Jump rope is serious business

I stopped coughing up crap long enough to go to class on Wednesday. (Yep, sick again, because I have the worst immune system in Kansas City.) During the technique explanations I sat there thinking dully, “I am not going to remember this.” Did scribble down some notes afterward. Spent a good amount of time drawing a sketch that’s supposed to be a top-down view of tori in mount on uke (to demonstrate an aspect of position), but that ended up looking like a sad amorphous blob, or possibly an extremely foreshortened dwarf holding a spear.

Class

Suffice to say class seemed like an eternity. Jonathan just came back from a trip out east to the mothership, so he ran us through a different warm-up that left me half-dead (being a quarter dead to start). He injured his knee, so he taught but didn’t roll.

Class was pretty small. Only one of the new guys was there: Sean, a high school kid who moves like a wrestler even though he’s never wrestled. I’ll need to find some nickname for him so as not to confuse him with Sean Sharp.

We worked on armbars from mount. After rolling, I stayed for Sheldon’s class, which was more of a cardio station workout. Almost died during jumping rope—not due to coordination issues, although I haven’t jumped rope since I was a kid, but because I gassed too quickly. Either I had incredible cardio when I was nine or that cProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

d really sucked the life out of me. I almost passed out twice, but kept grimly hopping while staring blankly at the GCKC banner on the wall. Kinda hoped the jaguar would eat me and put me out of my misery.

Rolls

Sheldon had a tournament coming up, so we ran a gauntlet on him. I always feel absolutely useless during gauntlets. My technique and size aren’t much of a challenge; I’m sure people view getting me during a gauntlet as a break. This time I didn’t jump in.

I rolled with Sean while he was waiting in line for the gauntlet. He seemed to want to start from his feet, so I let him. He took me down and submitted me pretty quickly. I think he might have gotten me in a guillotine at some point. He’s picking up jits so quickly that it’s insane. The last person I saw learn that quickly was David, but David does have a wrestling background. Sean’s going to be a BJJ monster.

Next up was Matt. (I believe this is our fourth Matt? Running out of nicknames…) He trains up north with Jason Bircher but comes to GCKC occasionally. He was recovering from a shoulder injury and looking for a light roll, so Jonathan suggested he roll with me. I was happy to get another roll, though a little glum about having my thoughts confirmed—I can be squirmy, but in the end I am a “light roll.” It’s going to take a lot of work to become a challenge for the bigger guys.

Pushed my thoughts aside and concentrated on sparring. We had a nice long roll, during which he tapped me often but was always willing to show me what he did. He had this sweet little forearm choke from side control that I should try out sometime. After he armbarred me, I asked him about the escape. I know Blake and Steven have tried to teach it to me, but for whatever reason it hasn’t stuck in my head until now: palm up, roll your hips toward your thumb side.

Tried a flying armbar after that. Didn’t get it, but will keep trying. Did successfully pull off something I’d been thinking about while out sick: whenever guys pull me into their guard, I should go with their momentum and knee through instead of fighting their muscle. So when Matt started hauling on me, I slid through and got over into side control. Heard Jon yelling, “Good, Jenn, good!!” from somewhere as I transitioned. Though Matt quickly shrimped out, I was happy about pulling that off. And apparently I am not just a light roll, I “flow.” Definitely could protest that compliment, but I am determined to record and accept any good feedback, because with my personality it’s way too easy to focus on the negative.

Now that I have covered last Wednesday’s class, it’s time to go to Tuesday class. I may add the armbar techniques to this post later if I can decipher my notes.

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.

Open class

I missed Tuesday night because the Gumby Ninja and I went to check out a small group at church. When we showed up, no one was there. D’oh! I could’ve gone to BJJ instead. When I came to Wednesday’s class, Jonathan said that two girls were at Tuesday’s class. One of them was a Marine! So then I was even more bummed.

Only a few guys showed up to Wednesday’s class, and nobody had much energy, so it turned into a low-key open class. For Foundations, we did the guard pass to side control again. Then we had a light warm-up and played around with a bunch of techniques during class. We touched on a lot of different stuff; let’s see how much I remember.

Sweep: Uke stands up in your guard. Hook their ankle with your hand, almost like you’re going to put your hand behind your head on the beach. Keep that side leg on them. Sweep your outside leg around in a circle low to the ground to create momentum; post up on your other hand; do a back roll and pull their foot up to sweep them.

We worked the triangle and two triangle defenses. I like the triangle; my legs are flexible enough that I don’t need to use my hand to finish setting up. Also did some stuff with spider guard.

Triangle: grip sleeves. Foot on hip, pull arm on that side and punch other arm into uke’s stomach. Shrimp out (I think) and push leg up over uke’s neck, as far as possible. Control uke’s far arm by crossing it over your torso and checking it with your opposite elbow. Use other hand if needed to set triangle.

Standing triangle defense: Don’t remember enough details on this one; should’ve worked it more. Stand up with a good base, getting right hand up behind your head. Plant your left foot by uke’s head and use your left hand to clear his leg.

Other triangle defense: Oh geez, I don’t remember it now.

From spider guard, kneeling version: Get one knee and shin across their body. Pull one of their sleeves straight back. Kick them over; land in knee-on-belly. I didn’t quite catch all the details on this one (or the standing version).

Jonathan showed me a couple of armlocks from side control. Keylock (ki block-type movement to grab wrist when they cross-face, grab your own wrist; use forehead to help push their arm down; suck your arm into their hip); if they pull out, do a straight armlock; if they pull in toward their head, kimura (keep hold of their arm, then grab it with your other hand and grab their wrist with your now-free hand; grip your own wrist; get into scarf-hold leg position, then hoist your near leg over their head and sit up to lock).

Rolled with Chris first. He left me room when we were grip-fighting from the knees, so I got him in a guillotine. It’s one of the only chokes I know, so I’ve gone for it a couple times in rolling. Really hope I don’t become “that girl who always tries to guillotine people” to the other students. We restarted. Got in his guard, postured up, think I tried to pass. Ended up in his half-guard and was trying an armlock when the buzzer sounded. Just as well; Jonathan let me know that that position doesn’t offer the type of leverage needed for an armlock.

Rolled with Steven next, one of the few smaller guys. He triangled me pretty quickly and I couldn’t pull off the standing triangle defense. After we restarted, he let me try to take his back, but I didn’t approach it right. Didn’t take him long to get me off and into scarf hold. I fought the choke; the buzzer went off probably two or three seconds before I would’ve tapped. Steven said I’d done pretty well. He and Chris, who’d been watching, gave me some feedback and noted that I am flexible enough to use rubber guard. I’ll keep that in mind for the future; I want to learn the basics right now.

Watched Jonathan and Steven roll next. After Jonathan had a breather, he took me out for a spin and let me work on some things. He gave me an armbar, which I successfully completed with some coaching. Next, I remembered an escape from side control but couldn’t get into guard for some reason. Tried to take his back at some point but failed (again). He walked me through it and refined my RNC.

I really need to start taking a notebook to class…