Friday, July 6, 2012

Ended up being no class on Wednesday (July 4th) evening. But that was okay, as I was at my parents’ for a cookout anyway.

Meh, I need to get more sleep. I started a new video game this week — Kingdoms of Amalur (kind of Skyrim meets Twilight Princess) — and so have been staying up far too late. So by today, I was dragging.

At least work was interesting. In fact, I’m not sure that took many breaks today because I was actually diving in really deep and loving it. (Editing + formatting = love.) Neck was all sorts of stiffness.

Nogi Fundamentals

Started with a rather longer warmup than usual. Evident very quickly that my “get up and go” has done got up and went. Doh. Then partnered up for armbars from mount, for time. Seems easy, but then you die.

Drilling was basic guard break and knee cut-through pass. I like basics. Then a couple rounds of rolling. (So much for the “no rolling in the Fundamentals class,” lol.) Guillaume, a while belt boy, and Jamie. Mostly let the white belt thrash around under mount (though did grab one armbar from mount — hey, we just drilled it, might as well). Then Jamie tied my head and arms up into several pretzels and also footlocked me while I was on his back. Wait a minute… that’s supposed to be a good position for me!

Short break before the next class, but I had to leave. I’ve taken on some freelance writing jobs recently (big huge squeeee!!), and I need functioning brain cells and energy in order to work on them. I worked last night, and then left early tonight in order to get more work in. First draft is nearly done!

Oh, hey, Tuesday class!

I had some errands to run after work, but then didn’t have enough time to go home, drop everything off, and then get back for class, so I just went early, changed into my gi pants and rashguard, and sat. The kids’ class was going on.

Intermediate/Advanced, BJJ

Shelby was back tonight. Awesome to get more women training.

Warmup. Then straight on to drilling. Review of the double-under pass from last night, then on to a counter with a slick transition to taking the back with a choke. Drilled with Shelby. Drilling for the rest of class, as we did several things there.

Open Mat

I asked Shelby if she wanted to roll. She was totally up for it. (She said she used to play rugby, so I figured her for a rough-and-tumble, dive-right-in kind of girl. And she is.) We did that for a few minutes, then stopped to talk to Janet and Jen, who were sitting near us.

My knee did well all night. Now the complaint is that the brace starts to stick in some places and shift in others after it gets wet from sweat, and so that ends up pinching the skin behind my knee. Not pleasant. Maybe I’ll start putting a pull-on brace under it. Or something.

Now I’m home listening to the pre-firework fireworks and waiting on the storm that’s looming on the horizon. Tomorrow is July 4th, so I have the day off from work, though we do still have all classes scheduled. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll go tomorrow, though; we’ll see.

Jiu-jitsu: Make friends, then make them miserable

Whew, some crazy storms blowing through here! Watched a lightning storm over town on Saturday night, then was woken up at midnight last night by a thunderstorm blowing in. Everyone at work was having a rough time today, as none of us slept much all weekend.

BJJ, Fundamentals

Warmup. Knee will let me do the side-to-side drills facing in (so pushing off that knee) as long as I stay up really high. We had a new girl tonight, Shelby, who I’d met when she stopped in last Friday; helped her with the down-the-mat drills.

Drilling. Review of the bump sweep variation from last week. Then added going to the armbar once you get to mount. Worked with Shelby. She was nervous about putting her full weight on me, but I kept coaching her through how to put her weight on my ribs. She was amused that everything I told her to do was making me more miserable, and that when I couldn’t breathe, those were the times I told her she’d done well. Ah, jiu-jitsu, you so funny.

BJJ, Intermediate/Advanced

Rolling to warmup. Deziree, Buddy, and Big Jon. Lol, Jon choked me with my lapel, but when I tapped and he let go, the lapel didn’t go anywhere; it stayed there choking me.

Drilling was the double-under pass, then a variation for if you were lazy and left your elbows out and they grabbed your sleeve cuffs. Worked with Sara.

Rolling. Deziree pounced on me again, then Dmitri (who accidentally went to Lockdown in half guard and knee-barred the injured knee; I tapped as soon as I realized that I wasn’t getting out, so well before there was any pressure), Trey, and finally Guillaume, as I owed him a complete roll from last week. Thankfully, my knee behaved tonight and I didn’t have to stop.

Meh, weather says we’ll probably get another thunderstorm between midnight and 1am tonight. At least it looks like the wind won’t be so bad.

Dare you to move

Since I have the day off for the Memorial holiday, and since there was no class Friday or Saturday and none tonight, Aubrey suggested that I come to morning class today. I actually woke up before my alarm and managed to wake up enough to pack all the right things and get myself there on time.

Still in the giant restrictive brace, but I did manage to sloooooowly jog (and turn corners!!) and to slooooowly raise my knees at least a little and to caaaaaaarefully kick up my heels. I can bear-crawl, I found out. There were also going-up to get triangles, and I absolutely cannot slam them in using my left leg. I can do them on the right, except I can’t ratchet down the left leg to lock the triangle. Then triangle + sit-through guard break, and I can’t do those with my left leg under me at all, either. Meh.

Then rolling to continue the warmup. I gave it a try, and just tried to move around and see what I could do. Turns out that there’s a whole lot that I use that leg for, so I spent most of the rounds attempting something and having to bail because it tweaked the knee. Silly stuff, too — like I went to mount once and that was the most excruciating pain of anything else. *le sigh* I’ll get there.

Drilling was first a half-guard pass, and then a counter for that pass. I worked with Robert, who also injured his left MCL a while back, so we talked a bit about that, which was helpful. He said he’s had to learn how to do everything on the other side; the bonus, of course, is that people don’t see it coming because it’s from the “wrong” side.

Everyone else rolled once more, but I sat out because the knee was tired. Now Aubrey and I are off to plant the garden!

Post-Spring Break madness

Man, those were some packed mats tonight! The parking lot was full even before Andrew got there to open up.

Classes flowed right in to each other.

Had a new girl, Emily. She’d been given a gi jacket and a white belt before class started but was struggling to tie the belt. One of the guys tried to help her, but then admitted that he didn’t really know how to tie his belt, either. Doh. So I stepped in and helped her, though missed the first few laps of the warmup. (She ended up without the belt for the rest of class, though; no clue what happened there.)

On the wall for more drills. There were a couple of new guys, too, so if Andrew or Justin was busy helping them with the down-the-mat drills, I stopped to help Emily. Then we went to armbars from the guard; I worked with Emily and taught her how to do them.

One live roll next, and Emily looked a little reluctant, so Tim jumped in to roll with me (whoot!) while she watched the class. He was practicing some of those chokes that Draculino showed at his seminar. I could see them coming by the setup, but could do nothing to stop them.

Then drilling. Setting up spider guard to Lasso Leg. Drilled with Aubrey.

Then partnered up for positional rolling, sweep vs. pass, with Open Guard only. I did a set with Sara, then Aubrey and Emily did a set.

One more roll, with Aubrey, to finish things off.

Rolling Notes: Seriously and for reals, no more turtling. I don’t know why that started again, but you’re doing nothing useful with it and are only getting your back taken or otherwise choked. Find a real escape!