Tuesday, September 28, 2010

rolling, rolling... and gear gripes

Well, another whole week has passed. Lots of classes, lots of rolling.

Nothing much new. Still stuggling against the bigger guys. That's so frustrating, knowing I must stay out from under them, and somehow not succeeding in achieving that objective. They know that all they need to do is get hold of some part of me and then move their bulk over the rest rest of me. I seem to have little success with open guard, they are able to just grab my legs and then I might as well give them a written invitation with gold edges to please take side control. Bah. Even with grips on their sleeves I seem to be doomed. On the positive side, at least I'm able to slow them down and my slowly improving hip mobility is helping.

Anyway, that just means I'l have to work on it more. I have absolutely no intention on giving up!!

Due to a couple of pretty small classes, I had more opportunity to work one on one with my instructor. Been working on two things. Firstly, a defence against a knee through guard pass, where I switch out my hips to face them, go to turtle and then fade right back to guard. I had a few issues with the hip switch, but I'm starting to get it. We drilled that numerous times with more and more pressure. The principles will also help me with my other escapes, so it will hopefully help address the issue with the bigger guys, too.

The other thing I had a thorough play with was the double hooking sweep. The first few attempts resulted in my poor training partner being propelled right up, which probably made for a tough landing :-). Then I got the body mechanics more under control and was able to do it smoothly and with next to no momentum, putting him precisely where I wanted him. That felt good. It's a great sweep, and now that I have the necessary coordination to make every one of my four limbs do different things simultaneously, I think I'll be able to use it. There are also a lot of principles behind this sweep which it helps me understand better.

Last night I had a quick reminder that as a blue belt, I need to be aware of leg locks. Haven't tapped to one of those since I was doing no-gi grappling at another school.... That's going to make open guard an even more dangerous territory for me. But on the positive side, I'm allowed to go for legs on blue belts and above.

I've had several rolls in my RDA gi. It is better fitting than my other gis and I like the material of the top. The pants are awesome. My two favourites are the Fuji Kassen and the RDA. Still not sure about the Shoyoroll. For starters, the sleeves are way too long, so I'm going to shorten them. I have an A2, and the sleeves are considerably longer than in my A3 Atama and Fuj gis. That irritates me so much I haven't even thought about whether I like the rest of it enough to hang on to. Maybe I should just stick it on ebay. From what I hear people pay stupid prices. With the proceeds I could buy a new blue Fushida (or maybe two!) ... Don't know yet.

I've been trying to hunt down another pair of compression shorts. I have a pair of BSCs (full quad ladies) which are THE thing. Perfect fit, and no niggles or pinching in unmentionable places. They are going on two years old now and have seen on average six training sessions every week. There is just a tiny bit of wear showing in a couple of spots. I wanted another pair only to discover that model is no longer made :-(. I checked out their "hot shorts". Too short and different design which pinches. No way!

I have a pair of 2XU shorts. They are a different design. So although very similar in size, they do tend to ride up on my legs a little. And they pinch in the nether regions, too. Oh yes, and the fancy big silver logos and stripes are all coming off, so they are not one of my best purchases...

Recently, I went to a sports store and tried on every pair of women's shorts and found: nothing. All the damn things are designed for discomfort. I don't have a big butt, or strange anatomy, so it shouldn't be that difficult. Maybe these things are ok for the occasionall half hour of bouncing around a gym or a little run. But for wrestling, they need to fit like a second skin, not have seams in stupid places and not ride up the middle and pinch my soft tissues. They should also have a draw string, and maybe need to be designed less for a low rise good look than functionality. But my biggest beef is why on earth they are made with a seam right along the middle. Think about it, the shorts are stretchy, with the seams being the least stretchy. So a seam up the middle will do what??

I don't know, maybe they are cheaper to make this way. Though when I look at how many extra unneccessary seams many of these shorts have, just to look fancy, I can't see the problem. But why don't they make them to actually conform to a human body?

Anyway, I have ordered a cheap pair from Korea on ebay. They cost a quarter of the ones in the shop, and they have no seam up the middle. So I'll see how they go. And I hope that my BSCs will last for a long time yet!!

I got my Rupture RG in the mail today. I ordered an old style one, because I think they look really classy. A men's small size fits me perfectly. Well, hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out tomorrow.

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