Sunday, June 9, 2013

No training last week

Unfortunately, I had to skip a whole week of training. I wasn't injured or anything, it was just a busy week. I had my third wedding anniversary, my best friend's birthday, and then my cat nearly died and required an expensive surgery to save her. So, this week I plan on hitting the training hard. I've decided that I should probably make some goals. I feel like I'm getting pretty decent at defense, thanks partially to great training partners and following Ribeiro's advice from "Jiu Jitsu University"

That isn't to say I don't have a long way to come, I'm just saying I'm recognizing my improvement in those areas. Blue belts are starting to have to work to tap me out.

I've been thinking about what I want to achieve in BJJ. Its good to have goals, other than "I want a stripe on my belt" or "I want to make blue belt within a year." Those are noble things, sure, but I want something more skill oriented. So here goes:

1) I want to focus more on escapes -
I've mentioned that I'm developing ok defensively, but I still don't know what to do when I'm in a bad position.

2) I want to develop better guard passing skills -
This is a skill that is vital to the BJJ player, and my skills aren't very good. I know I'm just a white belt, but I think that developing good guard passing skills should start early. I don't think it something that should be ignored until I've been around longer

3) I want to develop my own guard game -
I'm one of the smaller guys in class. Those that don't outweigh me are in Adonis-like shape. I'm pretty comfortably "middle weight" but I"m not in shape. I've noticed that bigger guys have no trouble at all breaking my closed guard, so I need to learn how to fight from more open guard positions.

4) Develop a specialization -
I know it sounds weird that that I'm a white belt who has been doing BJJ less than five months, but wants to specialize in something. I just think its important to try to find out which skills I have a knack for. An example is been able to use omoplatas several times during rolling, despite only having been showed how to do it once. Does this mean I have a knack for that move? I'd like to explore this further, and just see what I'm good at.

5) Go to more classes -
I've been pretty consistently going to at least two classes a week, minus last week. I'd like to make an average class attendance of three time a week in the next six months. Its difficult because of how hectic my life is at the moment, but if I can manage to get some easy classes in school I think I can manage it. I'll only be in school another year, I definitely want to increase my BJJ sessions after that. I just see so many people going twice a day, and I realize that I'm never going to be able to match that level of dedication. There are several people in my gym who go six days a week (we generally don't do Sundays), and I"m just in awe of their dedication.

I will note that none of the people training that often have children :P

Speaking of which, my daughter's first birthday party is next weekend, so I won't be attending the Bluegrass Open. I think that several of our team mates are going,  so I wish them the best of luck.

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