The best part of sitting out...

I have found a way to go to class while injured and not grapple.

Go to class in jeans.  Leave my gi at home.

This way, I still get to at least see the technique without running into that part of my brain that says... "You can just drill."  Because when I listen to that part of my brain, I end up grappling... and we all know what happened the last time I was just going to drill.

I've gotten to take advantage of the one perk of being sidelined.  

I get to sit on the wall and watch all of my favorite grapplers, grapple... and of course by watch, I mean stare at intently for several minutes... like a creep. 

We have also had a horde of interesting new people come in.

I always love to watch new people on their first night, so when the new people coming in are bull riders, or a break dancers it can be even more entertaining.

I think one of my favorite quotes someone has said to me about another grappler was a guy named Paddi.  Yes, a guy named Paddi.. with an i.  He'd just grappled the aforementioned bull rider.. and, I do mean this in the literal sense.  He is a man that rides bulls for a living in a rodeo show.  I live in Polk county.  It's not that weird here.

"When he grabs a hold of you, he isn't kidding."

It is also interesting when like last night, the newbie is a grown man the size of Texas with close to no body fat.

I was, for the first time ever, glad I did not have to grapple the new men who come in the door.  The guy was a dinosaur, and I was pretty sure he could have just held me down with one hand, and I'd have been rendered useless for the duration of the grapple.

I did however, very much enjoy watching some of the guys grapple him.  Generally, I am the smaller weaker person of a grapple, (unless it is another woman, as I am kind of giant for a chick.) so I get a lot out of watching our normally bigger guys be the smaller one.  I like watching how they handle the size/strength differential... because no matter how good you are, when you are grappling Texas... size does matter.

And of course I've been able to watch lot of the people I normally creep when I sit out.

Doug for example is a really awesome grappler who I consider to be a male version of me, at least in the body type department.  He is really tall and lean.  Or, "lengthy" as I have been called.

I wasn't kidding when I said he was tall.

I like to watch how he uses his wasp legs powers for good.  Doug also happens to be able to make you cry like the little girl I am when he turtles.  Sometimes, I forget that when he turtles I am about to lose.  Hard.  I enjoy watching other people forget that very same thing.  lol

One more week of my creeper status and I am going to attempt to drill.

And not surprisingly taking time off is helping a lot.  It is still a little painful to sit on my foot in my base, but I can at least do it now, where as before it was too painful to even try.   Progress!