Girls’ night; flying armbar vid
Here’s a video of me doing flying armbars. It’s not super high-quality—someone took it with a phone and we may record it in higher quality later—but you get the gist. (I’m lying on the floor in surprise that he tapped so soon; you can hear Sean say “She didn’t even have to take me down!”)
On Wednesday, I didn’t do any flying armbars. I got something better: girls’ night. Jonathan’s wife, Erin, came for class, and so did my friend the Gumby Ninja. Erin’s done a bit of stand-up and Gumby has some experience in Japanese jujitsu.
We worked on scissors sweeps and basic guard passes. All three of us rotated being uke and tori (whoops, my JJJ is showing). Erin’s about my size, which felt weird to me after working with the guys. But it was so nice to have other girls around. I think they had fun as well.
Class and rolling time was fairly short. I worked with David first. Got in a bit of a groove, remembered to relax and breathe, to keep my elbows in, and to bridge and shrimp more. At one point he stood up and I got to play spider guard. Not very well, mind you, and I couldn’t remember what to do after I grabbed his leg. (Remembered the technique much later, of course—you extend his far arm using your foot in his bicep and grip on his sleeve while lifting the leg up.) He hopped away but I kept hold of his leg so he couldn’t escape. We restarted. I didn’t get any submissions, but I was able to play around with positions and felt comfortable defending from my back. At the end of the roll he said I’d had good defense.
I convinced Erin to roll with me a bit. Had her pull guard and try a scissors sweep on me. We got cut short since the next portion of class was beginning.
On Wednesday nights, Sheldon’s started teachin a striking class. We did three-minute striking drills up and down the mats, switching gloves and pads after each drill. First we did jabs, then jab-cross, and then jab-cross-hook. Fun but exhausting. It’s been years since I’ve hit pads, so I was letting my strikes hang for too long and wasn’t getting my hips working at first. Then I overcompensated and pulled a lat. 
Thank goodness Gumby is an occupational therapist; she taped me up and I feel pretty good.
on May 21, 2010 on 9:27 am
Rare footage of the elusive ninja!
on May 21, 2010 on 10:09 am
Without my face mask, no less!
on May 21, 2010 on 10:26 am
so its downright cute when someone of your stature does those moves… but whats it going to be like for me?! I’m 5’9″ and weigh…..a lot more than you.
on May 21, 2010 on 11:25 am
One of the taller guys was asking if he’d be able to do that—six feet or so, 200 lbs.—and Sean said it was possible. IIRC, your uke needs to be about your size or heavier/taller for this to work.
You can also do both from the knees, in which case a size/weight difference wouldn’t matter so much.
on May 21, 2010 on 3:58 pm
And if you ever have to use this move in real life, you’d better hope your attacker is willing to give you a nice boost.
I can’t wait to try some of this stuff out. Are they going to laugh at my serious somersault phobia? It’s no joke. I might have to work through it very slowly, in my living room, to get through a somersault without puking or passing out from fear. Hilarious, I know.
on May 21, 2010 on 5:21 pm
I wouldn’t try a flying armbar in self-defense, only in practice or competition. One of the challenges for me—and maybe I will post on this in the future—is trying to figure out which techniques would be the most effective in a self-defense situation, or if they can be modified to do so.
Is it somersaults specifically or other things too? We don’t generally do somersaults, but depending on how a roll goes you will definitely be on your back at times and might end up in weird upside-down positions. They’ll work slowly with you, though, and I can recommend some good guys for you to work with.
I’ve had one or two panic moments on my back during rolling when my partner’s weight lands full on me and I can’t breathe or move.It’s something you have to work through, I guess. And it’s no laughing matter when you’ve been injured before.
on May 21, 2010 on 5:42 pm
I am so ridiculously impressed right now. I can haz ninja bodyguard? Or, even better, “I can grow up to be ninja bodyguard, yesh?”
on May 21, 2010 on 5:48 pm
Aw, shucks!
Tell you what, I’ll be your ninja bodyguard until you grow up to be my ninja bodyguard.
on May 22, 2010 on 7:53 am
I can think of nothing more terrifying than the two of you paired as ninja bodyguards.
And to answer your question, it’s specifically somersaults, or being upside down (like hanging upside down). Mostly somersaults. I think if I worked through it slow with someone patient I could get over it.
Yikes.
on May 22, 2010 on 11:57 am
I’m not sure how often you’d encounter actual upside-down situations, especially when starting out. Somebody might try to stand up in your guard (where you have your legs locked around their torso) to break it, but you could let go. You might encounter situations in which we’re working sweeps and you have to tuck your head and roll over on a shoulder. In which case warn your partner, or grab me.
on May 24, 2010 on 11:32 am
An upside down situation like that wouldn’t scare me. Being flipped head over heels would. Anything that is somersault-esque.
I’m not going to let it keep me away though. I’ll just start out slow, flail around, and tap out like the wuss I am not afraid to be. I’m a mom, I can’t risk a broken arm, so I shall noob-ly flail about and enjoy myself.
on June 2, 2010 on 7:25 pm
That’s the spirit!
I’m so excited for you to start—it’ll be great to have you here. Even if you can only come one day a week, I think you’ll enjoy it.
on July 14, 2010 on 10:24 pm
[...] I got to watch Jonathan and Steven roll. Always fun to watch. Oh, and Jonathan wanted me to do a flying armbar on him, so I did. Tapped him twice: first, hanging upside down; second, after I lifted his leg and [...]