Stripe II - The Stripening

So the holidays messed with my BJJ schedule a bit. I had planned on doing two classes, plus a seminar over the past week. However, I found myself battling a two day migraine and only (barely) made it to the seminar.

It was a great course. We went over half-guard passes, a couple of which are very awesome. I'm interested to put them into action, since I find myself in half-guard quite often. We continued into positional sparring, where we covered all the major positions. We probably did that for an hour or so, then went into live rolling for the remainder of the day, which culminated with stripe promotions for everybody. So, I don't mean to scare you guys or anything, but I'm a 2-stripe white belt now.

New Gi!

I tried my new gi out last night. It was amazing.

For one thing, its just gorgeous. Everybody was envious of it awesome color and lightweight material. The light fabric breathes so much better than the fuji. I felt so badass wearing it, and I actually performed better in class last night. So far, I highly recommend the 93 Brand Goose.

Proud moment of the night: Catching the Irish Strangler in a legit bow and arrow. I've never really subbed him before, and I transitioned so smoothly. He tapped and just looked at me. He told me aftewards how smooth and fast it was, and that he didn't even have a chance to fight.

We're doing belt/stripe testing next weekend. I expect Rodney to get his blue belt, because he's just a badass. The Irish Strangler MIGHT get purple, but he's only got 3 stripes on his blue. Brian sometimes skips stripes, because we test so infrequently. I'd like to see him get his purple, because he's very good. I expect everybody else to just be striped.

Back at it tonight, since next week is going to be harder for me to get in there. I'll probably only be able to do Thursday and Saturday next weekend, but the weekend is a 3 hour seminar/test.

Quick Notes

Just wanted to make a quick note that I plan on training at least four days this week. I feel that if I write it down and put it out there, I am more likely to do it.

Today at class we're giving Darin his club Christmas present, a new Carlson Gracie gi. I ordered a new gi too. I got the 93 Brand Grey Goose from BJJHQ for $100. It should be here tomorrow, so I'm very excited. I love my Fuji gi, but if I pick up my training pace, I probably need to have more than one.

Slow Down

So, after we finished rolling last night, Darrin (our black belt) and a few of us were sitting around the mat. He tends to get philosophical at points like this, and it is always good to hear his outlook on this sort of stuff. After a few minutes, he looked at me and said "Hey, you need to slow down when you roll." I looked and him and said "what do you mean?" He told me that I didn't need to slow down in the sense that I was spazzing or being unsafe, but that I needed more deliberation in my movement. He told me I'm excellent at transitioning, but I don't create anything. According to him, I'm an excellent white belt, but to transition to blue belt I have to look past behaving in a soley reactionary manner. I have to be able move logically. He told me I'm close, but I don't have that yet. And it is absolutely true. I react. I don't really think about what I'm doing. I don't know how to get around that. I kind of get tunnel vision when I roll. Darren wasn't telling me to slow my body down. He was telling me to slow my mind down, and think before I act. He also talked to all of us about resilience. He used one of our blue belts, who comes maybe once ever two weeks, as an example. The dude is strong, but he's also tough as a bootheel. Darrin has talked about absolutely not behing able to get him to submit, because of his resilient mindset. Jiu Jitsu is about survival, and part of that is not giving up position in you're getting crossfaced for knee of belly'd. I like these talks with Darrin, because of how evaluative he is on everybody. Its just a good overall experience.

Still Rolling

I know, I haven't been posting much. I have been incredibly busy, and I don't want to be the type of blogger that spends more time blogging than rolling. I also have a full time job and I have finals at school. I just took one final that I bombed enough to screw my GPA for this semester (which means I'm getting a 3.5 instead of a 4.0). I'm still attending BJJ Classes on average of 2.5 session a week. Basically, I'm aiming for two, and I'm really happy if I get 3 in. I've been very steady in my progression of skill, but I'm also a bit of a flake. One night, I'll be subbing blue belts, and absolute on fire...the next I'll tap to scarf hold. One of my larger sparring partners absolutely man handled me the other night. Usually we're about even, with sometimes me edging him out. Not last week. I beat me like a rented gong. We have a new guy that came in, weighing quite a bit. He's not just a muscular dude (he is), but he's also very...erm...corpulent. He got me in side control and I literally felt ribs creaking and popping. The good thing about rolling with guys that large is that they force you into playing open guard, which normally I don't do. I like to get out of my comfort zone and learn stuff...but damn. What else? Two guys from my school did a tournament in WV this weekend, which was apparently an ADCC event. They did well, with our purple belt getting 1st in Gi and 2nd in No-Gi, and our blue belt getting 2nd in Gi and 3rd in No-gi. Our purple belt was worried, because he's a small dude. His walking weight is like 140, and the weight classes were 150 and below. His main concern was people cutting from like 170 to fight him. He did well though, and made a couple of the purple belts look like they were new to jiu jitsu. I haven't seen any of the blue belt matches. I've also been using Defense Soap, since they generously sent me a free sample. The free sample was very generous, containing a full sized bar of soap, a full bottle of shower gel, and a container of 40 wipes. I wouldn't call this a review, but I will give you my impressions on the product. I like the smell, and it seems to get me cleaned up. I haven't had any skin infections, but that isn't necessarily due to their product. I didn't have any skin infections prior to using it either. You can't prove a negative. I will say that it is perfectly good as a free product, and I would use it if it were cheap and easier to obtain. A 4oz. bar of soap is $5 from MMAwarehouse. That is a bit pricey for me. If it were $2 a bar, I'd probably use it quite frequently.

11/14/13

I only got to train one day this week, because of an extended reserve drill period. We have to make up the days we were off for the government shutdown, so I'm here for four days instead of my normal two.

I've also been overwhelmed by homework. Luckily, I only have one more project due this week. Its large, but I think I can get it done before Sunday if I put a lot of work into it tomorrow. School is really starting to grind me down, and next semester is only going to be worse. Right now, I have B's in all my classes, which is actually kind of horrible for me. I just can't really bring myself to give a shit about it. I know that degrees are important, but I honestly can't rate my college experience very highly. I'm going to school through the VA's GI Bill. If I had to pay for this stupid shit out of pocket, I'd probably have quit a long time ago. The only reason I keep going is that I'm getting a free* education. (*=I spent most of my late teens and early twenties in places that qualify as "hazardous duty")

I really have started getting into the groove of BJJ. I'm getting really excited about how my performance plateaus for a bit, and then increases dramatically overnight. I'm getting in better shape, and best of all, I can think clearly while rolling. I'm starting to become somebody that blue belts don't easily submit. All of my instructors have been telling me I'm starting to get good, and that I'm light years above where I was just a few months ago. I have a feeling that I'll be getting striped in December when our affiliate black belt comes to visit, but I don't even really care about how many stripes I have. If I was promoted to blue belt tomorrow, the same people are still going to be kicking my ass. Though, I have heard some people are getting somewhat frustrated with the lack of rank progression in our school. We affiliate from a gym an hour away. We do have our own 2nd degree black belt, but he came in after we had already affiliated with the other black belt. He feels like if he promotes people, he's stepping on toes. Our affiliate doesn't like brown belts and purple belts giving stripes, so we are reliant upon him holding seminars or us going to his school for evaluation. Like I said, I don't really care. I'm just at a very happy place in my training right now. I've been going three days a week, so I'm going to try to dial it up to four days a week.

I've also decided that I'm going to do the tournament in February.

Another Happy Landing

I went to class again tonight. I was looking forward to seeing our brown belt instructor, because he just started coming back after a couple months hiatus. That was not to be, it seems he was injured pretty badly at work today, something like a detached bicep. Its likely that it'll require surgery and will have a significant recovery time. The good news is that we've had a lot of new people coming in. One of the guys came in, its his second day. Says he's never trained anything before, but is in phenomenal shape and was giving a purple belt a run for his money. I kinda call bullshit on the "i haven't trained" before thing. Tonight we went over knee on belly positions. We drilled the position first, then transitioned to an armbar. After that, we covered escapes. It turns out, I'm pretty good at locking in that arm bar. Rolls were pretty intense. I rolled with Nick, a blue belt, and really held my own. I was particularly proud of how I rolled with him. I actually dominated most of the round. I rolled with everybody except the new guy, because I wasn't particularly interested in being newb smashed. One thing that happened is that I caught in a weird sweep from the purple spaz, and I ended up landing on my head and it cranked my neck when he came down on top of me. My neck is pretty sore right now, and I'm sure in the morning its going to be a bastard. After class, our instructor sent me a message telling me he was impressed with my transitions tonight. I'm super happy, since he doesn't hand out compliments like candy. Anyways, I'm going to put a heat pack on my aching neck. Later.

10/23/2013

Sorry I haven't written in a bit. Judging by my page views, I have a few readers that I'm disappointing by not saying anything. I'm still training, I just haven't had a lot of time to write. There has been a lot of drama at work, and I've been very busy with school. Even now, I'm only writing because I'm procrastinating on an essay assignment. Actually, i'm waiting for Office to load on this computer. I have a full version on my old laptop, but I don't move it out of my office. Right now, I'm sitting with my one year old daughter, and I don't like her playing in there. Anyways, last week I trained twice and went to a tournament. I'm starting to noticeably improve my skills by focusing on things I'm weak at. It helps that I've been rolling a lot with a 2nd degree black belt. Last week, he told me that I'm starting to move really well, but my balance is my biggest weakness. That makes sense, because I have trouble maintaining dominant positions. I didn't participate in the tournament I went to, I was just there for support. It was a small, local event. We had two guys enter...and a whopping five people showed up. One was a big guy from our sister academy. Anyways, they organized it so everybody got at least three matches, but still split it into two divisions. One of our guys one the small division, and our sister academy guy won the big guy division. I think i'm going to try the next local tournament, now that I have an understanding of how it all works. Tonight was my first night this week. I intended on going last night, but I got stuck doing homework. Our black belt instructor really likes to do practical drills that emphasize the self-defense aspect of BJJ. I really enjoy this, because it adds a bit of gravitas to our training, and helps you understand that this isn't just a sport. We had a lot of white belts (a couple of new guys!) in class tonight, so I wasn't constantly getting man handled. I got man handled a little, but not nearly as bad as usual. I credit one thing for this: I ate a snack before class. I usually don't eat, but I was a bit hungry when I got home. I also drank a lot of water. From now on, I'm eating a snack and drinking lots of water every day I go train. So my first roll was with our black belt, and I got a lot of good info out of it. He's playful when he rolls, and lets you work. He let me get him in a cross-collar choke, and when he tapped he said "good, I was checking to make sure your elbows were in...if they weren't I was gonna fuck you up!" I also noticed that I was better with my balance tonight. I rolled with both of our new guys too. One needs a serious talk about hygiene. When I rolled with him, I kinda just let him work. I don't like to "coach", since I'm a white belt too...but I've also been training nine months. He kept trying to attack my neck while in my guard, so I just told him that if he keeps doing that he's gonna get armbarred. Then I armbarred him. lol. The other "new" guy, is actually a super heavyweight that trained for a year at our sister academy. The dude is huge. I made a mistake by trying to play closed guard against him....but my lets couldn't lock around him. By the time I was able to transition to an open guard, he'd already smashed me and went to cross-side. I have to point out that this guy had the heaviest side control I've ever felt in my life. He literally just sat on my chest for two minutes until I purposely offered up my arm for him to attack...I didn't want to have to tap from side control :P (Is that bad?) Somehow, after we reset, I was able to get him in triple threat and transition to mount. He was so big that my knees didn't touch the mat. I think he was too tired, because he could have easily bucked me off. I was able to sink an americana right as the buzzer sounded. My other rolls were pretty good too. I went with the guy who won the tournament this weekend, and he let me do a bit of work too. He caught me in an omoplata that I was able to defend by framing up. Then I somehow got an omoplata on him. The thing I'm most proud of is that I was able to stay mobile and counter all his guard pass attempts. I even got a knee shield sweep. So, tonight I learned that food is important and that mobility is a good thing to have. I plan on going back tomorrow, however I'm hesitant. There is a purple spaz that likes to come Thursdays, and last week he hurt my ankle and ribs (he's 60 lbs heavier than me, and likes to very aggressively go Knee-on-wherever it lands). I'm not letting that deter me though, because as fucked up as it is, he actually really tests my defense. Anyways, I'm off to do homework. Peace out.

Still Training

I haven't written in awhile. I've been very busy. I'm having a rough semester at school. Not rough in the sense that the course work is beyond me. Its just that there is a buttload of it. I'll be so glad when I graduate in May. More time to train BJJ!

I also haven't really had anything specific to say. I've been working on getting better in general, nothing specificly. Our main instructor, a purple belt, had to give up the Wednesday class because his fiancee wanted to spend more time with him. It was taken over by a good blue belt, who specializes no gi...so Wednesdays are now no-gi glasses.

I've been averaging two days a week. Its not good, but i've been pretty consistent with it. I want to do three days, but right now it just isn't feasible for me. I've been doing a lot of school work, and my niece is doing basketball right now. I try to go to one of her games per week. Its good to support kids in sports, as opposed to watching them play video games and send text messages.

Last night Paul let one of the other purple belts run a class. I'm not a huge fan of this guy, but it was a decent class. We worked guard passes. This is the same guy who spazzed on me a few weeks ago when a bow and arrow choked him. He's super nice off the mats though. Apparently somebody talked to him about how rough he is, because he made an offhand comment about how one of the other white belts said felt abused by him.

It was a small class, so I got a lot of high level rolling in. Good stuff. I didn't feel like I was doing particularly well, but I managed to hit a lot of escapes and even a few subs. After class both Paul and the other purple belt complimented me, lamenting that I wasn't competing in the local tournament on the 19th.

I'm not really interested in competition though. I don't have a lot of time to train for it, nor am I a really competitive person. Plus, we have a really advanced white belt competing and he's in the same weight class as me (they only have over 180 and under 180 lbs). We have another white belt, curt, competing as well. He's like 250 now, and has been training his ass off. I think those two will represent the school just fine :)

BJJ Is Not My Top Priority

I've seen quite a few posts on forums and blogs that are basically saying that if you love BJJ, you'll make it your top priority.

I have to respectfully disagree.

I love taking BJJ. It helps me not get fat, and gets me off my laptop. It is also a very good social tool, as I've made a lot of friends from BJJ. There are times where I *GASP* only train once a week. My average is twice a week. I'll admit that I'm not the best BJJ student.

But I don't really give a shit.

Look, I respect people who can be mat rats. One of our purple belts literally trains every day, and he's a badass. He regularly whoops ass in competitions. I'll never, ever, ever be that good. I don't even really want to be. I'm happy just not getting steamrolled. My point is that not everybody wants BJJ to be their life.

I have a lot going on in the rest of my life. I work full time for the government, I'm an Army Reservist, I'm a husband, a father, a son, an uncle, and a friend. Oh, and I'm also a full time college student. I'll be graduating in May, but I may do grad school. Point of note: I work really hard at school. I've got a nearly perfect GPA and I've managed to complete nearly four years of coursework in two and a half years. Right now, I would say that finishing school is much more important to me than BJJ.

My health is also an issue. So when people say "all you have to do is get on the mat", I have to shake my head and say "Its not that easy for some people." Everybody has their own priorities for taking BJJ. I don't really care if I ever get rank in BJJ. I'm more concerned with other aspects of my life. I really respect people who can make BJJ their life, I just refused to be shamed because I won't.

Friday and Monday

I've been getting a little more consistent with training recently, and its shown a lot.

An yways, Friday was a decent night. We had a guest instructor, a brown belt from frankfort. He's a huge dude, but always passes on good information. He showed up a guard pass where you stand up into combat base to break. Good stuff.

We got into rolling, and I went with him. This dude is seriously build like the Thing from fantastic four. It was painful just to have him in side control. I couldn't fit my legs around him in guard. He's not fat at all.

He did bring an "ultra heavyweight" white belt with him. This dude is going to roll in the IBJJF Open in Chicago. He's really good, and wrestled in high school and college. Needless to say, he fucked me up the whole night.

Anyways, as a whole, the night was ok. I didn't do overly well, but I didn't do horrible.

Today, however, I felt really good. We drilled takedowns and a sweep. The sweep was actually really easy. We then got in a lot of good rolling.

My first roll was with Curt. I chose him to go with first because if I get tired out, I can't handle him. I got him in something really slick. I took his back, but he shook me off and landed in turtle. When we landed, I was able to isolate his arm away from him and caught him in a shoulder lock/arm bar thing. The point was, when he was in turtle, he didn't have his arm in. I was just shocked I could see it.

My next roll was with the beginner instructor, Paul. He's our purple belt. Anyways, he caught me with an arm bar...but I got one on him too (i'm sure he gave me the set up, because it was something we drilled a few weeks ago). I had him in side control, and then I was able to pummel my arm under his outside arm, then rotate into the arm bar. He defended, but I remember to use the grip break I learned when we drilled this move. DRILLS WORK.

I rolled with Heath, a strong blue belt. He took my back early, but I defended for a long time. He got me in an arm bar, but I got him in a choke that I would have finished if the timer hadn't buzzed right as I sunk it in. It was a baseball bat choke. Again, something I drilled recently.

My final roll was with Rodney, super flexible no-gi dude. He'll be a blue belt soon. Anyways, I got him in a kimura. I got him set up for it, but didn't really know how to finish, so she showed me the positioning.

I watched him roll with a blue belt that comes in, and he actually demolished the blue belt (3 stripe!) fairly easily. He's pretty good and highly flexible. They were rolling no-gi, which is definitely his strong suit. I know he was taking it easy on him.

Tonight I was definitely much better than I have been in a couple weeks. Its odd how I have off nights and on nights like that.

Six Months

Today marks my six-month anniversary of beginning BJJ. It is important to note that a couple of periods I didn't train. Once, for two weeks because of military commitments and then again for a week when I was sick. So, it isn't my "six months of trainging" mark, but six months since I first took the plunge. In that time, I've learned so much. I had some experience with Army combatives...but holy damn. I didn't know how inadequate it was in comparison with BJJ. In combatives' defense, it isn't designed to be a sport. It isn't designed to fight with somebody who knows jiu jitsu. Even as a one-stripe white belt, I'm light years above what most Army people are in the realms of grappling.

When I first got there, I wasn't sure I wanted to stick with it. The club actually made a bad impression, but I came back and grew to enjoy it immensley. The group there has grown to become my friends, and I respect them all immensley. Everybody puts a lot into training, and everybody is cognizant of their limits. No body has ever really gotten injured badly in training. That said, everybody is tough as nails. As one of our senior blue belts once said, "There are no easy rolls in this group. Even our white belts make us sweat."

One of my focuses the last few months is defense. I've gotten fairly good at it. I don't get tapped out very often any more, but I still get put in bad positions regularly. I've gotten to where I can survive in very bad positions (say in the mount of a 300-lb beast!). I'm still not very good at escapes when dealing with people like that. People who are around my weight class I can escape and obtain guard...but I still have trouble with big guys.

I've decided that I should come up with some goals to help guide my training in the next few months.

Goal 1: Train moar!
Self Explanatory. I have only been averaging two days a week. Sometimes I manage to get in three, but sometimes I only go once. I think I'd be a beast if I just trained more.

Goal 2: Escapes
Like I said, I'm decent with escapes against people my own size or smaller. Big guys still dominate me. They usually can't tap me, but they shouldn't dictate the whole fight like that. Anyways, escaping is a fundamental skill that you should always try to build upon.

Goal 3: Weight Loss.
I'm floating at around 170. I'd like to get down to 155.

Goal 4: Build my top game
I've noticed that I'm much better on the bottom than I am the top. I think this is probably something that goes for most BJJ newbies, but I want to start becoming more well rounded

Goal 5: Refine the Omoplata
I've mentioned before that the omoplata has been my best submission so far. I have an affinity for it, and I don't know why. We've never even really trained them in my time there, I just got showed how to do it during rolling. I want to keep using it, because its a devastating submission, and if not its a good sweep.

Goal 6: Develop more submissions
Like I said, a lot of my submissions come from the omoplata. I want to work on developing other submissions to become more well rounded. I know generally how to do a wide variety of submissions, but I don't know a lot of set ups or technical details to really pull them off.

Goal 7: Do a tournament
Because experience is the best teacher.

Anyways, I have so many more goals, but I don't want to ramble. I am just going to keep studying, training, and do what I can to get better. I struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome, so I don't think I'll ever be what I should be. I'll never meet my max potential...but I can do what I can. Anyways, feel free to comment and leave feedback on what goals and aspirations you have.

Off night

Tonight I had an off night. Not a bad night, just...off.

We started with doing armbar and triangle drills. Nothing too hard, but it definitely helps with transitions. We had a new person come in. She's a cop with Paul and Nick. She seems cool.

We then drilled a "cobra choke", which is kind of an ezekiel/arm triangle hybrid. After than we drilled a transition to armbar from that transition.

My bad night started with positional rolling. I just sucked at everything I tried. That carried on into my rolls. I also got a nosebleed during one roll. It wasn't serious, but I sat out part of it. Then in another roll, Paul's bandage fell off. He just had an infection drained, so he stopped to redress it. Anyways I was just having trouble with everything I tried tonight.

Class 8/24/13

I always enjoy training on Saturdays. There are never many people, and you really get to cut loose.

Yesterday we started out learning the baseball bat choke, from several different set ups. It is an excellent and versatile choke that has applications from many positions. We also learned a few side control defense moves. Those are always good.

We started doing side control positional drills, with one man in the middle. Once you got out of side control, next person was up. I learned how dangerous a position side control can be. I actually prefer to be mounted, I think. Especially when somebody has like 100 lbs on you. Good training.

Afterwards we did a few rounds of sparring. I started off sparring paul, our purple belt beginner's instructor. He's a badass, even though he's small. I had a good roll with him, and he focused on setting me up for a couple submissions. It was awesome.

My next roll was against Curt, our big guy. He's roughly my skill level. When I'm on m game, I can handle him pretty well. When I'm not, he man handles me. The roll started off that way, he tapped me out like three times in three minutes. Finally, I was able to take his back and I got hold of his collar. He tried to roll out, but I popped my knee into his back and rode him down to the ground. It was definitely on of my most dramatic chokes ever.

Finally rolled against Justin, a wiry cage fighter blue belt. He tapped me out a couple times, but towards the end I was able to get him in the baseball bat choke we'd just learned. At first I thought he gave it to me, but I think I actually got him. This is kind of a big deal for me, because it marks progress for me...and its the first time I've ever gotten him in anything.

On another note, I haven't been training as much. Things keep coming up. I promised my niece I'd go to as many of her basketball games as possible. Then my truck blew up on the way home from work on Wednesday. Luckily, I was able to get a new car, but it kind of messed with my training schedule for a couple days.

 I have a friend who is interested in training with me. He's a judo black belt, so I can learn a lot from him.

I'm hoping to start doing three session a week, but we'll have to see how that goes. When I have classes like yesterday's it reinvigorates me, but the grind of the week sometimes robs me of that enthusiasm.

Bad Work Days Make For Good Jiu Jitsu Nights

I had the worst day at work. I can't talk about a lot of it, but it consisted in dealing with a guy who is a such a tool that I call his office "The Tool Shed"

So, I decided "I must go to class tonight", because I was so frustrated. It was a good call. We started off doing a halfguard pass, and chaining it into two crossface submissions. We did this on friday too, but its good to drill things over and over.

When we opened up for class, I rolled with Paul right away. He's a brand new purple, and it was well earned. He actually skipped his fourth stripe...which was all good. He trains six days a week, and dominates competitions. Anyways, I'm proud to say that I didn't tap to him. He only works maybe two subs, but I defended them. I am pleased.

Second rolls was with Curtis, the big white belt. He uses his size well, and he spent the whole time on top of me. I escaped to guard a few times, but I couldn't sweep him. He had me in an americana once, but I wiggled out. I actually had him trapped in half guard for like two full minutes.

Then I rolled against Rodney, he's older and tough as a boot heel. He's a two or three stripe white (he doesn't wear them), who is actually as good as most blues. He trained no-gi in the past, and Paul said he's almost ready for his blue. Anyways, Im happy to say that he didn't catch me in anything either. In fact, I caught him in an omoplata.

Once again, the omoplata has become my go to move. I love it, and I find myself pulling it off more than any choke or submission I know. I don't know why, its just something I adapted to fairly quickly.

I'm proud to say I went through the whole night without being submitted. Its obvious paul wasn't trying too hard for submissions, but the other two were. This is the first night I've actually not tapped out to anybody...it is a good feeling.

Back in Black

Get it? My gi is black :D

Anyways, Friday was my first class back in a couple weeks. I'm feeling much better, and going to class has seemed to help me. I followed up by going to the beginners class on Saturday. It was very good.

I'm not going to go into details about my rolls, because they're nothing special. I'm just glad to be back.

I'm still here

I haven't updated in a couple weeks, and I appologise. I've had a pretty serious chronic fatigue syndrome flare up, and haven't had the strength or will to train. Its all I can do to get out of bed during these episodes, so I'm lucky just to get to work. I am still not at 100%, but I do think I'll be able to get to training tonight. We'll see how I feel after work today.

CFS is something I've been dealing with for about seven years now, and has taken a good portion of my youth. My doctor thinks it might be linked to my service in Kuwait and Iraq (CFS is more prevalent in veterans of this region), so I'm going to be pursuing VA benefits. I'm not really out to get money from this illness, I'm more interested in treatment options. I feel like if this disease is actually service connected, then the VA should fix me. If I do get a pension, however, I'll not turn it down. I have a daughter to put through college, after all :P

I want to thank everybody who reads this blog for helping me stay motivated. I don't get a lot of commenters, which is fine. I see the page views tick up, and it motivates me to keep training and keep writing. I've gotten over 500 page views, and I'm certain that less than 100 of those are from myself! So thanks again! I'll post a write up if I train tonight. Thanks for the support.

Quick Update

I only trained thursday this week because of the holiday ('MURICA!)

Tuesday's class was canceled, because one of our students (a 14-yr old boy) ran away from home. A couple of the instructors are cops who opted to keep looking for him, rather than have class. There was also two massive traffic jams that blocked the back up instructors from getting to class.

Bobby and I were the only ones who showed up on thursday. He's a 4-stripe blue belt that is also a former cage fighter. He keeps skipping his tests for purple, saying he doesn't train enough to be a purple. However, he's pretty badass. We just rolled the whole time, with him giving pointers as we went.  Having a solo session with him was absolutely humbling, astonishing, and I learned quite a bit. I am still sore from it.

I was planning on going to friday and saturday's classes too, but I ended up getting side tracked. No excuses, I just got lazy.

Also, I didn't get to watch the Kennedy vs. Gracie fight, but I wanted to. I'm an Army guy, currently a reservist. Its good to see the military repped in MMA. However, I'm also a BJJ guy. Its good to see a Gracie back in the ring. I wasn't rooting for either, but for both. I was pleased with the results though. It was, supposedly, a close fight. I'll watch it eventually. 

GREGO SMASH!

Tonight was an exceedingly good night at class.

All week I've felt like shit. I've been exhausted all week, and tuesday I didn't even go to class. Today at work, I was nearly catatonic, and decided that I probably wouldn't make it in. However, when I was driving home, I told myself to not be a whiny bitch and MAN THE FUCK UP.

So I did, and I"m glad.

I got to class, still feeling like hammered shit and got winded on our normal warm ups. I was thinking right away that I'd have a bad night. However, once we got into class, focusing on the techniques allowed me to put my fatigue and self-doubt out of my mind.

We started off doing a takedown (I don't know what its called) where you basically just grab the guy's arm from the clinch and fall back. We continued that into an arm bar, and then we started working and turtle chokes from the scramble.

When we started rolling, I was completely in the mood for jiu jitsu. I started off with Curtis, the big guy. We are fairly evenly matched, because his size and strength far outstrip my own, but I defend well. He couldn't get anything on me, and I was able to lock him down in half guard indefinitely.  My next round was with Rodney, an experienced white belt who used to do cage fighting.

Apparently, he's double jointed. I caught him in an omoplata. A DEEP omoplata that I couldn't finish as a submission, so I just rolled him over and took his arm. At this point his right arm is trapped under his back and I have his left in Americana. He wouldn't tap. He said "yeah it hurt, but I'm double jointed."

He didn't get me in anything though.

My next round was with Ken, who just got made a three stripe blue belt. He's good, and he complimented my "awareness" because I attacked his arm on a transition. He fought out, but he was still happy with my performance.

I rolled with Curtis again, and we had a really good match with a lot of back and forth. He mounted me, and I couldn't get him off. So I just waited and defended. He want to transition to an armbar and I escaped. Again, we couldn't tap each other.

My last roll was with Paul, who's probably our best competitor and very, very good. I like rolling with him because when he catches me with something, he lets me fight and try to escape, then he walks me through what I did. He submitted me twice. However, the second time we rolled, I got him in an omoplata from guard! I'm starting to love omoplata . He told me that he though he could escape it, so he let me continue on with it...but I caught it too deep. I've found that the key is to shoot the hips up and get my crotch as deep in their armpit as I can. Then I rotate my hips back and pull down. After that, its just a matter of keeping them flat.

I'm very proud of my performance tonight. I think its the first time I've ever gotten a remotely resisted tap against somebody as good as Paul. Nights like tonight keep my motivation up and keep me going.

Getting kinda serious

So, tonight we had evaluations.

We started off doing positional sparring. Basically Brian, the black belt that we're affiliated under, just wanted to see how we moved. Then we opened it up to live sparring and we did three rounds.

I got thoroughly whooped by everybody I rolled with, but they were all more experienced. I wasn't really happy with my performance, but I'll do better next time.

At the end, we all lined up. I ended up getting a stripe on my white belt! Honestly, I kinda figured I would, but i"m still happy. Its good to have some positive affirmation in your life.

Lots of stripes all around, even Joe got a stripe on his brown belt.

As expected, Adam got promoted to purple belt. I'm really happy for him, and I really got to see him cut loose against another purple belt (one who accompanied Brian). He is better than I thought we was.

Anyways, I'm so tired that I don't feel like writing much. I'm happy though :)

Exhaustion

So, on Thursday, we have Professor Brian Jones coming in to do evaluations. I've never met Brian, but I hear he's awesome. He's a Carlson Jr. black belt, and he holds dan rank in Judo as well. We're affiliated to his school, since we when our school was started we didn't have a black belt instructor. Now we have Darrin, also a Carlson Jr black belt (though, he got his brown from Sr.), he doesn't want to step in on Brian's business. He just wants to train.

Tonight Joe, our brown belt instructor, was out again. I think he's got some family stuff he's dealing with. So Paul decided we should just roll to get ready for evaluations. Thats what we did.

For an hour.

I won't lie, I had a blast. I did really well at defending tonight. I think Adam is the only one who submitted me tonight. I hope he gets his purple on Thursday. He's been at four-stripes on his blue for over a year now. In our school, Joe can give stripes, but Brian does the belt tests. Brian usually tests at his school in Frankfort, which Adam can't go to.

Anyways, as the only white belt in the class tonight, I was subjected to an onslaught of blue belt fury. I got complimented several times for my defense. I almost got Ken in an ezekiel. He told me if I would have just waited a few more seconds, I would have got him with it. As it was, he was able to get his chin down and defend it.

Heath also complimented my guard. He couldn't pass it. I actually ended up giving up the guard, because I wanted to try a sweep (it didn't work.)

I'm tired as hell now. I'm sore too. Adam is a big guy, and he like side control...so my ribs hurt.

Overall though, I'm happy.

Cauliflower Ear?

Decent class tonight. We started off with doing our warm ups, with Darrin teaching mount escapes. We had a decent class size, though we had a small kid in class. He's only 8 or 9, and I don't want to roll with him. I'm not trying to be snobby, I just don't want to hurt a kid with my newbery.

Anyways, I started rolling with Nick. He's a pretty good white belt. Nothing special there, I just worked on my defenses, which was my goal for the rest of the night. I went with Ken next. When I rolled with him, he kneed the hell out of my ear. Its purple and swollen right now. I'm going to get it drained tomorrow if it looks bad. Suprisingly, it doesn't look really puffy.

Went with Adam, Justin, and Heath as well. Again, I just focused on not tapping and was mostly successful. I had to tap a few times, but that is to be expected. I was able to get one submission because heath tried to take my back. When he went for it, I rolled into turtle with him still on my back. The way we landed, his feet were locked together on my pelvis. I just drove my hips down, and he tapped. I can't really take too much credit, because we kinda just fell into it. Still, pretty cool.

My ear is hurting like a bastard though. I'm going to invest in some headgear.

Regression

Today I was back in class. For some reason, it was a small one. Only myself, curtis, Adam and Andrew were there. Adam is very keen on getting in as much practice as he can, because he's testing for purple next week. I wish him the best.

I came in 15 minutes late because of a dental appointment. On the positive side, no cavities.

Anyways, we went over rear mount escapes. The scoop and the bridge escape were the orders of business. We went over it a few times each, then rolled.

I'm not a big fan of the way Andrew rolls. In my mind, he's unnecessarily rough. I mainly roll with blue belts, and while he definitely has skill, he likes to crank. For example, when he transitions to knee on belly/chest, he likes to jump up and drive down. It was pretty painful, and I've never seen a blue belt do that before. I thought it might be in response to something I did (spazzing?) but Curtis told me that he nearly killed him too. I was pretty sure I wasn't spazzing, because at the time I was mainly defending, and focusing on keeping my arms in.

When I rolled with Curtis, a fellow no-stripe white belt, he was really able to use his size to school the hell out of me. He submitted me two or three times and I wasn't able to get anything on him. He works really hard, and trains five days a week. It absolutely makes sense that he is out-performing me. I wish I could commit to that much training.

I just felt like I regressed today. I hear that is fairly common, but it still is not very encouraging. My ribs and breastbone are sore from Andrew's attacks. I am going to focus on training more regularly. This hit an miss training has to stop...but real life keeps getting in my way.

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.

Decent

Last night's class was small.

Darrin, our black belt, teach on Thursdays and Fridays now. His work schedule became a bit more stable for the time being, which is awesome for us. I honestly expected last night to be crowded, because of how packed it was thursday. There was only four of us though, five with Darrin.

We worked mount escapes, then rolled.

I started off rolling against Adam, who is a very good 4-stripe blue belt. He tapped me like six times...which is better than usual. I went against a new blue belt to our school as well. I can't remember his name, but he's a 4-strip blue. He wasn't able to submit me...but I don't know if he was actually trying. I did have some pretty decent defense going.

My third roll was with Curtis, whom is much larger than me. He's so big that I can't close my guard around him very well, so he passes pretty easily. He's only been coming for a month, but he's a cop and has trained in the past. Plus, he has been going, literally, every night we have class. I really admire his dedication. He serves in the police with Paul, who also comes everyday.

Anyways, I had some decent defense against him. I was able to pull off a cross collar choke against him. This is the first time I've been able to get it to work with a resisting opponent. He wasn't able to submit me, which makes me happy. He's so much stronger and larger than me, that its a testament to the effectiveness of jiu jitsu that he wasn't able to man handle me.

My final roll was with Darrin. He kinda just toyed around with me, and let me work on some of the stuff we'd been doing in class. Its always fun to roll with him, because he's so playful. I tried an omoplata against him, but I hit it too shallow.

Anyways, it was a decent night. It wasn't my best crappling, but it wasn't the worst.

Big Crowd

Tonight we had a lot of people. A lot of new faces, and a couple that I haven't seen in a couple of months. Mats were very crowded...i'm actually surprised nobody went crashing into each other.

We worked on mount escapes. Nothing major, just good basic skills to have. I really wish I had time to train more.

I did a few sparring matches, starting with Curtis. He's a large cop. I can barely close my guard on him. We had a good match, he choked me with an ezekiel, but I caught him with an Americana. I rolled with a "new guy" named Curtis. I was surprised at how poorly I was doing against him, until he told me that he has a few years of experience at a no-gi school, and has been going to this one on an off for a few years. He's still only a white belt because he primarily no-gi.

I also rolled with Heath, he didn't get me in anything, but I didn't get him. Then I rolled with Adam, and he was bustin' me out every couple of seconds, it seemed.

Overall, I had a decent night. Not good, but not horrible. I managed to catch a few omoplata attempts...which surprised me. I wasn't able to lock any in, well except one on Rodney...but he was saved by the bell. So far, Omoplata has been one of my more successful moves. I even almost landed one on Adam...but he's big and was able to push his way out.

It Ain't the Years, Its the Mileage

So, I had an absolutely wonderful class tonight.

We didn't do any drills or anything, we just straight up rolled for an hour and a half. I gassed out after about 45 minutes, but stayed in the mix because you have to know how to keep going when you're tired. Doing this helped me figure out some ways to save some energy, and I found that even after rolling, I got a second wind a few minutes later.

I did some stuff that impressed my sparring partners alot, including our coach. He let me get him in half guard, and I caught him in a straight arm bar from there. He told me he was surprised by that, but that I should have had control of his arm more. He could have gotten out of it, but he was just happy that I locked something in. It was kind of a big moment for me :D

When rolling with Ken, I took him by surprise by nearly catching him in an arm bar. He barely escaped, and actually stopped our roll to tell me how awesome my transition was.

Days like this is why I keep going back to BJJ. Even if I have a bad day, as long as I have one of these every now and again, I'm happy. Its fun.

The bad part though...
I somehow pulled my neck. I must be getting old, because I wasn't an any head holds or anything. In fact, I didn't feel anything until I stood up after working scarf hold on Joe. As soon as I did, I felt it. I sparred lightly after that, and then sat the remaining round on the sidelines. I'm icing/resting and medicating right now, but it hurts like a bitch.

My wife tells me I'm just getting old....I'm only 27.
It must be the mileage.

Back in Action

I've been slacking this week, and tonight is the only night I've actually gone to BJJ.

Honestly, I've been feeling like crap. My CFS flared up, and I haven't been up to doing much at all. Today I still felt shitty, but doing slightly better. So, I forced myself into going, and I'm glad I did. I'm ungodly tired right now, but during class I was feeling better.

We  started off doing guard pass drills, and I partnered with Heath, a no stripe blue belt. He's a good partner for me, because he's not too much beyond me. He knows enough to help me out, but during live drills, he has trouble submitting me. I can't get anything on him either, but the fact that I'm holding out against a blue belt does wonders for my confidence.

I'm the type that feeds on positive reinforcement. If I can see I'm doing well, I start doing better. So, when I roll against somebody that is really good and I feel like I 'm flubbing up...well, I get worse. I have a history of not doing well under pressure. I remember when I was in middle school I won my county's geography bee. I was excited to go to state, but when I got there, I was so nervous that my nose started bleeding and I completely didn't get a single question right. Anyways, the point is, I suck under pressure.

Anyways, I was glad to be back. I did three rounds of live rolling with Heath, Ken, and Paul. Nothing much to say, except that I am doing a lot better defensively. Paul is really good and can create holes in my game, but Heath and Ken couldn't get anything on me. I'm just happy to see progress.

Friday

I know I'm a few days late with this training log, but I've been busy.

Anyways, it was storming friday night, so when I went to class I wasn't suprised to find a low turn out. In fact, only myself and Adam had shown up. Adam is a really good practitioner, and by rights should be a purple belt. He's been a 4-stripe blue belt for over a year, and just hasn't tested because the tests are performed in another city. Supposedly, Brian Jones, our head black belt dude out of Valhalla, is going to be coming in to evaluate people in June or July, so he's hopeful.

Anyways, we were the only two that showed up, so I essentially got a private lesson. He showed me some sweeps from butterfly guard for about 20 minutes, and then we rolled for nearly an hour. I was showing definite improvements in my defensive technique, and Adam was quick to point it out. I credit most of this to Ribiero's Jiu Jitsu University, because we haven't actually covered any in the short time I've been going to class. I was really getting the hang of defending my neck.

I did a lot better on Friday than I did on Thursday, so I'm happy. I'm grateful to Adam for taking the time to work with me. He didn't get anything out of it, and could have easily just left and went home when nobody else showed up. He's a good dude.

Off Night

Tonight we did more of the transitionary stuff from the guard. Armbars and what not. It was more of a review.

I was having a really off night, submitting to crap I shouldn't have. I wasn't nearly as good as I was on Tuesday. I'm going back tomorrow for open mat to see if I can work some of this out.

Another good night

It was another excellent night. Joe wasn't able to make it, so Bobby, the Children's instructor, ran the class. Started out with the standard warm up and drills, then we went into scarf hold submissions and escapes. We went over the bow and arrow and a straight arm lock from the position. Good stuff.

After that, we went into escapes. The first was s-gripping the back, hipping up and driving them over. The other was creating space and driving your shoulder towards the mat.

Anyways, we rolled a bit at the end of class. My first roll was with Ken, an Irish blue belt. He's a super cool guy. Anyways, to my surprise, I instinctively pulled the scarfhold escape during our roll. It completely caught Ken by surprise, and we had a good laugh.

Then I rolled with Hayden, the 14 year old kid. he's really good at defense, and I couldn't get any submissions in. I did, however, stay on top nearly the whole time. He is, of course, like 70 lbs lighter than me.

My final roll was with a new girl named Alex. She is coming to us from a no-gi school here in tow, where she's gone for three years or so.(we've been getting a lot of students from there). Anyways, rolling with her was interesting because she's not as aggressive as Amber, but she's pretty good at defense as well. Anyways, during the roll, I caught her in an Omplata. This is the first time I've submitted somebody for real!

I know submissions don't really matter, and that she's a new student. I don't view it as a victory over her or anything, I just am happy that my training is paying off! Joe showed me the Omplata for the first time a week ago, and I didn't even set her up or anything...I just saw a hole and took it!

Anyways I'm just excited that I had a good night with good rolls. Every time I roll, I try to learn something.

Really good night.

Well, I arrived at class tonight to find out that the power was out. Apparently, the church we borrow the space from just changed ownership, so the utilities weren't transferred over. It was no big deal, as it was a beautiful day. We just opened the doors, so we had enough light to train by. It wasn't hot out either, so we didn't really need the fans going.

There were only four students. Two blue belts (Adam is testing for purple in June, I think) and a two or three stripe white belt.  Of course, our main instructor (the brown belt) was there. Joe informed me that I really needed to work transitions, since we've never gone over them since I've been in class. He dedicated most of the hour completely to me. I felt really honored that Joe would do that for me, since there were other students there. He kinda just said "you guys go roll over there, I'm gonna work with greg." We just drilled moving between positions. From mount, to knee on belly, to side control, to scarf hold, reverse scarf hold, back to mount. Joe told me to visualize this when I got the chance.

The last ten minutes of class, I rolled with a couple blue belts. I focused on just moving between positions. Adam is a good partner to roll with. He let me stay on top the whole time, and would only gain the dominant position whenever I fucked up.

Which was often.

Still, it was a good experience. I train with a bunch of great people

Walkin' on Sunshine

I'm in an amazing mood this morning, that may or may not have anything to do with BJJ. My dog woke me up at 4:30am, and I was like "screw it, I'm up". I'm in a good mood and feel great. This is such a rare occasion, because of my chronic fatigue syndrome. I'm taking advantage of it today. I can't go do BJJ tonight, because its my best friend's last night in town and I have to take him to dinner.

Anyways, last night's class was pretty cool. We did more transitioning from guard positions. We practiced the armbar from guard again, and then we did a pretty cool sit up transition. I don't know what its called, but bascially if your armbar fails, you're still in a position to move. I really like the aggressive focus our school has. I think aggression is something that some BJJ schools lack, from some of the videos I've seen on youtube and around the net. That isn't a bad thing, I just personally like agression.

One of our guys, the big dude that crushes me everytime we roll, got a stripe last night. It was good to see. However, I prefer to roll with his 15 year old son. The kid is very technical, but not very large. This makes him a good partner because if you screw up, he's going to catch you. His dad just kinda crushes me into submission. The kid got his third stripe on his white belt a few weeks ago, after he won his division in NAGA. I'm always happy to see team mates get promoted, even if its just a stripe.

The best part of the night is Darrin, our black belt instructor, asked me if I wanted to stay behind and roll a bit after we bowed out of class. Darrin is, quite literally, the only blackbelt in our town. Because of his work schedule, he can only come two days a week. He is a very good instructor, and roughly the same size as me. He walked me through several chokes as we rolled, including the cross collar choke. We are lucky to have Darrin, as well as Joe (our brown belt instructor).

I'm still trying to find a bit more about Darrin's lineage. I know that he was promoted to at least Blue belt by Carlson Gracie Sr. He's has often talked about the late Grandmaster with reverence. I know he got his blackbelt from Carlson Jr., who he refers to as a "beast." I don't know who he got his purple and brown belts from.

So, I'm going to get off here and go back to work. Have a great day!

April 16th

Tonight was a good class.

We didn't do any drills or anything, because we didn't have many people. We just rolled the entire hour. I was the only white belt in class. It was very hot in the gym, so they decided to do no gi.

Needless to say, I got thrashed up and down the mat, but I can tell I've made a lot of progress. It seems that the guys I haven't rolled with in a month were very impressed. I have mat burn on my forehead and a bruise on my face.

Awesome.

First Night Back

Ok, so I was off three weeks, so tonight back was bag smoker.

We started off with some warmup drills, consisting of front and back rolls and a bunch of other funny ways to move. I was sweating by the end of that portion, because our gym isn't air conditioned. It was 80 degrees today, so that many people in an enclosed area made it hot pretty quickly.

After that, we drilled armbars from the guard. I had a lot of fun doing this. Its a move we did in combatives, so I picked it up pretty quickly.

About forty minutes in, we started rolling. I rolled with the teenager (15 or so) again. He good to roll with, because he's just pretty good. He and his little brother both won their division at NAGA Nashville earlier this month. Luckily, I'm bigger than him, and he's not strong enough to really get me in anything I can't get out of. But working with him forces me to focus on my defense because he's aggressive and he's good.

Everybody else I rolled with really just toyed with me. However, I did roll with our blackbelt and got a lot of good info from him. He said I was progressing really well, and I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was last time I came in. Its always good to get positive enforcement, especially since I wasn't feelin 100% when I came in today. I've just been falling behind at work and school.

Oh, I forgot to mention, my Gi came in today. I got a black Fuji Victory in A2. Unwashed, it fits perfect, so I need to be careful not to shrink it.

I'm tired and sore, but i"m happy we had a good class. I also found out that our NAGA Nashville team did really well. We sent six competitors and brought home medals in every category we had an entry in, including four golds.

I'm not dead

As I previously wrote, I've been out of town doing military crap. It was, as predicted, a complete waste of time. The only good thing is that my employer went ahead and paid me my full monthly salary, so I double dip a little. Well, and I also got my medical records examined, and the Army says I don't have to run anymore...which is good. I suck at running, and have a genuine illness that makes it extremely difficult for me. That is actually one of the reason I got into BJJ.

While I was gone, I got a copy of Saulo Ribero's excellent Jiu Jitsu University. This is, by far, the best martial arts book I've ever read. It is fully colored, with step by step pictorial instructions and methodology. I like that he explains the "why" behind the moves. In many martial arts books I've read, they have grain pictures with captions saying something like "punch to the face." The book is also organized in a concise, logical manner, where the foundations are built upon as you progress through the book. Professor Ribero goes in depth, and I actually learned quite a lot just by reading through the first section.

Still no gi. I ordered a black Fuji from MMAoutlet.com. Apparently, Fuji messed up their shipment and didn't send in any A2s. MMAoutlet, however, has been very responsive and did offer me a slight discount for my trouble. They promised to have it in the mail by tomorrow afternoon. I'm hoping to be able to wear it to class monday, because I'm tired of being the only guy without a gi. Eventually, I hope to become one of those bloggers that is qualified enough to give a product review...but it will be my first BJJ gi. In the future, I'll see if I've earned that qualification.

I am back at home, but decided to take this week off of training. While I was gone, I got severely behind on school work, house work, husband work, father work, and all other work. Plus, I don't have my gi. There is a local tournament in June that I'd love to get into, but it coincides with my daughter's first birthday. A man has to have his priorities.

A good night

We had a small class tonight.

I was the only white belt, and the only person without a gi. My gi got delayed and won't be here until next week at the earliest. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be here for the next two weeks.

Anyways, the blue belts just wanted to roll, because most of them are fighting in NAGA on the 6th of APR. I won't be here. But they wanted to just sweat. Anyways, they were all kind enough to impart pearls of wisdom onto me as we rolled. I honestly think I learned more than I would of had we just been drilling the whole time.

Anyways, this blog will most likely be silent for the next two weeks. I might pop in and talk about the mundaneness of my annual training, but we'll see.

I'm pretty bad at Jiu Jitsu.

Well, another monday class is down.

I hope that I start showing improvement soon. So far, when rolling, I get curbstomped. There is one guy there who claims to have started the same week as me, but he's really good. I think he's done BJJ in the past, because he was going really hard and putting people into shit we've never seen before. Nobody can do the stuff he's doing without actually having been instructed in it at some point.

So I call bullshit.

And I don't really like that when I ask him go easy (so I can work on position and technique), he decides to bum rush me, kick me in the nuts repeatedly, and generally act like a dick. I could actually tell by looking at the dude that he was going to act that way.

Anyways, we had our black belt in class today. He only comes in a couple times a week, so its always good when he comes in. He taught us a new guard pass and how to transition from being in guard, to side control, to rear mount. Drilling was beneficial.

I have realized that I'm not going to get better by just trying to fight my way out. That'll work on small people, but I need technique. I get tired too easily (due to CFS) to try to get in a prolonged struggle. Thats why I wasn't really interested in rolling at full speed.

I get the need for live resistance and rolling to get better, but development needs to be done incrementally.

Oh yeah! I checked on my gi today. The people at MMAOutlet.com said that it should be in the mail tomorrow. I'm not going to get to use it before I go to my annual training, but it'll be good to have when I get back.

Another good class

So Tuesdays and Thursdays are the intermediate class. There are a lot of senior blue belts in there that wiped the floor with me.  As such, I've decided to stick with Mondays and Wednesdays for awhile. At least until I get a few stripes.There was no drills tonight, just rolling for an hour. Stamina is something of an issue with me, since i have low testosterone and chronic fatigue syndrome.

I rolled with a girl who weighs probably 100 lbs soaking wet. She was a damned hellcat. Seriously, the only reason she didn't wipe the mat with me was her size. I could muscle out of everything she put me in...but i couldn't get her with anything. She was lighting fast too.

Then I rolled with some of the blue belts who kindly instructed me whilst inflicting pain upon me. It was a good experience, but really need to focus on the basics first and foremost.

Still waiting on my gi, MMAoutlet said it would be 2-7 days before it shipped, so I'm expecting it right in time for me to leave for my two weeks of annual military training.

Too Aggressive

Another good class tonight.

I finally met the main instructor, a brown belt named Joe. He was really good, and decided to roll with me after I'd taken on an intermediate blue belt and a white belt with only a month or so on me. I did well against the blue belt, so I'm happy. He couldn't submit me, but i couldn't get him either. The female white belt was laughably easy, so I spent our time rolling to instruct her on how to pass guard. I'm no expert on it, but she was completely lost.

When I rolled with Joe, he pointed out what he called my "white belt mistakes". Namely, I was being too aggressive...which is odd because last week Paul told me to be more aggressive. Another lesson I learned was DO NOT LOCK YOUR HEELS IN THE REAR MOUNT! Ouch.

I had a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to getting my gi, it should ship out sometime this week. I feel bad trying to get collar chokes on my sparring partners when I don't have a collar for them to choke back with. I'm going to get a patch made for it (see my avatar, the stylized jolly roger).

Oh! I also started a spreadsheet to track my training! I think it'll be a good tool.

Anyways, another good class.

Why I'm sticking with BJJ

So, after going to a few sessions, I am liking BJJ. I think I'll stick with it.

Things I like:
1) The "Aliveness"

I come from Karate. I really did enjoy Karate, but it isn't "alive". Karate boils down to a few techniques of medicore effectiveness and a set of folk dances that you have to memorize to get promoted. Rob Redmons of 24FC once said "Karate is dead, its your job to bring it to life", or something to that effect. BJJ is the other way around, it breathes life into you.

2) Personality

BJJ allows me to be me. I don't have to conform my moves because the kata is done THIS way. I can come in, wear my black/pink/blue gi covered in my own patches, totally do things my own way, and still get a good result.

3) I get to choke people
Whats not to like about that?

4) It gets me off my ass
For a long time, I've been struggling with weight, depression, and fitness in general. I'm not unfit, but I also have chronic fatigue syndrome...makes it hard for me to a lot of things. The other night, I was rolling with the senior blue belt and I realized that I was covered in sweat and that I haven't worked out that hard, literally, since basic training 10 years ago.

5) I'm having fun
No explanation needed. I'm having a blast, and I'll stick with it as long as I do.

Anyways, I forgot to mention my Les Mills Combat results. I ended up losing 12 lbs in 60 days, which I think is pretty good. I feel a lot better, and I doubt I would have picked myself off the couch and went to BJJ without it.  My only problem is that after about 6 weeks, I got SO BORED.

I did order my gi, finally. Paul, one of the senior blue belts and instructors, recommended me getting blue or black. I ordered a Fuji black gi in A2. I hope it fits. I'm very excited, because I'm going to get a patch made of my logo to put on it :D

He also invited me to take place in a round robin tournament in June. I might not be able to, because its the saturday my wife was considering doing our daughter's first birthday party. I'm going to see if she can do it on sunday instead.

We'll see.

Keep Calm and Pirate On

Ok, so I finished my Les Mills Combat workout.
I lost a total of 11-12 lbs, and a few inches all around. I'm very happy with the results, because I didn't even follow the diet. Imagine what I could have done if I had the will power to tell pizza to fuck off.


Anyways, I've also, quite recently, stopped drinking all sodas completely. I'm drinking water and green tea exclusively. I also switched medications for low testosterone. I'm trying axiron now, and if that doesn't work, I'll start having to take shots.


I forgot to introduce myself in my last post. My name is Greg. I'm 27 and I'm from Kentucky. I work for the federal government as a contractor. I'm married to Amy, and we have an 8-month old daughter, Livvie. I also have a badass golden retriever, named Leonidas....or just Leo.

I went to class last night, even though I decided I'd probably only go twice a week. I wanted to check out different nights and see if there is a different format or anything. We went over two guard passes: The double under and the knee slide. I found them really easy, but again, I have previous experience.

Sometime during the drills, I pulled my groin a bit.

Despite being in a bit of pain, I participated in the live drills and sparring. My first sparring partner was Big Guy again. He came in late, changed, and hopped right in the the sparring, or rolling as its called in BJJ. I really need to learn some strategies for dealing with big mother fuckers, because he wiped the floor with me.

Then I rolled with the instructor, who is a senior blue belt and had 15 years of wrestling experience.
He's really good, and was instructing me the whole time we were rolling. I got a lot out of that, and he seemed impressed with some of the stuff I could do. He told me that for my third class, I'm doing better than he expected.

Again, I have a bit of experience, so I'm not brand new like most people just starting the class.

That said, I'm trying not to go into things with the mindset of "I know all this". The main advantage I've had, is I've had people try to choke me in live sparring before. Most of the new people have not, so they panic slightly when you get them in a bad situation.

Anyways, advil is awesome for a pulled muscle. Today I feel much better, so I'm hoping to be able to be at full tilt by tuesday.


Keep Calm and Pirate On!

Pirate Martial Arts - The Saga Begins

Hello, everybody.

This is my first post. I've decided to start training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu recently, and I want some form of documentation. This will hopefully be a twice weekly blog, so it'll keep me honest.

I'm new to BJJ (tonight was my second class), but I'm not new to martial arts. I've studied Chito-ryu for years, independently. My instructor is, unfortunately, not able to train anymore. I really miss Chito-Ryu, but there aren't any good karate schools in my town. So I decided on BJJ.

I have some experience grappling, because I'm an army reservist. When I was on active duty, we trained Army Combatives, which is based loosely on BJJ, at least once a week. In fact, somebody once told me that the basic two levels of combatives will take you well into the blue belt arena of BJJ.

I don't know if thats the case, but it certain has helped pick up on what the instructors of the BJJ class are trying to tell me.

Anyways, the place I'm going is taught out of the back of a church. Its cheap though, which is its main appeal. The first lesson I went to did not impress me. The guys seemed kinda unkempt, and the mats seemed somewhat dirty. The lesson was taught by a blue belt who just got back from a seminar. He was talented, but not really the best teacher.

Anyways, less than impressed, I left and contemplated finding another school, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. So, I figured that maybe they were just having a rough night, and I'd give it another shot. The money is right, and maybe the class would be better with a more senior instructor.

I'm glad I did, because tonight I actually had a really good time. We had a black belt teaching the class (apparently the normal instructor is a brown belt, who only teaches Tuesdays and Thursdays.) Anyways, he was very good. His methods were easy to follow, concise, and precise. He also offered really good advice when we were drilling the moves he showed. He set them up as a progression. So he's show you the set up for the move, you'd drill that, then stop and add the second part.

Very effective.

Anyways, the last 15 minutes, we rolled. The first person I rolled with was a 40-something female white belt. She's been there about 8 months.

I demolished her.

Not bragging, I'm a 27 year old, reasonably muscled man with past experience. Better technique can only make up for muscle to an extent at lower levels. This is painfully evident in my next match.

The next guy is probably 35, and he's fucking huge. He's literally like 100 lbs heavier than me. He submitted me three times in five minutes simply by lying on my chest. One of the senior blue belts told me that he's hard for most people to roll with because of his size and that he really doesn't have good technique. He doesn't really need it...but I expect that he will as time progresses.

My final bout was with the big's son. He's probably 14, and I'll hand it to the kid; he's tough as shit. He's skinny as a rail and could wiggle out of almost anything I put him in. Honestly, he reminded me of myself at that age. Anyways, he couldn't hold me for anything, but I couldn't get him to tap out, despite getting him in bad positions.

Flexibility is a good thing.

Anyways, I'm totally going to be sore as shit.

I haven't gotten a gi, so if anybody has any recommendations, please let me know. I need something fairly cheap...I'm a working father who goes to school full time. My wife doesn't work (daycare is expensive, yo), so we're a single income family. It appears that all of the white belts wear blue gis, which is weird for my traditional karate sensibilities. In Karate, anything other than white is showboating and self-aggrandizing.

Tomorrow, I'll be continuing my last week of Les Mill's Combat workout DVDs. I'm excited to finish. When I do, I'll post the results, but its been very effective for me.

Anyways, feel free to comment and stuff.