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Not yet. But class was a smoker! October 23, 2009

Posted by leslie in Training Log.
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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. :P ). 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.

A Big Guy September 10, 2009

Posted by leslie in Training Log.
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That was me tonight. Justin was showing something to Will, using me as his grappling dummy: “And for big guys, you do this.” To which Will shook his head at me being not quite either “big” or “guy.” I tried, though it didn’t quite work.

Tip to BJJ bloggers: best way to increase your per-day page views — get promoted. Just sayin’…

I painted my toes blue. They match my belt.

(Side story: Last summer, we had a big guy named Zack who was promoted to blue belt. Zack’s over 6 feet tall, over 200 pounds, former wrestler, Army guy, somewhere around my age. The next class, he came in with his toenails painted the same blue as his belt. He was always doing funny stuff like that. [There was the incident with the singlet...]

Well, he said he was only keeping it for the rest of the week. And then the next week, he showed back up with blue toes still. Everyone was laughing and teasing him about liking his toenails painted. He said he’d started taking it off over the weekend, and his daughter came in. Two or three years old. And she was thrilled that Daddy was painting his toes, so she wanted to help him put it back on and wanted hers to match his… and he didn’t have the heart to say no. So Zack had painted toes for several more weeks until they moved away.)

As I walked in, Justin asked if I’d brought my belt. (It’s nogi class tonight.) Erm… yeah…

Small class tonight. (Apparently last night they had over 20!) Still no girls. Buddy had to leave early, so he asked if we could roll to warm up, and Justin and Adam let us.

Started with Will. He wasn’t quite paying attention at first, so I had to rush him a bit to wake him up, to which he said, “Oh, I see how it is now, Miss Blue Belt!” And then the round picked up in earnest. Ha! He caught a triangle, which I defended the way we’d learned a counter to last week, but since I knew the counter he knew, I knew what I needed to do to keep him from getting it — keep my elbow and shoulder in tight on his leg. (Pressure on that leg helps, too.) Still under half guard mostly.

Then with Adam. Intensity started off at a higher level, and stayed there most of the round. I can do it. He was practicing D’Arces. My defense there needs some revisiting. He caught 3 in a row; while trying to defend a fourth, I gave up a kneebar. Doh. (Actually, defended the first and second kneebar attempts, but lost the third.) Did have some sweeps that almost got me to top and some halfway decent escapes. Some moments that seemed like I’d done something really right.

Then with the little 14 year old. He was having a spazzy elbow night — got elbows in the throat, in the eye, and in the chin. The ones in the throat, though, were deliberate attempts to grind into my windpipe, and since that annoys me & I don’t think that’s a nice thing to do to training partners (and since I’ve told him about it), I escaped fully from those and didn’t let him try anything off them. Deliberate pain moves like that are not okay in my book, especially not in training. He tried armbar from mount once, but was loose; I did a slow hitchhiker escape. From side control, he kept trying the far-side kimura without having any position and without trapping that inside arm (to be fair, I don’t think he’s actually learned that); I’d roll to the outside and turtle, and he’d try to finish the kimura from there. I tried to set him up for the move from Tuesday several times, but he tried a headlock instead.

Drilling next. Continuation/variation of the move from Tuesday: pull out on their elbows to break their pressure and posture. This time, as you push on one knee, armdrag the opposite arm. Keep hold of that arm as you continue. Same as before, hip out and come up with the inside hook in. Slide the knee (not foot! because they can kneebar you that way) of your free leg over their near calf to control their near hip and leg. Over/under grip with your hands (the arm you used in the armdrag is already under and so should just slide through), and then pressure the near shoulder to roll them under and take their back.

Worked with Will and the kid. The kid and I were both having trouble because we aren’t long enough to both get the knee down and get the over/under at Will’s shoulders. We could do it on each other, though. Adam saw us having trouble on Will, so he showed us a variation — get the knee down and grip both hands around their waist. (He said this version would be especially good against someone like Nick, who turtles and defends his neck well.) Use that grip to pressure them forward and create enough space to transition the knee that’s over their calf around to get the second hook in. Straighten that second leg to pull yourself all the way square, and then you have their back.

And in here is when I became “a big guy.” *snort*

More rolling. Guillaume first. Hit the move from class, with Adam’s variation and a RNC, straight off. He shook his head and said, “Should have seen that coming.” He’s starting to defend a lot better, so I’m having to work several submissions/transitions in a row to get something to stick. Got to lots of positions, but couldn’t quite finish. Was transitioning off them, though, and remembered lots of stuff to try, which is good.

Last with Yoshi. He was pushing again, and I was trying to match him. Lots of half guard and z-guard from me; even tried x-guard once, but it took a while before I remembered to get his weight over me (still forgot to grab his ankles, doh!). That sweep finally came toward the end and sent him over me and me out the back; came up and again got something close to Adam’s variation, though he was defending the RNC and I couldn’t finish it. Time ended on us. Had several back door escapes and a few sweeps/near sweeps like the one Adam showed me on Saturday. Still having trouble getting under his base; I’d think I was there, but the sweeps wouldn’t quite work right, so there must be something I was missing. Nice fast-paced round, though.

Then on the wall for drills: bear crawl down/squat jumps back; alligators; single legs. A little slow, but still moving.

The new guys were saying after class that they’re used to be wrecked in conditioning-type work (they’re both cadets at Tech), but that class tonight had wrecked them on a whole new level. One of them asked Will if he competed, which got us all on the subject of competing. Yoshi and I both agreed that we weren’t looking to compete again at the moment because we don’t want to go through Tim’s pre-tournament insane classes, and Will said those are one of the main reasons he hasn’t competed yet. I am looking, though, at maybe the Dec 5th Submission Only in Richmond (though most of the college kids may not be able to make it, since that’s probably during or right before finals). Maybe by then I’ll be ready for a week or two of competition training again…

Transitions May 18, 2009

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Everyone’s graduating, and some are leaving; others are heading home for the summer. I don’t want (most of) them to go. TKD Mike came by tonight to say goodbye; he graduated, and he was on his way home to Richmond.

Smaller class tonight. Light warmup. Did only 1 run on the squat jumps, and then that turned out to be the end of the warmup.

One roll to warmup, with Scott. (He’s leaving on Wednesday: a conference in Rome or Madrid — I forget — and then an internship for the summer.) We were both working tight and slow, me trying to pass his open guard and him trying to hold me off. He was successful. Under side control a few times and defending; felt as if I was doing it right.

Then drilling. One, a sweep off their transition. Justin was talking a lot about transitions tonight; how sometimes you have to wait for the other guy to move, and as he’s moving and isn’t as stable, that’s when you throw your counter or sweep. They’re trying to pass your guard — in this case, using the pinch pass to get around your butterfly guard. Just as they get the first leg around and are moving to get the other leg out and around, reach up with the arm opposite from the side they’re on and grab their belt. Pivot on the foot you have on the ground, bringing your hips in to where they are and the leg they’re trying to pass up and over and watch them fly. Follow them over and take side control or north/south.

Two, a reverse armbar from side control, after you’ve swept them with the first technique. Bottom arm reaches under their far arm and hugs their tricep up; your head pressures that arm away from their head. Lace over their other arm (shin of top leg traps it; other ankle pivots over to trap also; top leg slides off), and then slide the top knee across their throat. We were being nice when we drilled and driving the knee all the way across to the mat and taking the pressure off our partners’ throats, but you don’t have to…. Keep their tricep tight to your chest and use your head, neck, and shoulder to keep their arm straight. Slide the other knee to knee-on-belly. Pinch your knees; grab palm-to-palm behind their tricep (that is, below their elbow, since that’s the joint we want to straighten) and pinch your arms in for the reverse armbar.

Drilled with Clifton for a while until he had to leave, and then with Brandon for a few minutes.

Rolling to wrap it up. Nick first. Similar to Scott, I was trying to pass his open guard most of the time. He caught a gi choke that I saw coming and thought I had defended, but apparently not quite enough. Then a round with Stephen. Both those round seemed really short.

Erik started asking Justin questions afterward about defending armbars, so I hung around and listened. Picked up some pointers on getting my arm out after I have them stacked. He also showed what to do if you miss the hitchhiker escape: grab your hand and then straighten your legs and point them away from the other person. Then swing your legs back toward their head and use your momentum and their pull to get up and on them and stack them. Will have to try to remember that for when I can’t hit the hitchhiker.

We hit up the Mexican restaurant last night. The waiter who recognizes us didn’t have our table, so we only got regular cups instead of the largest beer mugs. And we drained them fast and kept our waiter running to refill them. The other guy is smart: he also leaves a pitcher of water and of sweet tea on the next table so he doesn’t have to go all the way back every time. This guy will learn…

Am I an Analyst or am I an Analyst? April 21, 2009

Posted by leslie in Training Log.
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So, my job: I’m a Business Analyst. This means I figure out the problem, figure out the solution, (let the developers build it), and then test that the solution solved the problem. I like it; I get to be hypercritical, anal retentive, and a perfectionist all at the same time.

And I was thinking today that I analyze everything else, so why aren’t I really sitting down and mapping out and analyzing my jiu-jitsu? Not just having pity parties and yakking about it, but actually figuring out where I am and where I want to go and how I should go about getting there. I dunno. Lazy? So, today I started on that before class. (Got there super early again and had a notebook with me.) It’ll still take me a few days to gather all the requirements to get an idea of what a finished product should look like. This won’t be “the” finished product, but rather a small one.

Part of what brought this on was dinner last night after class. Me and Justin and Scott, and the guys started talking about working on stuff in class and how many months they spent working something until it was decent and about getting tapped out by everybody in the process. I can read it somewhere, but it really hits me when my guys talk about it, too. (There was a blog post that quoted a forum response about this, but I seem to have lost it — the downside of so many blogs in my feedreader!)

First thing I did think on is that my defense, for the most part, is a fairly solid white belt defense. Except for when the guys add punches, palm heels, and face kicks, I think I do a decent job defending and getting out of stuff. I even can, most of the time, get out of armbars and RNCs and triangles (no, wait, not triangles; that defense still stinks) even when the guys are doing their best to muscle it. And thinking on that made me realize that most of the time anymore I roll with the other white belts to not get submitted. A lot of the time I’m defending anyway, but I have gotten to where I really hate tapping out to them. Didn’t get deep enough to find out why I’ve started doing that, but did find it. So… one thing this plan needs is a way to measure success, and the number of times I tap is not going to be on there. That doesn’t count as a failure.

(One requirement that will go in here, though, is that I still do not want to tap to dumb, no-technique muscling sharking as much as possible (but without getting hurt). That doesn’t help me, and it doesn’t help the other guy. So, gotta find a way to incorporate that line of thinking…)

Anyway, first things I picked to work on were recomposing guard and standing guard passes. How to know if I succeeded: I recompose guard after losing it, and I pass his guard after standing. How to know if I did not succeed: I don’t recompose guard, and I don’t pass. Simple enough…

More to come on this as I work it out, and suggestions are quite welcome.

First time I’ve had a warmup in over a week! Gassed bad. Only one run on just about everything. Legs tired. And sucking wind aggravated my throat, which is still a bit scratchy after being sick, and I coughed the rest of the night. Pleh.

Then a few rolls. Started with Will. And he would not pull guard for anything, and he wouldn’t let me do it, either. Did he read my notes? Tried starting in his butterfly and either getting to his guard or getting him to switch to it, and he wouldn’t do it. Under mount, knee-on-belly, side control, and back mount a lot. Trying to get back for guard, but no such luck. Got caught in several armbars and a choke or two and tapped. (Tapped very grudgingly, which I think only proves that I really have been rolling to avoid being submitted. So this is detox.) Did have a bonus backdoor escape from under mount, and went to pull guard after, but didn’t get it.

Then Tim put the new guy with me. I think I’m glad I wasn’t wearing my pink gi, else he might’ve gone even harder. Tried to pull guard at first, and he grabbed my legs and tumbled me over. Lovely. This is going to end well, isn’t it? Actually did pull and recompose guard several times, though he was getting very frustrated because he couldn’t break/pass and was doing a bit of slamming toward the end. Remembered the counter to the double-unders and so grabbed under one of his arms, though couldn’t get the sweep from there; kept him from flipping me the rest of the round, though that’s what he was using to pick me up and slam me. He was trying to bend my wrist a lot, which I don’t like. Somehow — I think he tried to sweep me while inside my guard? — I ended up on top with an arm dangling in front of me. Locked it on, and had it right, but he curled his arm and then bench-pressed me off. Then with both of us sitting up, he grabbed my ankles and tried to twist them off. (Not kidding. And not fun. Why do I get the weird new guys who want to hurt my wrists and ankles? Grr.) Hugged my knee and ankle in to take the pressure off. I think the round ended there.

(Note to self: don’t take that armbar anymore. Make it a kimura instead. You’ve locked up the kimura grip anyway, and they’re not as strong in that direction as they are in bicep curls. And you probably need to work on kimuras anyway.)

Drilling was a counter to a standing guard pass. (Hey! Don’t ruin what I’m working! Bah.) As they stand and before they get the pressure in to you, drop your legs from around their waist and clamp just above their knees. Really works if the guy’s feet are too closer together. Figure-four your legs if possible. Use your hips to drop them to one side or the other, mostly toward your head, and then pass to side control (or mount, though we didn’t drill that). We actually drilled this without using our hands, though you can grab a sleeve or a lapel to guide them along.

Drilled with Will. Then more rolling. Before the round, 20 pushups, 20 squats, and 20 situps. Rolled with Will again. Did get to his guard a few times, though couldn’t posture up, which meant the standing guard pass didn’t get worked. (Of course, now he has a counter for it. Bah!) Wait, I think I did work it once — wide base — though he still swept me with the drill move. Under everything again. Tapped to an armbar and a choke, I think; little mixed up with the previous roll. And I think I actually got to guard once, though he passed quickly. Then 20 pushups, 20 squats, and 20 situps.

Justin next. So focused on getting to guard for either of us that I passed up on working lots of other stuff that he was leaving out for me. Did get to his guard, and did work the standing pass, though I’m doing something wrong/slow/inefficiently, because I never had the pass. Got standing, got pressure, didn’t get pass. Hmm. He did look at me funny when I stood up the first, as if saying, “We just learned the counter to this, genius, so why are you handing this to me?” but I remembered to have a wide base and so he wouldn’t wrestle me for it. Don’t remember the exact position — probably him in my butterfly (since he cornered me in to that several times), but arms and legs and gis twisted over in several places — and I managed to do a full split and sweep one leg in front of his face and to the other side. Not quite guard, but close. Don’t recall actually getting back to guard, though. Then 20 pushups, 20 squats, and 20 situps.

Then on the wall for gi drags. Best part of having rolled with Justin last was that he was right there, so worked in with him. Fingers on my left hand were going numb after several trips up and down the mat, and I couldn’t grip well with them. Legs and arms and hands so wobbly afterward. Ugh, those are terrible.

  • Recompose guard:

    • several yes, several no
    • need to work on recomposing faster when they start to pass (i.e., not letting them get completely past); they’re getting through before I move
  • Standing guard pass:
    • standing, yes; passing, no
    • need to drill that with someone; I think I’m missing a piece (probably explosion up)

Have somehow tweaked my back. Seems to ripple from upper to lower and up again, depending on what I’m doing. And not helping is that I have to sit in an office chair for hours every day. We just got an inversion table at the academy, which a lot of the guys swear by for back issues, so I’ll probably start using that more. And I’ll see about getting a podium or box or something at work to raise my monitor et al. I had a standing desk before, and it really does help keep your spine happy.

Bah, forgot: Big Jesse got his blue belt last week, wohoo! (While I’m not there, of course. Meh.) Tim said tonight that it’s the best thing that ever happened to Jesse; he’s suddenly rolling ten times better.

Topsy turvy January 7, 2009

Posted by leslie in Training Log.
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No word from the interview people. Meh.

My jiu-jitsu is down down one day, and almost decent the next. Can’t we just have a nice steady pace?

Goals:

  • elbows in
  • back not flat

Elbows were flaring, especially when rolling with Adam, though slightly better in the other two rolls. I think — again except possibly with Adam — I was unflat the rest of the night.

Small class for a nogi class. Still too slow in warmups. And one of my toes — next to the one I dislocated this summer — is being obnoxious; I hit it last night in one of my rolls, and now it’s trying to pretend that it’s hurt.

One roll to warmup. I got Adam, who D’Arced and triangled me silly. Elbows weren’t in, either. Tsk, tsk. When I finally thought I’d gotten away from a D’Arce, he’d have a triangle waiting for me. He turtled for me again tonight, and I tried for the Peruvian necktie again; he turned it around somehow and caught me instead, and then mock fussed at me for trying the move he’d shown last week. Perhaps I should try for something else on him there, but 1) it’s the first thing I think of and 2) if I can get it on him, I can get it on anyone — and when I don’t get it on him, I generally know what I didn’t do right. Tonight, not getting that second leg up fast enough and not pushing back on his head enough with the first leg. Possibly landed too much on my rear and not on my leg, too.

Then we drilled a counter to the bump sweep, which we drilled last night. So they go for the bump sweep and overhook your arm on the way (so they can transition to a kimura if they want to). Overhook their overhook, and then let them sweep you. As you go over, check their leg that’s coming over top so they land in your half guard. Get your hips out to that side, keeping the overhook, and catch the figure 4. Use your outside leg to pull their shin up so you can really wrap your other leg around their shin; you want to prevent them from rolling forward. Now move your outside foot up to their hip. Grab your own hands palm-to-palm, around their arm; push on their hip; and turn your upper body toward their shoulder to get the shoulder pressure. You end up pushing their arm across their back and toward their head. And, if for some reason you’re not getting this, transition to their back.

I started to work with a guy who weighs ~100 lbs more than me but who works well with me. But they split us up and mixed us in with another pair where there was a significant size difference. That meant I got the guy who’s back for his first night… again. And, yeah, it’s still his first night. Bump sweep. He has done this; I was there. No clue again. Half the time when I was sweeping him so he could counter, he’d roll me over before I could sweep him (which, sure, could work because an opponent would be thinking, “Sweet, he swept himself for me,” while you’re setting up this submission).

A few rounds of rolling. Clifton first. Elbows in better, and stayed unflat most of the time. But still on my back for most of the round. That’s kind of Goal #2b: get off your back. But it’s not officially up there, so maybe I can let that slide. He wrestled out an armbar, and when we reset he pulled me in to guard. Couldn’t break it; he could just pull me right back down. I think I need to use my feet more; right now they’re just kind of attached to my legs.

Next round with another white belt, a guy who likes to give me instructions while we’re rolling — but what he tells me to do isn’t right. And I know that, so I ignore him. I caught my shin over his neck for a triangle once but couldn’t get around for the angle to sink in the figure 4, and he finally pulled out. He postured his head up completely out of reach, and then started telling me to get head control. Did swipe up toward his head once just to confirm that he was, in fact, much too far away, and then went to work getting butterfly guard. I ended up turtled at one point and was waiting for a leg to come close enough to grab; Adam, on the side, started saying, “Roll out, roll out,” but he wasn’t adding anyone’s name, so I wasn’t sure he was talking to me. Finally popped my head around and asked if he meant me; he said yes and said to roll over my right shoulder and then get back to guard. The roll worked; the back to guard, not so much. A bit later, though, somehow ended up transitioning from guard to his back (and actually got almost all the way up on the first try, whereas usually I have to bounce on my posting hand for a bit; only had my foot caught on his hip, and a little weight-shifting turned that in to two hooks). Went for the RNC and caught it, and then he started telling me to stretch his neck out, while Adam was telling me to squeeze in. So, squeeze in. When he had to tap, he turned around and started telling me again that I need to stretch his neck out, but Adam interrupted to show him the right way to finish it.

I was hungry before class. Tummy growling. I think maybe I’m not eating enough during the day. I’m trying to watch what I’m eating, since I didn’t for 3 weeks and since I’ve gained 10 lbs. So maybe I’m watching too closely…