Promoted To Blue Belt

I took the test on Saturday, and ran the gauntlet on Monday evening class.  Frankly, a bit nervous, first I have to , or do my best to step up to the next level.  Rolling with Joey Collins, a blue belt, that is harder than some purple belts, and he always dominates me.  I have been trying to figure out what I been doing wrong, I think its just going to be more mat time for me to get an understanding how to roll with that kind of body type.  Then I rolled with Ian McPherson , and two others.

Zae said something to me a few days before,  when you are regular training against world champions, remind yourself you are rolling against world champions.  It puts things in prospective.  I am a hobbiest, do this for health, enjoyment, and its 100x better than drinking and going out all the time.  At least I do something productive.

On related news, apparently, if you bring a friend to alliance you get a free private.  Anyone want to get me a free private can help me take me up on this offer. allianceatlanta.blogspot.com or http://www.alliancebjj.com

I want to mention a "shout out" to Edward, he got his blue the other day, and he worked VERY VERY hard for it.  It makes me happy to see him get that.  Congrats Edward.

Time On Mat

Does a year go by fast or what?!  What a glorious experience it is.  From first class, to now, its been a little bit of pain, pleasure, fun, joy, relief, sadness, and a wide degree of emotion.  The officially the log says I reached 100+ classes, unofficially, I am close to 140-200 classes, I do privates and more than third of the time , I did not bother to swipe.

Where I was, Where I am, Where I want to be...

Where I was, I very little skill and also any type of speed, strength and agility.  I remember rolling with bart for the first time ever, He kicked my butt 500 different ways....  Only later did I learn that nearly everyone that happens to.

Where I am.... last month I been only averaging about 2 classes a week,  life, weather, and just the feeling of being burned out gets to me.  I am not a professional athlete of any sorts, I have a career.  Last week I went back to 3-4 classes,  I started weight training and that is helping a lot, I just want to be in better health so I can enjoy my life more.  

Where I want to be,  I want to lose the last 40 lbs.  This next year, is going all be about just improving my bjj overall.  I have a lot to learn, but now I have a better chance than I had when I first started.  I want to make my guard great.  Its what I pull people to, just to practice, it does get passed often, but I take the guard position just to learn more about it.   I often try new things from guard to force myself to learn.

In other news,  I will be testing for blue belt this week.  It will be 2 1/2 years total as a white belt ( 1 1/2 years under a different style of jiu jitsu) ... Its been a long time.   Very nervous about the test! Wish me luck!

 

Time flies...

Sweet!  10 months and another 2 months it will be a year.  Jessica has been training for 7 months.  She said to me the other day, there is a glimmer of hope for her, and actually saw improvement with her last roll. Good for her.

Today in class

We worked on half guard, but thats not what the class was really about.   Jacare gave a lecture on how you should train.   That there is a difference between training in class and competition.  He told us a story about Rickson Gracie ( I think ) how he never showed how he was really feeling during a roll.  He mentioned that some of us ( Yes I am guilty) say "f*ck", "sh*t" (my personal favorite), and many other colorful adverbs.    That we need to focus on what mistakes we made to get to that position and work to correct them.   I wish Bart recorded the talk, because he talked a lot about relaxing and using the time to learn and make mistakes.

I will say this, I am more and more relaxed than I was when I started.  I hope I am more calm and calculating than I was before.   I do not panic.  Today I had a clear head and watched joey dismount me.  Feeling what he did, I wanted to see what he was trying to do.   He had my full attention.   As a side note, I realized he was taking advantage of my hips being off balanced and too high to maintain control :)

I wish I could train 24/7.  at las, I have work I need to get done and , I personally do not think my body can take 24/7 regular training.     One last thing, I think its personally awesome that Jacare roll with the students all the time.  Its nice to see the pseudo rule "everyone trains no matter what skill level".

The Day After Pan Ams

You never know what Jacare and Cobrinha is going to teach.   We went over a guard pass, and a rather common situation that I do get into.   We did some drills with it, I did have an aha moment and all was good.

Jessica, my girlfriend that trains there, has crossed the bridge in development that she leaving her ego at the door and realizing regular training is for learning not a competition.   On the way home, she verbally said what clicked a few months ago for me.  That went something like this "I was in a bad position, so i tried to learn how to get out of it.  While it didn't work, I did learn what parts helped the situation, and what didn't.  I tapped and wanted to get back into the same position to work on it some more." When she said that, I mentally said bingo.  Ego and fear is being left behind. and learning shall accelerate.

Other than that, its fracking awesome to train at the #1 school in the world :)

P.S. I got a new gi, my white and blue gi are both tearing up :(

Learning Control and starting to see more things

Lately, I am learning how to control and started seeing things I have not seen before.  I am thinking my way out of a position, like angles, leverage, and trapping sides to turn a fight around.    I am slowly seeing the language itself, and what each movement and reaction is starting to mean.

Yesterday, I applied some of the knowledge in setting a trap for a good friend and training partner.  I baited him to hold on to my arm, so i can trap one side and bump him off me when he had me mounted.  It worked flawlessly.   I figured this out on my own, and had a good "ah ha!" moment.

Jessica and I been training more last 2 weeks outside of class.   I think yesterday I did a big leap in understanding and performance, plus the fact I can get my body to do things, i.e. flexiblity, that when I started I could not.

Feels good, to gain some understanding in the meaning between each movement!

Guard Pass & Chokes

Last week or so, there has been focus on guard passes.  The open guard is an interesting position.  Cobhrina had us do just defend the pass with the legs the other day, and it made me wake up to the fact I could defend just by using my legs.  I was barely using 50% of my legs now, I keep them moving,  and constantly try things until I can lock the person in.    That was thursday when cobhrina made us do that drill.  It was simply elegant way of showing I can stop someone just by legs alone.

Sunday I worked on De La Riva lasso.   I need more practice to get used to.  I had forgot how to do it during live training.  but eventually got the hang of it.  I desperately need to practice it more in real situations.  I felt bad for the person that was training me... I ate mexican and farted about 10 times... :(  I never farted in training before...  It just happen to be on the one on one lesson I was doing.

I now have it worked out where I can train 7 days a week at least once.  this is good for me, however today my body is REALLY tired.

Knee On Belly

Jessica and I worked on knee on belly on sunday.   This was not a lot of fun, It does make it hard for you to breathe.  I shall see how well this works out in class this week.   We practiced some side to mount transitions, and some mount attacks.

Then on monday I went to both lunch and evening classes to try out what I have learned.  Lunch class I got a chance to use knee on belly but I did not hold it well, probably due to I was not holding the person down right but I was able to transition to some attempts to submit.   Though I did not submit, I learned how to do it and where I need to fix it.

Evening class was a lot of self defense.   I do wish we get more self defense in.   It is important to me.  I know that in a real fight that all I learn is still applicable, but focusing on self defense gives the comfort room when someone applies a head lock or does a typical street bully move.    The rest of the training was going over half guard, which I need more practice,  the hardest concept I have yet to get is how to get my hips on the ground and keep pressure on their body.

Take care,

P.S.  I did something I thought I would never be able to do, though he did submit me first, I was able to submit someone I personally never thought I would be able to!  It was all technique, the individual was a lot stronger and more fit.  I am very happy about my progress in BJJ.  I am able to see noticeable improvements!  I just wish it would all click!

Half Guard

Yesterday, we worked on half guard pass.   JT helped me understand a lot of the small details on the pass.  I used it twice in regular training.  Thanks JT and congrats on the european open!   Today was on a open guard pass , that I need some more practice and reps on, though I did it once today already in regular training but left a gap between my hips and their hip about 10 miles long that you can drive a small aircraft carrier through.

I am starting to see more and more places I can manipulate to an advantage, I used to stop and think what can I do, now I can see what I can do and continuely trying to see more what I can do from each position change.  

I will hopefully make it to this evening class.  Hope is the keyword.  If not, I will go watch some Demian Maia Science of Jiu Jitsu.  If anyone knows of any other videos that is good to watch, feel free to drop them in the comments.

Take care

Butterfly guard

Last week we been focusing on butterfly guard,   For me, it is very hard to keep any guard other than closed guard. I know I will get better in time, but butterfly guard is the most frustrating of all guards for me to even maintain.    I feel like I took a step back this week but its ok, I know we all have those weeks, that I just need to show up and practice.


Other things I noticed that have changed is that I am on my toes a lot more, and more aware when my knee hits the mat.  I am beginning to get an appreciation of what is meant by being heavy and light at the same time.  I am gaining more awareness of a lot of other things, but it is hard to put in words to explain.

Alliance did great this week at the european open.   Fabio Gurgel did something most people would not do.  He stuck his neck out, competed, and won.  You have to admire a martial art and sport that people of any age can come out and compete.   I do wonder what motivated him to do that, the challenge?

Another training day

Sometimes it takes me 100 times making the same mistake over and over to finally click inside my head not to do that even though it looks like to me the best thing to do. I decided to make a list of basic techniques and do each 10 times, then the next one, till I get a 100 reps in each technique, then do it again till I reach 500, 1000, etc. I was working with my bjj buddy chris the accountant, and it is a great feeling that we both want each other to improve. The things I am weak on he helps me out a lot.

There was one technique that looked, wow, I could do this, but when I tried it, my hips said "no" . After sleeping on it I realize that It was cause I was trying to rotate my hips in place instead of moving them out and rotate. I want to test the theory but I have to wait till later on this day to test it out.

I have this theory, that when a person is mentally ready to go to the next level they will. I feel like I am inching or perhaps one cm at a time getting closer and closer to the next level. I am ready, but I still am doing the small mistakes that I see even though I am told not to do that.

Life is good, my girlfriend and I are moving in together. Even though she already spends the majority of the time over my place. The new place is closer to work and both dojos. I am thinking doing thursdays night on aiki. I like the art of aiki, and the flow drills cause I do "feel" my training partner more once I do them. I am "feeling" what they are trying to do.

One last thing.. I love the people at alliance! Very willing to help everyone on the life long path of jiu jitsu.

First One on One Lesson

I decided that my girlfriend and I would do a one on one lesson with a purple belt mat rat. He had me do some drills then after the drills showed me where to apply these drills at. It was a very good first lesson. I learned alot about movement and am able to move a little more. I will practicing these drills on my own to improve.

It was so information packed that I decided to do it next sunday. I hope *grin* maybe saturday, cause I am moving monday.

More Ponderings

Last few classes have been interesting. I been focusing on getting out of mount and side control a lot, and its been paying off. There are more and more details about the basics that I learn everyday. I sometimes learn the hard way if I do not properly execute everything the person will escape. I been starting to play with the idea of go ahead and try for a submission always , be willing to give up a position just to see if i can get a submission. I am comfortable enough now being mounted and side mounted I can give the other a person a good resistance... well if the other person isnt a high blue. I do my best, but I run out of gas sometimes.

I wish I started this sooner. :)

Wow.. 4 months later

What a journey this is so far. I train at the alliance bjj in roswell georgia. I didn't realize that it has been four months until I decided to check my blog. What has changed from the aikido mindset. Most of the techniques of aikido are not practical at start. It is 1000 times harder to get an arm lock with a resisting opponent. I have seen some aiki like moves but they are limited to what is practical.

The alliance head instructors, Jacare and Cobhrina, I did not realize who they were when I joined. Jacare won the instructor of the year reward. One thing I like about Jacare, he makes every student feel part of the family. He brings comfort to us by saying things like 'let me do my job and give you the skill. Show up, and I will do my job.' Reason why, is that I lack atheletic ability,, and there are more natural people than me. However the amount of time I been training is PAYING off.

On that note, my skill level has vastly improved on the ground. The training method of live training everyday for up to 1/2 the class makes me learn the difference between being taught a move, and being able to execute it. My doubts of joining have been earsed. Yes, the first week is awkward cause you really do not know what you are doing. Now after 4 months, I really do not know what I am doing, but I am getting an idea of what I do not know.

The students there, are simply the best hearted students I seen. All of them are very safety aware. They will stop and show you what you are doing wrong, and praise you when you do it right. I really do not think the alliance would be what it is today without the students.

http://www.alliancebjj.com

http://allianceatlanta.blogspot.com/