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.