Plays poorly with others

I went to a seminar this past weekend, given by a very public figure in BJJ around the world.  He is a second or third degree black belt, runs a world-famous academy in southern California, and is a relentless advocate for his family's brand of jiu jitsu and way of life.  I won't name him, though if you do minor research, it won't be hard to figure out.

I was disappointed in the seminar.  One session was about side mount, and the second was about triangle.  Neither went that deep into the position or strategies and philosophies around it.  I think part of the reason was that the hosting academy is new, and it's full of white belts and some blue belts.  As a blue myself, I hesitate to cast aspersions on others who hold the same rank, but looking around the room at some people moving around and drilling, I don't think many of them would have been blue belts at other academies.  So that's my snarkiness for the day.

I went on my own, and no one I knew did the seminar.  it was a room full of strangers.  The effect of that, though, is that my partner was always someone who I didn't know---which is more than fine---and who either doesn't pay as close attention to technique as I do (first session) or simply doesn't normally practice jiu jitsu (second session).  So I felt like I ended up re-teaching the techniques once we started drilling them, which seemed to be wasted time.

If nothing else, it gave me still more confidence in my home academy, and in my instructors methods and philosophy.  Exactly what I need---more reason to feel quietly superior.

Plateaus

I was working last night at the bar and a training partner ended up coming in for a drink with a lady friend. They had dinner and a drink or two, and then she left and he waited at the bar for his bus.  So we got to catch up; he and I don't get to train together that often.  He trains across town at night, when I'm usually at Woodbury.  We started training at roughly the same time, I think, but I have one distinct advantage:  I'm 6'1"-ish, 180 lbs, and he's 5'3"-ish, 130 lbs.  [You heard it here first---size matters.]  He said something that resonated with me:  "I see everyone around me making leaps and moving forward, and I feel like I'm just plateauing."

Why did this resonate with me?  I look over the history of this blog, and I can see (and remember writing) posts about how I feel good about my jiu jitsu, and how I feel like I'm progressing.  Right now, it's a little different.  I know that I'm progressing and improving.   I feel myself giving certain people more trouble than I used to, I see myself beating guys who used to stomp me.  I take my training seriously (more seriously than I think my lovely wife would like), and I make time to roll with guys across town so that I get training in with different bodies and higher belts who are not my instructor.  I hear guys complimenting my progress, etc.  And it still feels like a plateau.  Explain that.

For one, improvement is becoming much more of a slog, a much steeper incline.  It's no longer about learning the basics; now I have to build combinations and increase push-pull sensitivity and up my aggression without sacrificing my defense.  For another, I don't have people with whom to practice building those essentials.  I have Klint to wreck me, I have the white belts to wreck, and I have guys across town to measure my game.  I don't have drilling partners.  And those are the ones I think I need right now.  Blue belt, as I understand it, is where you build your game, where you craft what kind of jiu jitsu player you're going to be and determine what goes into your A game.  I'm going to be here a long, long time.  And I'm cool with that.  What would bother me would be being a blue belt for a long long time and feeling the entire time like I'm not training properly.

Updates

I just got back from a family trip to Texas.  We have family in Ft. Worth, so I got to train twice at Genesis Jiu Jitsu.  A training partner recommended it to me a few months back, and this is the first change I got to train there.  Great bunch of guys, they train hard and were extremely welcoming to me.  They heard I was in from Minnesota and just opened the doors, both literally and figuratively.

I trained one session no gi with them (seems the only time I train no gi is when I travel and visit other academies) and one session gi.  I matched up pretty well against guys of similar rank, I felt.

Right now, my jiu jitsu feels great.  This goes back even to my tournament performance.  I'm very happy with where my game is for the amount of time I've been training and how I'm able to handle myself against people with years more mat time and depth of experience than I have.  I don't have a good competition game, and I'll be the first to admit that.  We just don't get enough competitions in the great white north.  If we want a decent depth of competition, we have to drive to Chicago, and that's six hours and a hotel room for a few nights.  It's brutal.  I think that if I had more opportunity to throw myself into the fire, I would have finer timing and quicker synapses in those situations.  So my tournament results do not coincide with my confidence in my game.  But I don't train for tournaments.  I train for fights.  I train for unexpected situations.  I train for no time limits.  I train so that I'm not the one who gases.  So that I can outlast my opponent and take no damage at the same time.   Of course, I've never had to use it outside the academy.  So there's that.

And that's where I'm going to leave it tonight.  Go train.  Get better.  I took the night off to stay with my gestating bride and pet my forlorn dog, but tomorrow night I'll be back on the mats.  And Friday I get sworn in as an officially licensed attorney in the State of Minnesota.  (If that's not weird, I don't know what is.)  Still, I'll be learning, losing, and loving every second of it as often as I possibly can.

I Hate Rules

Here are my matches:

Weight 1:


Weight 2:


Weight 3 (bronze medal match):


Absolute 1:


Absolute 2:



=========

I'm happy with where my jiu jitsu is, if not with my tournament performance.  I felt that if there were no governing rules or scoring system -- if this were a sub only tournament, for instance -- then I would have won every match.  I never felt out of my depth, I never felt sideways.  I was in a bad spot once or twice, but I never felt threatened.  And I didn't gas, which was a nice realization.  (Though I'm sure someone will tell me that it just means I wasn't working hard enough.  I will tell that person to pound sand, but that's a different post.)

So here's some more of my jiu jitsu.  Enjoi.

Game Time

I'm on weight.  And miserable for not having had a proper drink in weeks.

I've my schedule plotted to drive down, sleep, weigh in, eat, and then compete.  With a bit of luck, I'll have someone video it.

There's nothing else for me to do at this point but drive down and compete.  I'll do a quick bike ride tomorrow, get some blood pumping in the morning.  But at this point, it's like all those law school tests:  there's nothing I'm going to learn in the hours between now and go time that will make the difference between success and something else.  So it's time to get legitimate work done that I've been delaying, to sleep, and then to fight.

See you on the other side.

Official

I registered for the tournament in Chicago.  No backing out now.  Which is good, because the diet I've restricted myself to sucks.  I'm not much over, just a few pounds, but I don't want to have to bath in salt or wear mountain climbing gear in a sauna the day before.  So that's on.

I have two weddings this week, both Friday and Saturday, and a rehearsal dinner tonight, so I won't be able to train again until Saturday.  I front-loaded the week to balance it out, training Monday morning and evening, Tuesday lunch, and Wednesday morning.  I'm pretty lean and sore, but it appears to be paying off.  I had a few pretty good rolls with higher belts, lasting entirely too long and doing much more than surviving.  I was successfully attacking.  I didn't finish all of my attacks successfully, but that's the way it goes.  It's been something of a confidence booster.  I'm not letting myself think I'm better than I am; I still got wrecked on more than one occasion.  But I'm evolving.  And that is good.

I registered for both my weight division and absolute.  I told myself beforehand that I would do only my weight division.  But going to Chicago is a long way to go, and being guaranteed only one fight just wasn't enough for me.  So I'll have at the very least two (hopefully many more), and I'll be ridiculously tired that night.

Oh yeah, and this morning I found out that I passed the MN bar exam.

Badges

I went to a movie last night with my wife and some friends, and I found myself looking at the actors' ears to see whether they train jiu jitsu.  Granted, it's not a foolproof system---plenty of people who roll have pristine ears.  But for some reason, I was hoping this actor had a little bit of cauliflower.  It would have helped me to connect with him just that much more.