Another night of butterfly guard, another night of feeling a bit lost. Part of it might be that my body is built such that butterfly guard probably will not be my go to a la Marcelo, part of it might be me being a five-year-old, and part of it might be that butterfly guard is just hard to learn. But another night of techniques---single-leg + passing to the backs of the knees, passing butterfly guard, jumping to a triangle from stand and base. Rolls after with Vance (3 stripe white), Jon (white), Ed (blue), and Zach (1 stripe white) were good-ish. I keep finding armlocks to latch onto, though more often than I would like I am unable to finish them---either I lose my grip on their arm (happened twice on Jon) or I mis-time falling back (Zach).
After I was done, Ed complimented me: "Really good movement." My response: "It never felt like really good movement." I was there putting in mat time, but I never felt as confident as I had at times last week or the weeks before, I had no breakthroughs...I was beating guys I thought I should beat and stalemating those I though I would stalemate. And again, I started thinking about excellence as it relates to BJJ and everything else.
[Reading my last two posts might be good, if you haven't already.]
So if every day we have about 4-5 hours that we can use to become more than merely proficient at something, I was wondering whether you can split that time. I would want to use 3.5-4 on law school and the rest on BJJ until schooling is finished. But I'm not sure that it works that way. Look at Jon Fitch: he is not an amazing athlete. He will be the first to tell you that he is not an amazing athlete. He just works hard. He shows up early, he stays late, he drills hard, he logs the hours. And that's all he does. He has been able to become the second best welterweight in the world because he worked hard to get there. Reaching that level, though, has costs. When you're one of the best in the world at something, then that something consumes you. You have almost no world outside of it.
At school, we will be having a series of events where prominent legal professionals from around the community come in and talk about their passion, the thing that they do when they are not working. The hook is, they have to be really damn good at it, and it can have nothing to do with the law. For example, one speaker will be a head partner at one of the big law firms in town who has named Northwest Amateur Tennis Player of the Decade. The purpose of the series is to show that the work habits that we develop early on determine how successful we can be just as much as--if not more than--talent. But again, if you plan to excel and be the best in the world at one thing, then you will probably be unable to develop another. One legal professional in town was the trial lawyer on the Exxon Valdez case, and my professor was trying to see if he would come and speak at this series. Apparently, though, all he does is law. He's kind of boring outside of the thing at which he is one of the best in the world.
And now back to jiu jitsu. I do not plan on becoming one of the best in the world. I'm starting late in life, and I have other priorities that would interfere with my training if that were my goal. I do, though, plan on reaching black belt and continuing training thereafter. That's going to take time and work. Its even going to require work from butterfly guard.
That's probably all I'll dig into excellence for now. If something new comes into my head about it, I'll be sure to put it down here. Open mat tonight and again tomorrow morning, so if I have a chance tonight, I'll post my thoughts after rolling. If I don't, it'll be a whole day before I type here again.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Movement pt.2
More butterfly guard work tonight. I never felt like I got the hang of the drill we were doing in class, so I asked Jeremy to work it after class with me. I can tell that the position is full of great sweep opportunities, but that doesn't mean I will be able to execute them. I was thinking about that on the ride home, and the topic of my post last night came into my head.
There is excellence, and then there is excellence. My instructor earned his blue belt under Rickson Gracie, and he told me a few stories about exactly how good Rickson is. 1) A few years back, a black belt on the tournament circuit was tearing through guys just how Rickson used to--nothing but submissions, making it look simple. My instructor's friend knew this guy really well, and told him that he should train with Rickson. So this friend drove the new phenom down to Rickson's place and dropped him off to train. He picked the phenom up 2 hours later, and could tell from the way he walked to the car the effect the training had on him. "How'd it go?" [Silence.] "He made me feel like a white belt, like I'd just walked in off the street and never done jiu jitsu in my life." And this was the new face of jiu jitsu at the time. 2) After worlds one year, Rickson gave a seminar for all the black belt champions. The seminar was about the cross choke, the basic cross choke that white belts learn in their first few weeks. Rickson could tell that the attention in the room was lagging--these guys were black belt world champions, they didn't think that they needed a seminar in cross-choking. So Rickson started with the smallest guy and told him to come onto the mat and mount him and get one cross-choke grip in place--but first, Rickson put his own hands in his belt. Then he said, "Finish it." Rickson escaped and swept--all without using his hands--and then passed guard, mounted, and finished with a cross-choke (he allowed himself the use of his hands once he'd swept). He went up the line, from the smallest flyweight to the biggest ultra-heavyweight. And he did the same thing to all of them. After the ultra-heavyweight tapped, he said, "Just so there isn't any misunderstanding...." and did it to each of them again.
Rickson has put in the time to be not only proficient at every position, he is excellent at every position. Bringing this back to my own training, becoming excellent at jiu jitsu will demand becoming excellent at a large number of positions--standing, opening & passing guard/half guard, side control, knee-on-belly, mount, s-mount, back control, closed guard, open guard, butterfly guard, bottom half guard, bottom side control, north-south, defending the back mount, defending mount, the list can go on. (I didn't even get into 5o/5o guard, rubber guard, any of the boutique games out there.) Development demands time spent in each of these positions, both succeeding and failing because that's the way you learn in this art. At least, that's the way I learn--it's usually not enough for me to see a technique and be able to pull it off it live sparring, I need to work it a handful of times or so before I can even see when the opportunity to use it presents itself.
And I remember that I wanted to get my blue belt before I graduate law school. I wonder now whether that will be cheating both my jiu jitsu and legal educations. I know that being a blue belt doesn't even come close to proclaiming you to be an expert at any one (let alone every) position in jiu jitsu, but it definitely displays that you have a functioning knowledge of the art. (The same goes for having a J.D.) It isn't even close to enough to get me to slow down my training or lighten my class-load, but it's something that I'll be considering for the time ahead. As far as I can tell, I'll keep putting n the time--both on the mats and in the classroom--so long as I feel I need to. Which is very, very different from "so long as I feel I am able to."
There is excellence, and then there is excellence. My instructor earned his blue belt under Rickson Gracie, and he told me a few stories about exactly how good Rickson is. 1) A few years back, a black belt on the tournament circuit was tearing through guys just how Rickson used to--nothing but submissions, making it look simple. My instructor's friend knew this guy really well, and told him that he should train with Rickson. So this friend drove the new phenom down to Rickson's place and dropped him off to train. He picked the phenom up 2 hours later, and could tell from the way he walked to the car the effect the training had on him. "How'd it go?" [Silence.] "He made me feel like a white belt, like I'd just walked in off the street and never done jiu jitsu in my life." And this was the new face of jiu jitsu at the time. 2) After worlds one year, Rickson gave a seminar for all the black belt champions. The seminar was about the cross choke, the basic cross choke that white belts learn in their first few weeks. Rickson could tell that the attention in the room was lagging--these guys were black belt world champions, they didn't think that they needed a seminar in cross-choking. So Rickson started with the smallest guy and told him to come onto the mat and mount him and get one cross-choke grip in place--but first, Rickson put his own hands in his belt. Then he said, "Finish it." Rickson escaped and swept--all without using his hands--and then passed guard, mounted, and finished with a cross-choke (he allowed himself the use of his hands once he'd swept). He went up the line, from the smallest flyweight to the biggest ultra-heavyweight. And he did the same thing to all of them. After the ultra-heavyweight tapped, he said, "Just so there isn't any misunderstanding...." and did it to each of them again.
Rickson has put in the time to be not only proficient at every position, he is excellent at every position. Bringing this back to my own training, becoming excellent at jiu jitsu will demand becoming excellent at a large number of positions--standing, opening & passing guard/half guard, side control, knee-on-belly, mount, s-mount, back control, closed guard, open guard, butterfly guard, bottom half guard, bottom side control, north-south, defending the back mount, defending mount, the list can go on. (I didn't even get into 5o/5o guard, rubber guard, any of the boutique games out there.) Development demands time spent in each of these positions, both succeeding and failing because that's the way you learn in this art. At least, that's the way I learn--it's usually not enough for me to see a technique and be able to pull it off it live sparring, I need to work it a handful of times or so before I can even see when the opportunity to use it presents itself.
And I remember that I wanted to get my blue belt before I graduate law school. I wonder now whether that will be cheating both my jiu jitsu and legal educations. I know that being a blue belt doesn't even come close to proclaiming you to be an expert at any one (let alone every) position in jiu jitsu, but it definitely displays that you have a functioning knowledge of the art. (The same goes for having a J.D.) It isn't even close to enough to get me to slow down my training or lighten my class-load, but it's something that I'll be considering for the time ahead. As far as I can tell, I'll keep putting n the time--both on the mats and in the classroom--so long as I feel I need to. Which is very, very different from "so long as I feel I am able to."
Monday, August 9, 2010
Movement
Movement and Butterfly Guard---those will be the main topics of the week. Should be fun, if today's any indication. Worked how to counter your opponent elevating you when you're in his butterfly guard, and a pretty slick armbar/triangle combination after passing to the back of the knees.
Went 50/50 with Gigantor Zach first. Something that I'm still learning: life is much easier if you refuse to let the other guy put you flat on your back. I avoided that, and the world was good. Then I went to Andy, and we had our usual back and forth, with me edging ahead of him at the end.
Rolls after were with Andy at the start, and then blue belt Ed. And and I had another set of vicious back and forths---we have a pace with each other that isn't 100%, but it's definitely more than 50/50 or "light training." I like having that kind of pace with someone, as it lets me try techniques in close-to-real circumstances. I'm not wonderful at remembering to try the things we learned in class, but when I do, it's worthwhile. Ed is a crusher, and I need to remember that. We worked for about 20, 25 minutes (I'm guessing), and afterwards he puked. So apparently my cardio is good and I forced him to work hard. Two things that I like.
A professor of mine has my mind thinking of excellence, and of how best to become excellent at something. This can be anything from a sport to a martial art to legal analysis to poker to sewing---an activity that demands concentration. This is not new material; I'm sure jiu jitsu bloggers have tried to plumb the depths before, Malcolm Gladwell has the 10,000 hour theory and his piece in the New Yorker about how underdogs can win is necessary reading if you're ever going to compete in anything. I even read the introduction to Andre Agassi's autobiography, and that set the same wheels in motion. As a society, we over-value talent. We see someone who performs at the elite level, someone like Roger or Rickson Gracie, Anderson Silva, Fedor, Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, [insert obscure phenom here], and we think, "God, with that kind of talent, anyone could do it." But that's not right. You can become excellent with effort, and effort can outperform ability. Jordan didn't have that kind of talent forever---he was cut from varsity basketball his sophomore year, and he put in the time. Andre Agassi had talent, but what made him perfect his skills was his father's machine that fired balls at his feet so that he could learn to hit the ball early off the bounce. (He also has a congenital spine deformity---seriously, that autobiography is high on my list of next reads.) Your brain has 4-5 hours a day--you can devote yourself to becoming excellent and improving about 4-5 hours a day before your brain stops absorbing information in a meaningful way. Whatever the activity, that's the amount of time you have. 4-5 Hours of Excellence Time every day.
This brings me back to jiu jitsu. I'm a law student, so when classes start again, I'm going to have a lot of those 4-5 hours takenup with writing and critiquing and analyzing and so forth and so forth. Some of the things I'll have to do are mindless and shouldn't tax my "excellence time," like checking authorities and preparing for class. If I have 5 hours every day, I'll probably be able to average only 1 or 1.5 for jiu jitsu (in a given day). So I'm going to probably notice a decrease in my rate of development. I won't like that, but it's the way it will be for the next several months. Thankfully, it isn't first or second year anymore, and my grades are already what my prospective employers will see, so I can't change those. But what I'm trying to get at is that we have only so much time that we can devote to improving our technique. So the time that we have, we have to use wisely. Drill for technique rather than speed (at least for now, until you commit the technique to muscle memory). Look for patterns and flow opportunities. Stretch and remain flexible when thinking about something else. The amount of conscious time that we can devote to our chosen art is finite. So we have to use it well.
Went 50/50 with Gigantor Zach first. Something that I'm still learning: life is much easier if you refuse to let the other guy put you flat on your back. I avoided that, and the world was good. Then I went to Andy, and we had our usual back and forth, with me edging ahead of him at the end.
Rolls after were with Andy at the start, and then blue belt Ed. And and I had another set of vicious back and forths---we have a pace with each other that isn't 100%, but it's definitely more than 50/50 or "light training." I like having that kind of pace with someone, as it lets me try techniques in close-to-real circumstances. I'm not wonderful at remembering to try the things we learned in class, but when I do, it's worthwhile. Ed is a crusher, and I need to remember that. We worked for about 20, 25 minutes (I'm guessing), and afterwards he puked. So apparently my cardio is good and I forced him to work hard. Two things that I like.
A professor of mine has my mind thinking of excellence, and of how best to become excellent at something. This can be anything from a sport to a martial art to legal analysis to poker to sewing---an activity that demands concentration. This is not new material; I'm sure jiu jitsu bloggers have tried to plumb the depths before, Malcolm Gladwell has the 10,000 hour theory and his piece in the New Yorker about how underdogs can win is necessary reading if you're ever going to compete in anything. I even read the introduction to Andre Agassi's autobiography, and that set the same wheels in motion. As a society, we over-value talent. We see someone who performs at the elite level, someone like Roger or Rickson Gracie, Anderson Silva, Fedor, Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, [insert obscure phenom here], and we think, "God, with that kind of talent, anyone could do it." But that's not right. You can become excellent with effort, and effort can outperform ability. Jordan didn't have that kind of talent forever---he was cut from varsity basketball his sophomore year, and he put in the time. Andre Agassi had talent, but what made him perfect his skills was his father's machine that fired balls at his feet so that he could learn to hit the ball early off the bounce. (He also has a congenital spine deformity---seriously, that autobiography is high on my list of next reads.) Your brain has 4-5 hours a day--you can devote yourself to becoming excellent and improving about 4-5 hours a day before your brain stops absorbing information in a meaningful way. Whatever the activity, that's the amount of time you have. 4-5 Hours of Excellence Time every day.
This brings me back to jiu jitsu. I'm a law student, so when classes start again, I'm going to have a lot of those 4-5 hours takenup with writing and critiquing and analyzing and so forth and so forth. Some of the things I'll have to do are mindless and shouldn't tax my "excellence time," like checking authorities and preparing for class. If I have 5 hours every day, I'll probably be able to average only 1 or 1.5 for jiu jitsu (in a given day). So I'm going to probably notice a decrease in my rate of development. I won't like that, but it's the way it will be for the next several months. Thankfully, it isn't first or second year anymore, and my grades are already what my prospective employers will see, so I can't change those. But what I'm trying to get at is that we have only so much time that we can devote to improving our technique. So the time that we have, we have to use wisely. Drill for technique rather than speed (at least for now, until you commit the technique to muscle memory). Look for patterns and flow opportunities. Stretch and remain flexible when thinking about something else. The amount of conscious time that we can devote to our chosen art is finite. So we have to use it well.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Third Stripe
We had a graduation last night. I got my third stripe (DCJJS does new belts for stripes now--I'm still a white belt), Andy and Zach got their first, and Chan (a teenage student) got his yellow belt. Klint had us go over the threads, then drill specific techniques for a while, then do some 50/50 positional drilling, and then some live rolling. He had Andy and me roll first, which made us both laugh. Of course, we went pretty hard, I got on top somehow, he kept me in half-guard, then rolled me over because I presume I got lazy with my base, and then I bucked him hard and took his back. Klint called time before we could finish the fight. He had us all go once or twice with someone else comparable in size. It was a nice little thing, and Klint said nice things about us all.
My wife came to watch, and that was very nice. I asked her what she thought afterwards, and she had this strange look on her face, so I told her she could go ahead and laugh. But she said she was closer to being sick---see, she's not really a physical person. By that I mean, she watched us all grapple for about an hour, and she sees someone in a compromising position that is more than likely uncomfortable and possibly dangerous, and she starts getting sympathetically anxious for that person. She would much rather sit and read, or walk the dog, than get into a situation where you have to struggle. In other words, not so big on physical exertion. So the whole time she was watching, she was getting tensed out, and that six of us were working at once compounded the effect. So she'll never train, and more than likely won't completely understand what I get out of jiu jitsu (other than in shape and tired). But she even said that if someone else was there with her, it might have been easier. So next time, we just have to get Andy's wife to show up. But the two of them are dangerous together---they want to bring signs like at a football game.
Things for me to work before my next test:
Grip breaks
Guard passing
Sweeps from closed guard
Sweeps from open guard
Looks so simple when you write it down like that.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Ego-Drive
Yes, I still have ego. Yes, it made me cry tonight. No, I don't foresee that stopping anytime soon. What.
More single-leg defenses, more drilling (this time with Maya, a supremely flexible female blue belt with whom I had to make sure I wasn't trying too hard), and a few more live go's. New John---same story, beating him pretty handily, about a step and a half ahead of him. Freddy--new guy, Jeremy's wrestling buddy from Augsburg [or wherever the hell he went]--is small but wickedly explosive and fast. He'll be a pain very soon. Klint talks about the guard for a bit, saying "when someone is in your guard, you want them to feel like they're on a tightrope 50,000 feet in the air." Jeremy (after a decent pause): "Do airplanes even fly that high?" [Laughter] Klint (smiling): "The better your guard, the higher the tightrope." After class, I asked Klint a technical question and then, as no one else seemed to be looking to train immediately, I asked if he wanted to work.
Now, I know he's going to beat me, and that he's going to beat me soundly within an inch of my life before I realize what's happening. That isn't what bothers me. Neither is the roll itself---the roll, I feel pretty OK about both when it's happening and immediately afterwards. Nothing great, and nothing like a breakthrough, but nothing embarrassing and nothing like I'm skipping basic ideas when I'm rolling. So he throttles me a handful of times, armlocks a few, and only once do I feel like I fell into something that I knew was coming. I recognized a butterfly guard sweep as he was locking it in---I couldn't defend it, but I saw what he was doing, so that's a step up. Once, he had me elevated, did something that I'm sure was beautiful to watch, but seemed from where I hung like he spun me twice in the air and caught me in armlock position. [At this point, apparently most of the people from class were watching; Jeremy deadpanned: "Chris was just at 50,000 feet."] After, I asked for some feedback. And it was "commit to a side when you're trying to pass guard...make me commit, and then react to that." It was, almost literally, "Do what I've been telling you to do for the last four weeks." So I thanked him, slapped hands again, and slunk off to the changing room. Thankfully, everyone was gone but Andy, Jeremy, and Klint, and all three stayed on the mat for a few minutes; the tears that dropped onto my gi were mine and mine alone.
That he destroys me doesn't bother me. That he beats me is obvious and a no-brainer, and fighting that would be tilting at windmills. I was getting to better positions, but I wasn't maintaining them. The first part made me feel great, then my sails would lose all wind with the second part. I'm sure part of it was being unfamiliar with being in anything resembling a dominant position against Klint, part (a lot) of it was my own technical flaws, and part of it was complacency. I like to think that I've gotten better about not having an ego when it comes to jiu jitsu. I tell myself that, while I'm nowhere near enlightened, I'm doing pretty fucking good about my mental game and my emotional investment and recognizing how far into the abyss I have yet to travel. I realize that I'm lying, or at least ignoring a large part of my own personality. I like winning. I like being good at things. I like being remarkable among the guys in the room. I don't need to be the best (though that's pretty fucking sweet when it happens), but I like to give the best at least something of a fight. And I need to let that go.
Really, what I think it comes down to is that I want to be getting better at a much faster pace than I am. And with the amount of time that I have to devote to jiu jitsu (which is never enough but which is also roughly every possible minute I can squeeze into my schedule), I don't know that I am able to get better any faster. I'm doing what my instructor tells me to do: I'm going to open mat practice so that I can roll with other people and other body types, I'm trying to pay attention to being technical instead of relying on strength and athleticism (and chastising myself when I notice otherwise), I'm rolling with people who are better than me and getting waxed. I can expect nothing less than what happened tonight. Klint's a black belt. I'm obviously not. In fact, I'm six months from walking in off the street, and I'm testing for my third stripe tomorrow. I have nothing to complain about. I just want to be better.
Test tomorrow, hopefully more jits Saturday (so long as I don't have a restaurant shift in the morning), and then more and more until school starts. So that's great. And if anyone has any way to just drop your ego curbside, let me know in the comments. Cause that would be priceless.
More single-leg defenses, more drilling (this time with Maya, a supremely flexible female blue belt with whom I had to make sure I wasn't trying too hard), and a few more live go's. New John---same story, beating him pretty handily, about a step and a half ahead of him. Freddy--new guy, Jeremy's wrestling buddy from Augsburg [or wherever the hell he went]--is small but wickedly explosive and fast. He'll be a pain very soon. Klint talks about the guard for a bit, saying "when someone is in your guard, you want them to feel like they're on a tightrope 50,000 feet in the air." Jeremy (after a decent pause): "Do airplanes even fly that high?" [Laughter] Klint (smiling): "The better your guard, the higher the tightrope." After class, I asked Klint a technical question and then, as no one else seemed to be looking to train immediately, I asked if he wanted to work.
Now, I know he's going to beat me, and that he's going to beat me soundly within an inch of my life before I realize what's happening. That isn't what bothers me. Neither is the roll itself---the roll, I feel pretty OK about both when it's happening and immediately afterwards. Nothing great, and nothing like a breakthrough, but nothing embarrassing and nothing like I'm skipping basic ideas when I'm rolling. So he throttles me a handful of times, armlocks a few, and only once do I feel like I fell into something that I knew was coming. I recognized a butterfly guard sweep as he was locking it in---I couldn't defend it, but I saw what he was doing, so that's a step up. Once, he had me elevated, did something that I'm sure was beautiful to watch, but seemed from where I hung like he spun me twice in the air and caught me in armlock position. [At this point, apparently most of the people from class were watching; Jeremy deadpanned: "Chris was just at 50,000 feet."] After, I asked for some feedback. And it was "commit to a side when you're trying to pass guard...make me commit, and then react to that." It was, almost literally, "Do what I've been telling you to do for the last four weeks." So I thanked him, slapped hands again, and slunk off to the changing room. Thankfully, everyone was gone but Andy, Jeremy, and Klint, and all three stayed on the mat for a few minutes; the tears that dropped onto my gi were mine and mine alone.
That he destroys me doesn't bother me. That he beats me is obvious and a no-brainer, and fighting that would be tilting at windmills. I was getting to better positions, but I wasn't maintaining them. The first part made me feel great, then my sails would lose all wind with the second part. I'm sure part of it was being unfamiliar with being in anything resembling a dominant position against Klint, part (a lot) of it was my own technical flaws, and part of it was complacency. I like to think that I've gotten better about not having an ego when it comes to jiu jitsu. I tell myself that, while I'm nowhere near enlightened, I'm doing pretty fucking good about my mental game and my emotional investment and recognizing how far into the abyss I have yet to travel. I realize that I'm lying, or at least ignoring a large part of my own personality. I like winning. I like being good at things. I like being remarkable among the guys in the room. I don't need to be the best (though that's pretty fucking sweet when it happens), but I like to give the best at least something of a fight. And I need to let that go.
Really, what I think it comes down to is that I want to be getting better at a much faster pace than I am. And with the amount of time that I have to devote to jiu jitsu (which is never enough but which is also roughly every possible minute I can squeeze into my schedule), I don't know that I am able to get better any faster. I'm doing what my instructor tells me to do: I'm going to open mat practice so that I can roll with other people and other body types, I'm trying to pay attention to being technical instead of relying on strength and athleticism (and chastising myself when I notice otherwise), I'm rolling with people who are better than me and getting waxed. I can expect nothing less than what happened tonight. Klint's a black belt. I'm obviously not. In fact, I'm six months from walking in off the street, and I'm testing for my third stripe tomorrow. I have nothing to complain about. I just want to be better.
Test tomorrow, hopefully more jits Saturday (so long as I don't have a restaurant shift in the morning), and then more and more until school starts. So that's great. And if anyone has any way to just drop your ego curbside, let me know in the comments. Cause that would be priceless.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
I Am Out of Titles, So I'll Call This One Steve
Class tonight was just drills. No new techniques---Check that. We did the obligatory single-leg drills with Jeremy looking over our shoulders to make sure that we were doing it correctly and fine-tuning our angles and alignment and defenses. After that, we did drills, drills, and more drills. He had each pair of us work on the threads that we will need to know for our next promotion. Works for me, as Friday is only a few days away. [Andy, sorry you missed this one.] Beard John and I worked three drills over and over, switching from one to the other only on command. I was already familiar with the three we worked, so I was happy for the mandated time to fine tune them.
After class, we did three two-minute rounds of live rolling with a new partner each time. I started with Beard John--he defended my omoplata and I ended up tapping him with a bow and arrow (those seem to be my two go-tos at the moment), and after the restart, we stalled out without any serious action before the bell. My next opponent was Jeremy, the purple belt national wrestling champion. He tapped me thrice, but I felt better in the rolls with him tonight than I have in rolls with him before. It isn't like I felt like I was winning or had a positional advantage or anything even close to that. No. That would be silly at this point. Rather, I felt comfortable trying for things, attempting to set up a platform/triangle position, looking for the ankle pick (which, on a wrestler of that caliber, is probably not the best idea), grabbing the elbow and throwing my legs up. I was more aggressive against Jeremy than I have been yet, and that felt---well, it felt good. My third was with Gigantor Zach, and I tapped him thrice (wonderful thing, symmetry). One armlock, one rear-naked, and one platform armbar. I felt good against him as well, but I did keep starting with the same set-up, so I need to diversify my attack, especially against the guys I see every class.
Came home to my wife having semi-cleaned our apartment (which is like it's brand new, as neither of us is picky about the lived-in appearance of our domain) and sitting at the table with a lamp propped over her notebook and typing. That means that she's writing. That means that I'm happy. She should do things like this more often.
I have no rolls scheduled tomorrow, because tomorrow night I have a BBQ that is a temporary sending-off party for my friend and former roommate. He's off to Boston because the love of his life enrolled in a graduate program at a ridiculously well-credentialed school, and now that he has finally convinced her that she's loved him this whole time he's not about to let her out of his sight. That, and Boston has one of the gnarliest ultimate frisbee teams in the world, so he'll be right at home. What that means for tomorrow is that we shall share fine ales and laughs, pretend that distance doesn't exist, and enjoy burning things on the grill. I'll be back on the mats on Thursday, drilling my ass off for Friday's stress and following my drills with bar trivia, as is the norm.
Truly, that might be one of the things that my wife and I have most in common: a love of bar trivia and laughing. She hosts it, so I have to attend, otherwise she considers it shirking my marital duties. She doesn't understand the jiu jitsu. But the beer afterwards? It's common sense.
After class, we did three two-minute rounds of live rolling with a new partner each time. I started with Beard John--he defended my omoplata and I ended up tapping him with a bow and arrow (those seem to be my two go-tos at the moment), and after the restart, we stalled out without any serious action before the bell. My next opponent was Jeremy, the purple belt national wrestling champion. He tapped me thrice, but I felt better in the rolls with him tonight than I have in rolls with him before. It isn't like I felt like I was winning or had a positional advantage or anything even close to that. No. That would be silly at this point. Rather, I felt comfortable trying for things, attempting to set up a platform/triangle position, looking for the ankle pick (which, on a wrestler of that caliber, is probably not the best idea), grabbing the elbow and throwing my legs up. I was more aggressive against Jeremy than I have been yet, and that felt---well, it felt good. My third was with Gigantor Zach, and I tapped him thrice (wonderful thing, symmetry). One armlock, one rear-naked, and one platform armbar. I felt good against him as well, but I did keep starting with the same set-up, so I need to diversify my attack, especially against the guys I see every class.
Came home to my wife having semi-cleaned our apartment (which is like it's brand new, as neither of us is picky about the lived-in appearance of our domain) and sitting at the table with a lamp propped over her notebook and typing. That means that she's writing. That means that I'm happy. She should do things like this more often.
I have no rolls scheduled tomorrow, because tomorrow night I have a BBQ that is a temporary sending-off party for my friend and former roommate. He's off to Boston because the love of his life enrolled in a graduate program at a ridiculously well-credentialed school, and now that he has finally convinced her that she's loved him this whole time he's not about to let her out of his sight. That, and Boston has one of the gnarliest ultimate frisbee teams in the world, so he'll be right at home. What that means for tomorrow is that we shall share fine ales and laughs, pretend that distance doesn't exist, and enjoy burning things on the grill. I'll be back on the mats on Thursday, drilling my ass off for Friday's stress and following my drills with bar trivia, as is the norm.
Truly, that might be one of the things that my wife and I have most in common: a love of bar trivia and laughing. She hosts it, so I have to attend, otherwise she considers it shirking my marital duties. She doesn't understand the jiu jitsu. But the beer afterwards? It's common sense.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Blue Monday
Right now, as I sit here with an empty beer on my right and a freshly-cleaned plate that used to contain eggs and veggie burgers on my left and my wife sits across the room listening to some music that I don't recognize but that makes me neither wretch nor smile, I find a few things surprising.
1) I started training jiu jitsu in February. Call it BJJ, call it Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu, call it whatever you want--that's not the point. It's jiu jitsu, it's hard work, and I can count on one hand the number of weeks in six months that I haven't gone to three or more classes. I remember growing up that my parents never let me quit anything. It didn't matter what it was, if I signed up, I had to finish. I didn't get it, but I have to look back and admire what they did. I have this bug inside me that wants to finish most everything I start. Brenna sees it another way; she thinks that I keep going because I'm good at it, and my skill directly influences the extent of my love for a thing. This might not be far from the truth; I am, like everyone else, more likely to enjoy something if I'm good at it. Also, it lets me work out the physical demons that I've been unable to exorcise on my bike or on the frisbee field. I'm hooked, and even though she's beginning to feel like a BJJ widow a few nights a week, I think she gets some benefits out of the deal. I'm tired a lot, and even though i go to sleep quickly and that might suck sometimes, I'm less likely to fight her on stupid shit, and that's a win for her. I'm in shape and happier, and thus easier to please in the general sense. That, and she now has something more to make fun of me for, be it the blatantly sexual undertones of the entire sport or the way Andy and I geek out about positional control and have to demonstrate why body triangles belong only on one side in the middle of our dining room. And I just re-upped for another 12 months. What.
2) I started this blog last month in an effort both to chronicle my own experience with jiu jitsu and to act as a cloud-based notebook so that I wouldn't forget everything that I learn in class. Since I started, I haven't missed posting after a class or rolling session. (To be fair, I think it's almost 3 weeks old, but that's a lot longer than my last chronicling attempt lasted.) I hope that more people than just Georgette and Andy read this, but it doesn't keep me up. The first links on the right hand side are: (a) my academy, Revolution Defense and Fitness---I train at the Woodbury location with Klint; (b) Dave Camarillo, whose jiu jitsu system Klint teaches me; (c) MMA Faestro, a truly great tutorial site that is not limited to MMA---they have almost all of Dave Camarillo's curriculum, a ton of BJJ tutorial videos from Leo Vieira, Cobrinha, and Paul Schreiner, not to mention the wrestling, striking, MMA and judo video tutorials (Klint started it, and it's really exceptional---if you're reading this and haven't seen it, give it a whirl); and (d) Mutiny on the Body, which is run by two Revolution students Gina (brown belt) and Brian (purple belt) who are quite possibly the toughest people I know. I doubt this is giving any of those sites more traffic, but if they get one more subscriber because of those links, I'll be happy. So what about this surprises me? That I've taken the time to make this appear like I want it to, taken the time to make sure the people I know are visible and advertised on my site, and that I keep logging in and writing.
[As you can by now tell, this is not my normal post re-capping training. Deal with it.]
3) OK, now I'm going to the re-cap of training. We worked on breaking down our opponent when we have him in closed guard, learned a triangle set-up off a fake sit-up sweep that I might have fallen in love with, and an arm crush from guard that I never really got the hang of but it might come in handy after a few drilling sessions. Sparring in class was good, I went with both Beard John and New John. It was a big class, so we only had two partners. After class, I went over the testing material with Beard John and Klint, then did some thread work with Vance and Ed. I've grown to really like the thread work that were doing, especially when I can use it in a live roll. I won't spend a lot of time rolling live this week, as I'll be using that time for review. I feel good, though, and confident enough to approach this belt test without being scared to fail. That doesn't mean I won't be drilling in my head as I go to sleep or shower. And Saturday I'm tentatively scheduled for a double at the restaurant (on call in the morning and working at night), so I might not get to try out my possibly-new belt until next week. That would kind of suck, but really, the money is going to pay for a new gi, so who can complain? At some point, I'll have video to post or pictures of training, but I don't have the technology right now, and so you're left with my own explanations that may or may not convey the entire truth.
You'll hear from me again tomorrow night. Because I have class, and that means that I have to tell both of you about it.
1) I started training jiu jitsu in February. Call it BJJ, call it Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu, call it whatever you want--that's not the point. It's jiu jitsu, it's hard work, and I can count on one hand the number of weeks in six months that I haven't gone to three or more classes. I remember growing up that my parents never let me quit anything. It didn't matter what it was, if I signed up, I had to finish. I didn't get it, but I have to look back and admire what they did. I have this bug inside me that wants to finish most everything I start. Brenna sees it another way; she thinks that I keep going because I'm good at it, and my skill directly influences the extent of my love for a thing. This might not be far from the truth; I am, like everyone else, more likely to enjoy something if I'm good at it. Also, it lets me work out the physical demons that I've been unable to exorcise on my bike or on the frisbee field. I'm hooked, and even though she's beginning to feel like a BJJ widow a few nights a week, I think she gets some benefits out of the deal. I'm tired a lot, and even though i go to sleep quickly and that might suck sometimes, I'm less likely to fight her on stupid shit, and that's a win for her. I'm in shape and happier, and thus easier to please in the general sense. That, and she now has something more to make fun of me for, be it the blatantly sexual undertones of the entire sport or the way Andy and I geek out about positional control and have to demonstrate why body triangles belong only on one side in the middle of our dining room. And I just re-upped for another 12 months. What.
2) I started this blog last month in an effort both to chronicle my own experience with jiu jitsu and to act as a cloud-based notebook so that I wouldn't forget everything that I learn in class. Since I started, I haven't missed posting after a class or rolling session. (To be fair, I think it's almost 3 weeks old, but that's a lot longer than my last chronicling attempt lasted.) I hope that more people than just Georgette and Andy read this, but it doesn't keep me up. The first links on the right hand side are: (a) my academy, Revolution Defense and Fitness---I train at the Woodbury location with Klint; (b) Dave Camarillo, whose jiu jitsu system Klint teaches me; (c) MMA Faestro, a truly great tutorial site that is not limited to MMA---they have almost all of Dave Camarillo's curriculum, a ton of BJJ tutorial videos from Leo Vieira, Cobrinha, and Paul Schreiner, not to mention the wrestling, striking, MMA and judo video tutorials (Klint started it, and it's really exceptional---if you're reading this and haven't seen it, give it a whirl); and (d) Mutiny on the Body, which is run by two Revolution students Gina (brown belt) and Brian (purple belt) who are quite possibly the toughest people I know. I doubt this is giving any of those sites more traffic, but if they get one more subscriber because of those links, I'll be happy. So what about this surprises me? That I've taken the time to make this appear like I want it to, taken the time to make sure the people I know are visible and advertised on my site, and that I keep logging in and writing.
[As you can by now tell, this is not my normal post re-capping training. Deal with it.]
3) OK, now I'm going to the re-cap of training. We worked on breaking down our opponent when we have him in closed guard, learned a triangle set-up off a fake sit-up sweep that I might have fallen in love with, and an arm crush from guard that I never really got the hang of but it might come in handy after a few drilling sessions. Sparring in class was good, I went with both Beard John and New John. It was a big class, so we only had two partners. After class, I went over the testing material with Beard John and Klint, then did some thread work with Vance and Ed. I've grown to really like the thread work that were doing, especially when I can use it in a live roll. I won't spend a lot of time rolling live this week, as I'll be using that time for review. I feel good, though, and confident enough to approach this belt test without being scared to fail. That doesn't mean I won't be drilling in my head as I go to sleep or shower. And Saturday I'm tentatively scheduled for a double at the restaurant (on call in the morning and working at night), so I might not get to try out my possibly-new belt until next week. That would kind of suck, but really, the money is going to pay for a new gi, so who can complain? At some point, I'll have video to post or pictures of training, but I don't have the technology right now, and so you're left with my own explanations that may or may not convey the entire truth.
You'll hear from me again tomorrow night. Because I have class, and that means that I have to tell both of you about it.
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