6/22/15

It has been a long time since I’ve written. There are, of course, lots of reasons for that…but its mostly that I’m lazy, not a naturally gifted writer, and I haven’t had a helluva lot to say. It was a bit easier in the beginning, when every class was a new revelation. Now, however, my progress is much more plodding.

So, a few months ago I got promoted to blue belt. I knew it was coming, but it was still a great feeling. My promotion was two days before my two year BJJ anniversary. As I expected, nothing really changed. The same people who beat my ass before still do. We don’t have a lot of white belts in our school, but I’ve noticed a slight uptick in their intensity. I’m still a very lazy jiu jitsuer, so I tend to be defensive. I still get newb-smashed by the big, strong white belts. I still have a very hard time actually getting submissions.

Over the last few months, I’ve been having a flare up of my fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue syndrome, so I haven’t been going to class as much. I’ve also put on weight. I’m back up to 180 lbs. I am still averaging twice a week, but its been hard to find the strength to go. 

So, that’s kinda been the situation the last couple of months.

I’ve also gotten some new gear. My favorite gi has been my 93 Brand Goose. After a little over a year of fairly heavy use, it was definitely showing its age. Its collar was fraying pretty badly, explosing the rubber core beneath it. It had also faded from a beautiful, dark, steel gray to a very light, almost white, shade. So, I decided that with my promotion to blue belt, I’d invest in a good gi.

I decided on the Oss Rebel gi. Ya know, the star wars one. I love star wars.  It is a super nice product, but I found that it is a bit too large, even after shrinking it down. I feel a bit frumpy rolling in it, but it is well built, and absolutely gorgeous. I would highly recommend it, but watch the sizing. You might want to order a size lower. 

I also ordered a Killer Bees gi material belt. For the price, it is an awesome product. It’s tough, and it stays tied. I was, of course, given a belt when I got promoted, but it was a bit too big, and didn’t shrink much when I washed it. The killer bees belt did shrink, but I bought a size larger to account for that. I wash my belt religiously, so I read into the shrinkage on it. After a few washes and dries, I’d say that there was 10-15% shrinkage, which is pretty significant. 

So that brings me to the present. Last month, I was out of class for a few weeks, due to my annual military commitments. When I got back, I have felt horrible. That said, I think I’ve actually been rolling better. At least a few times, I’ve come into the gym and dominated people who usually make me look like a child rolling with his father. On one particular open mat session, I submitted our senior purple belt a couple of times. Of course, he submitted me way more. Afterwards, he pulled me aside and said something along the lines of “I want you to know that those submissions were real. You set them up, I didn’t give them to you, and I defended them. They were well done.” 

And then, I went back to rolling like a white belt at my very next class. 

Last weekend we had a seminar from the school that we’re affiliated with. These seminars are always really good, and we learn a lot. The black belt who holds them usually brings a couple of his senior students, in this case two purple belts, and they focus on basic stuff. This seminar was really good, because our black belt, Darin, also came. Darin is weird in that he doesn’t want anything to do with ranking people up, running a school, or any politics. He just wants to come in, teach a couple classes a week, and stay sharp. He has a very, very tactical mind, and his approach is much different than the other black belt. 

Anyways,  we reviewed mount retention techniques and went into a few attack sequences. We always do active drills after the main seminar portion. So, we start with three people on the mat, their partners start in a position. Once the conditions of the drill are met (sweep, pass, submit, escape, etc.) a new partner comes in. The person on the mat stays for a full five minute round with fresh people cycling in. We do this over several positions. The black belts use this as a way to evaluate people.

At the end of the day, I got a stripe on my blue belt…though I don’t really feel like I deserve it. Several people didn’t get any promotion, so I felt kinda like I’d cheated them. I know its silly, I just feel like I’ve been missing so much class, and my skills are still really hit or miss.

Well, shit.

I competed for the very first time this weekend, and it didn't go well for me.

It was a very small, local tournament that was ran by a TKD/BJJ school. They did a good job at keeping things running on time, but the lack of competitors probably had something to do with that. Regardless, they did a good job, and are super nice guys. I like it because it had a very open ruleset. Pretty much the only illegal move was heelhooks in the gi. This would eventually be a problem for me.

We got there early and weighed in. I was at 175 lbs. It was a round robin tournament, so the weight classes were just brackets of four guys closest in weight. This was also not good for me, since I was the smallest guy in the division, and the heaviest was 200 lbs.

My first match was against the guy closest to weight to me. He was a tall guy (i'm short), and was skilled. We started off with both of us trying to get some take downs, with neither person getting the advantage. I pulled open guard, and nearly got a sweep. He tried to pass and I got my closed guard. I held him in closed guard for a few minutes, trying to set up submissions. I worked for an armbar, but it wasn't very tight and he had long arms. He escaped and passed to halfguard. He passed to mount, but I nearly immediately reversed him. That's all I really remember. We jockied for position for awhile, and at one point I took his back. I didn't get points because he blocked my hook. He won by 2 points or something.

My second match was short. It was against the big guy. We started off, and I grabbed his lapel and yanked. He didn't fuckin' budge. That's when I decided to pull guard. I broke his posture quickly, but he grabbed my lapel and started trying to cross collar choke me. That wasn't a problem. I was going to work for an armbar, but he switched to a can-opener. I pealed his hands off, and he kept going for the can-opener. The second or third time, I felt a popping in my lower back, and my neck started burning. He went for it again, and I tapped.

My final match I really should have won. I started with a really good take down, and he caught me in half-guard, but I got too high up and he swept me. I got him in guard and worked for chokes. Again, I went for an armbar and that allowed him to pass. We rolled around a bunch, and he won by one point. I couldn't be as mobile as I wanted, because my back was really fucking hurting.

My coach told me that I really beat myself on this competition, and I agree. I hate competing, and I didn't want to be there. I'm somewhat embarrassed that I didn't win any matches, but I also learned a lot. Its hard not to be disappointed, so I won't even try.

I wasn't really prepared for the intensity of the matches. They came at me much harder than I went at them. After one six minute match, I felt like I'd rolled for hours. My hands were shaking and I felt sick.

If I compete again, I'll have to get my head in it. I simply wasn't in shape, mentally or physically. I was definitely the most out of shape person there, and honestly that isn't a good feeling. I'll just have to work harder, and then decide if competing is right for me.

The Scent (and slight bullying)

Last week, I trained 5 days, and it felt good. This week, I have the flu.

One day last week, a couple of things happened. The first, I got complimented on how well I was controlling the back. I actually put a purple belt to sleep with a bow and arrow when we were doing back drills. The second was that I participated in some light bullying.

There is a guy in our gym who comes to train once or twice a month. He started roughly the same time as me, but I'm much more consistent. Last week, he came in. We were doing positional sparring, specifically from the back. I started in his back, and he immediately started to defend by grabbing my thumb.

I calmly told him that he should rely on small joint manipulation to defend that position. He immediately used his overly long fingernails on my hand. No serious damage was done, but he did draw blood. At the sight of my blood, I got pissed off and moved into a very painful bow and arrow. I consciously got the lapel onto his chin just to make it a little more painful. This dude has been warned about his fingernails before, and I got really pissed off that he wanted to use them as a weapon.

I know that these defenses are acts of desperation and a lack of skill, but I still got really pissed.

During open rolling, he again used his fingernails against me. This time he was trying to open my guard, and dug his fingernails into my abdomen. I've never armbarred somebody that hard before. By then, I was just pissed off. I tapped the guy like 6 times in five minutes.

Afterwards, I talked to our main instructor, a purple belt, about the incident. He said he noticed the fingernails and talked to him about it too. I apologized for being rough on the guy, saying that I hope that my actions didn't cost us a student. The purple belt told me he didn't care if that guy left, because he's a huge douche.

Then we started talking about how easy it was for me to dominate this guy. I told him its easy for me to lose sight of my own progress, because I don't train with other white belts a lot. He told me that he actually considers me a blue belt, we're just waiting on the next rank evaluation in February. He said he wished he could promote me sooner, but that's not how our association works.

He then told me that he can tell I've "caught the scent" of being a blue belt, and that its shown in my motivation and skill level. I've definitely gotten better, and I'm definitely more excited than I have been in a while. He told me he wanted me to compete before I got promoted, so I registered for a local tournament later this month. It looks like they're going to combine the white and blue belt divisions, so I'm a little nervous. Still, I'm excited to put it out there.

My wife and I are also expecting our second child this year! So big changes in 2015

Update

I'm a shitty blogger. I just don't have a lot of time for this shit. I'm not quitting though.

So, where have I been? Mainly not training as much as I'd like. I'm still getting 2-3 session a week, which works for me. Last week, I didn't go at all because I had some sort of weird rash on my arm. I think it is some allergic reaction, but I don't want somebody to get some sort of necrosis because of me. I'm starting back tonight.

I have made A LOT of progress in my jiu jitsu game since my last post. I've traveled, and trained with new people. I've started getting the hang of takedowns and having an active guard. I've gotten pretty decent at sweeps. I still suck at finishing people, but i'm cool with that. A couple months ago, I was honored to receive the fourth and final stripe on my white belt. I know that Brian doesn't give that shit out lightly, so I'm very pleased. I also acknowledge that I have a lot of work to do. I think I'm on track to meet my goal of being a blue belt within two years.

Brian noted to Paul that I need to work on scrambles and getting more submissions. I'm decent at surviving, but even against our new, athletic white belts, I have trouble. One thing that Brian seemed to be pleased with was my takedown ability. We're a Carlson School, so he hates to see guard pulling. Honestly, I'm going to be working on my scrambles and submissions, but I'm not too concerned with my progress. For me, progress is having fun. I don't want to fight UFC, and I don't really care about rank. The color of my belt isn't going to change who can and can't submit me.

Realistically though, I know its something that's coming, and I do want to be worthy of that honor. I have also decided that I should at least do one competition at white belt. As such, I'll be doing AGC in Ohio in January. I'm hoping that spurs me to put in the hard work to improve my trouble areas.

In other news, one of the reasons I haven't had time to do BJJ is that we've been having trouble with my daughter. She's two, and doesn't talk at all. For a long time, we hoped that she would talk on her own, and hoped that there wasn't a serious issue. Like most parents, we see the best in her. However, it got to the point that we couldn't ignore that she wasn't like most kids. She doesn't know things most kids know, she doesn't answer to her name or talk, and doesn't play like most kids play.

She was diagnosed with a sensory processing disorder, and possibly autism. While we think that this is something that we can definitely overcome, I've had to stay home a little more to help out with her therapies.

I am pleased to say in the past three months she's made IMMENSE progress. I credit some of this to the therapies she's been doing, but also we changed some things. Mainly, we started giving her a fish oil supplement. Within a week of giving her the fish oil, we saw noted improvements in coordination, cognition, and every other developmental area. She still doesn't talk, but she is vocal...she'll get there. She actually answers to her name now, and is much more social. Honestly, see her go from, essentially, a baby to an independent little toddler makes me want to cry. (But I won't, because I'm super manly and don't know how)

Anyways, that's my update. I hope to start posting more again.

Oh Hai

I know, I've been a shitty blogger and haven't written for awhile. Sorry, bros, I've been busy.  I was out of town for like a month, and I just got back a couple of weeks ago. I'm still trying to get back into the swing of work, family, and training.

While I was gone, I fully expected to have no opportunity to train in BJJ. I was at an Army course in the middle of nowhere. I was surprised, and happy, to meet a purple belt that trains out of New Jersey. He is an MMA fighter who is in incredible shape. We got to roll three times in the month...but that's better than nothing. He was equally pleased to have somebody to roll with.

We had to improvise training space, because they didn't have actually training mats available to us. The first time we went into one of those old Army tire pits (shredded tires that creates a soft surface for conducting physical training). That was actually fun, but the rubber was very dirty and some got in my mouth. Horrible experience.

The training was good though, and I learned a few tricks. I got to roll with somebody with an unorthodox style, and actually surprised him a bit with some of my moves. Never submitted him, but came close a few times, and he had to work to get subs on me. That's all you can ask for as a white belt.

Since I've been back, I've only gotten into the gym a few times. I've been doing stuff like retiling my kitchen floor and working late. The beginning of fall is always my busiest time at work, and I've had to work late a few nights. Or I've just been too tired to go to the gym.

I'm trying to pick up my training schedule. I am a three-stripe white belt, and I'll probably get striped next month when we do our seminar. I don't really have a time frame on getting blue belt, but its getting close. We generally have a seminar/promotions every 4-6 months. I really want to be at the blue belt level by the time the next grading rolls around, which will probably be February or March. That is also, conveniently, my two year anniversary with Jiu Jitsu! I just want to make Blue Belt before I'm 30.

I've been rolling pretty well in class the last two weeks or so. After going away for a month, I came back handling people a lot better than I was when I left. I'm not killing people, but I'm more active in my rolls. I'm getting more subs on white belts, and getting subbed less by upper belts. Yesterday, I was only submitted once by the blue belts I was rolling with. Of course, our black belt could have killed me like 20 times, but he was just flow rolling with me.

I've been getting better with my guard work too. Something recently clicked with me, and my guard game improved quite a bit. I've always been a guard player...but now I'm actually comfortable there.

Overall, I've been having blast and learning a lot. I'm just so thankful I found Jiu Jitsu. It really has been a positive force in my life, and I can't wait to learn more.

Alright people, I'm back.

I know it seems like I take sabbaticals from this blog very often, and that is definitely true. I'm not a writer by trade, and writing isn't always the most efficient use of my time. However, I should have more time for this old thing now, since I'm officially a college graduate. I graduated a couple of weeks ago with a Magna Cum Laude BS in Security Operations. I know you're probably thinking "Security degree???wtf???", but don't worry about it. I'm not. I already have a fairly well-paying job in the field. My career and my advancement in it were never dependent upon my graduation. I went to college for a couple reasons that were independent of my career goals.

First, and most importantly, I was paid to go to school. I utilized my post-9/11 GI Bill, which paid me a small stipend (on top of tuition and books) to go. I'd be dumb to turn down free money. Second, I went because I come from a very poor family. Nobody else on either side of my family, except maybe removed a few degrees, has graduated from college. My cousins are mostly drug addicts, and my brother is a mechanic. He's good at his job, but has no interest in academic pursuit. I went because it gave me a sense of fulfillment, and I had to prove to myself that I could do it. I sometimes struggle with self-esteem issues, so the fact that I accomplished something completely unprecedented in my family cannot be understated. You're goddamn right I'm proud of it. But, that isn't the only thing that drove me to complete my degree. I probably would have quit if it hadn't been for the birth of my daughter and the death of my sister. In many ways, I wanted to honor my sister's memory by completing something that she had faith in. I also read that children who's parents went to college are something like a billion times more likely to go themselves. I want my daughter to have ever advantage possible.

Anyways, back to jiu jitsu. I've gotten up to attending class three times a week fairly regularly. I've been feeling a little impotent in the BJJ area, since everybody seems to whoop my ass with ease. I know I'm getting better, but two days a week just isn't enough to improve as rapidly as I'd like. I'm not really built for grappling, like some other people I work out with, so I have to train hard to be good. Jiu jitsu is not really an area where I can afford to be lazy. I'm honestly just going to start attending class as much as I can get by with. I just get frustrated when some 16 year old kid comes in and can nearly finish me with very little training. I guess I'm just used to going against very controlled blue and purple belts, and when a strong new guy comes in and smashes...I just don't handle it well. Unfortunately there aren't very many other people in my skill range for me to spar with. I mostly just get my ass whooped. When the strong, spazzy newb comes in and smashes me, I just feel bad about having to work so hard just to not tap.

Though, I guess that survival mindset is a good thing to develop.

My goals in the future are continue to lose weight. I was doing good before my final semester, in which I put on about 10 lbs. Being out of school takes a significant amount of stress and gives me a lot more time to focus on the important stuff, like not being a fatty and working out. I hope to lose 20 lbs by December. I know that is pretty ambitious, because I'm not really that large. I'm 5'8 and weight less than 180, but I'd like to get down to my ideal weight, which is around 155.

A little something extra

My laptop crashed, so I have to keep this short.

We have a three hour seminar today, and I was promoted to 3-stripe white belt. Can't wait for school to be over so I cam kickstart my training. Other stripe promotions all around, and Rod the Bod got his blue belt. Very happy for him.

It Has Been Over A Month Since My Last Confession

Dear Diary,
Quick Update: I'm still training, but not very much. This semester has been so hard on me that I've had to sacrifice mat time for book time. The good news is that I graduate May 10th, as magna cum laude bachelor degree from EKU. I feel so relieved, but I'm going to my phat GI Bill check at the beginning of every month. The extra money has allowed me to be a little frivolous...so maybe its good that its going away :P

BJJ-wise, I'm still improving, albeit a bit slowly. We're having an evaluation this weekend, where I'm likely to get my third stripe. Brian usually does testing for us every six months or so, meaning I'm likely still a year away from my blue belt. My goal is to get my bluebelt before next march, which marks my 2 year point in BJJ. If I don't, I won't sweat it. I've really just been working on sweeps and improving position.

I have recently found myself much more "dangerous" to people I haven't ever been a threat to before. Certain people I still can't touch, but others I am able to, with difficulty, submit. I love seeing improvements in my game, and I've found myself getting creative with sweeps. I've also been working on some lapel use, mainly because I have weak grips and I'm trying to improve that. I have so much I want to experiment with that I don't have time to work on it all, especially with my heavy schedule.

Anyways, I'm just checking in. I'm still alive and kickin' (or choking, since this shit ain't TKD!).

Relections on One Year of BJJ Training

Yesterday marked one year into my training. I’d like to take a few moments to reflect on that.

I found out about my BJJ club from a girl at a bar on my birthday. She was part of a bachelorette party that was running around soliciting guys for drinks for the bride. Being a nice guy, I bought a few dollar shots. We got to talking, she told me about her BJJ club and I was definitely interested. At that point in my life, I was somewhat depressed. My sister had just died the year prior, and I was looking for something to get me off the couch.

I’d trained Karate before, and enjoyed it. I looked around, but there weren’t any Karate clubs worth a damn in my area. I enjoyed the grappling aspects of my Army Combatives training, so I was interested in BJJ to begin with. It was serendipity that she was at the bar on that night.

The first time I went in, I wasn’t sure about the club. It was being taught by two blue belts. I didn’t think much of the facilities. However, I got in and tried it. I rolled my first class and I was hooked. One of the reasons why the facilities are so unimpressive is because they only charge $40 dollars a month. The price was right, and it was fun, so I stuck around.

I haven’t gotten to train nearly as much as I’d like. I have a day job, a toddler, and I go to school. I’m also a military reservist, and I have drill at the worst possible moments. I have, however, logged over 100 hours on the mats in that year. While that doesn’t sound too impressive to some, it is an achievement for me. I’m proud of the time I’ve put in.

I’ve also suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for years. I’m happy to say that my symptoms are much better since I’ve started BJJ. I used to have spells where I could barely get out of bed. Now, I merely get exhausted easily, which is the primary reason I have avoided competition. While I’m not cured, and I still have bad days, they are much fewer and far between than they used to be.

As a grappler, I’ve grown by leaps and bounds. That is a direct reflection of the good training partners I’ve had. I’m at a point where people have trouble submitting me. I still don’t actually submit that many people, but everybody I roll with is either much more experienced or much larger than me. I will take not being steamrolled by the 240lb man over submitting somebody my own size any day of the week. I am still actively hunting for submissions though.

Over the next year, I have a lot of goals in mind. Obviously, I want to improve my physical fitness. I recently started putting on weight again (happens every winter), and have started cutting that off. I’m happy to say that I’m down to 170.6 as of this morning (started at 177 10 days ago). I’m trying to get down to around 160, but I’ll just be happy with an improved physique. I try not to put too much pressure on myself over the weight thing. I’m not a spring chicken anymore, and I’m not a professional athlete. I’m generally just worried about overall health.

I also want to improve my Jiu Jitsu. I want to be assertive and get more submission. I want to be better at escaping bad positions, and maybe even compete. I know for this, I’ll have to dedicate myself to coming more often that I have (I average 2 days a week). After I graduate in May, I’m going to rededicate myself to attending at least 3 classes during the week, and then the Saturday class whenever I’m able. I know it sounds like excuses, but I really do have a lack of time these days.

My goal is also to become a blue belt by next march. I’m a 2-stripe white belt now. I’ll likely get a third stripe next month during our next grading. This is a highly doable goal, as long as I train consistently, and two years seems to be the median goal in our association for average players.

I also want to compete this year. I know there is a large competition in May, but I have drill that weekend. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually; just life conspires against me at times.

Overall, I’m so happy with my progress over the last year. I love being associated to my club, and I love that I can see my progress every time I roll. I’ve learned so much, and made so many friends. The only thing that I would try to change is adding more time on the mat.

Roll-Fest 2014

So, yesterday I went to class and the instructor and I were the only ones there. Weather has been bad, so this isn't necessarily a surprise. He asked me if I had anything I wanted to work on, essentially offering me a private lesson. I couldn't think of anything, so I asked to roll and see if anything comes to mind.

He announced that we were going to do six 9-minute rounds. Excuse me? what?

I did two with him. The first round I was fairly aggressive, taking the initiative to get him in side control. I spent the rest of the time defending like a mad man. During our second round, a blue belt came in, so we kinda rotated out. Everybody did two rounds, then got a break. I ended up rolling only five times instead of six...but that was enough.

I'm pleased with the way my defense is coming along, especially against armbars. I've started using my feet when defending them. If I can't get a hitchhiker's escape, I'll rotate my legs up and use my feet to break their grips. Apparently, nobody has ever seen that before. I'm sure somebody else does it, just nobody at my school.

Anyways, it was a great learning experience, and really pushed my cardio...which is awesome. I'm getting fat again, so I need that.

Derailment

I don't know if derailment is the right word. I'm still training, and still trying...but I'm definitely feeling a bit down. Its mainly school. I have a very hard semester, and am struggling to juggle everything I have going on. I'm making it happen, but I just feel so run down.

Of course this affects me on the mats. I can't train as much as I'd like, and often times when I can I just don't. I'm still at doing at least two days a week, but my goal was 3-4 times. Even when I do get to train, I'm just exhausted. I'm still improving though, which is honestly why I keep going. Its just hard for me to suddenly get surpassed by people who I've been able to handle in the past. Part of it was that when I was away for work, they were all training for a competition. Their games improved by leaps and bounds.

In the end though, I have to check myself when I compare myself to others. That isn't the point. I didn't start BJJ to get better than other people. I started jiu jitsu to be a better me. I've largely accomplished that, so I'm happy. The main thing that gauls me is that I see their improvement and realize that my own could be so much better. I will note that most of my training partners are not married with children, juggling work, school, military reserves, and trying to become an artist. I think, after I graduate, I'm going to be much better positioned to start making steps towards the improvement that I seek.

Last night was a good class. We didn't have very many people show up. A new white belt showed up halfway through the class, but until then I was there with a senior blue belt, a purple belt, and a black belt. This is about as good a learning environment as you can ask for. After doing some take down drils, we drills some mount positions. Because the class was so small, we started rolling earlier than normal.

I was pleased with my rolls, because the blue belt couldn't tap. Obviously, the purple and black belts toyed with me...but I learned a lot. I was amazed when the new whitebelt showed up. I'd been rolling for four rounds, and I was his first match up. I controled him so easily that I was actually thinking "holy shit, this is awesome."

Its very rare that I can actually control the pace of the actions so completely. The kid has trained before at our sister academy, but moved into our area for college. He's a national guardsman that just got back from basic training, and is absolutely tiny. He was probably only 125 lbs or so. He actually reminds me quite a bit of myself at that age, I was a similar weight and had a similar background. Anyways, He's inexperienced, but not unexperienced.

I just want more white belts to come in like that. It gives me a chance to try things out. I try not to go to hard with them, and I let him work...because that benefits me too. I'm just so used to getting smashed that when I don't, it makes me giddy.

Back from Business Trip

So, I'm back from my trip. I was away for two weeks for my company, undergoing training at a US Army base. My intentions were to go to the gym every day, keep my cardio, and eat right. As we all know about the best laid plans, that all went to hell. The gym was closed for remodel and I was surrounded by fast food joints. I did do some calistenics in my room every day though. I won't really go into the horrendous details of the trip. All my flights got canceled and I was forced to drive 7 hours to the training, which turned into 11 hours because of the horrible weather. The class was boring and largely just a formal certification on shit I've been doing for 10 years.

When I got back to training on monday, It was definitely aparent how much I'd lost in those two week. Of course, the whole gym was training for a large competition, so they had been amping it up the whole time I was gone. All of our personnel medaled, but largely they were disappointed in their performance. Personally, I'm proud that we can send a team of six people to a large tournament and everybody walk out with at least a third place finish in something. I doubt I could have done as well.

I might be competing at a very small local tournament next month. It depends on how I feel. Right now, it just seems like I'm so far behind everybody else. I really wish that we had somebody of roughly the same size and experience level as me. I'm in the 170 weight category. The smaller guys are very senior blues or higher, and the younger white belts are so much bigger than me that they just smash me. I know that I'm not horrible, its just kind of frustrating at times.

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.