Saturday, January 28, 2012

I was supposed to meet my best friend & her husband this morning — would have missed class — but hadn’t heard anything by almost 10, so I sent her a final text saying I was going to class and headed over.

Small group. Rolled with Guillaume to warm up, maybe 20-30 minutes. He had a question about trying to go to X-guard from open guard, then said he figured the best way was for me to just stop moving around. Lol. Yeah, no… Showed him the drill from Emily’s DVD, and then showed how I would set it up from there (get both hooks behind the knees, reach behind one ankle, then pull/pivot. He had been trying to dive in from having almost zero contact, and it was just too easy to step away.).

By the end of the round, I had a text back about meeting for lunch. (They had slept in, as I figured) I had time for one more round, so rolled with Sara until 11, then left to get ready and meet up with them. Really long lunch; I just got back a short while ago.

Something that came up during lunch was obsessions with hobbies. I’ve realized recently that I’m not very stressed out now when I miss a class. I no longer feel as if I’ll lose all my jiu-jitsu knowledge if I skip a class or as if I’ll miss TheOneCrucialDetail! that makes it all work. I’ve decided that I like having a life, even if some nights that just means sitting on my couch.

Beltless

I’ve lost my belt. I have no clue where it is. I’ve turned the house upside down and inside out, and no sign. I asked around the academy tonight, and no one had picked one up. Grr. Maybe someone from the other martial arts classes picked it up and put it somewhere; I’ll have to ask. So my gi flopped around all night because I had nothing to hold it closed. Well, at least I finally figured out the whole point of that thing. Tim offered to bust me back down to white belt. I was all for it, but it turned out he was only joking. Pooh.

If I can’t find it, I guess I’ll have to roust out my old TKD blue belt. I think it’s the same brand, even, as the other. Or I could follow Seymour and get the World’s Most Expensive Blue Belt. 😉

Fundamentals Class, BJJ

Short warmup. Winded fast. Crap. I thought this taking-a-couple-nights-off stuff was supposed to help with this. Instead I was tired and sucking air. Same on Monday, though I thought that was from eating too much at my grandmother’s birthday party. Apparently not…

Then partnered up to work inside and outside leg takedowns. 10 per leg. Worked with Bobby. We were the Beltless Pair, as he doesn’t have a white belt yet. Moving slow, and I could feel a touch of dizziness when I changed levels. (Thanks to this article by Dr. Eades, I now know that’s most likely postural hypotension, due to dehydration and not enough sodium. I also know that I’ve experienced this all my life: I’ve always stood up quickly and had to sit back down. I’ve been careful to eat more sodium and drink more water and actually haven’t had problems with takedowns for a few weeks; I’m probably off-balance somewhere, though, what with the birthday bingeing and the days off.)

Same partner, armbars from mount, as many as you could do in 5 minutes. … …5 minutes is a long time to rep armbars as fast as you can! Then started in back mount, hooks only (no hand grips); person in front could only defend their neck, person in the back had to choke any way possible. Did a set of that with Bobby and then with Sara. And I think that rounded out the class.

BJJ

Started with rolling since it was all the same peeps as the first class, so we were already warmed up. With Bobby and Buddy.

Drilling was an X-guard sweep to kneebar. Drilled again with Bobby.

Then on the wall. Alligators, single/sprawl, squat jumps, squat jump/sprawl (evil!), and then gi drags. (At least I got Bobby, though I’m starting to think he isn’t as small as I thought. Also, he dragged me so fast I had a green streak on my pants where the blue and yellow mats mixed!)

I noticed tonight that Bobby is actually an inch or two taller than me. So he probably weighs more than I think. *le sigh* I’m starting to think that this is how I must actually compare with everyone else in the world:

*I* think I’m the same size as everyone, but really it’s about this much difference. (Seems that she’s my height, too, so that is about how I’d look standing next to Shaq. Minus, well, all of her.)

---

In more serious matters…

BJJ HQ

Check out BJJ HQ. They offer 1 BJJ item per day at a good deal. When the day is up or the stock sells out, then the item is gone. Doh! So act fast. I’ve got a banner over on the sidebar that shows the current deal of the day.

Fade to Blue

One of our client’s Facilities department conducted a fire drill over the weekend (the “please walk do not run to the nearest exit” type). They apparently have some software that they run during fire drills & actual emergencies, and they forgot to check the “This is only a drill” box. So the software acted as if this were a real emergency and shut down all the entire data center. Somehow in this shutdown process, 10 servers got fried, including of course the ones that hosted our IVR. folks were busy around the clock this weekend trying to get it back up. Thankfully I didn’t have to participate 😮

Fundamentals Class, BJJ

No newbies tonight, so we started with rolling. With Tim (and then Buddy for the last 20s of that round, lol) and Jess.

Drilling was a knee-on-belly escape. Drilled with Ray.

Then a round of rolling with your drilling partner. Then finished class up with armbars from mount with the same partner.

BJJ

Started with drilling, an entrance to X-guard from butterfly and then taking the back. Drilled with Sara and Jess. Eventually we added the bow-and-arrow choke from the back.

Two more rolls, with Sara and Rob. Toward the end of the roll with Sara, she suddenly stopped and pointed. Tim was hovering around white belt Adam and pulling out a blue belt. That whipping sounded painful!! 😮 About stinking time, too — I was starting to wonder if Tim would just leave him as a white belt until he was ready for purple, lol!

---

Sixth Minute

Sixth Minute is a free-to-use site that will email you a 50%-off discount code for various fight gear retailers, covering MMA, BJJ, boxing, and more. Check it out:

Friday, August 5, 2011

Small class tonight. Class started out with drilling getting to X-guard and then eventually a couple of sweeps. Drilled with Bobby.

Open Mat after. Rolled with Bobby for a long while. Then rolled with a visiting guy for about 10 minutes. He said he also had about 3 years of training. He came in a little light, though after I threatened a couple of submissions quickly, he turned it up. I think he was tired from rolling with Robert earlier, and he was getting a bit frustrated when he couldn’t pass my guard easily.

Even with this only being my 3rd class of the week, I was almost just as tired as I was last Friday! Ugh. However, my brain wasn’t as worn down, so that kept me moving.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010, evening

I had a late hair appointment, and so couldn’t get in to class early. Sadness.

Rolling to warm up. With Theresa. I was back to not doing very much but giving her positions. This is hard. Then a round with Will. He pulled deep half early, and I thought I saw a way to a choke, so I sunk it in and then tried getting back around to guard or on top, but he worked to keep one knee in front and eventually got it all the way off. I asked afterward if it had had a chance; he said if I’d gotten to guard or mount, yes. Then a round with Scott. He let me play on top for a little while, until I overcommitted in one direction and gave up a sweep, and then I was defending underneath for the rest of the round. Hips and legs couldn’t move as fast as my brain wanted them to.

Drilling was half guard to X-guard to out the back door to a choke. From half guard, you get in deep but can’t get a sweep. Get your hips out, and bring the top foot in for a butterfly hook. Turn your hips into the hole under them. Lift up with the hook to bring their foot closer; grab the foot. (Most important thing.) Get the back foot in and pressure out, extending your legs, to make them stand. Then slide your head to the back, swim the hand that was holding their foot to the back, and move your former butterfly hook to the back of their other hamstring. You now have butterfly, but facing their back. Bump forward on their hamstrings/back of their knee while simultaneously pulling down on the belt. Get a seatbelt grip. For the choke, grab the opposite lapel near the neck with the over hand; grab lower on the lapel with the under hand, as if you were going to do a double-lapel/clock type choke. When they defend by bringing their arm in front of your under hand to grab it, release the lapel and bring that hand behind their head, as if doing a rear-naked choke.

Rolling again. Theresa, then Big John. Ha, that’s a jump in intensity! He is fast. I hung on for some of it, but mostly got swept and choked. Tapped on his face once, which made him laugh. Then a round with Justin, and he was going easy with me and letting me work things — not that I did much well — and working a few things himself. Got flipped from the double under pass; that always amuses me.

Early class in the morning.