BJJ 6/13

10:00 Private class w/Kelly
Mount & side control - How to keep them and transition between. Biggest a-ha moment was the baseball slide.

I had been feeling a little *flaily* in terms of lacking a real curriculum in Jits, but we talked about it and now I feel comfortable that my training progression is in good hands. This means that I can relax and just let go of that part (the curriculum), at least for now, because I trust that the person I spend the most time learning from, has an understanding of how I learn and how and when to give me the next piece.

Jits is a perfect, yet difficult sport for a Type A person. A software engineer no less; everything to me is a thinking puzzle, but Jits is a body puzzle...physical chess...and my mind has a hard time turning off (or down). I have to work on (as in, relax) the Nexus between my mind and my body more. I have to allow power, information, and trust to flow both directions. I can learn by listening and seeing, but I have to allow that to pass over to my body for movement. In addition, when I learn something from the physical act of it happening to me I need to bring that up in my conscious mind to assimilate and store it. So, I really need the pathway to be open and clear both ways. I'm working on that and a lot of it is relaxation. I felt some of this happen on Wednesday and a little of it happen on Saturday. It's a very difficult exercise to turn the brain control-center down and to transfer power and decision-making over to the physical realm, but I'm working on it. I believe that over the last 3 months my body has been earning some trust, so take that OCD brain. ;)

I had decided, probably a few weeks ago, that I just want to learn and work on positions and transitions. The women's classes have been positional in nature and my private classes have been about positions, so it's all on the right track. The revelation that I had Wednesday (about speed not being the deciding factor), will help me with this.
I really don't care about who I am better or worse than in class so I'm going to just focus on what we learned that day and trying to apply it. I know this seems like a total "duh" moment, but when I was rolling, even at 50%, if I was trying to win I was compromising the new thing I just learned by using the thing I already know and was more comfortable with.

I'm starting to see a pattern of major phases that I'm passing through and to identify them all is an exercise for another day. For now, I'll say that I'm in a phase where I am conceptually learning position, position, position...and it is good.

And, to borrow from one of my favorite novels, Dune,
"A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it." -The First Law of Mentat, quoted by Paul Atreides to Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam