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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.