Mizblog

My first time back since my first time back! Two training sessions since June and it’s about time I got back into the gi and onto the mat. I knew the excuses would just get easier and easier if I didn’t go, so I just went. Almost forgot my mouth guard. Did forget my knee pads. Oh well.

Greggo taught this Thursday morning class. I guess he’d taught the material at last night’s class, so he decided to do it again for us since we hadn’t been there. It was a lot of the stuff that Rick had taught me in the past, about standing to open the guard, sitting low to freeze the free leg while elbow-to-knee framing on a deep step to freeze the other leg, grip the other leg side lapel, and then you can pass to either side.

Rolling went well for about 7 minutes. Then I ran out of energy and strength and I got submitted a couple times. Then Cowboy got his first blue belt stripe and it was over. I went home with sore obliques and a few mat burns on my feet and ankles.

Pam taught this Saturday morning class. We started with running around, shuffling inside and outside, high knees and buttkickers. Then we switched to lunges around the mat. After that was across the mat and back with inchworms, lunges with knees, and side lunges with pivots. Loads of lunges, but I was the first finished most every time across. I pushed myself hard and paid for it afterward, but that’s how it goes. At least I didn’t get dizzy like last week.

After that, we put in our mouth guards and took turns punching each other in the face. I paired up with Corey, and he went easy on me, so I went easy on him too. We did a session of 5 for 5 to the face, then 5 for 5 to the body, then 5 for 5 kicks to the upper legs and to the body. Easy.

After that we split the class in half (actually a group of 5 and a group of 6 with me in it). We took turns with one victim and the rest attackers, applying level 1 chokes and the defenses, for about 3 minutes each. Even going slow and light, it was very tiring. I went 2nd, and it took me halfway through round 3 to recover.

When that was done, we went out back with chairs and simulated being attacked from behind while sitting, and trying to apply the principles of the defenses even in a disadvantaged position and caught by surprise.

Christian taught this Saturday morning class, and it was a doozy. We started with a shadow boxing circuit alternating ground and pound, guard and pound, and knee on belly flurries with a kick shield on the ground. Then the thai pads with combos, adding in an overhand right knockdown followed by knee on belly ground and pound, then a padholder knockdown followed by guard and pound with a get-up at the end. I was dying.

After that was headlock defenses review, getting ready for a rear naked choke defense lesson. We went through all the steps alone, then got in a group. It went fine. The drill at the end had us doing rolls for a minute followed by a back attack. Not bad, but my lungs seemed to lack the proper capacity to feed my brain with oxygen. I still have a cough from GENCON 50.

At the end we did gun defenses from the front, using either left or right hand to deflect the gun. Then we went to the front tables and used the tables as part of the disarm. Apparently if you drag a guy’s hand between the gun and a table, it hurts like hell and they can’t hold onto the gun. Then we did gun defenses across the kids room viewing window, as if we were sitting in a car, and used the window frame to assist in disarming the gunman.

Brandon’s Saturday morning class. I’m trying to remember this after a week, because I’ve been taking care of my dad and he’s a downright bastard to care for. We started with shadow boxing and shoulder tag, did some thai pad work, did some kick combos, and then did some full contact sparring.

Curtis’ Saturday morning class, and the first one since my dad came to live with me. We started out with a TON of cardio, and my bronchitis was inflamed. Then we worked on kicks (front/round/turning-back) with a little bit of live look drill on the turning back kick at the end. The finale was kick shield mounting, destroying it and alternately standing and stomping.

My dad has come to live at my house. He can’t take care of himself, so someone else has to do it. That “someone else” turns out to be me, right now. He can’t afford boarding care until he can get rental income from his house, and he can’t rent his house until we clean it up and clear it out. In the mean time, he’s living in my house, sleeping in Saranya’s bed, slowly learning the names of the people who live here, and requiring my assistance at random times. That leaves me unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. I’m always on edge, and nothing is fun. Constant stress.

Our weekends will be spent cleaning and emptying his house. There is so much urgency to this task. Maybe it will lessen as we hire some nursing assistance, but so far that’s prohibitively expensive. Sangeeta seems to like having him here, but that’s because she isn’t responsible for taking care of him 24/7 like I am. I’m sure he likes it better here than in a nursing facility, so we’ll see if we can swing it. Maybe a day nurse will be sufficient assistance to get us back to a manageable state.

We’ll see.

At least the crud I took home from GENCON is finally fading.

Brandon had laryngitis for his Saturday morning class. My first class in a month and second in 2 months. My chronic bronchitis has started to clear up so I decided to take a risk and jump in.

Warm up was easy. I went light on the thai pad combos, swapping John in and Susan out as a training partner. He coached me to keep a tighter line for the front/side kick combo. I worked on my recoil and balance for the scissor kick.

Sparring at the end with no head gear, mainly targeting the body with the techniques focused in the class. It was *very* light and I did fine.

I flew out to Indy to hang out with Castor for GENCON 50!

The flight out was nice. Direct on Southwest. I spent most of the time writing my thoughts on improvements to our sequencing algorithm to better take into account the information we have regarding the user’s learning strength for a particular item.

Castor’s house was in a state of renovation. Wet paint and no mirror in the guest bathroom, so I ended up showering in Castor’s shower for all but the last day.

GENCON was fun. On Thursday we wandered the vendor floor before finding our game, which was a RPG based on the old City of Heroes MMO. It was fun. I was “Tech Support” the tech tank. Whenever I entered a battle, I yelled “Tech Support is here. What is your Customer Identification Number?” and they’d all try to attack me. It was funny.

Friday was a free day. We again wandered the vendor floor, ate some Island Noodles, and in the evening we went to Castor’s boss’ house (Matt) for their regular Pathfinder campaign. I played a mercenary named Cevalla who was formerly a caravan guard but was laid off once the caravan hit town. The first couple hours were an exercise in shopping and trivia, and I was stunned by the lack of wisdom on display. My proudest moment was when I cracked a situational joke in character that cracked up the entire table. That felt good.

First thing Saturday morning, we went to another Pathfinder game. This one was an advanced Legends of the Shining Jewel campaign that we were definitely not qualified for, so they redirected us to the noob table, let us choose a premade level 1 character, and set us off to save the beer festival at the town of Brexton. It was simple and easy. We took more damage from our 2nd level fighter’s critical fumbles than we did from the enemy.

The rest of Saturday was spent shopping for stuff. Then we went home and I talked with Sangeeta, and she made me feel horrible. I didn’t want to go home to that tempest of chaos and pain.

Sunday was just a shopping day. Got coffee in the morning and felt so much better. My optimism returned. We left early and stopped by an authentic Mexican restaurant for lunch, complete with shrink wrapped TVs blasting Ranchero Pop, a bunch of shouting dirty local Mexican workers, an adjacent carniceria, and a real crawly cockroach crawling on the bar. We went back to Castor’s place and ended the day with a Dungeon Crawl board game, which Carla won (of course).

I left Castor’s house on Monday morning, had a moderately leisurely breakfast, made a quick stop at Starbucks for a coffee, spent a bit of time in traffic on the way to the airport, spent 20 minutes to check my suitcase, 15 minutes to get through security, and missed my flight by one minute.

My first class back since I separated my rib on July 4th. I was apprehensive. Came in a little early to warm up and test the rib on some rolls and shrimps and breakfalls in the back room, and it held together alright.

Warm up went okay, with a lecture about mentally imagining the utility of the shrimping drill in actual rolling situations (escaping side control or mount).

Then we got to the lesson of the day – getting up in a contested situation. It started as hand fighting from a rear bearhug. Grip the wrists/hands/fingers, push down to straight arm, push your hip forward to break the grip, grab the fingers, put one hand in your back pocket as you turn away from it. Your incoming elbow slices downward in front of their face to stop them from trying to tackle you.

Next was the whole system of how to get up there to do the hand fighting. From separated open guard, turn turtle and quickly jump up to tripod with your head up, then push up from your hands and base out to start hand fighting and turn to face your opponent.

Brandon’s Saturday morning class, and my first since injuring my rib on July 4th. Two KM classes this month, woo!

Easy warm up, thai pads, front leg front kick and round kick, with followup combos.

Sparring sucked. We were limited to straight punches + body hook, and front leg front/round kicks. Going to the body feels dangerous if that knee might come up into your face. I spent the whole time covering up my rib and turning it away, so my left side took a lot of beating. At least I landed a shot or two against everyone I matched up with, but I feel like they all got the best of me.