93 Guard and a Free Back Adjustment

I made it to class last night. Victory!!!

Though I still don't feel stable enough to do the take-down portion of class, since the hubs is hobbled with an injured ankle I practiced my positions on him during that portion and got a good warm-up sweat on.

We are moving on to the 93 Guard, and I think I'm really going to like it. I have issues with the Butterfly Guard but 93 feels natural to me so far. Alex was there, and she is such a hilarious trip and fun to drill with that I was in giggles and fits the whole time.

When we moved onto sparring, Jane declared it girl-on-girl sparring night since we had four girls there (Jane, Bri, Alex, and me) and it was a lot of fun. I didn't attempt a scissor sweep (such a CHICKEN when it comes to opening my guard), but I did get submissions and started the arm-across series, though didn't finish it. I managed to pass Jane's crazy guard, but couldn't do any thing from mount and got bumped off and, of course, triangled. Damn. Bri gave me a free, unintentional back adjustment. I was in turtle and she was getting her hooks in to stretch me out, and did a very good job, and I heard my entire back from my hips to my shoulders crack. I may have also yelped, considering that she stopped and asked if she was being too rough. :) Bri is brand new to Robot and started out as a wrestler, and then came to BJJ in no-gi, and is just picking up gi BJJ. She moves SO well. I am so screwed when she figures out how to work submissions.

It was a really good night! I'm super excited to get back on the mat and start working sweeps and submissions from 93. I know Tuesdays are not a girl night at Robot, so I'll have to drill with boys, but I'm up for it.

Frustration

Lately I feel thwarted at every turn with BJJ. This week I can't even seem to get on the mat.

I'm a trial attorney, and so "unpredictable" is a nice word for what my work schedule is like. This means that despite the best of intentions, I can find out five minutes before I leave the office that I'm pulling an all-nighter. Lately, what I've been doing to compensate for billing 300 hours a month is getting to the office as soon as possible, and then making myself hit the gym at 7 for class. Turns out, even though really all I do physically is sit at a desk for 12 hours, I'm still completely drained from my day.

On Wednesday, I was so excited to make it to Robot in time for class, despite having billed 14 hours. Halfway through the warm up, the room started tilting and I couldn't make it stop. My inner ear disorder that causes vertigo for a variety of reasons (stress, lack of sleep, excessive salt, MSG, allergies...) and it was back with a vengeance. It was all I could do to not throw up all over the mat, and sit calmly until it passed enough that I could drive home.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I feel like I haven't trained in months. Nationals are coming up, and it kills me to miss them because competitions are such a huge help for me to figure out where the weaknesses in my game are. But I know if I register, I'll just get smashed to pieces and beat myself up over it.

Life is all about balance, and I just can't seem to find mine anywhere lately.