Having to relearn stuff over, and over...

Somewhere I read that in jiu jitsu, you have to learn 80% of a move before you can learn the last 20%.



Familiar concept from me, no?

(Then of course the philosophy major in me piped up about infinite regress, and Occam, and so on. But I digress.)

This truism is continually reaffirming itself. For example, I have struggled with the pendulum sweep (aka flower sweep) since, oh, the dawn of time. This is mainly because I either struggle with getting both their arms on one side of their body or because once I do, I can't keep it there. Sure, sure, I'm fighting guys, and the initial part of this move seems rather upper-body-dependent, blah blah blah. But still, I feel like I should be able to pull this off.

After comments lead me to youtube, here's the footage I found of the sweep as Lovato teaches it. He credits Xande Ribeiro. I think this double-pendulum series looks great though I still see the same problem cropping up, because the second sweep is the arm-crossed-over version I have trouble with. I will report later.



And in keeping with my postPan resolution of working on my guard for the next year (thanks Steve!) I keep revisiting various aspects of the guard game that I had previously put aside because they weren't working for me.

In other words, I learn 20% of the move then rotate to my next target, and so on, till I come back around to whatever, but with a little more experience and body mechanics down. Then it seems like I learn the next 20%, or 15%, and keep on going.

Last night in class, I struggled to even articulate the issue I was having with the pendulum in a way that Christy could understand and help with. It ended up being as follows: in order to trap the arm that I've crossed over their body, I have to reach over and around their lat and crunch my sternum into their shoulder so tightly that I feel I've pulled them down onto me, trapping my hips and preventing me from shifting adequately for the sweep to happen.

Her solution, once we pegged the problem, was elegant. Not sure I'm ready to implement it, but I'm closer, anyways. Would've given it a try tonight, but got another (yes, another) bad headache, so I just came home. I'm going to see another doctor about these headaches, for sure. Tired of popping imitrex like candy.

On other fronts, finally found the car I've been hunting for. I'm still saddened to lose my little car (my 95 Integra GSR was totalled in a fairly minor, not-my-fault collision at the end of February) but I am very happy with her replacement: a 2007 TSX, manual, black on black. The manual part was the sticky wicket because it seems most people (fools!) prefer to drive an automatic. We were even looking at a car in Atlanta, if you can believe that. Fortunately my DH only had to drive to Houston to snag my new baby.

Why, I ask you, buy a sports car (despite her four-door status, she IS a sports car) and then give up shifting?

This isn't mine but it's the same as mine...



Of course the downside is, he was recently laid off, so this is a chunk of change to be chucking into the garage and out of the bank account. I think in the long run this car is well worth it, though. (My last Acura was still going plenty strong at 15 years/206k miles and I would have kept it another 15 years but for that idjit two cars behind me. Anyway.)

As usual, between jits and work and getting the garden going, I'm a busy girl. Mitch is busy too, so busy in fact that I can't imagine what we would do if he were employed. Knock on wood that's a problem we'll have again soon. But in the meantime, he's fiddling with the saltwater tank, digging in the flowerbeds to find our main line leak, cleaning out the garage so there's room for my car too, and sorting through all his paperwork that's neatly stacked all over the guest room/office.

Mundials is less than three weeks away.