BJJ and Track

I've been thinking more about fighting and pain. I've noticed that pain can be a distraction when fighting. Yesterday and today, it grabbed my attention. It made my mind focus more on the pain instead of trying to defend and attack. I remember grabbing my knee because it hurt when someone was trying to mount me. Then, Cory made me cry out in pain for about five seconds. He was passing my guard and had this thigh on my inner thigh. I said said, "ARaggggg, OK, OK, OK, ARRAAAAG!! very loudly. I just submitted like that because of pain. However, the inside of one's arms and legs are the most sensitive parts on the body. Cory said that I should do some body conditioning. However, I don't see myself hitting me in the legs or arms to deaden my nerves. That really hurts. Hopefully, the more I do BJJ, the less it hurts.

Again, I love BJJ because it's the only thing that I don't suck at really badly. In every sport that I've ever done, I've been one of the worst out of everyone else. Of course, I got better through practice and diligence. I almost went to state for discus. It took me five years just to get that good. I remember it was one of the easier years though to get into state too. I really liked throwing out in the field with out anyone watching me. Whenever, I threw in the ring, I'd always have my coach watch me so I can get feedback in an instant. Maybe, that was a bad thing because I would be always focusing on doing something better instead of just throwing and not thinking about anything. I remember getting so frustrated at myself because I threw better out on the field instead of in the ring. My coach always said that I looked like a state champion when I was in the field. To calm my mind, I would always listen to Tai Chi music that was very calm and ambient. On the off season, I never practice line drills because I thought they were boring.

I remember at the start of every season, we had to practice in the gym because it was still snowy outside. When we did practice outside, it was cold and wet. I'd always wear this bright orange hat made of fleece which I got during my first year of girls camp. That hat made a huge difference because if I was cold, I'd put it on and be warm for the rest of the time. If I put a regular base ball cap on, I'd be cold. I'd even throw in my winter gloves to keep my hands warm. If the weather wasn't so bad, I'd wear some very light gloves. During my senior year, we would throw tires too. However, I never did fall in love with discus.

I'm eternally thankful for Roberto because he pushes me and pushes me. I wouldn't do half the things that we do in the dojo. I think it's funny. He call lines ladders. We always call them lines in basketball. Lines are where people run back and forth first touching the nearest line in front of one, then run back to touch where one started from, run towards the next nearest line, run back to the line from the start, and so on. Roberto doesn't mind that our exercise makes us throw up. He sees that as a good thing. I was thinking that I'd more likely pass out from the lack of oxygen instead of throwing up. I've noticed that my endurance, cardio, and strength has increased. Knee push ups are getting easier. The last two days, Roberto made me do full push-ups. I tried doing as many as possible. I had my booty in the air 70 to 80 percent of the time during the two min. Usually, I can't even hold myself up for that long let alone do push-ups. Then, I did 140 crunches in two min. After class, Roberto made me do 50 full sit-ups with my arms helping me. I had to do 20 crunches with him sitting on me. It's pretty cool because I'm continually seeing results. I've never seen this much improvement in myself before.