Nice push press...

I haven't been to jiu jitsu since my belt test because I've had a cold, so no new techniques (or blue belt beatdowns) to report.  I did, however, manage to make it to the gym for some lifting today.  I woke up feeling better than I had all week, and my muscles were begging for something to do besides sitting.

So I get through my squats and my deadlifts, and I was putting away the weights and about to put the bar back on the pins when, for fun, I decided to push jerk the bar a couple of times.  I was doing it squat-style, when the guy next to me told me I could get better balance on my "push press" if I put one leg back.

Um...thanks?  I told him I was going more for a squat-style jerk, and pretty much left it at that.  I didn't want to be rude when someone was actually being nice in the rawr-man-hulk section of the gym, but at the same time...so many things wrong!  A) I wasn't doing push presses, b) I wasn't trying to do a split jerk, c) it's not like I tilted over or lost balance at any point during my push jerks. 

Don't get me wrong.  I understand completely that I'm a lifting neophyte.  I'm still nervous about lifting by myself without anyone to help keep an eye on my form, so obviously I would appreciate any help in that department.  But at the same time, I obviously need to be able to sift out erroneous information from "helpful" people.  Sometimes, I really wish I was back at CrossFit 516.

Bright girls?

Parked at the ag campus this morning and ran to the gym for a warm-up.  Stretched a bit, tried to roll out on a foam roller, except they're only a foot long, and did plank 60 sec x 2.  I stuck with 55 lb for squats and 85 for deadlifts, but did more reps (8 as opposed to 3) this time.  Only got in two sets for the deadlifts because I had to get to class.

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I ran into Mash after vet school classes today, and she expressed how frustrated she was that she "still" can't pass guard (she started around February).  I told her, probably in terms too blunt and a tad bit unkind, that if she's frustrated at not being able to do it now, she's going to be REALLY frustrated months from now when she still has trouble with it.

I really didn't mean to be so mean, but I see her and Peggy (who is also in my vet school class and started BJJ at the same time as Mash, but has some Army Combatives experience) getting frustrated so easily with their jiu jitsu "not working".  Both of them are slightly bigger than me, but still way smaller than just about everyone else in class.  I'm a little worried that this frustration is going to burn them out.  But then I wonder if I was like that too when I first started--was I always that frustrated at the things I had just learned but couldn't do?  Am I as frustrated now, but just better at hiding it?  And how much of this inability to get things to work leads the few women who start BJJ to drop out?  I posted an article on Leslie's Facebook page a few weeks ago, The Trouble with Bright Girls.  The three of us are in vet school, which took some pretty rigorous standards to get accepted to, so clearly on some level, we're bright girls.  It SUCKS not being "good" at something, and it's even worse that for a long time, I had very few opportunities to objectively test my ability.  Even when Jess came, I knew that anything I did with her was her being nice and letting me work.

When I finally tried my hand at competition, I was disappointed.  Sure I submitted one girl, but there were three sloppy armbar attempts before the last one stuck (with twelve seconds left!).  Then I spent my gi rounds getting my face crushed by elbows from girls posting on me in my guard.  I KNEW they had terrible form (and no base), but I could barely do anything.  I felt like all my hard work on "good jiu jitsu" was useless.  Really, I shouldn't have been so upset--the truth is, the things they were doing were such terrible jiu jitsu and such big no-no's that no one in my school does them.  If no one does them to me, how am I supposed to know how to defend against it? After the competition, I made sure to ask about that stuff and the solution was really simple.  THEN I felt bad for not figuring it out myself--isn't part of jiu jitsu learning how to move, not just parroting back techniques we learn in class?

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Class tonight started with the front hair-grab defense.  We did a quick review of the bottom cross side escape, then went into kimura from guard.  Open your legs to come up and thread your arm over the shoulder and then through the hole.  Pull them up and trap their one leg with yours; shift your hips so you're on one side and come down.  Then keep your leg (the one used to trap their leg) stays tight to their body and comes up their back to cross again with the other leg.  Keep their elbow to your chest and finish.

Lifting, 3/4/11

I finally braved "the boys' room" at my school's gym today, aka the area with the barbells.  They didn't stare at me like I was an alien, and were pretty cool when I needed help figuring out how to adjust a rack (I don't use all this fancy equipment!).  Anyways, I did squats (55 lbs), deadlifts (85), shoulder press (40), and bent-over rows with dumb bells (15 lbs each arm).  Also attempted some pull-ups when I walked in (2), and 30-lb kettlebell swings.  I started with some light weights, because it's been awhile since I've lifted for real and I just wanted to focus on keeping my form.  Of course, I probably didn't, but at least it's a start.  I e-mailed Leslie after I finished for some advice, and got a great response super fast.  I hope I can make some progress before competition, but even if I don't, I'm just happy I'm lifting again.