Observation during Lunch

Our dog is wrestling with our neighbor's while I wait for the oven to heat. My dog tends to go for one leg, then fall to his back and try to wrap up the other's legs with his own.

That's right. Buster plays open guard.

That is all.

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Unplanned Week-long Vacation

Thursday night was hell. Usually when I injure myself, I can find some sort of equilibrium, some posture or angle that doesn't hurt to maintain. Not so this time. We got hom from trivia and I curled up in the fetal position on the couch.  I eventually dragged myself to bed, but couldn't sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time because of the pain. It was a terrible sleep.


I went to the doctor Friday morning. X-rays and some random quackery tells us that nothing is out of place in my spine--no slipped discs or anything else leaving its designated space.  So that's good.  Sadly, though, that knowledge doesn't automatically make it easier to move my back.  I got prescription pain pills and muscle relaxants.  Also, the doc told me to take some prescription doses of ibuprofen (aka Vitamin I).  The doc said I should start doing light stretches and maybe even some light yoga by Tuesday or Wednesday, so that's encouraging.  She advised to wait around 2 weeks before going back to class.  We'll see if I can last that long.  I don't want this injury to turn into something that takes all the momentum out of my training.  I like that I go to 3 classes a week and work some training in after most classes.  I refuse to allow something as trivial as my back to get in the way of that.

So I'm out for a short while.  And right as I got a new Jiu Jitsu book--Andre Galvao's "Drill to Win" came in the mail Thursday or Friday.  So I have to look at that all week and not try anything I see in there.

This will help make sure that I keep up with my schoolwork, though, so it isn't all bad.  2 writing assignments due next week (not the one coming, the 20-24), and I am out of commission over the weekend with a bachelor party.  Sadly, this injury came at a pretty good time.  I also have to have a dentist abuse me some more on the 24th.  So I might be out that weekend, depending on how badly getting a wisdom tooth yanked sucks this time around.

I haven't forgotten that I committed to reviewing my Keiko Raca gi, and I'll get to that.  I wanted to make sure I got enough rolls in it to get a feel for it.  I might find some time to write that up this week.

blerggh

Fuckitty.

So Tuesday, Colin put me in a can opener. And it sucked, but it wasn't horrorshow. Stan also stacked me pretty well, but my neck and back were fine when I left. When i went to sleep, it was a bit sore, but nothing unbearable. It got worse throughout the day, and it was OK today. Not wretched, but noticeable.

Some might think that a normal person would have skipped practice. Those people are wrong. Warm ups went fine, but the first shot I took doing single leg drills tweaked something. Then, as I was laying down to put someone in guard and it took me 2 minutes, I decided to take class light. I didn't play dummy for any gi chokes thank god, but it just kept getting worse.

Now, I sit at the bar with what must surely be a 2 inch metal rod shoved from my middle back to the base of my skull. I can't even slouch without pain, let alone sit in posture. So we'll see how this shakes out overnight. With a bit of luck, I'll be semi-normal by Monday. I'll address when to return to class when I feel mobile again. Until then, I'm putting myself on the DL. Send beer and movies.

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Throwing Hammers Is A Bad Idea

I played a round of disc golf this weekend.  During this round, I threw exactly one hammer throw.  A hammer throw has the same basic form as pitching a baseball (also known as the most unnatural movement a human can make with his arm).  As a result, my back shoulder is feeling a bit ornery after class.

Big-ish class tonight.  We worked single-legs, a counter to a sprawling opponent that ends with you knee-tapping him, and some pretty damn sweet gi-manipulation hold downs and chokes.  One is called "Showtime" (I shit you not), and you choke your opponent with your own gi as you somersault over his arm.  Sexy and painful, all at once.

At the end of class, Klint had us do a handful of one-minute-go's, going for immediate submissions.  None of this grip-fighting for 30 seconds nonsense, go in and finish the fight.  It was a nice change of pace.  Also, terrifying.  Putting on that short time limit and letting loose the caged animal inside you while the man kneeling across from you does the same drops some serious pressure on your shoulders.  It makes playing guard--arguably my favorite part of jiu jitsu--impractical, especially if your amped opponent dives into a guard pass.  Then you're not fighting to submit, you're fighting to find your knees and not lose.  I went against Vance, then Eric, then Andy, then Colin.  I tapped Vance once (I think), Eric twice, had Andy on his back in an armbar when time ran, and tapped Colin once.  I don't know how much of my apparent success is because of technique and how much is because of something else.  But I'll take my wins and smile.

I worked with Stan after class and had a lot of success--much more success against him than I normally do.  I was trying not to pull guard at the beginning (regular readers:  do you see a pattern?), and it worked!  I even sort of pulled off the straight arm pass that we worked all last week.  Some things I did were stupid white belt mistakes--over-committing to a choke in mount and surrendering the upa roll, for instance--but I'm a white belt and need to make those mistakes so I remember not to when I advance.  At one point, I even threw up my leg for an armbar without even trying to secure his elbow, with just a wrist grip on his sleeve.  That didn't work so much, and it earned me a verbal reprimand from Klint.  ("You know why that happened?  Because you were lazy and didn't grab his elbow.  He's way too strong for that, and you're better than that.")  I got a few more light rolls in, and then it was time to return to school for more work.

Once again, I'm feeling OK on the mats.  I expect those mats to disappear from underneath me in the weeks to come, just as they always do.  And just as I need them to so that I keep improving.  If only I had a tropical retreat to host my jiu jitsu vacations and a black belt willing to come surf, teach, and train for a week.  Then, I would be set.  My wife could sit and read with our dog on one side and her mai tai on the other.  Our friends could even join, as long as they didn't interrupt the training.

Does anyone else have a spouse who doesn't train?  How do you deal with that separation?  Comment away.

A Game of You

(ed. note:  stole the title from Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN comic series; best story I've read and best storyteller alive.)

With the holiday weekend, we had only 5 people in class--me, Andy, Zach, Lisa, and Colin.  We worked the straight-arm pass again, and ways to get around the standard counters that guys will use.  It was good to revisit the pass after spending a few hours trying to implement it into my game last night.  Noted the things I was doing absolutely wrong, hope to get those out of my system early.  My chest is still tender, I imagine there might be a bruised sternum or something in my chest.  Gotta stay out of side control for the next few weeks, keep working guard passing and maintaining guard for a while.

A few things caught my mind today.  First, I've had a few rolls in the last few weeks that were the great, chill-but-still-working, "let's see what happens and how you would react" speed.  I had another with Colin to start after-class rolls today.  I don't know if that is what 50/50s are supposed to feel like, but I tend to leave those rolls feeling like I got something out of them, whereas I have some with blues and purples and more than a few whites where I leave and, having won or lost, I don't know that I will really take anything away from that roll other than getting some miles under my belt.  I struggle to figure out how to have more of those rolls with more people.  Part of it, though, is that it will probably help most with people who are more experienced than I so that I can get some feedback about things I did well, things I did poorly, etc.

Also, I find myself trying to create new muscle memory a lot of the time.  As an illustration:  last night and this morning, if I was trying to pass someone's open guard, I would find my body naturally trying to make my right leg pass over my opponent's left, putting me directly into half-guard and a dogfight.  When I would cross over my opponent's right with my right from standing, I would never get the underhook correctly or get my hand placement quite right, and I would effectively give up my back.  And it wasn't something that I was conscious of--so that means that my body is instinctively wrong.  Which means that I have to create new instincts for it to follow.  Which means hours and hours of conscious thought, rolling sessions where I don't lost concentration in a scramble.  Having faster synapses.  What would help most would be to have time to roll every day, find time to build that memory more than three times a week.  That is highly unlikely, so I have to use the time I have well.  And still study.

So it's a game.  Balance--do the things you must, the things you can, and the things you love.  Both in Jiu Jitsu and in general.  And at the end of the day/memo/practice/roll, you're going to be exhausted and sore and love every bit of it.

On a personal note, one that I'm sure Georgette will echo:  If anyone knows someone who is in their last year of law school, apologize to them.  We have 9 more months of tedious and senseless class-work before we have to (re: are allowed to) take a wretched test that will qualify us to enter a terrible job market.  And we can't blow it all off, because that would make our lives too simple.

Still a Novice

Despite all the things that I deeply love about our art, the mat burn really, really sucks. I've got a quarter-sized monstrosity on the top of my right foot. My sandals chafe it, shoes are near hell, and rolling requires ten more minutes of prep time to wrap it against catching some 13-year-old's super-bug off the floor.

Most of the open-mat rats are down in Chicago, trying to win NAGA. A few purples went, Damian (the black belt in Edina) is apparently competing as well, I think some blues and a white or two. Tim is the only one I know for sure, and he should have a good shot.  So the attendance at open mat was sparse, seven of us showed up.  Andy and I started, worked through a few positions, go warmed up.  I rolled with Luke, got wrecked a bit, then put him in a bit of trouble.  Probably the best I've done against Luke.  Brady came next, and I had forgotten what having a size advantage does to both your game and your confidence.  I'm not a big guy in our classes, but I'm not small.  Luke is roughly my size, but Brady--I've got at least six inches and forty pounds on Brady.  At one point, he shot triangle and got me to bend down, but I kept posture and shifted my weight towards my trapped arm, putting all of the weight on my knee right by his head.  This stacks him to high hell and prevents him from getting the angle he needs to finish.  It does require a bit of attention, surfing over a stacked opponent and making sure he doesn't do anything to the arm he has trapped, but after about four minutes, his legs just flew open and I was in north-south.  It was awesome.  At the end of the night, I rolled with Enrique for the first time.  He's a purple belt, mildly terrifying o look at and his pressure is outstanding.  He let me get some mildly-resisted work in, swept me when I forgot something important.  It was extremely worthwhile and appreciated.

Once again, everything comes down to basics.  I spent the day remembering to keep the bottom leg pinned when I was in someone's open guard, and I had more success passing than I ever have before against these guys.  Still, I'm forgetting basic things, like using the wrong leg to attack, trying to keep my opponent flat by pushing the head rather than the shoulder and effectively gift-wrapping the underhook.

I can feel the progress, but I can also tell that I'm spending a bit too much time sparring and not nearly enough time drilling.  So that has to change.

Thor's Day

Tonight, we worked on headlocks when we're near a wall, shooting for a single without grips, then more with the straight arm pass. It's a really good pass, and soon enough I'll have enough reps to feel semi-comfortable attempting it training. But that wasn't the highlight of class.

After a fairly low-key class, the mat opened and I started with Zach. But before we got to it, Jeremy and Klint gave Zach a three minute talk about how he can start to use his strength when rolling. If you don't remember, Zach is my height (about 6'1", 6'2") with at least 40 more pounds of weightlifting muscle bigger (I walk around at 185 or so, he's a full 225). And my "friends and mentors" told him to use his strength more. The first roll was longer than expected, but he came like a damn bull. Just whipped me around dragged my arm to Egypt and ended up getting a Bow and Arrow after about 4 minutes. First time Zach has tapped me. So this, I thought, requires some adjustment. He's bigger than me, I need to be faster than he. Next roll, I made him chase me for the takedown, spun to his back while he turtled, and rolled into my own Bow and Arrow. We trained for about 10 minutes, then Zach needed a break. So Andy waded over with a look in his eye.

He came at me with more zeal than he's shown before. He wanted to tap me. He was close, too--trapping arms and shooting his legs up, trying to be as fast to me as I was to Zach. I stayed (relatively) calm and deflected, redirected, ended up getting a triangle and rolling it to a mounted one.

After that, I worked with Jeremy again. I started in his closed guard, and he beat me a lot. Eventually, Klint helped me narrow down my goals--stop thinking about only keeping him flat and work to open his legs. It does no good to keep him flat at the expense of getting submitted. He also narrowed Jeremy's first objective--get up. I can't out-scramble Jeremy. But I did get in on a few single legs while he was getting up, even got a trip on one of them. (It was a good trip, fast and accompanied by pressure, and he somehow--I don't know how, but somehow--got the leg I tripped back underneath him.)

The trick? To keep moving. And to be very, very good.

Open mat tomorrow night. More after that. Brenna is out of town at a friend's wedding, and work kept me here. That means, though, that Jiu Jitsu will keep me busy when I'm not working. My muscles are already wondering what they'll do to me in revenge.