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.

Oops, I did it again…

MMA class tonight.

Warmup and shadow boxing. Then partnered up to work a standing guard break and pass. Did that drill for a while. Worked with the other girl. I think we were both going a bit cautiously, as we didn’t know how much the other would or could take.

Next was body sparring with a partner. Started with the other girl; again going rather light. (Her head was wide open. I wanted to hit it. I didn’t.) Then Nick, and that’s just funny. I did hit a bit harder, but he was trying to hold me in for close work most of the time, so not much harder. (He and I figured out today that, together, we make 1 Greek. He’s 75%, I’m 25%. But I have a Yiayia, too, so he said that made me all Greek.)

Then a guy who’s name escapes me. Dropped the intensity again. Tim came over during that round and called me out for going too light. He said all the things I told myself two weeks ago: you’re not getting any better going light, and neither are the guys you’re going with; get over this “I don’t want to hurt him” thing; you’re not going to hurt them. Come on; pick it up. I nodded and tried not to smack myself upside the head for forgetting — and for forgetting that there’s competition now. He left and I looked at my partner, who had been standing right there. “You ready?” He nodded and we went off. So I was hitting harder, and so was he. A. Lot. Harder. (Remind me next time I’m told to turn up the intensity to be with someone who understands that his rate of change is greater than mine.)

One more round with a guy who thinks he hits hard. He kept pausing to make sure I was okay. Yep, just peachy. I was hitting better, but felt bad hitting him after a while because I’ve had a lot more stand-up training than he has, and he wasn’t getting away from anything. But, I didn’t back off; started trying to work specific kickboxing combos and to move my head and body better.

More partner drills. Jab-cross, shoot for double-leg takedown. Worked with the other girl again. Tim pointed out that my elbows are winging out again on takedowns. Gah, thought I had that fixed! (Then again, Adam pointed that out on the sweep Tuesday night, too. So, watch those elbows.) After a few trips down the mat on that, we spread out again for shadow boxing with sprawls to finish up.


There’s a “Spin the Wheel” night at a pizza place near the school. One of the squares is a free whole pizza. Justin and Adam were hoping I’d win that so they could make me eat the whole thing by myself. I said noooo, not doing that anymore; no more “how much can she eat?” I got 50% off, though, which worked just fine for me. Two slices was as much as I could handle.


Browsing links from other folks’ blogs today as a means to procrastinate job searching. (I do have chocolate, though, so I’ll get some emails out tomorrow.;) Found this post and the related comments oddly comforting. I’m not the first female to encounter the problems I am, and I’m not hitting anything that no one has seen before. As much as I focus on me, myself, and I, here & now, and act like a drahma queen about my issues (don’t lie; I know I do; even I want to choke myself out sometimes), there are other girls out there on the same journey. Some have been there before and are able to give a little guidance and encouragement to those of us just coming along now.


While bowing to the OCD and updating all my tags, I read back over my archives. (Geez, I write a lot.) Noticed that the same guys are still trying the same techniques on me: kimura, armbar, americano, guillotine. Few sweeps except the bump tackle. And that’s it. (I know I don’t name them when I’m annoyed with them, but I still remember who’s who. Freaky memory like that.) I’m reminded of the story Val Worthington told on her blog — sorry, I can’t seem to find it right now — about Carlos Gracie, Sr., and his student who only did ankle locks… and then the kid’s first tournament was against a double-leg amputee…. Just sayin’: if you only practice techniques that require overpowering someone, what do you do when you’re against someone who nullifes what you’re doing? I guess it’s possible they try other things against the other guys and just want to use their “A” game against me…? *shrug*

After I’d already written the previous paragraph, the earlier blog post about women in BJJ gave me a referral to another post about the interaction/etiquette between women and men in BJJ. I feel like printing out the “For the Men” tips and posting them in the guys’ locker room. Especially love that the tips for rolling with a female beginner/white belt and with a female higher belt are essentially the same.