K'NEX

I was good with Lincoln Logs and Tangrams and Brain Teasers, so I guess BJJ is just another puzzle with 10,000 tiny adjustable pieces.  I'm starting to see the connecting links. 

When I first started working out with Gary, I was finding muscles I never thought of as significant (ummm.. because my body now hurt.. everywhere!  clean and presses made my body say, ‘yep, that’s different’), but seeing the body as a hamstring here, bicep there, I learned was a simplification that overlooks how the power comes from the connector muscles.  In Jiu-Jitsu practice, the fundamental escapes and submissions don't do much good, if one can't figure out the ways of getting to these points.  Grip breaks, weight shifts, body positioning are becoming very important in my Jiu-Jitsu arena.  Lately, I've been working on not getting pushed over.  (yes, it is embarrassing even to say out loud) In the moment I was thinking, wait, what just happened??  And then it would happen again the next time I rolled with that person.  And again.  I felt ridiculous, that it seemed so simple and put me in such a pathetic position for the majority of the next 240 seconds or so.  Until I went and just asked her what she was doing.  (yes, a she.  These two women have become a part of my thrice-weekly ass-beating sessions.  Me on the receiving end, of course.)

A lot of folks at this school start one knee up, one knee down, so it is forcing me to not just think about holding my base, but how to shift my weight, strategically move my body toward, away, to the side..even to actually sit down (turns out that little pinwheel sit isn’t just for stretching haha).    There is no fundamental move that says step 1, step 2, step 3.  Now squeeze, choke, game over.  If it were that easy, I wouldn’t still feel like a beginner after a year. 

Ideally, we find the flow:  they push, you pull.  They pull close, you create space.  Our old coach used to say, “they play rock, you play water.  They play water.  You play rock.”  The philosophy sounds great, but it’s going to take a lot longer until one day the pieces fall into place for me.  Believing in that moment is keeping me going.  I see the picture on the puzzle box, but my game still looks like odd splashes of color.