BJJ Class Friday 06/29/2007

The school is moving and we had our last class at the old location, in the Aamerican Colleges of Karate. This morning the task is to move the mats to the new school.

In class yesterday, we worked again on the guillotine techniques from Wednesday. Finishing the guillotine has always been a challenge for me, so learning some of the nuances of this basic technique, as well as the variations such as how to finish the arm-in version, was great.

Sparring was very productive. My hip held up really well. I was rolling first with another white belt who is very strong and I'd put him in the 240 lbs category. He tends to tire. I pulled guard and distracted him by immediately attacking his neck. I used this to set up a quick sweep. I still don't do the scissor sweep with enough flair to end up in mount, but I managed to settle into side control. So, I concentrated on shoulder pressure and establishing good position. I guess rather than do a complete play by play I'll highlight the things that I really felt good about. First thing was that I did a much better job transitioning from back control to mount, to side control. I also managed to get a tap from an armbar from guard. It was sloppy and slow, but I did it. My hip didn't give me any real problem, even though I didn't get my hips up quite as high as I should have. Which leads to my third thing, which is that with time running out, we rolled off the mat. Seeing that my partner was pretty gassed, one of the purple belts set me up under his side control and told me I had 10 seconds to get out. I managed to get back to half-guard, and then was just back to guard when time was called (about 20 seconds, actually). Shrimping out didn't cause me any pain at all. I didn't even think about my hip. Yay.

Second match was much the same. I think I did pretty well, working for some stuff. I did get caught in a triangle that was deep. I'm having problem working against spider guard. I'm going to have to do some research on this one. That's how I ended up in the triangle.

Just for fun

Today, I woke up and for some reason, I felt rested. With the kids in day camp, we've all been struggling to adjust to waking up a little earlier than normal. As a result, the kids and I have been tired all week. But last night, my body just crashed and I got a very restful night's sleep.

Then I woke up and my muse visited me. So, I bring to you a few more haiku:

Strength flows from within.
Protein Shakes and Creatine
The smell makes me tap.

Here are a couple of general fart poems that came to me. These are open form poems in the spirit of, perhaps, the great William Carlos Williams, one of my favorites:

I wept
As I saw your eyes close
in a moment of passion.
Tweeeeeeet

Here's one I like to call Easter Sunday:

Wafting from afar,
I sniffed,
and at once you were with me.
Roasted peanuts and
A touch of Easter egg.

This is sort of like a haiku. I was working with a 7,9,7 form instead:

Tofu makes noises, water
Sloshing around clumpy white goo.
Is soy a musical fruit?

And I don't even begin to know what this one means. Just came to me in a flash! :)

Fast
For days to cleanse.
Eat,
Then poop for days,
Fast.

This one's simply called, The Shart:

As I strained to make it pass,
I pushed too hard and had, alas
Lost control of my poor ass,
I found, to my surprise,
That my gas
Had mass.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much! I'll be collecting all of my fart poetry into a collection entitled, "Don't Blame the Dog."

Wednesday Class

Well, we're getting down to the wire. Friday is the last class in this location. Saturday, we'll get the mats moved and then Sunday is the first day of class in the new location.

In class yesterday, we worked on a few variations of the guillotine choke. First, we worked two standing guillotine chokes, and then how to finish the guillotine choke when you have one arm in.

The standing guillotine technique was started from a clinch. I want one arm free, and am controlling my opponent's head with my hand wrapped around and a little on top so that I can pull his head down. I also want to keep my elbow in, to help prevent my opponent from shooting in. As I pull forward, I jump up and try and put my chest on my opponent's back, to keep him from posturing up, locking my hands into a slightly modified guillotine grip. Instead of the blade of my forearm being deep in my opponent's neck, I'm trying to get my wrist more on his throat, with a good gable grip keeping it tight and secure. Then I pull my elbows in and straighten up and back for the tap.

The second variation was to do this same technique, but move my opponent's head more into my center, on my sternum. Typically, the guillotine looks more like a reverse headlock, where my opponent's head is off to the side a little. Bringing it to the middle puts a lot more pressure on his neck, and is as much of a neck crank as it is a choke. As a result, it's illegal in competition, but not MMA or, of course, self defense.

The last variation was a finish from closed guard. The standard guillotine is head only, where neither of my opponent's arms are in the way. To finish from this position, I bring my elbows in and extend my body. Sometimes, however, I can't get around one of his arms. If I've pulled guard with a good guillotine position, but my opponent gets his right arm in, I can't finish the technique in the same way because there's just too much room. To finish from this position, I'm going to again use more of my wrist than my forearm, and instead of extending back I'm going to bring my elbows in tight and bring his head away from his trapped arm. So, if I have his right arm trapped, I'll bring his head to my right. This make the choke very tight.

Sparring was okay. I keep pulling guard trying to get into half-guard so I can work on a couple of sweeps from that position. I'm having no luck with it, and end up working from half-guard or getting out of mount. I'll figure it out at some point.

Couple of Pictures

Not training related, but one of the guys from the school snapped a few photos for me:

Tuesday No-Gi 6/19/2007

No-gi, submission wrestling class started out with drills and warm-ups, as usual, then worked on a particularly cool sweep from half-guard and then sparring.

We did some new drills, which was fun. Probably the hardest drill, and one that was assigned as "homework" was a drill where I put both of my feet on a wall with my knees bent, back to the floor in a basic "open guard" position. Throughout this drill, my feet should stay in contact with the wall. If I'm going to move down the wall to my right, I'll bring my right foot underneath my left. I'll then raise up my hips as I roll up onto my shoulders, rotating around to my right as I walk down the wall. This is a lot harder than it sounds... or maybe not. If you're a ninja, it's easy. I could do this, but not without cheating and using my arms to keep my hips up.

Another drill we did was the beetle drill, or dead bug drill. I'm on my back in a basic guard position. My arms are up and in and my knees up, too. The drill is basically to move down the mat sideways. I do this by rocking a little and swinging the freed up section down the mat. So, as I rock up toward my shoulders, I'll shift my hips a little in the direction I want to go. Then I'll rock the other way down onto my hips, and shift my shoulders a little. This is a pretty good ab workout, and a good one for body coordination.

For technique, I mentioned that we learned a half-guard sweep. This sweep starts from a solid half-guard position. So, I'm up on my side (we'll say right side), not flat on my back, and I have my right arm on my opponent's left hip keeping some distance between us. I also have my left forearm in a good position on his neck, creating space. From here, the first thing to do is to bring my left arm over my opponent's head, as though I'm positioning for a guillotine choke, but instead of trying to bring it around his neck, I'll snake it under his right arm. I'll shift my hips out just enough to bring my right foot inside his left leg, getting that hook. That is the leg that's going to create the lift for the sweep. At this point, I'll basically execute a backward roll toward the side of my opponent's head. In this case, I'm rolling to my left shoulder. As I roll, I'm going to pull his head and shoulders down and lift up with my right leg. If I need some extra oomph to go all the way over I can use my left leg to push up.

There are some details that I noticed help make the sweep easier. First one is to keep my lifting leg going all the way over. If I just lift up and stop, I'm giving my opponent a chance to scramble, whereas if I roll all the way over with him I end up tight in side control. Another detail that I found in sparring was that I need to get the arm that's going over the head as deep under his far side arm as possible. Coach was able to get his arm all the way under and back onto the shoulder blade. I tried it on a guy who's thick through the chest and shoulders, so I was basically over his head and then kind of gripping his armpit. This allowed him to pop his head out before I could roll back and set me right up for an easy Kimura.

I'm looking forward to trying this technique out in a gi tonight.

Sparring was fun. Not much to say about it other than my hip felt pretty good. About the only limitation I have right now is still to bridge up with any strength. So, if I get mounted, I'm royally screwed because I can't bump with any force. Oh, and I got tapped when I basically gave my opponent my arm trying that sweep, but it was a good lesson learned.

Sunday 6/17/2006

Father's day!

Sunday was a small class, probably because all the dads were out golfing. I don't golf, so I ended up down at the school. We worked again on the kneebar that Bill taught us on Friday and because it was a smaller class, got lots of sparring in. We also went down to see the new space after open mat.

First, though, sparring was great. I started with one of the more experienced blue belts and ended up spending pretty much the entire match trying to work out of his spider guard. I got swept once, and feel like I did a pretty good job of staying up on my side, working to get a knee back in. I re-established half-guard and tried to stay busy. We ended up resetting at one point, and I ended up back in his spider guard. Man, that's rough. I got one of my arms free and ended up neutralizing him pretty well by controlling a leg, but that's about it. I feel pretty good that while I didn't get past his guard, he didn't sweep me again or submit me... but at the same time I realize that it's because he was probably not going 100%. :)

Second match was with a purple belt. Fortunately, this particular purple belt weighs 135 lbs, max. He pulled guard, and I worked to pass. I got side control and just tried to keep my hips low, my knee up tight on his hip. It was a good match. This particular purple belt is very technical, so that was fun. I also got to roll for a bit in open mat. I'm very tired today.

So, the new space looks awesome. It's going to be about 20 minutes for me door to door, which isn't all that far. The location looks very quiet. There's a lobby area as you first go in, with the office on the right and what will be a dressing room off to the left. Moving to the back part is a big area for the mats, the heavy bags, part of a cage for the MMA guys and a few benches for the spectators. It also has two big garage doors that we can open up on hot days! That's going to be nice. I can't wait to move. Very exciting.

Friday Class

Tonight was a rare class where Coach Foster wasn't there. So one of our purple belts ran the class. Bill likes tough warm-ups, but tonight wasn't too bad. I think there were too many people to throw out the heavy bags and do sprawls. Still, we did sprints, lunges and Kermit jumps. Fun, fun, fun. My hip was a little sore, so I did my best on the leg lifts, but was glad when we moved to crunches. As I write this, I'm realizing that warm-ups were harder than I remember. Maybe I'm blocking out the pain!

Sparring was fun tonight. I rolled with Bruce, a big guy. I pulled guard, stayed busy attacking his neck, trying to keep my hips moving and working to maintain angles. I also tried to attack his arms. At one point, he was pulling back to try a smash pass, I think. I managed to isolate an arm and went for a triangle. That didn't work, so I transitioned to an omoplata and almost... almost got it. I just barely had enough oomph in my hip to flatten him out, but couldn't sit up. So, he got a leg over. I used the momentum (due to some coaching from Bill) to roll him over and took his side. Instead of rolling onto his side toward me, he rolled up with his back to me, so I took the armbar. He had a pretty good grip on it in defense, so I had to fight for it and was about to give it up and move to something else when it popped loose and he tapped. We went again. With time running out, I went for an armbar from guard, and got passed.

My second match was with one of the ladies. A newer white belt. I stayed busy, but tried to let her work her technique a little without giving things to her. I worked my simple sweep from guard, took mount and then worked on transitions to different positions. She did very well and worked hard the entire match.

After class I rolled for a while with one of the other guys on open mat. We just went for it. It was fun. I'm really having a good time working my guard, and my hip is slowly coming back into form.

Next class is Sunday.

Wednesday Class

Not much to write about from yesterday's class. I was able to get through warm-ups. My hip is feeling pretty good, and am trying to increase mobility. I need to be more diligent about stretching my hamstrings during the day. I've heard from about 10 independant sources that my hamstrings are tight enough that they could be causing many of my problems.

Class was fun, but very much like Tuesday's class, except that we wore a gi yesterday. We continued to work on the Standing Kimura. One detail that was reinforced yesterday had to do with keeping a lot of pressure on the shoulder. This is a pretty slick move.

After yesterday's class, I just had to see the Kazushi Sakuraba vs Renzo Gracie. Anyone who's seen this fight has seen a standing kimura work against one of the best BJJ practitioners around. Be warned, though. Renzo doesn't tap like anyone with a last name other than Gracie probably would. He just stoically allows his elbow to go and waits for the ref to stop the fight.

I couldn't find the entire fight on YouTube, but I did find a 4 minute highlight video that shows the Standing Kimura technique toward the end.

Tuesday No-Gi Class

First a back/hip report: My back is feeling good. My hip is at about 70% or so. Not bad. I had my last physical therapy session yesterday, and now it's up to me to keep working on flexibility. So, yippee. My hip really only gives me an problems when I'm on the bottom and have to bridge up. Otherwise, it feels pretty strong.

In no-gi class yesterday, we worked on two techniques. One was a back to basics lesson on executing a Kimura from side control. I won't detail this technique (google: "side control" and "kimura" if you want to know more), but I will mention a few details that will help me out. The first detail is, when I've got the arm at a 90 degree bend, and I'm all set to start cranking out the submission, I'll sit out, bringing my leg underneath. This will give me more leverage to crank the submission. Another detail was to keep his chest on my own, not allowing a lot of space.

The second technique we learned was a Standing Kimura against a rear body lock. Suplexes are... uncomfortable. I don't think anyone likes to be suplexed. So, this technique will be handy if someone gets around behind you and secures a tight body lock. I found a link to the beginning part of this very same technique, the Standing Kimura vs. a Rear Body Lock as shown on Lockflow by Professor Marcelo Alonso. Prof. Alonso is a familiar name to us here in the Seattle area, and I believe our coach studied with him for a short while. Small world. Okay, enough of the nostalgia.

To execute the technique, I'm going to start by countering the suplex. I'll drop my hips so they're lower than my opponent's. If my opponent is the Hulk or Conan and manages to get me in the air, I'll hook his leg with my own to prevent the throw. Then I'll work against the top hand. So, if this is his left hand, I'll reach behind his left elbow, using my right hand to shuck his grip, grabbing that arm at the wrist, securing a figure four grip. At this point, I'll spin around in a 3/4 circle using my figure four to put pressure on my opponents shoulder, driving him to the floor.

Now, here's the fun part. If I get to this point, I've got one of two things going to happen. If my opponent is surprised, tired, unfamiliar with the technique or whatever, he might go to his knees, allowing me to put a significant amount of pressure on his shoulder and getting the tap. If he's canny, skilled, crafty or any other adjective along those lines, he might try to roll out of the submission. If he does this, I'll stay with him, until he's on his back, and then swing my leg around, shifting to a baseball bat grip for a standard armbar.

Sparring was a blast. I'm still working to figure out this no-gi stuff. I had a really hard time breaking my first partner's closed guard. Opening up his guard was a pain in the butt. I started off the match by pulling guard. I kept working for kimura's and then eventually I saw a triangle opening. So, I went for it and didn't get it. This allowed him to pass to side control and eventually to mount. While bridging up is pretty much the one thing my hip complains about, I did manage to lock his right side leg and arm, and get enough oomph into an upa to roll into his guard. That's where I stalled, trying for the rest of the match to open up his guard. On the up side, he had a busy guard constantly trying to break down my posture, and whenever I let up he'd work on something. So, it wasn't all bad.

Second match was against a new guy. He's got some experience rolling with one of our other classmates, but I don't think he's had any formal training. I started again by pulling guard. We worked from there for a bit. He was trying to pass, and I was trying once again for a kimura (can you tell what I'm working on?). At one point, I attempted a triangle, missed it, and had to shrimp back to re-establish guard. That's when I decided to screw the submissions and get on top. I managed to get a sloppy scissor sweep. I got him over, but in the short scramble, he was able to get into guard. Then I passed to side control and worked for a kimura from there. Couldn't get him to tap, so I let that go and moved to mount, where he started really pushing up on my chest. I swung around for an armbar, but ended up right on the wall. When I did this, I forgot the detail of pushing down on his head when I swung my leg over. This allowed him to sit up before I could get my leg all the way around. I did manage to fix that, but as I said, we ended up right on the wall and so we reset. Drat! :)

I ended up pulling guard again, sweeping again, this time into mount, and then moving back to side control when time was called.

I feel good today. Somewhere during the class I managed to get a bruise above my left eye. My wife wasn't too pleased about that, but I reminded her that her only rule was no cauliflower ears! :) My hip is feeling fine, as is my back. So, I'm looking forward to getting back to gi class today and working some more on the Kimura.

Martial Development Haiku Contest

So, at lunch today, I'm goofing off and browsing through some MA blogs. I stumble upon one called Martial Development, a Seattle based Martial Arts blog. I'm not sure I agree with a lot of the positions the blog author holds on martial arts, but I'm not arrogant enough (quite) to believe that I'm knowledgeable enough to know better. We all have different ideas on martial training.

Anyway, on it is a newly announced Haiku contest. Now, I'm not a great poet, and Haiku has never been my favorite closed form, but I like to write and thought I'd give it a go. If I have more time I'll try to come up with some more worthy entries, but the following are two that I could write on my break:

Gasping for more air,
I shake hands with my partner
and begin again.

Sweat stinging my eyes,
so I close them and see more
than ever before.

Granted, I'm much better at fart poems and base humor than anything else. Here's one that combines the two. Martial arts and a blatant, low comedy fart joke. Ahh... the juxtaposition makes me very happy. :)

Killed by a sniper,
From afar. Fearless, you are
silent but deadly.

New Digs for the school

Big news was announced last week. Foster BJJ is moving to Kent. I'm really looking forward to it. It sounds like James has thought of everything, looking to put in padded walls, a quarter of a cage, so that our MMA guys can train, heavy bags, locker rooms, and all sorts of stuff. The school's a little further away for me now, but I'm sure it'll work out.

He's also going to expand the schedule. From what I understand, there will be additional classes, making it easier to get to class each week. There will also be kids classes, conditioning, and more MMA classes.

I think my son might be interested. I'd love to get him active. He not a complete couch potato, but like many kids these days, he spends as much time on the computer or a video game console as he does outside. I sincerely wish I'd had the opportunity to train in BJJ as a kid, and so it would make me feel really good to be able to get him involved early in his life. That said, as every parent knows, we can't want something for our kids more than they want it for themselves. He's expressed an interest, and that, I think, is a good start.

I drove by and looked at the space. It looks like there is plenty of parking! Yay. And while I applaud anyone who's in counseling for domestic violence or drug and alcohol addiction, the cigarette smoke wafting into the school when we're training won't be something I miss from the old location. You could always tell when it was breaktime, as there would be about 10 or 15 people smoking.

Friday means FUN! (yay)

Well, not always, but tonight was fun. I'm a little banged up, but I've missed too many classes as it is. My elbow is sore, but not very sore and my hip is holding up well. I even did some leg raises in warm-ups, although I still abstained from the rolls to protect my back. Even without the rolls, I got a good workout. Rick was in a mood, I guess. :) We jogged for a short while to get warmed up and then started duck walking and lunging our hearts out. Most of us are still nursing sore thighs from Bill's workouts Sunday and Wednesday, but I didn't find it too bad. We did some alligator crawls, some hip escapes... pretty normal stuff. Then we did the rolls (I did some squats, just to keep the blood flowing). We did a lot of abs today, which I always like, and some supermans, too. The superman exercise is normally a pretty easy one for me, but once again, I'm finding that my hip is a real impediment. Oh well. Won't be long now. It feels so much better than it did even a week ago.

For technique, three of the purple belts shared some of their favorites from side control. Rick started us off by showing us again the correct way to lock in an Americana. I've detailed this technique in other posts, but did get a detail that I'd since forgotten: straighten the wrists forward, like you're revving a motorcycle. That really helps to tighten up the submission.

Another thing I picked up from this was why it's so important not to wrap your thumb. If someone's working for an Americana on my right arm and they wrap their thumb, I have a chance at a wristlock. If I can reach across with my left arm and bend their wrist back, they won't be able to let go if their thumb is tucked underneath. Easy submission.

We also learned from another one of the purple belts a really cool transition from side control to an armbar or an Americana. The transition is done by first getting into side control. This transition is for when you're working side control and your opponent hides his arm around your head. This is a mistake, and coach has told us not to do this. We're taught when under side control to create space by keeping your arms in and the blade of your forearm under the chin of your opponent. But this isn't always possible and sometimes people make mistakes. So, if I'm working for an Americana or a Kimura on my opponent's right arm and he tries to hide it around my shoulder and up on my back, I can transition to a better position by sitting out, taking my right arm and using it to pull my opponent's head back toward me so that I can then bring my right leg over his head. I'm going to pull up on his right shoulder a little bit so I can wedge his head between my thigh and ankle. This pretty much pins him in there and leaves his arm just waiting for whatever I might want to do. If it's bent, there's an easy Americana. If it's straight, I can easily pivot right around for an armbar.

The third technique was really useful, too. It was also a simple alternative for when you're working to lock in an Americana or Kimura but your opponent is strong and doesn't want to bend his arm. In this one, you simple hop across, putting your knees on either side of his shoulder. Once again, if I'm working against his right arm but he's too strong and I can't bend his arm either direction, I'll hop across, with my right ankle contouring his neck pinning his head and my left leg helping to pin his shoulders. I'll then use the arm I have under his that I was trying to use in the armlock as a fulcrum for a straight armbar. Sneaky and relatively easy.

Sparring was good. I worked against a blue belt. He was nursing a shoulder, so I worked mostly on passing guard. I tried to keep good posture and just do my thing. It went okay. My second match was against another white belt. I pulled guard, kept busy, got a couple of scissor sweeps and an Americana. I was working to get out of his half guard, but couldn't do it. If I had made it into side control, I would've tried one of the new techniques. I REALLY want to try that hopping over straight armbar.

All in all, a very fun class. I managed to make it out without angering my elbow or my hip. My only injury today was an incidental knee to the jaw. It's a little sore, but not too bad.

Wednesday Class

Had a good class yesterday. Warmups weren't too bad. Worked abs and neck. My hip seems to be holding up, although I'm definitely not 100%. I found that out when in sparring, I wound up on the bottom of north/south (I was trying to remember a submission technique from there and got rolled). I couldn't bridge up with any real strength. Hip escapes are marginal, but doable. I can't really explode with them, but I did manage to push my hips out far enough to recover full guard from half-guard.

The technique we covered was a variation of a single leg takedown. Shooting in on my opponent's left leg, I'll start with my right foot (on this side, should be my lead foot), knee down, and then swinging my left foot around to the side. At the school in Olympia, the instructor called this motion a "windshield wiper" motion. Coming around with my right arm in a high crotch and securing a gable grip around the leg. I'm coming around the side becuase this angle makes the takedown harder to defend. Then I'm going to suck that leg in tight between my own legs, keeping my chin down, elbows in tight and legs in tight, too. This will take away many counters, like snaking his leg around outside my own and using a whizzer to reverse my own takedown, or getting underhooks to counter. At this point, I should have my head low and inside, my elbows tucked in tight, a strong gable grip on my opponent's upper thigh and his left leg locked in tight between my own. To get the takedown, I'll step back with my right leg in about a half-circle and squat a little, and using my head steer my opponent. Down he goes, and at this point I haven't committed and still have his leg. I can press forward into half guard, or I can back off to keep the fight on the feet.

After drills we sparred. I felt pretty good. In my first match, I paired up with Jeff who's a blue belt and is our MMA instructor. I'd never rolled with Jeff before. He's a quiet guy and oozes competence, so I will admit I was a little intimidated. I tried to remember the basics: posture, keep arms in... all of that. Well, just as I'm defending a triangle he transitions to an armbar so fast that I didn't realize how much danger I was in. My elbow popped as I was tapping and now it's pretty sore.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me. For those of you in the studio audience counting, this would be the third time. The first time was shortly after I started, and then not too long ago when I didn't realize how much danger I was in on an armlock. I'm irritated with myself for not recognizing and tapping sooner, but it'll heal. I iced it last night, took some ibuprofen yesterday and today. Hopefully, it'll feel better tomorrow.

My second match was with Todd. Trying to pull guard, he took half-guard. I was able to get guard back and then a scissor sweep and I was in mount. I established position, but since I am always getting reversed from mount, I moved to side control. I tried to stay active and work for submissions, but ultimately, with just a few seconds left got reversed from north/south. It was good, though. Todd is pretty good at passing guard, and once he gets side control, it's difficult to get back into guard. I felt pretty good about it.

The BEST Job Safety website EVER - non-bjj post

Wow!!! This was shocking, surprising, funny and actually informative. Canada put together a website at http://www.prevent-it.ca . On this animated website, you'll be guided around by a young worker who has a bloody stump where his hand used to be and the preload screen is his hand falling to the ground.

It's graphic, but the intended audience is young workers. Do check it out.

Back/Hip Update

I've had three decent night's sleep in three days. That's pretty darn good. My back still feels really good and I'd put my hip at about 70%. It's sore, but not nearly as bad as it was a week ago. It feels almost like a charlie horse right on my hip and in the surrounding muscle along the upper thigh.

I went to the gym on Monday and worked the elliptical at a pretty good clip for 20 minutes. I'm going to go back today and then to class tonight, although I'll probably still avoid any drills that put undue stress on the hip, so no backward rolls, no leg lifts... that sort of thing. But I'm fit for whatever else. Someday soon, I'm going to be able to start working triangles and armbars from guard. I don't tend to work on these much because the defense involves being stacked up and that's about the only thing that really kills me in sparring right now. But soon. Muwahaha. Seriously, though, I've been working on my game from guard and without those two basics, I have big holes.

I'm also going to call the massage clinic today and see if I can get in next week for a massage. The Ashmead Student Clinic was on a mid-term break, but they should be starting back up next week. Yay!

Another rant

First, I want to make it clear that I'm not a consumption stickler. I use the occasional paper plate and have no problems with using a paper cup. It's unnecessary, gratuitous consumption that bothers me. Wasting a few dollars on something I don't need. Fine. Using a $20 bill to light my cigar? Not fine.

About two weeks ago, I put a travel mug in my car. I realized that I've been hitting the Starbuck's drive thrus pretty often over the last couple months, and felt like I'd been throwing away more than my share of cups. So, I pulled out the old travel mug. Okay, here's my problem. I hit the drive thru, order my tall Americano in my own cup (for which I receive a $ .10 discount) and merrily make my way up to the window. At this point, the lady takes my cup, rinses it out (thanks for that), then takes a tall Americano that she'd already prepared and pours it into my cup. The last step killed me. She threw the cup away.

I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but I did stop for a second and ask in what I hope was my non-confrontational tone of voice, "Did she really just throw that cup away? Does that make sense to you?"

I'm not talking frothing at the mouth, jumping up and down level fit here, but I was genuinely shocked. Now that I've noticed this practice, I've been paying attention when I order my coffee in the drive thrus and it seems to be a common practice.

It just hurts my brain. There are a couple of specific things that get me. First, on a practical level, it's wasteful. It constitutes gratuitious waste. Second, they gave me a discount presumably for being eco-friendly. So, if they use the paper cup and then throw it away anyway, the cost of the cup is irrelevant and any eco concerns go out the windw. Why don't they just lower the price by $.10 for everyone?

Melee!!!

Yesterday was pretty hot. We had the door propped open and the fan on, but still... hot. We had about 16 students at class yesterday, had a pretty decent warmup where we jogged, did some drills and some abs. My hip held up pretty well. Got sore from the jogging, but wasn't bad. The only two exercises I didn't do were the leg raises, which put too much strain on my hip right now, and about half of the neck exercises. Those kick my butt. I need to start doing those outside of class to increase my neck strength.

Melee was, in Medieval times, the most dangerous and bloody event of any festival or tournament. Far more dangerous than jousting, this was the event where multiple knights would fight each other. Sometimes, these were mobs where it was every man for himself, and others would be divided into two teams. Some people believe that these bloody affairs resulted in Soccer. My opinions of that will have to wait for another post. At yesterday's class, we had our own version of a Medieval Melee. We divided up into two teams and it was basically a free for all. We split up into different rooms to discuss strategy and prepare for battle. In this game, teaming up was okay. 2 on 1, or more. I think it took six guys before James tapped. The other team had a good strategy, which was basically to pull guard and stall. This allowed their rover to come along and work a choke on anyone from our team. In both games, I got submitted by a double team. The first time from an RNC while trying to work an Americana. In the second match, I was defending a triangle and someone came up behind me and worked an armbar.

Sparring was good. I worked from guard as often as possible, playing around with control, setting up the cross collar chokes and working to maintain a strong position. I'm still a bit limited due to my hip, but not too bad, and getting better. At one point, I saw another opening for the omoplata, but couldn't drive my hips well enough, so moved back into guard.

I'm very sore today, which means that I got a good workout in yesterday. It also means I need to go to class more often.

General Blog Writing Question

I have a completely unrelated, general blogging question to ask to my "Faithful Fifteen" (those 15 or so people who for whatever reason read this blog on a regular basis.

What's up with the blogs where people refer to their friends by a capital letter? It's very distracting to me. I can understand pseudonyms, but in one's blog posts, I don't understand the usefulness of the convention of referring to a "Lil C" or "Big B". Is saying, "I just ate lunch with Sean, and we drove over to Hannah's place to meet up with Iggy and Tom," any more revealing than using a capital letter? "I just ate lunch with S, and we drove over to H's place to meet up with I and T." The conspiracy theorist in me wants to put all of the capital letters together to decode the secret message.

If someone doesn't know me, would it make any real difference if I said "Hannah" or "H"? And if someone does know me, wouldn't referring to "H" be pretty clearly referencing Hannah? So why not just say "Hannah?"

Two things occur to me whenever I see something like this. I wonder whether there's something... something that I don't know. I realize how that sounds. Clearly, there are any number of things I don't know. However, this is different. There are situations where one wonders if one is missing something obvious. Sort of like when you look at a Magritte painting. Sure.

Me: "This is not a pipe." But it is a pipe. I get it. It's surreal.
Smart Person: "But there are other ways to look at it, Steve. On the one hand, it's a pipe, but on another... it's a painting."
Me: "D'oh!"
Smart Person: "And there are lots of other ways to look at it, too. I could talk about this painting for hours."
Me: "I know how to put you to sleep in less than a minute. Let me show you that first."

Well, when I look at the capital letter name convention... thing... my spidey sense tingles and I think I'm missing something. This is one of those situations where I wonder if I'm missing something obvious.

So, my open question to anyone who feels compelled to tell me is this: What am I missing? Is there a logical, rational, simple reason why I should say Big J instead of Joaquin?