BJJ has ruined my wardrobe...

...none of my pants fit the same. The jeans are fine, but my actual suit pants, I swear I'm gonna have to donate them or something. They look better in a sense, but while I've gotten smaller, my hips are proportionately wider. Thanks hip escapes.

 

New new theme music: Lil Wayne's Steady Mobbin is on everytime...every...single time...I'm on my way to the gym. It's a great song, but it's so dirty the radio edit might as well be an instrumental. That and Say Ahh by Trey Songz. Not my style of music at all, but I really like it.

 

But yeah...another lady white belt has been catching me in armbars every time we roll and finally, tonight, I was able to get out of one using a technique or rather, a principle, I read up on a couple weeks back. Funny how things can take a while to sink in...or maybe a few failed attempts to understand.

 

I'm starting to wonder if I'm a lazy roller. Mid roll tonight my instructor called out to me to "move those hips!" (which made me laugh, because it sounded like a line  from the aforementioned Lil Wayne track). It's possible I just think too much. I've noticed that I stop to look and get a handle of what's going on in a position if I haven't been exposed to it.

 

I'm having some issues getting to my knees I THINK when I'm in kesa gatame. Lady wrestler keeps me pretty tight to the ground and when I try to turn my hips out, I hit a wall where I couldn't rotate anymore. I tried it again after she got me back in the position again and got a little bit further. I'll have to give it a shot again next time.

This frozen lime is amazing...

I'm starting to regret skipping that last acupuncture session two years ago when I first hurt my neck dancing. What was it Dr. Lin said? Come back for the last session to make sure it heals properly? If you skip it it will be easier to re-injure yourself in the future? Well, future Megan is disappointed in past Megan...but then past-Megan didn't know she'd be taking up Brazilian jiu jitsu.



So yeah...I tweaked my neck last night (learning a counter to a basic triangle)and rolling a frozen lime on it has been great...as a token of my gratitude, it's going in my eggs (sounds crazy, but it's really good with lobster and chives). I'm breaking one of the cardinal rules of traditional Chinese medicine (no cold on joints...it's taught that it leads to arthritis), so maybe I'll try another heat patch tomorrow...or a BOILED lime...

What to do with this strength/size thing...

After reading a post on tips for new female grapplers, I really started thinking about the application of some of the advice to larger women. If the advantages that most women have in BJJ are smaller bodies, more flexibility and better mobility, I'm playing with a slightly different deck of cards. I'm not small, I have average flexibility (that's improving) and am not particularly agile or mobile. I've been checking out videos of Lana Stefanac since my build is somewhat similar (she's a little shorter and heavier)



Last class I got another remark of surprise at my strength from my instructor. I gotta admit that it made me happy, but I still question how strong I actually am. It's not like I can match muscle with guys my size, or even smaller ones. Full on military pushups are still not my forte and I won't even metion pullups...so I doubt that pound for pound, I'm actually STRONG. I suspect that I'm somewhere between "strong for a girl" and "stronger than reasonably expected for my size and gender."

I think though, that it's a matter of understanding what advantages to use when. My strength level is what it is depending on how I develop it. What does change pretty drastically though, is the strength of my opponents. My school makes an effort to pair women with women, but also to rotate partners, so I end up with the stronger guys on a regular basis too. While I know they hold back because I'm female, I often wonder if they hold back a little less because I'm a larger, stronger female.

100 Push-ups

Back on the 100 pushups program. I had to reset to the middle of week
2. I've been lazy the last two weeks and have been skipping that and
FlowFit. I've still been stretching regularly at work though. I've
also been hiding from the small stability ball, but after the last
couple guard passes we learned, I can see that it would be a big help.

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Heeltastic and BJJ don't mix...

Ok, so about a year ago, I bought my first as-seen-on-TV product. I gotta admit, I felt a little seedy doing it. Turns out, there are some pretty effective do-dads advertised on TV at 2am on the Cartoon Network (I love green bags...I hate space bags).

My latest acquisition has been HeelTastic Intensive Heel Therapy. A supposed miracle cure for foot related issues. I have to say, it works. My feet look a lot better. A quick foot disclaimer, mine aren't as gnarly as the ones in the ad. They were actually reasonably cute before dance and bjj.



After posting this online (showing off my purdy new dance shoes), the photo was hijacked and there was even a thread dedicated to them on an Italian message board (apparently men in Italy think you can tell a lot about a woman by her feet...a whole lot). But alas, salsa and BJJ haven't been kind to them. I swear they're changing shape.

Anyway, I put some night before last. A whole night, morning shower, work day and pre-class shower before evening class. I swear I couldn't get a decent grip on the mats to save my life. So yeah...gonna have to rethink this heel therapy deal.

BJJ and Chess

I was sitting on the mat next to the kids' and Muay Thai instructors watching some sparring. I'd just finished my intro class with the kids' instructor and they were explaining some basic principles and answering my questions. It was all so snuggly (of course this was before the laps and pushups and ukemis and...yeah.) The kids' instructor said one thing that I think sold me on BJJ. He said it was like physical chess. I liked the idea, but honestly took it as one of those similes people throw around to make some activity more accessible to newbies.

Well, last night, during my second roll, my instructor called out that I only had two moves to get on top. My mind froze. I'm surprised I didn't get submitted right then and there. The chess analogy immediately made sense...I can't do anything with it, but my perspective has shifted a bit.