No-gi night

First of all, fifteen seconds of how my school breaks down walls: http://vimeo.com/13465235. Literally. (I mean that in the literal sense of “literally,” not the slang sense.)

On to some succinct class notes. I went last week but was too lazy to write anything down, and life stuff kept me too busy earlier this week to attend class. So Wednesday’s the first time in a week. Hate that. Must make more time for jits!

Wednesdays are now no-gi days: an hour and a half of no-gi class, then another hour or more of striking class. I’ve got to get some better shorts to roll in…but I did get one of our new school T-shirts. Jonathan got me the extra-small girl one, but it’s still a bit big—need to throw it in the laundry for a few rounds of shrinking.

We began with pummeling. Elbow push to set up two takedowns (gable grip around back and pivot; gable grip around front, pick up, and slam). Armdrags from half-clinch. Jonathan had me try a judo throw, but we didn’t practice it. Double-leg takedown.

Worked techniques most of class. Rolled for a few rounds. First roll was with Jonathan, who was exhausted from the recent remodel. He reminded me about upa. Let me take his back twice, and let me have a guillotine, Americana, and kimura.

Rolled with Chiefs Matt twice (we have three Matts; this one comes occasionally to no-gi and wears a Kansas City Chiefs shirt most of the time). During the first roll I was fairly active. Tapped him almost right away with the armbar from modified flower sweep. Tried one of the guard passes but I don’t think I was controlling his legs well enough. He tapped to a guillotine that wasn’t quite set, though he said it was tight. I got flattened out a few times and tried to shrimp out to no avail (he’s maybe 2 1/2 times my weight). He kept fighting for my hands from top and I didn’t want to give them up.

Second roll, I was more tired. Played lockdown a lot from half-guard top and bottom, but I couldn’t ever remember any techniques from there despite my fumblings. I heard Jonathan tell me I’d just given up mount at one point after getting top half-guard. In half-guard from bottom, I had an arm around his head and was thinking I might try something; Steven said I had to be in guard for whatever I was apparently trying to do. After the timer buzzed, I felt a bit bad that I’d stalled out most of the round, but he said something about good defense.

Didn’t stay for Sheldon’s striking class at 7:30; too tired. I’ll be back next week, though; I love it. Though I think the guys are a bit afraid to hit a girl.

Maybe I’m getting better

Jonathan called me before class; he couldn’t make it to work out stuff for the seminar, so we’ll be doing that next week. He repeated his comment from last night about me improving, so I guess I have to accept that I might be getting better.

Class

Sean Sharp taught on Wednesday instead. It started out as a small class but a bunch of people ended up coming, including two boys who’d done some wrestling and who Sean’s apparently been trying to get into jits for a while. We warmed up with jogging and bear crawls, rolled, went over a few techniques, rolled again, and then did stand-up.

Rolling, Part 1

Non-stop rolling tonight. Sean had us do some sort of rotating thing where some of us stayed stationary and others rotated. I was a bit confused at times, and my last roll seems to have wiped my memory except for a few flashes of trying unsuccessfully to take Matt’s back.

My last roll was with Jake. I’d worked with four other people and was pretty gassed by then—was about to go grab a drink when Sean paired us up. Jake is the guy on whom I learned flying armbars and is well over twice my weight. He was pretty gentle with me and talked me through recomposing guard several times, but I had many moments of panic throughout the roll. My thought process: I need to bridge and shrimp so I can breathe, but I need to breathe so that I can bridge and shrimp, but I need to bridge and—AGH CAN’T BREATHE. I lay motionless far too often and felt like I was going to pass out afterward, but I didn’t tap to his weight.

Rolling, Part 2

We didn’t work on techniques for too long, but I recovered a bit during that portion. Felt up to rolling with both the new guys—Sean assigned me to one and I grabbed the other next. Was a bit nervous, as I’ve read all of Leslie‘s horror stories about muscly, spazzy new guys, but they both turned out to be really nice and I didn’t have too much trouble handling them. (Maybe I am improving. Slightly; I still wound up smushed several times.) Mostly I played open and closed guard (open guard is instinct at this point as I haven’t learned much technique). They both used wrestling openings from the knees, sticking their legs out; I don’t know much about wrestling but imagine that’ll leave them vulnerable.

As a white belt, I try not to “teach” much because I don’t know a lot; what I do know is imperfect. I did mention basic stuff like mount being a dominant position (so no need for them to thrash around) and about BJJ being about technique instead of speed. Noticed that neither of them had any idea what to do after attempting to pin me or when I would slip out and recompose guard. I started to walk one through an armbar and got some help from a bystander, thank goodness. Both of the guys said, “You’re really good!” Jake mentioned that they need to watch my hips to keep me from slipping away. I comfort myself by thinking that if they join, they’ll surpass me quickly if they have a good wrestling background like David.

Stand-up

This is only the second time I’ve been to Sheldon’s stand-up class, but I enjoyed it. We shadowboxed to warm up, then did combination drills on pads, and ended with a little light sparring.

Techniques

We worked on guard passes—only two, I think, and of course I can’t remember the other one at the moment.

Kneeling guard pass, no muscle: Instead of the usual guard break to combat stance, you pinch a glut with one knee and bring your other knee up under uke’s knee, gripping their pants. Turn and walk your up leg sideways until guard breaks. Can transition to side control (better for me to trap their leg with outside knee across their thigh and other leg across their shin) or go to knee on belly or mount.

Stomach bug = gassed

First of all, I would like to say to whomever found my blog by Googling “totally awesome clumsyninja”:

Dear sir or madam, you have absolutely come to the right place. My clumsy ninja-ing is pretty awesome; if you hang around long enough you’ll undoubtedly witness me trip over my own feet at class and faceplant into a wall or a large piece of furniture! (This may or may not have already happened to me.)

Class

Wednesday’s class was small, but I was really glad to be back. Been off the mats for about two weeks—one of my best friends has been in and out of the hospital and I’ve been helping take care of her. On top of that, I’ve been moving and am starting a new job soon. Have been fighting exhaustion and minor nausea for the last few days, which are probably due partly to the aforementioned stressors and partly to my propensity for sudden random stomach bugs.

Jonathan was gone, so a blue belt named Matt taught the class. I don’t know his last name, but he said he’d trained with Rigan Machado and has been out for about ten years. He went through a few drills and techniques quickly, and then we rolled.

Rolling

Only rolled twice, both times with Matt. Gassed both times by the end. I’d gotten tired pretty quickly during drills and techniques and was feeling queasy again, which didn’t help.

Despite that, the actual rolls went pretty well. Spent too much energy defending the first roll; at one point, he told me to slow down and just hold him there, because fighting the weight difference was clearly tiring me. Relaxed a bit after that. I had fun—did a lot of hooking and spinning and escaping.

Afterward, he said I’m hard to pin down, have a great guard game (“knees sneaking in everywhere”), and look like I have a judo background. My knowledge of Japanese jujitsu isn’t that extensive and I haven’t used it much in BJJ, but that was nice to hear.

It feels like I’ve been rolling better lately. The last three times I’ve rolled, I’ve experienced a few moments of flow state. That doesn’t necessarily mean I know what I’m doing or have all the basic techniques down, but I’m able to react without panicking (much), move instinctively, and try new things. I’m having more fun.

Flying armbars!

Tonight was loads of fun. Sean Sharp (Pedro Sauer purple belt) taught class. We mainly worked on some stack passes and baseball chokes, but near the end of class Sean asked me if I wanted to learn a flying armbar. I don’t remember what conversation had led up to this—Sean was working with me on some of the techniques and think he commented that I was a quick learner. The guys were laughing about teaching white belts flying armbars, but I’m game for anything.

Sean showed me the technique and started me out on my knees, pairing me with Jake (the tall guy who wears wrestling shoes). I realized early on that if I was going to do this technique from a standing position, I’d need to commit totally and be fearless. So I really got into it, holding onto his gi collar like my life depended on it even though the mat was only a few inches below me.

After a few tries Sean said I was ready to try it standing. I was a little nervous, but Jake was a rock; I knew could climb all over him and he wouldn’t move. Got the hang of the standing technique pretty quickly. The guys were all standing around watching and enjoying it. I was having a blast.

Sean decided to teach me a second flying armbar. Ended up balanced on his shoulder arm-barring him. The guys took video of me doing both techniques on Sean and he’s going to get me the clips at some point.

I probably won’t be able to pull those off in live rolling just yet, though the guys kept urging me to try them when we rolled later. I need to work basic armbars and a whole lot of other stuff before I focus on the fancy things. Still, I had a great time learning them and would love to pull one in competition some time.

Rolled with Sheldon, Chris, and Steven. Sheldon’s training for a tournament, so we all rolled with him gauntlet-style. I tried a flying armbar on him, but the set-up wasn’t ideal so it didn’t work. Did manage to pass to side control at some point, which is the only time I’ve managed to do so aside from one early roll with Jonathan a few months ago. So that was good. Tried to go for some armlocks but he wasn’t having any of it; I made the mistake of moving the hand that I’d posted at his hip, and he turned into me and got dominant position. At one point his shoulder was crushing my face—somehow my bottom lip got peeled back and scraped up by his gi. It kinda hurt, but I told myself I was not going to tap to a lip submission, if such a thing even existed.

Rolled with Steven next. Was able to posture up in his guard once. Resisted an armlock for quite a while, and I think resisted correctly. (Though perhaps for too long; my tricep is slightly strained…) But I spent a lot of time turtled and trying not to let him take my back. Sean showed me a technique for escaping that sort of thing.

My roll with Chris was the usual—he lets me pull guard straight off, but I always wind up squashed. He got me in a choke and I fought it until I felt my neck twinge. It still hurts; definitely icing it. My fault for being stubborn.

Got Sean’s info after class so I can get those videos from him and he said I did a good job. Yay! Now let’s see how Wednesday goes; knowing me, I’ll probably forget everything I ever knew about jits and be all flaily and n00bish.

Techniques below the cut.