Sophomore blues

Last night after class I made a personal observation of my game, which in turn led me to Google the phrase ‘ego and bjj.’ I found a great blog post that hit what I was feeling dead on the head. The post is by Sam aka: AngryGrappler, and is fittingly titled ‘Ego and Jiu Jitsu.’

AngryGrappler says:

“A lot of academies have mat rules, "leave your ego at the door." You hear it all the time in BJJ. Have no ego. My ego gets in the way. No ego no politics. But the thing is it's very hard! Because it's not a switch that you can turn off. It's something you have to try to accomplish every day. And it's hard! Because Jiu Jitsu is a sport, competitive, and it has winners and losers. That makes it hard not to care, even a little. I told myself since white belt, that I won't care if I get tapped or not. And I change my mind as soon as I get tapped! Nothing slows down your learning curve than ego. And it seems like the lower belts have more pride than some of the higher belts. On average people stay in blue belt longer than any other belt because of ego. I think it's like being the sophomore.”

I think there’s a whole lot of truth to this. I’m at the tail end of blue belt after 5 1/2 years of training and I’m struggling with ego. When I roll with lower ranked classmates, the drunken desire to control, dominate and win gets in the way of fluid movement and executing the most basic techniques. This in turn blocks the facilities necessary to learn. I also realized that fear is definitely at play here. Is this what the long-haired dude in The Last Samurai meant when he said “too many mind?” I think so. I’m thinking too much about winning, not winning and everything else in between.

As I spend my last days as a sophomore and beyond, I’m going to work on cherishing the lessons over anything else.

BJJ for life.

The New School

I'm still hanging in there. Definitely not training as much as I would like to these days but I'm feeling good about how consistent I've been able to hit the mat since my last post. One thing is for certain. You quickly realize how important mat time is when you feel the people you've helped train over the last few years get closer and closer to positional dominance. In fact, this weekend I rolled with a person I convinced to try BJJ two years ago and my guard was passed on several occasions. Absolute night and day.

A good friend recently opened a school in Dallas and you're going to love the name - "Tiny Killer Robot Jiu-Jitsu"... you read right. The name may sound cute but black-belt Rob Ables puts the "killer robot" in Jiu-Jitsu. Rob spends a ton of time training with the top names in Dallas and with world champion Marcelo Garcia. I've attended three classes so far and have already learned some great half-guard passes and a mean way to hit the guillotine choke MG style while in your opponent's half-guard.

I also looked back at some notes on my cardio and conditioning and I'm happy to say I've gone from dying after 5 minute rounds x 2, to rolling for 5 minute rounds x 6 with some gas left in the tank. I also feel good with control from the top using knee on belly transitions to side and full mount positions. On the downside, I've been struggling with my half-guard game. Just feels stuck. I'm looking forward to getting some input at the New School.

Congrats Tiny Killer Robot!

Alive and well

Well I have to say that although blog posting activities have been inconsistent, my training has been excellent. I'm training 2-3 days of BJJ plus a day or two of conditioning... yes, you heard right. Conditioning. The result is night and day... being able to last more than two rounds has been a blessing. Training to the point of complete exhaustion and not being afraid has improved my outlook on life. I'm excited!

I thought I'd list a few cool things that happened since my last post:

• Received a 4th stripe on my blue belt from BJJ Black Belt Rob Ables. (Purple here I come!)
• Lost 7 lbs. (Thanks to Cody Mitchell aka: Body Killer, Death by exhaustion master or the Burpee king.)
• Consistently complete a 45 minute body-weight exercise circuit after about an hour of rolling. (see thank you note above)
• Hanging with the purple belts on the mat (I feel like I belong)
• Found a new love for collar chokes and the x-guard.
• My kids (Dayna and Devon) took 1st and 2nd place at a No Gi tournament in CA.

I'm alive and well. More to come.

Devon Wins 1st Place at Jiu-Jitsu by the Sea Tournament – Santa Cruz, CA

Match #1

Match #2

At the Podium!

Kids Attend Royce Gracie Seminar

It has been a while since my last post. Not to say that I haven't been training. I just need to muster up enough motivation to transfer my notes from notebook to blog. Maybe over the weekend.

The good news is my children have been more consistent than I have been. They recently attended a Royce Gracie Seminar in Modesto, California. The seminar was held at a Charles Gracie Academy a few blocks from the house. Here are some cool pictures:

Dayna and Devon with two BJJ Legends

Group Picture. Notice the two Samurai Kimono Gis!

Devon working out near the UFC Hall of Famer

 

Technorati Tags: bjj,brazilian jiu-jitsu,royce gracie,charles gracie

Kids Train with 'The Pitbull'

This week the kids had the opportunity to train with Ralph Gracie! Here are some pictures and videos of the class.

 

PICTURES

 

VIDEOS

Drilling under Ralph Gracie's watch

Some light rolling

Getting striped

 

Technorati Tags: brazilian jiu-jitsu,jiu-jitsu,bjj,ralph gracie,kids jiu-jitsu

Sunday Training

I need to get into the habbit of posting my notes immediately after training. It's hard enough to remember all the details when collecting my thoughts after class. 

Note to self: post training notes no more than a 3 hours after training.

Sunday was my first day training with Rob Ables, a local black-belt in the DFW area. I was advised by my current instructor Chris Story, to branch out and explore other formats to help push my game to the next level. It was an eye-opener. First off, Rob's style of instruction was excellent. Rather then going through a list of mechanical steps, we started off with the end game objective and concept building working backwards. This really helped solidify the "reasons" for each step.

This session we covered the following:

1. basic x-guard concepts
2. x-guard entry options

It was an excellent session because I love to play half-guard and naturally transition to a different form of the x-guard in my current game. I usually transition to the x-guard by uncrossing my oustide leg and inserting the hook on the inside of my partners thigh. The x-guard entry and position Rob covered was not what I'm accustomed to. 

Things that stuck:

1. x-guard entry - the interesting thing about what I took away from this part of the lesson was not the actual x-guard entry. Rob explained how to square up when playing open guard and proper hand position to defend the pass. This alone was worth the entire day!
2. The x-guard feel - Although I don't remember all technical details (as I drill more I'll remember) I do remember what it feels like to have the correct control. Rob said "once you understand where you need to be, you can be inventive on how to get there." Good stuff.
3. The Box- Entry to the x-guard is not about forcing. It's about engaging when you are ready to by keeping squared up with your partner and engaging/disengaging when you to. Then when the grips and position are available you transition.

Things that didn't stick:

1. All the details on set up. I'll need to drill this a few thousand times before it makes sense :)
2. x-guard reversal details. I'm able to execute an x-guard reversal in live grappling but I just don't remember all the details.

Mat Log:

1. Cardio absolutely sucks. 10 minutes of live rolling and I gassed.
   
2. Rob was going easy on me but still made it a point to make me see where he could have finished. 
3. The one good thing I did that I do remember (amidst all the fleeing) was a good base out on an attempted reversal. I felt my body lifting off the ground and I literally straightened out my two legs as a counter weight to stop the reversal and it worked. I definitely paid for that for the next 5 minutes but it's the small victories that get you through it!

Next time....