: carrying things up hills, running, and lots of other crazy fun stuff. The point of those bare-knuckle rounds was to bruise Gary up (and, to a degree, the ones going against him) so he’d have something else to work through for the rest of the test. But at the end of the test, he was promoted to black belt in Perry’s ADAPT fighting system (judo, jiu-jitsu, Krav Maga, kickboxing, etc.). So that’s pretty cool.

Unrelated to BJJ, but funny: at work today we had to fill out Employee Information forms. We have several non-US citizens, and one of them stopped by to ask me if he should check “Non-US Citizen,” “Resident Alien,” or “Non-Resident Alien.” He holds a green card, he said. I have no idea, so we applied logic. We concluded that, since the card is green, and aliens are green, and he owns a house, he must be a Resident Alien. HR emailed him back a few minutes later; he is, in fact, a resident alien. *snort*

Just found out that one of the half-guard sweeps I know is Eddie Bravo’s “Old School.” Random comments finally clicked after several weeks, so I looked it up.