turtle

leslie

Easy in, easy back out

Wow, I haven’t been on the mat in nearly a week! And I actually haven’t been panicked over it. Last Friday was a school friend’s father’s funeral, and I didn’t get away in time for class (but some times, other things are more important). Then on Saturday, my parents and I went up to my grandmother’s semi-surprise 80th birthday party in Richmond. A normal surprise party is probably not a good idea for an eighty-year-old woman, so instead she just wasn’t told the guest list so everyone who came was a new surprise.

Fundamentals Class, BJJ

Some warming up (two and a half new guys). Then to drilling: a clock choke. Drilled with Aubrey for a while, then we all switched up and I worked with Rob. He was choking me mostly before he even sat through! I apologized for not being able to let him do the whole thing, but he said he was enjoying my discomfort. (Hey, wait a minute…!)

Then armbars from the guard, 5/side. Rob and I got through 2 rounds each. During this, my left (hurting) elbow popped loud. Rob started apologizing, but I said that whatever he’d done had actually loosened it up. Then more drilling, a clock choke.

BJJ

All rolls. First with Rob, and somewhere in there he did the inverse of whatever he’d done earlier to my elbow, and now it hurts again. *sad face* I somehow ended up out for the next round (*sad face* again, though my elbow was relieved). Then with Buddy, and anytime I’d try to brace with my wrist or elbow — both injured ones are on the same arm — they would both hurt more. Pfffft. Next two rounds with Aubrey (we did try to switch for the second, but everyone scattered. Pffft.), and I remembered to tuck the injured arm into my belt, so rolled one-handed those two and the next with Guillaume. That helped. It also pointed out how much I rely on having two arms, so probably good to tuck one in even if it weren’t injured.

leslie

Draculino seminar

Draculino did a seminar today at our gym.

(By the way, Draculino is smaller than I thought he was.)

The seminar was all about attacking turtle/all-fours, and everything ended in chokes. Painful, painful chokes, lol. Seriously, each one below is worse than the one before it. (So, note to self: do not turtle next week!!!!)

After a brief introduction and welcome from Draculino, we went straight in to drilling. I got to drill with Aaron Barr, a purple belt from Top Game Academy in Richmond; he got his blue under Tim. (Hi, Aaron! *waves*)

Draculino talked to us before one of the chokes and explained that in Brazil, techniques don’t have names, not the way we Americans give them names. Instead, they’ll call it “Oh, that sweep Roleta does all the time” or “Yeah, Renzo’s guillotine.”

Then at the end, he talked a little more about chokes in general. First, he said the gi doesn’t do the choking; your wrist and forearm bone do. If you just haul on the gi, you’ll give your partner a burn, but won’t choke him. Second, he said to believe in the choke and keep the pressure. That chokes aren’t like armbars or wristlocks where something feels like it’s going to break, so sometimes you have to wait the other person out when you know have the technique correct.

leslie

The earth moved

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting at my desk at work. Suddenly, it felt like I was in a boat that was being rocked by a little wave or, alternately, like someone was rolling my chair around in a small lazy circle. So weird.

And then it lasted for more than just a moment, long enough that I was just about to declare myself to be insane before it finally stopped. I turned to look at everyone else in the office, and I think we all had identical expressions. Our office manager walked out from her office and said, “What was that?!”

Cue Twitter, Facebook, and Google, from whom we quickly learned that there had been an earthquake centered near Richmond. Centered, in fact, ~5 miles from my best friend Jennie’s house. I texted her, and she said the walls were still shaking (and so was she!) and that there were aftershocks.

I called around to my family to see if they’d felt in. My brother said the shelves at the store were rattling and some smaller products fells. My mom was working the polls at a primary election and said they’d all felt it but hadn’t known what it was. My dad didn’t feel a thing and was rather annoyed about that, lol.

Everything around here is fine. We’re far enough away that, while we felt it, there shouldn’t be any damage out this way.

I passed a couple of wrecks last night, too. Thankfully these were all pulled off to the shoulder already. There’s usually this sort of thing when the students come back.

Class this morning. Somehow I was less prepared on Monday, and yet did a better job of getting things together and getting out the door, both before and after class.

Short warmup, then did swinging armbars from guard. Worked with Trey. Then drilled the back-and-forth leg pummeling/thingy from Monday (that’s one of our “Moves of the Week”). Then drilled a couple more things: switch from turtle (because it has nearly the same hip movement as the leg drill) and then thread-the-needle side control escape.

One roll to finish up. With Andrew, who has his new purple belt now. I fell for his half-guard kimura even knowing that he was going to do that. Argh! Oh well.

leslie

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Meh, this yuck from the weekend is not going quietly. 😦

Class started with a warmup. Then grip-fighting rounds. With new guy (no gi, of course), then Matt. Then a long round of trading takedowns; Tim paired me with Jess.

For rolling, he split us off in to several groups for round robin. With Sara, Jess, and Trey.

Drilling, quickly, at the end — attacking turtle to take the back. Worked with Steve, though we were also working with Guillaume and the new guy, who were next to us. Then a couple reps finishing the clock choke from the back.

By the way, my Blogroll has been growing lately: every time I think I’ve found all the blogs there are to find, I find more. 😮

leslie

“But I did tap…”

I posted this in the comments to the seminar post, but I’ll say it again:

A huge “I’m sorry!” to Aparna and anyone else who was nearby to the seminar and would have come if they’d known I was coming. But, since I didn’t know until 10pm the night before, I didn’t really even think about getting word out. (Though, I was hoping you would have all shown up, and I was really excited to see two girls there. However, they weren’t you.)

So, sorry again, and I will try to do better about organizing me myself and the boys and making travel announcements.

More from the drive back that day:

  • Don’t worry too much about what your partner is doing or is capable of doing. (For example, if you know he has good triangles, don’t focus just on avoiding his triangles, else you’ll still spend most of the round avoiding his triangles.) Work to impose your own game.
  • Work on different intensities with different people. With people less skilled, try to be just a hair above where they are.

Blog Updates: I’ve posted several upcoming seminars — most on the East Coast, but one in California — in the right sidebar. Also, I’ve come up with a way to mark the ones that I will be attending. (Well, at least the ones I know in advance that I’m attending!)

Blogger Map: I haven’t found a good way to put it up yet, but Slideyfoot has created a BJJ Blogger map, for us to add our schools so we can see who might be nearby when we travel. You can contact me with your school’s address, and I can add your blog. Right now we’re just adding bloggers, but we may expand the map to include commenters or to track Open Mats. (And, with my recent weekend experience, maybe seminars that we’ll be attending? :P)

Class started tonight with rolling. Everyone still scatters from me and from Justin. (Yay! Keep it up, fellas!) I think he hit every move from the seminar, doh! Even when I knew it was coming. Don’t think I worked on very much or remembered very much, though. At least I was getting in my reps of how not to do it all.

Second round with Theresa. Working on getting to that spot that’s just a hair better than she is, though it’s hard when she’s so small and bendy. I’m afraid that everything I do is muscle still.

Drilling was taking the back from turtle when you can’t get your knee in. Drilled with Theresa and Jess. Then to rolling, and again everyone found a partner who was not me. One guy had left, so I was the odd man out then. Big Mike was rolling with Scott and got a cramp in his foot, so Scott waved me in. Most of the round still left. Was doing okay in the beginning trying to stay on top, though eventually he got a grip I couldn’t break (same grip he told me a few weeks ago not to let him have; I didn’t let him have it, exactly, but I couldn’t get it off once he had it) and then swept me. Underneath the rest of the round. Forgot to frame up like we’d talked about on Saturday, so got crushed.

Last round with Theresa again.

Then class was over and a couple guys had questions for Justin, while a few more started some APC. I stayed to watch the jiu-jitsu. Then Justin asked if I wanted to roll some. Anytime! So we went for another 15 minutes or so. He seemed to be working on other setups and other uses for the techniques from the seminar. He let me to mount to work on trapping the arm first before turning, but I couldn’t quite work something out and so went back to mount. Also let me work around in side control for a bit, though still not getting some details or order right. Then he got some choke with my own gi. I heard the piano drop and tapped, I felt him let go and move away… and then I lost a couple of seconds while he moved back to the center of the mat. In one corner of the room, there had been one guy sitting; now there were two, and I hadn’t seen the second walk in. So yeah… I blacked out for a second there. Felt like I was swimming in really dense water as I came back around. Only out for a second or two. Justin fussed at me for not tapping sooner, but I said I did tap when it was on and I passed out after that.

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