clinch

leslie

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

This morning I dumped a Boston butt (pork roast) in the crockpot (minus the fancy salt; just used kosher). Tonight when I stopped home between work and class, my house smelled heavenly. (Next time, though, I need to put it in the night before and then come home at lunch to turn it off. Not quite done.) While I waited for it to cool so I could shred it, I also made Primal Barbecue sauce. (Next time — or rather, with what’s remaining — I’ll blend it up; didn’t get the mincing too fine. But it still ain’t bad.)

Enjoying a bowl of barbecue now with some BBQ sauce while the clothes finish drying.

Man, I was flying through things at work today. Anything that got handed to me, boom! done! The day still took forever, though.

BJJ

Warmup. Lots of jogging. Then partnered up to do Two & Two, where you make 2 moves, then your partner makes 2 moves. Worked with Janet and Fred.

Then drilled continuing in the same sequence from last week: standing clinch to front headlock to takedown. Drilled that first to re-familiarize ourselves with it. (Also worth noting: this lands you in prime position to work everything Draculino taught Saturday.)

Then drilled switching to one side (also right in with Draculino) and then doing a Spiral Ride, from wrestling, to take the back. (I just did a really quick YouTube search, and this video shows the Spiral Ride.) Drilled with Janet until the end of class.

Open Mat

Rolled with Big Tommy and Buddy, aka Triangle Man. Then ran home to yummy BBQ!

Someone told me tonight, out of class, that a recent roll (within the last week) was the best roll we’ve ever had. He usually tells me when a roll has been better than most, but always in class and immediately after, but this time he took the time to find me later and tell me. Since that roll fell within the time of my resolution to stop playing around, I think something might be starting to work! 😮

leslie

MMA class

Really small class tonight. All regulars, except for one random 14-year-old kid whose dad signed him up and left him there…

Shadow boxing with pushups (for the rest round), three rounds. Partnered up for pad work: jab/cross/clinch, then jab/cross/takedown. Then heavy bag work: 10 seconds blasting the bag, 10 seconds active rest. Don’t remember how many rounds. Then one long round of elbow situps, followed by several rounds of 10 seconds of knees on the bags with 10 seconds active rest. Back to the mat for shadow boxing with sprawls and single-leg shots. Then ball sprawls and medicine ball sprawls. Whew. Cardio workout and a half right there.

I think that was it. Fast paced and lots of lots of stuff, so I might’ve missed something.

The other girl who was training with us is not any more. Less said, the better. So it’s back to just me.

Shorts Update

Got an email from Amanda at FighterGirls today. She said she checked on the shorts, and that yes, they are being made smaller. So if you get shorts from there (and I do really like their shorts), you might have to order a size up and/or be prepared to exchange for another size. And she said my exchanges shipped today, so hopefully they’ll be here by next nogi class.

Job Hunt

Still no word from the company I interviewed with. But I submitted my resume to two more companies today. One, I could email; the other, I had to use an online form. But the online form spelled “Portfolio” incorrectly (Porfolio) in one of their headings on that page, so I stuck in a little P.S. to mention it…

Books

In my lazy optimism (i.e., assuming I’ll get a job tomorrow to start next week, so I never start anything), I’d even stopped reading. When I had dinner with my writing friend on Monday night, she asked me what I was reading… and I had to say nothing. And realized that that was silly — of course I can keep reading if I get a job. So I hit the library yesterday. Today I read Austenland by Shannon Hale (love Shannon Hale). It’s about a woman obsessed with Mr. Darcy/Colin Firth who gets a vacation to “Austenland,” a secretive theme park catering to women obsessed with Mr. Darcy and/or any other of Jane Austen’s heroes.

leslie

Urgh

Goals:

  • standing guard pass; scissor sweep pass/knee-through pass/double-under pass; pinch pass
  • north/south roll escape; bridge side-control escape; gi belt half-guard sweep/Old School/Justin’s half-guard sweep; upa/knee-elbow/”scrape”
  • triangle/armbar/triangle; triangle; armbar; omoplata (w/ roll); D’Arce; Peruvian necktie to crucifix sweep to armbar or to armbar; head-and-arm choke
  • get to knee-on-belly

Adam and Justin want to roll gi for most of the winter, so I’m gonna start taking mine. At least I might get some work in after class. And I’m gonna need another one. 0:-)

Yay, the heat was on! Just a touch of cold. Small class, and several brand-new guys.

Warmup. I… gassed? Wha-? That’s bad. What’s up with that? Then we did hand fighting to double-unders, and I wasn’t doing so well on that, either. One guy had the top of my neck — just at the right spot for control — and was leaning on me and I couldn’t get out. I was trying, but nothing I did seemed to work. Tim came over and showed me what he wanted me to do; I still had trouble with that. Mostly, he said, I wasn’t being aggressive enough still. Next round, Tim jumped in with me so he could make me work on what he wanted. Still not doing so great.

Then a standing drill from the clinch (one of the things I was screwing up). More issues for me. My brain heard everything and understood everything. It just couldn’t get the right signals sent down to the appropriate body parts to do what was needed. Gah.

Drilled a D’Arce choke, starting from side control. This is the one Adam hits on me a lot. Had more troubles with sorting out which knee was which. And despite feeling as if I had it tight a few times, my partner just moved his arm out and I lost the choke.

Worked in with two other guys. And had my first “I’m sorry, my wife doesn’t want me to” tonight, too, from one of them. I said sure, no problem, I understood, so I took my turn with the other guy and then let them work together. I think if I hadn’t heard other girls post that they’ve been told that before that I probably wouldn’t have reacted so nonchalant about it.

Rolling next. Started with Justin, who was in gi tonight. Tried to roll as if he wasn’t (so no grabbing for me), and that was actually hard. He pulled butterfly guard and I tried to pass, only he stuffed it and wouldn’t let my leg over his knee; couldn’t figure out how to bypass that. At one point, I tried for the D’Arce choke we learned tonight, but his gi stuffed up the hole under his head — I probably didn’t have him turned up enough, either — and I couldn’t get it. (You could, especially since you’re already going to north/south first, decide between either the D’Arce or the north/south kimura. But I thought of that later.) The whole roll was mostly him sweeping me and then me trying to scramble back to some semblance of a position. Didn’t go so well overall. I was trying to remember to turn up the intensity a little, but it felt exactly the same. He did turtle once, and I went for the Peruvian necktie to crucifix sweep to armbar that I wanted to try, but I couldn’t get that first hook in start it. Went for the sweep to his back instead, and he spun out of that.

Sat out the next round because the only guy available was the one whose wife doesn’t want him rolling with girls. Instead watched Tim take apart a cocky wrestler who started a week or two ago. Tim hadn’t had a roll with him yet.

Last roll with one of the newer guys. Constantly reminding myself again to turn up the intensity. He pulled guard and did the one-hand grab behind the neck to hold me down. Tried doing what Tim had shown me earlier in the clinch, but he reached up with his other hand and jerked me down more. All I wanted was to posture up. Took a while — and him letting go of my head to grab an arm — but finally got up. He countered with the bump tackle (it starts like a bump sweep, but ends with a tackle). He got to mount, and I tried the three mount escapes I know while he tried to pry my arms off my chest. Eventually got one leg free and to half guard. Tried for the modified gi belt half-guard sweep, but he was trying to wrap my arms and head entirely up; if I moved an arm to try for anything, he grabbed it and pulled it back. He turned to push my half-guard off; I went for Justin’s half-guard sweep. Hit the setup perfectly, but then couldn’t get the sweep; I think I need to first pull him up on me more. He kind of exploded out of my grips and hooks, arms and legs going every way, and then we were in a scramble until the round ended.

The guy who couldn’t drill or roll with me apologized again after class. I repeated that it was fine. I just wish I’d thought fast enough to ask someone to switch so I could get another roll in. Meh.

leslie

Back to MMA

Got back to MMA class tonight after a long break. Small class tonight because there was an away football game. (Which means it was on TV, and that everyone was probably partying to watch it. Lost, though. Ugh. Our offense can’t stay on the field for anything!)

Shadow boxing to warm up, then partnered up for the rest of class. Jab, then jab-cross drill, then a drill from kickboxing: jab, cross, slip, slip, body hook, head hook. (Tim is so funny. He’ll work some kickboxing drills with Perry and decide he likes every new one that Perry gives him, so then we’ll work them in class.) Then two clinch drills, one where you’re controlling their neck with one hand and punching with the other and the other where they’re throwing knees and you’re blocking with elbows and then doing a takedown.

Then we did 3 min 10 sec of blasts: 10 seconds of jab-cross, 10 seconds of up-downs. Fast as you can.

Finished it off with a line drill: jab-cross, then single-leg takedown on your partner. All the way down the mat, then your partner did it to you on the way back.

At least my time off from MMA wasn’t just time away from doing stand up, else I think I’d’ve been plastered by the end. Breathing hard and sweating, but not done in.

They ordered new sweatshirts and t-shirts for the academy, bright blue for Team Mannon (BJJ and MMA) and black for Team Gibson (kickboxing). Smallest size is a men’s Medium. Um, it’s a dress on me. 😮 I tried my sweatshirt on and came out to show them. ‘Tis funny.

Also, I was talking before class to Tim N., who I drilled with all night, and we got over to talking about what I do (technical writing) and where I work (still looking). He said he used to run a technical documentation business years ago, and that he still has some of his contacts from there who are usually looking for telecommuting technical writers. Whoot! (That would be so much awesome, because I’m not relocating just for a job. I have too much here: my family, my church, and my jiu-jitsu.) And he’d run across a job posting in the research park where I used to work that has an “Office Manager” or similar title but is actually a technical writing position. So I’ll look for that one tomorrow, and he’ll get me information for the other folks.

TKD: taught/reviewed with a white belt who’s been out with mono for a few weeks. The advanced & intermediate classes were sparring all together, so I left to watch the game. (But, sadness.)

And before I can get a shower, I need to go put my car in the garage. My brother was over when I got home from TKD and had blocked my side of the garage. Last time that happened, my mom backed in to my car the next morning and had to pay ~$1000 to fix my bumper. So, car goes in right now.