Bah, humbug!
Alright, it’s not that I don’t like Christmas. Quite to the contrary in fact. I’m quite upset Christmas seems to be dying in secular South Africa. What I am in a bad mood about is my current bad mood… if that makes sense?
Mostly I’m bummed because I had started to get my hopes up about getting the last few days of this week off. That didn’t happen. Instead, I’ve been wading through 10+ proofing jobs (and I have come to despise proofing, which demands complete brain-pulping concentration and is one of those invaluable, but utterly praiseless/unnoticed tasks). And I’ve been contending with an always difficult client who is sitting bored in her office and making my life considering painful over one stupid job. I’m now on my 5th revert.
I want my holidays now, dammit! I’ve reached my ‘actually giving a shit’ threshold and want this week over with. At least I can console myself with the knowledge that today is probably (hopefully) the last official work day. Our day ends tomorrow at 12 with a lunch at Taco Zulu.
I’ve also been frustrated with Brazilian Jiu-jitsu lately. For the past 4 weeks when it comes to grappling it feels like I haven’t been able to do anything; rarely even getting off my back. The problem is that there are only 2 people at my experience level who are within my strength and size zone. Everyone else (all guys), even if they are at the same technical level as me, are bigger, stronger, and have a much longer reach. They can usually just pin my arms and although it means they can’t submit me (they’re using their hands to hold me down), I waste a lot of energy trying to free my limbs. It pisses me off intensely.
Micah’s insistent that if I was grappling with someone less experienced I would see my technical advancement, but at the moment I can’t because there isn’t anyone. I just wish there were some small, lightweight ‘noobs’ for me to actually do something to. Because it’s a serious bash to your confidence and enjoyment when you spend your whole time defending and never get to try the more interesting techniques you’ve learnt.
And believe me, some of the guys do take advantage of my size, and submit using strength. If they’re struggling to escape my guard, they normally resort to a painful, semi-illegal neck crank thing called a Can Opener. Next time they try it, I’m going to knee them in the nuts.
Mostly I’m bummed because I had started to get my hopes up about getting the last few days of this week off. That didn’t happen. Instead, I’ve been wading through 10+ proofing jobs (and I have come to despise proofing, which demands complete brain-pulping concentration and is one of those invaluable, but utterly praiseless/unnoticed tasks). And I’ve been contending with an always difficult client who is sitting bored in her office and making my life considering painful over one stupid job. I’m now on my 5th revert.
I want my holidays now, dammit! I’ve reached my ‘actually giving a shit’ threshold and want this week over with. At least I can console myself with the knowledge that today is probably (hopefully) the last official work day. Our day ends tomorrow at 12 with a lunch at Taco Zulu.
I’ve also been frustrated with Brazilian Jiu-jitsu lately. For the past 4 weeks when it comes to grappling it feels like I haven’t been able to do anything; rarely even getting off my back. The problem is that there are only 2 people at my experience level who are within my strength and size zone. Everyone else (all guys), even if they are at the same technical level as me, are bigger, stronger, and have a much longer reach. They can usually just pin my arms and although it means they can’t submit me (they’re using their hands to hold me down), I waste a lot of energy trying to free my limbs. It pisses me off intensely.
Micah’s insistent that if I was grappling with someone less experienced I would see my technical advancement, but at the moment I can’t because there isn’t anyone. I just wish there were some small, lightweight ‘noobs’ for me to actually do something to. Because it’s a serious bash to your confidence and enjoyment when you spend your whole time defending and never get to try the more interesting techniques you’ve learnt.
And believe me, some of the guys do take advantage of my size, and submit using strength. If they’re struggling to escape my guard, they normally resort to a painful, semi-illegal neck crank thing called a Can Opener. Next time they try it, I’m going to knee them in the nuts.
Comments
It sucks when people are doing stupid shit like can openers to their teammates, especially when such teammates are also pretty inexperienced. It's possible some of them are just terrified of losing to a girl, and that's why they use so much force against you.
Try asking your instructor for some sweeps (open guard and butterfly) that you can do from the can opener position. After some practice perhaps the jerkoff using all his weight and strength against you will find himself having to use it off of his back while you're mounted on top of him. good luck.
It's just highly frustrating when you learn all these techniques and then are unable to put them into practice because your grappling sessions are just spent 'surviving'.
I suppose I just need to apply myself a bit more, and spend more time drilling techniques in the spare time before class starts.