The Size of the Fight in the Dog

So she may be small. She may only weight 110 lbs. But when she rolls over and all of her weight is on the knee that pinches your tricep against the ground... it hurts.

Now the marks on my left arm match my right.

For the final evaluation in the Level I Comabtives course, each of us played grappling dummy for the other students. We all passed.

We also found out that two of us had been practicing one of the escape from a choke drills wrong. Good to know.

Part of the final eval was demonstrating a clinch--charging into someone who is punching you, closing the distance, and essentially putting them into a bear hug of sorts. The instructor had on boxing gloves and we wore head gear.

One of the goals of the drill is make sure everyone knows what it is to be punched in the head. I've been punched in head a few times. I didn't like it. But it's a necessary evil for the drill.

In real life, your opponent won't help you lock him up and beat him either. In real life, you'll probably have to take a few hits. But if you are agressive and don't fear getting a hit a couple times then you will get the clinch in faster and take fewer hits. If you are not agressive then you keep getting hit.

Getting hit is bad. It hurts.

Of course, my head doesn't hurt, but I did tweak my kneck in the first round of clinch drills. Technically, I didn't do it. The instructor did by whacking the side of my head. Or maybe it was forcing my head into his hip to push him off balance. I dunno.

I do know that many Motrins later, I have partial mobility again.

I'm going to go to bed early tonight. My partner even came in a little early so I could get out and get to bed sooner. That was really nice of him.

The class was great, but didn't mesh too well with my usual sleep cycle. I had to hit the chow hall for coffee, which led to the discovery that our chow hall now has iced coffee. It's way too syrupy, but does the job.

Two of my projects are making slow progress. It's annoying because a lot of the moving pieces are out of my control so it takes much longer than I would like.

I know it is better to do it right the first time. I know that people rushing it is why some of these things have been stalled and gotten nowhere in the past.

Still, it's frustrating.

At least the other guys here all have similar attitudes. We can complain about annoying staff stuff. And we can work on making it better.

It's nice to be around people who always want to make it work better.