Change

*dusts off blog*

Hey, everyone! I disappeared there for a while, mainly since GCKC was closed (more on that in a moment). Fear not! I should be able to provide you with some accounts of clumsy ninja-ing in the near future.

A lot has happened since I last blogged. The KC Submission Challenge, for one. It was a big success, so they’re planning another one in April. I worked the tournament and competed in December; I plan to at least work the April tournament, though I’m not sure if I’ll compete this time. I’ll probably write up an account of the December tournament later in which I shall regale you with tales of my glorious and varied sucktasticness.

As I mentioned a few months ago, the school closed down the week of the tournament. At first I thought we were going to find another building, but something better happened. Jonathan let us know what was happening a few weeks ago, but today makes it official. As of March 1st, Ground Control KC is merging with Kansas City BJJ. Internets, this is pretty much the pinnacle of awesomeness! Still, I’m a little nervous.

Awesome!

The consolidation is awesome for a number of reasons. KCBJJ has quality instruction from one of the few (only?) BJJ black belts in the metro area. Jonathan told me they also have a female student who comes occasionally and who might come more often if another girl’s available to work with her. Also, the facility is five minutes up the road from where I work. That makes for a longer commute in the evenings, but once morning classes are offered in April, I’ll be able to get my jits on and then go to the office.

Nervous!

Change is hard for me to deal with … I liked my little school, which had guys I knew I could trust and was five minutes from my home. I’m nervous about trying to fit into a new school and roll with unknown quantities. But I know some of my GCKC guys will be making the switch too—Wes and Steven have been training there for a while—and they’ll keep an eye on me, I hope.

I’m looking forward to getting back in the game. Nervous about it, of course—I’ve rolled informally with a few of the guys who live nearby during the past two months, but my cardio’s nonexistent and I keep forgetting the most basic techniques. I don’t want to be that girl … the one who gasses after one roll and has to be reminded of simple things. More mat time. I needs it.

I am, of course, fighting off a cold, which makes mat time a bad idea at the moment. I’m so lightheaded that I have to look down to make sure I’m not accidentally levitating, ha ha. So I’m going just to drive up to KCBJJ tonight, watch the inaugural class, and start training next week. I might take some notes … aaaand it’s about time for me to go, so I’d better stop typing.

A month of half-guard

Took the week off last week, as I (and all of my roommates) felt slightly under the weather. (One of them ended up with strep throat.)

A few of our guys went to The Best of the Best Pro Ams in Omaha on Saturday and did pretty well. Jon and Wes got second in their gi divisions and Steven got third. I don’t think Sheldon placed but Wes said he had a huge division.

The guys also mentioned that there were quite a few more girls than what the website had said—I think six in total. Heard someone say that the blue belt from Nova Uniao (the one who choked me out because I waited too long to tap) won most of her matches. I wish I’d been able to afford to go to the tournament; it would’ve been fun. But according to the website the Omaha Pro Ams are held four times a year, so I’ll have other opportunities.

Class

Tonight was pretty low-key. We worked on several half-guard techniques. I feel like we’ve done a few of these before—we probably learned some of them from Jason Bircher when he did a half-guard seminar a few months ago. During September we’ll be focusing on half-guard, so expect a lot of posts on this.

Rolls

Rolled with Cody twice, Chris twice, and Rusty once.

My first roll with Cody, I took it easy, trying to remember to breathe and not scramble for things. He got to side control on me and I was excited about working an escape—and then the buzzer sounded. Second roll wasn’t too good for me; he got me in a triangle choke and I couldn’t stack him. I fought it for probably a minute. Could hear someone hollering at me to posture up and push his hips down. Tried, but every time he’d grab an arm for the armbar and I’d have to fight to get it back. I was having unpleasant flashbacks to fighting that blue belt and did not particularly want to black out again, but didn’t want to tap yet. The buzzer sounded again and I focused on breathing for a few seconds.

First roll with Chris, I pulled spider guard. Tried to do the one pass I could remember. He walked me through it and I landed in knee-on-belly, but we had to stop and move over to a less crowded portion of the mats. I think I landed that sweep on more time. Second roll, he let me get to mount. I tried for a keylock and didn’t know what else to do, because I hardly ever get to mount. He let me work through an armbar. After we restarted, he let me take his back, but I didn’t execute the RNC correctly. I usually forget to squeeze my elbows tightly enough, so I was focusing too much on that and not on my hand placement. I think my free hand was on the top of his head, not behind it. D’oh!

Rusty asked me to roll next. He had some great tips for me: “Take advantage of your speed and flexibility. You’ll never be able to muscle these guys. When you start out, go for an armbar right away.” He showed me what amounted to a flying armbar from the ground and showed me how to transition into a triangle if the armbar failed, and back into an armbar if the triangle failed. He also showed me this sort of lying-on-side armbar, where you cup your hands over uke’s elbow, hip out so they’re lying on the ground, and armbar them.

When Rusty was walking me through these techniques, I felt sort of dumb. These things made perfect sense, much better than pulling guard and then getting squashed under mount and side control. But I also felt hopeful. I could glimpse a time far in the future in which I can readily access a good base of knowledge, see and create openings, and be physically and mentally fluid. That’s the kind of game I want to have: thoughtful, agile, and slippery.

Techniques below the cut.

Little monster

Didn’t make it to class on Monday—my friend’s sister was held up in her apartment parking lot this weekend, so she and I spent Monday evening moving her to a more secure building. Moving kinda sucks when you’re packing as you go…

Was still tired and sore from Monday and my stomach was freaking out on me again, but I went to Tuesday class anyway. My parents are coming into town tomorrow and I won’t have another chance to roll this week.

No technique tonight, just drills and a lot of rolling. The guys are preparing for the Omaha Pro Ams next weekend. Wish I could go, but it’s $60 to enter and money’s extra-tight this month due to an IRS snafu. Plus there aren’t any girls in my experience or weight class. That blue belt I competed against at the Blackhawk Nationals has signed up with a teammate, and there’s another girl in the weight division above them. I need to get to NAGA at some point.

Don’t remember much from rolling. We did gauntlets on Wes, Sheldon, Steven, and Jonathan. I feel like I don’t present much of a challenge during gauntlets, and indeed they seemed to handle me with impunity. But later Steven called me a “little monster” and said I was slippery. Blake complimented me on my guard game and noted that I’m improving in sensing and responding to the push-pull of grip-fighting.

Oh, both of the new guys showed up in gis, so I guess they’re fairly committed now. Nice to have fresh blood.

Six-month evaluation: Processing information

On Thursday, we reviewed bridging and escaping side control again. Worked mostly with Tamra. Glad she’s been coming more this summer; she always shows me ways to make techniques nasty. Gave me some tips on the gogoplata and a sweep done as a guy thinks he’s passing your guard. We are being tricksy now, precious, yesss…

We are also being tired. Thursday was my third night of class this week and I hadn’t taken much time to recover from the tournament. Those of you who train 6-10 times a week will laugh at me, but I was exhausted afterward, sort of like I’d been powerlifting an ice cream truck except without getting any ice cream at the end.

Evaluating

I’ve technically been in BJJ for six months. It’s really been more like four months considering all the trips I’ve gone on and sick days I’ve had to take. Still, I feel like I’m not where I should be at this point.

I’m trying not to compare myself to the other guys when I say that. It’s tempting, because aside from working with Tamra sometimes, the guys are all I see. But they have different experiences, different mental abilities, different physical abilities—even the lighter guys have more muscle pound-for-pound than I do.

Other people are an invalid yardstick. What I’m measuring myself against is myself. And I know I haven’t reached my capacity for learning on a weekly basis. The physical component that holds me back is not complicated—I have sucky cardio and bad sleeping habits, and I need to improve both. The two major factors I’ve identified are both mental. One factor I’m struggling to articulate, so I’ll only cover the other here: processing information.

Linear vs. circular learning

I’m a quick learner and I can replicate a technique after seeing it about as well as the next person, but going to class a lot = overload. Mainly it’s about the sheer amount of information I know is out there hovering over me and how I process it.

I come from a karate background. You have your belt requirements; you learn them; you test for them. Maybe you pick up a couple kata on the side or advance further in your sparring strategies. Otherwise everyone follows the same path until they are upper belts and can specialize. It’s a lot of knowledge, but your progression through that information is linear.

In contrast, there is so much information all the time in BJJ. Every time I go to class, I learn a new technique or position. Every time I drill with someone, there’s something to tweak. Every time I roll with someone, I come away realizing how much I don’t know.

It’s not only the amount of knowledge. BJJ is circular. You learn a technique from a certain position, and you learn variations on that technique, and you learn to do it from other positions, and you learn counters to that technique, and you learn counters to the counters—and then you review the original technique in class and start over. This process can stretch over a time span of months. Meanwhile many other circular processes are going on at the same time.

BJJ is circular and cyclical, thank goodness, or else I might be rocking in a corner somewhere at the thought of all the things out there I need to learn right now. I’m sure that after a few years, the thought of so much information will be an incentive to continue with the art—you never get bored. Right now I sometimes feel like I’m trying to drink from multiple fire hoses. Processing, retaining, and using all of this information is extremely challenging.

Question: as a beginner, what was your learning experience like? How did you build a framework for all that information?

Perfectionism and patience: an unlikely combination

So as you’ve no doubt gathered, I’m slightly frustrated. Five different ideas will be rattling around in my head after the teaching portion of class is done, but when I begin rolling, I can’t figure out how to do anything or come up with a plan. It’s pure reaction and survival.

The reality is that I’m a beginner and it’s going to take me a while to grasp BJJ. This is difficult to accept since I am a perfectionist and not very patient with myself. In my head, I should already have mastered all these concepts and be able to put them to use. Sometimes I really want a training montage like in the movies, except I don’t want to skip ahead to the big fight or whatever—I’d like to skip ahead six more months to when I know just a little more, on the theory that learning will therefore be easier and I’ll suck just a little less.

None of this is a reflection on my gym. The guys walk me through a lot of stuff and give me great tips. They keep telling me I am getting better—Jon said that just the other day, and Steven has mentioned a few times lately that I’m legitimately hard to tap. But it’s a little difficult to hear sometimes over the yammering of my negative self-talk: “Learn moar faster!!”

Ultimately, I’m my only opponent. I just wish I could RNC that voice in the back of my head and not stress out about learning.

I brought a girl!

I brought a girl to class on Tuesday! (Who is also named Jennifer, so that might be confusing to the guys.) She’d actually come to my previous school and loved it. As a dancer, she took to forms and stand-up Japanese jits pretty quickly, but that’s way different than getting down and getting rough on the ground. I already thought she was just about the coolest person on the planet aside from Wil Wheaton, but being willing to try BJJ just proves it.

This wasn’t the easiest class for a newbie, either. We did some passes and sweeps without going into all the positions. Jennifer worked with Tamra and me and did really well. No doubt she has a lot of questions; hope to answer those when I see her later this week.

Did positional sparring from half-guard, partnered with Chris. Managed to work the pass we’d done earlier. Escaping his side control was tougher. Then rolled with Tamra, starting out in side control. I’m focusing on those escapes for the foreseeable future. Hope also to eventually learn some counters so people can’t pass to side so easily on me.

Techniques below the cut.