[quote]pch2 wrote:
I’ll have to admit, I’m really jealous that you have a whole class of girls. I just want one! [/quote]
Advertise on Craigslist? The Oakland girls pull in a lot of noobs from CL.
The difficulty with your situation is you’re stuck in survival mode all the time and you don’t get much opportunity to dominate.
That’s the white belt’s burden in general but you have it harder than the guys.
I commend you for your scrappy ways and your tenacity. In the same circumstances, I doubt I could summon half of your drive and commitment.
[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
pch2 wrote:
So, it turns out that a few of the other guys went to Mega-Dave’s classes over break. They were all treated like they had cooties too! It’s not just me, I just happened to be first.
Awesome avatar. I got all sorts of strange looks today when using my Cheshire Cat socks.[/quote]
I’ve been playing spider guard a lot (the guy on bottom) so my shins are covered with hand print bruises that solicit much stranger looks than the socks. I also just like bright pink in the dreary winter.
Sunday we did ankle locks, I don’t really like anything below the belt. I think it’s because everyone says they’re so dangerous and they’re advanced moves. It makes them seem intimidating. I don’t plan on using them on a regular basis, but everyone else does, so it was good to see what to do, and what I’ll need to defend against.
I didn’t roll, a lot of the blue belts have been in a pick a white belt and just own them mood lately. So then to roll it’s either get owned by a blue belt, or deal with an angry just got owned white belt. I can’t wait until I’m no longer at the bottom of the totem pole.
[quote]pch2 wrote:
. I can’t wait until I’m no longer at the bottom of the totem pole. [/quote]
But those are super cute legs at the bottom of that totem pole! :^P
Seriously, your legs look really good Totally jealous.
After class one day we went over to one of the guys houses to watch the Budo challenge DVD ( http://www.budochallenge.com/ if you haven’t seen it, find it, watch it, beautiful gi fighting), and a girlfriend appeared. She sat with us, ate dinner and flirted with the guys. One of them said she was cute but didn’t have enough ass. So she asked how to fix that and I of course yell out - Squats and Milk. To which everyone laughs (and then asked a thousand questions about milk).
So I go to class Monday and one of the guys is telling this story, but he substituted in himself as saying squats and milk, and he said it was milk and squats. Milk and squats just sounds wrong, tsk tsk. Anyway, since you are the select few people that would really appreciate the perfect time to spread the word I thought I’d share.
I keep wishing for girls and they appear but then they get captivated by the guys, and turn into giggly flirty messes. Now, I myself occasionally turn into a giggly flirty mess (see many AG posts) but that underlying desire to smash is still there.
A giggly flirty mess came in on Monday. She said she had taken a few months of classes last year. Yippee?
We drilled a butterfly guard pass, it’s so simple you ask yourself why you had never thought of it. What do you do with a hook? You step around it. How do you get around a knee? You smash it to the ground. Why was I finding this so difficult to pass last week? Because I don’t always think. This really is a thinking man’s game, when you drop out the thinking part it all falls apart.
By the time we were done drilling, I knew that my few months were more than her few months but I really wanted to roll with a girl and she did say she knew what she was doing. Man these are all just justifications aren’t they?
I smashed her. I didn’t go 100% but I played to my strong points. I pulled her into guard, arm dragged to get her back and then bow choked her. I knew she wasn’t as strong as me, or as skilled, but I smashed her anyway, and now I feel bad. I know how much it sucks to be overwhelmed, but at the time didn’t channel that. She tapped, told me I was scary and too rough then went to go flirt/roll with the younger guys.
I think that by being to only girl, my game has become really rough and aggressive. I do mean things to overcome the strength difference (I had Brandon in an arm bar yesterday and all that was keeping him safe was his ability to curl me, so I put my foot on his face and he let go), and it’s hard to turn that off.
Competing though, I’ll be rolling with girls. Do I need to worry about being too rough? I don’t want to be that asshole, but then I don’t want to be smashed on a daily basis. All of my practice is go all the way or suffer, and what you practice is what you do.
[quote]nvh95 wrote:
pch2 wrote:
. I can’t wait until I’m no longer at the bottom of the totem pole.
But those are super cute legs at the bottom of that totem pole! :^P
Seriously, your legs look really good Totally jealous.
[/quote]
How you doin’?
Seriously, how are you doing? How’s training going?
If you plan to compete, you’ve got to roll to the best of your ability all the time ad as far as the dilettantes and non-competitors, let them worry about themselves.
OTOH the the idea is to strive always for the best technique. When technique isn’t enough, tap into your strength & conditioning.
When training for a tournament, use all three: technique, strength & conditioning as much as possible.
In class, when dealing with the more faint-of-heart, a good way to train is to go ahead and catch 'em a few times, then next go 'round let them move around and get some good positions, so they don’t feel totally defeated and they’ll want to come back and train with you!
Another way is if you KNOW you can catch them easily, get right up to the catch point, but don’t finish the attack, just let them go and keep rolling.
Another way is to get to the mount, then let them bump and roll and keep going.
Another way is to start from, and let them get you into, every bad position, then work on your defensive skills and escaping and getting out, even let them get a partial triangle and stuff, working your skill sets of escapes.
Me, if a girl is all quivery-lipped, I tell her to go ahead and take any position you want…just let’s keep going!
These are all strategies used by the best practitioners so you can still get a decent workout with inferior training partners.
[quote]pch2 wrote:
…I do mean things to overcome the strength difference (I had Brandon in an arm bar yesterday and all that was keeping him safe was his ability to curl me, so I put my foot on his face and he let go)… [/quote]
Another not-nice-but-legal way to get them to let go (if their hands are clasped) is to jiggle your leg that’s over their face in a rapid bouncey-bounce. It disrupts the nervous system and they’ll let go real fast. So efficient it’s unfair but totally legal.
[quote]pch2 wrote:
…I knew she wasn’t as strong as me, or as skilled, but I smashed her anyway, and now I feel bad. I know how much it sucks to be overwhelmed, but at the time didn’t channel that. She tapped, told me I was scary and too rough then went to go flirt/roll with the younger guys.
I think that by being to only girl, my game has become really rough and aggressive…[/quote]
Don’t feel bad, anyway. I wonder if she’ll come back? The two of you may be there for different reasons. She might be there to simply play fight and get attention from the boys. Most girls aren’t very strong. Out of all the girls I train with only two or three can give me a hard time. Two, actually:
Karen, who weighs 20# more and has been training two years more than me
Suicide girl, but she doesn’t like to train with me and I feel dirty rolling with her. Like I’ve done hard, nasty sex to her and I just want to shower and get the hell away and never see her again.
There are a couple other girls, but they go to different classes and I never see them.
There is another girl, Georgia, who is Eduardo’s wife and just learning BJJ. For the first time, I rolled a six min. match with her yesterday and she has great potential, extremely strong and aggressive, which is so rare in girls, but her technique is not good yet. She does come flying at me like no one else…and her grip is lethal. Unfortunately, she doesn’t yet know how to protect her back, heh.
When I started out I was training with guys and I was told “if you train with guys, you can beat up any girl in a tournament”
but now I’m told, "if you train with guys, you never learn how to do stuff, because you’re always just surviving–you need other girls weaker than you so you can see how well the techniques work.
You need a mix of both, I think.
I’m beginning to have the same problem as you–but opposite:
I have to tone it down so much with 90% of the girls I train with that I’m concerned I’m wiring my pathways to go easy.
For instance, when Georgia attacked me yesterday, at first I was seriously taken aback, because no girl has done that yet. I wasn’t ready for her at all. She drills like a little kitten, but she came on like a caged beast. I got very excited about bringing her into the group we’re putting together. She’s gonna be a monster just like her husband.
I need to be able to go all out on a more regular basis, like you said: what you practice is what you do.
[quote]downwardog wrote:
In class, when dealing with the more faint-of-heart, a good way to train is to go ahead and catch 'em a few times, then next go 'round let them move around and get some good positions, so they don’t feel totally defeated and they’ll want to come back and train with you!
[/quote]
Well after a little while I asked her if she wanted to roll again and told her we could go really easy. So, I put my hands in my belt and just worked on using my legs, but after a minute she asked me why I wasn’t going easy and said she was done. I don’t know how to go easier than no hands.
[quote]downwardog wrote:
Another not-nice-but-legal way to get them to let go (if their hands are clasped) is to jiggle your leg that’s over their face in a rapid bouncey-bounce.
[/quote]
Ah, we call that the shaken baby. It’s also a great way to sink chokes deeper when they’re tucking the chin. I hadn’t thought to use it for the arm bar.
[quote]downwardog wrote:
Don’t feel bad, anyway. I wonder if she’ll come back? [/quote]
She won’t, she hooked up with one of the guys after class. We spent part of Wendsday’s class hearing about how rough she likes it. She can’t come back and be taken seriously now.
It’s really easy to forget this. I’ll occasionally play with female friends like I play with the guys and they never react well. Do not attempt a RNC on you friend when she is waiting in line at the grocery store, she will get very mad!
Lol, there are a few guys I don’t like to roll with for that very reason. Some people just move that way.
Sounds wonderful!
I think I’m just going to have to catch the guys when they’re still brand new. I rolled with a two week old white belt that was on the smaller range of the spectrum and was able to move him around how ever I wanted to.
It was actually really odd. I wasn’t quite sure what to do when not surviving, but I think I’m now good enough to prevent new white belts from hurting me, so I can try to be more active and less reactionary.
[quote] I need to be able to go all out on a more regular basis, like you said: what you practice is what you do.
[/quote]
Tuesday I wanted to go to Mega Dave’s but no one would go with me, and I don’t want to go alone so I wandered over to the gym.
Warmup - I did the DiFranco Upper Body and Lower Body warm ups that Angry Vader mentioned in his log. I really like the lower body one, since my hips get really tight.
YTLW
1 arm DB Snatches - 30 5x5
DB Single Leg SLDL - 25 5x5
Pushups - BW 25ish - I was aiming for 5x5 but the lady next to me started talking and it got messy. She was a nutrition nurse, but asking me about what to do with her obese 13 year old daughter. Shouldn’t she know better than me? I’m not even sure why she thought I would know. Anyway, it interrupted the counting.
[quote]pch2 wrote:
Couldn’t you just go roll with the guys then?[/quote]
I have been working more often with a guy, Skinny Jesus, who’s been really good for me.
He’s learning some stuff from Eduardo and he practices on me.
first, he lets me move around and get positions but I never get very far before he gets me on the bottom and starts rolling all around me in this very acrobatic, capoeira-style thing where he’ll just roll across me very lightly and do backflips over my body and it’s the freakiest experience.
All the while he is very friendly and light, but I’m completely tooled at the same time, and we go until I’m too exhausted to make another move.
I can’t wait to get a blue belt so I can learn what he’s doing.
I did it guys! Kinda on a whim, but I competed. There was only one other white belt girl so I only had one match, but I did manage to get second place.
We started and as soon as I touched her lapels she jumped guard and we went down. She then hugged me and stalled for about three minutes. I had no idea what to do. She made the occasional closed guard choke attempt, but mostly just stalled out. She got points for the attempted submission so I went a bit hail mary at the end and just stood up with her, she stayed in closed guard though! I really really wanted to slam her, because what’d you do with that? She was like a little koala bear. At that point time ran out and there you go, my first competition.
[quote]pch2 wrote:
I did it guys! Kinda on a whim, but I competed. There was only one other white belt girl so I only had one match, but I did manage to get second place.
We started and as soon as I touched her lapels she jumped guard and we went down. She then hugged me and stalled for about three minutes. I had no idea what to do. She made the occasional closed guard choke attempt, but mostly just stalled out. She got points for the attempted submission so I went a bit hail mary at the end and just stood up with her, she stayed in closed guard though! I really really wanted to slam her, because what’d you do with that? She was like a little koala bear. At that point time ran out and there you go, my first competition. [/quote]
