Blog

Wow it has been a busy week!

I’ve been doing really well, feeling pretty “on” lately. I think I’ve made another progress leap!

Coach won’t be able to come in the early mornings for the next few weeks. There were 3 brand new white belts on Wed morning – leaving me as senior student with no instructor. So I taught class. One of the guys seemed fairly put out to have me, white belt girl, teaching – I suppose the lavender gi added to my authoritative image. He’ll get over it.

We drilled mount to fat boy transitions, then a bow/arrow choke from fat boy. I told coach and he approved.

I did a tournament today (Saturday). It was a small, friendly tournament pulled together by several schools in the area. I was the only girl there so I asked to be put in with the lightweight guys. There ended up being seven people in my division.

The matches were submission only for 10 mins, then they go into “first point wins”.

The first match I had went very well for me – and it was apparently spectacular for the spectators to watch. I imagine the poor guy is gonna get a lot of harassment for the thrashing I put on him. He had to fend off: triangles, mount, side control, ezekiel choke, and multiple sweeps. The only thing he got anywhere close to threatening me with was a straight ankle lock – which gave me opportunity to stand and pass his guard. Finally he got tired and I finished him with a cross choke from guard.

He kept trying to open my guard by digging his elbows into my legs. He looked so surprised when I didn’t even wince.

Anyhow, my next match didn’t go so well. He smashed through my guard and kept me crushed in side control for about 6 minutes. I had a few brief moments of breaking free – but otherwise, stayed smashed. I avoided all of his submission attempts and finally he grabbed the back of my collar and leg, stuck his knee in my rib, and coach called a stop to the match.

I ended up with 2nd place, and they gave me a 1st place as well for “being an awesome competitor”. That was sweet although I don’t feel like it was earned.

My biggest mistake was attempting to pull guard on that last guy. He did a very good job of keeping me small – and not giving me a chance to play my game.

What made me proud, was I didn’t give up. After a few minutes of being smashed, I felt my resolve weakening – then I steeled myself for a fight to the death. I refuse to be beaten because I lost the will to fight. If someone is gonna beat me, it will just be because they are better than me.

So it turns out, what I thought was a latex allergy spot on the side of my knee is actually ringworm. Aaaaahhhh!!!

The doc told me that if I keep it covered I can still train. She said it isn’t “shedding” – whatever that means – ergo, would only transmit to another person through direct contact. I’m a bit iffy on that, the guys seem to equate sharing air space with contamination.

Anyhow, it’s already responding to the meds pretty well – not itching and redness is almost gone. Doc was gonna just give me a topical, but I sweet talked her into a pill as well. I wanted the pill just to make sure nothing else pops up – plus the guys told me it clears up REALLY fast that way.

The gym is closed tomorrow (Happy Independence Day!!!), so we’ll see how it’s doing by Thursday. The guys said the meds usually kill it in a few days, hoping I can train soon!

So I finally figured out why I’ve been in a funk lately. I miss my training partner who moved to LA. Now that I know what my problem is, I can deal with it – been doing much better mentally!

The doc got me unkinked, just in time for one of our purple belts (the same one who blackened my eye last roll) to jump all over me and mess it up again. He is going on my “do not roll with” list. And I’m going back to the doc in the morning – I’ve got a lecture coming to me I’m sure!

We’ve got a girl who teaches at another gym who has been coming in a few mornings a week at 10. Some of her guys are helping one of our guys get trained up for an MMA fight on the 20th.

She’s fun to roll with! She’s bigger than me (shocker!), but we seem pretty well matched. Haven’t gone all out like that for a while, and it felt good! She’s pretty tough and got me in a straight ankle lock… Twice… really need to watch for that. She’ll be back tomorrow morning to play some more. Yay!

In other news, I weighed in at 137 yesterday – that’s down 3 lbs in the last week. Yay for fruits/veggies/meat!!!!

I want pasta. Bad.

So the doc told me that looking at my xrays, he’d say I was jumped by a football player, then hit by a car, then fell down a (carpeted) staircase, then finally tripped over my dogs.

I sat out of class for the remainder of the week. I poked a bit with my foot at coach on saturday; he looked at me and said “no, you’ll hurt yourself.”

I’m really looking forward to getting in some training tomorrow! Going stir crazy!

Things to work on in these next few weeks:

Hip escaping from bottom. It’s a concept I’m finally starting to understand: I need to move myself, not my opponent.

Sweeps from guard. My closed guard sweeps just do not exist. If my opponent happens to lean back, I’ve discovered the “bridge them backward and land in mount” sweep, but that’s all I use. Open guard sweeps are getting a bit better, I just need practice. Lots and lots of practice!

Maintaining top control once I get there. Since I’ve spent the last month with a “fight for top position” goal, I now need to work on maintaining position!

I decided I’m going to TRY getting down to 125 for the Chicago opens in August. This means I gotta really watch my diet since I’m about 135 right now. That’s 14 lbs in two months – totally doable (gotta weigh in with gi)

So I went in to see coach’s REAL chiropractor this morning. He did a pretty comprehensive evaluation, took a bunch of xrays, and declared me to be “all jacked up”. He also knew exactly who the guy was that mucked me up and had this to say about him “THAT guy? Are you serious? He is just full of himself!”

Anyhow, he told me that I need to talk to an attorney. At bare minimum, this guy should have to pay for my correctional care. I also need to report him to the licensing board.

Anyhow, main problems are that my spine is twisted and my hips are severely rotated, with the right one up higher than the other – SI joint is ANGRY. Ribs are ridiculously sensitive, can’t flex or rotate to the right. Also can’t take pressure to the sternum. That’s the short list.

Doc was able to even out my hips, but my ribs were too sensitive to really work on my thoracic area.

I’m gonna go see him again in the morning so he can show me my xrays and what exactly has happened to me. I’ll try to take pictures of anything spectacular.

He later texted my coach and told him I need an attorney and that my hips and spine are really horrible.

I just watched class today. We’re working on N/S bottom escapes this week and I just can’t do the twisting motions. I was getting pretty grumpy, but then coach let me roll a couple rounds with him. It was fun! Was working on fighting off his grips, kept me from getting swept as much!

Anyhow, time to wash gis and get some shut eye. Side note: I’m ordering a new gi from Storm Kimonos. A girl at the NAGA Memphis was wearing one and it was awesome – and IBJJF approved! Will make an great competition gi!

Some guy brought his chiro into the gym on Saturday to give free adjustments. Of course, I jumped on that! Found out too late that the guy is an idiot. Now my ribs are jacked up – can’t bend, inhale deeply, or take any pressure. He messed up a few of the guys as well and now, even the most peaceful among us wants to injure this guy.

This chiro dude claimed to be my coach’s chiro, and coach is furious – as he’d never heard of the guy. Coach hooked me up with his actual chiro – got me an appointment for tomorrow morning. He’s gonna x-ray and see what exactly this creep did to me.

At any rate, I haven’t been able to roll this week. Barely able to drill really. Did get to do some light, very limited, rolling today with one of our small brown belts. Made me feel alive!

I did learn a lot watching class tonight though. Watching everyone else getting yelled at to “hip escape” really helped some of my brain cells click. Can’t wait to try rolling again! I’m gonna try to obey what the doc tells me tomorrow. Hope it’s fixable!

Thursday:
At 11:30 we had a HUGE class. Drilled the same half guard pass that we did yesterday – nice to get more reps in with that one. I even managed to do all right with it live! Yay! I was planning to sit out from rolling since we had odd numbers and lots of big white belts – but I managed to snag two smaller guys for a couple of rounds. Yay!

Went back that evening at 5 for sparring. I managed to get a deep half guard locked in – haven’t used that one for a while. The guy was perfectly happy to sit on top of me until I bumped him up and shot my hand under to grab the back of his gi. It’s very satisfying to get an involuntary “oh shit!” Out of your sparring partner.

The last 3 rounds I did in class were pretty rough! I had sweat pouring into my eyes and had to keep my eyes closed, and I gassed pretty hard. Vision was going gray and could hardly stand – but I made it through and didn’t quit! Success! So glad I had my oatmeal and recovery powder stuffs with me!

By the time 7:15 came around, I was feeling recharged and ready to roll. Coincidentally, we worked on the coolest counters for deep half guard! One was a nasty shoulder lock for if they hook your foot; the other, a back take for if they keep their knees together. It was awesome!

Sparred some more, had fun! Got aggressively straight ankle locked by someone a bit overzealous, I had to ice when I got home.

Coach rolled a bit with me. He started by saying “oh this is gonna be easy! I just nudge you and you’ll dump yourself on your butt!” Of course, than meant I had to stay off my butt! Did ok for a couple mins – then, of course, I got dumped on my butt. At least I lasted longer than usual!

Friday:
I just went to the 6:30 class this morning. It was myself and a brand new white belt (2nd class). We drilled half guard smash pass, and the cut through. Coach “tossed me around” a bit more. He said it was a good warmup for him.

Got some warm fuzzies too! One of our purple belts (teaches Judo at another school) came in for a private lesson right at the end of class. Coach told him I’m “tough as shit” and that he’ll probably have to start using his weight on me when I reach purple belt – or maybe even blue. I asked him if I could just stay a white belt forever – he laughed. Don’t think I was taken very seriously.

I didn’t even have the energy to type up a post before crashing last night!

Tuesday was pretty tiring, started off with drilling class at 11:30. We were drilling the smash pass from half guard and I think I got that one down pretty well – needs a few thousand more reps but got a good start. I didn’t think I was using a whole ton of pressure, but my drilling partner said it was pretty incredible. I think when I sit out on one hip, with my knee in their hip, it really increases my leverage.

Rolled a couple rounds – and did really well! Managed to lock in a kimura from guard – he rolled around a bit, and I finished it as a mousetrap americana in mount.

Almost landed a triangle on another guy – he said he’s gonna have to go harder on me now. Eeep!

I decided I would ride my bicycle to class that evening. It’s an 8 mile, hilly ride – and I haven’t ridden a bike in over 12 years. It wasn’t a bad ride, although I did come into our tough sparring class with less than fresh legs.

Got very soundly beaten up. Highlight of the evening was being utterly smashed under one of our purple belts. He has been after me for giving up the bottom too easily. I promised I would never pull guard on him again. He replied “it’s not that you pulled guard. It’s that when I went down, you sat down too.” He proclaimed he hasn’t given up on me yet – which is very much appreciated. Don’t know what my mental problem is!

Ate oatmeal during no gi, then jumped into the 7:15 class. Did ok up until rolling time – I really did try my darndest to stay on top, but it just didn’t work. I got frustrated and had to walk off the mats and be done rolling for the night.

The bike ride home was extraordinarily long. Don’t think I’m gonna ride to evening classes again – that ride was just not safe!

Woke up Wed morning for 6:30 class and was not too sore! Apologized to coach for getting frustrated the night before “it happens” was his reply.

There were people in class! 4 white belts showed, and a blue belt came in late! Coach is really trying to build the early morning class up. We drilled a half guard pass for use when someone pops up a knee shield – I managed to get it live! Usually am not able to!

The soreness started kicking in a couple of hours later, so I skipped the 11:30 class in favor of a nap. Had a full schedule at work anyhow!

And that brings it all up to date. I’m gonna keep trying to play on top – eventually it’ll click! Most of the time I don’t even realize I’m in a dominant position, which makes it difficult to realize when I’m giving it up! Other times, I don’t think I have the move and give it up too soon. It’s just gonna take time – which sucks. I want everything now! Oh well – just means I’ll REALLY appreciate it once I do finally “get it”!

Well I overslept the 6:30 class this morning. Of course coach texted me to let me know that 3 people showed up for it. I just KNEW the one time I missed, someone would actually show up! Oh well.

Showed up at 10 and got my ass kicked by our brown belt instructor, then one of our “almost brown” purple belts. One of the guys took video with his ipad, so I get to relive it over and over again since he’s emailing it to me.

Basically, still need to work on my hip escaping from bottom. I downright suck at it! After getting beaten up soundly, I skipped the 11:30 class and went home to shower before work.

It was good! I need to get beaten up more! Eventually I’ll stop making the same mistakes over and over again.

This week’s goal: hip escape from bottom. I think I’ll try putting myself in bad positions just so I can practice getting out!