For this month, the most important lesson I learned from the advanced grappling class was to use your own body weight to pin your opponent. I learned that when I wrestled in high school, but, could have done it more. Professor Pedro wanted this drilled into our minds. He called it, melting on to your opponent.
Archive for March, 2013
Blue Belt Week 67, March 28, 2013 Using Body Weight
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged Advanced grappling, bbj, grace Jiu Jitsu on March 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Blue Belt Week 66, March 22, 2013
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged Advanced BBJ, Gracie BBJ, Memorization technique, The Seven Principles of a True Warrior, Waterboy on March 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Rectitude, Courage, Benevolence, Politeness, Honesty, Honor, and Loyalty
Do you know the Seven Principles Of A True Warrior? The seven principles are on a wall at headquarters. I almost have them memorized word for word. With some discipline, I found an easy method to memorize them. Here is how: Learn one sentence at a time by saying the word and repeating the definition 108 times out loud. For example, say out loud, “Rectitude: Doing what is right without regard to the consequences.” The next day, ” Courage: Inner strength to resist opposition.” 108 times. The next day, ” Benevolence: Disposition to do good.” 108 times. “Politeness/Propriety: Proper consideration and courtesy to others.” The next day, ” Honesty/sincerity: Genuine integrity in character and action.” ” Honor: profound respect and ethical conduct.” Finally,” Loyalty: faithful in allegiance.” By the end of the week, you will have memorized the seven principles word for word. Once, learned try to say the principles once a week to keep it fresh in the mind. This is something I don’t want to forget. Jiu Jitsu is away to leave behind the old bad you, and create a new good better you; well, that is what I want my training to be.
October was the last time I attended an Advance class. Half the class were brown belts. I felt like the waterboy. I kept quiet while they chatted before class. They have known each other for years. I made the mistake of pairing up with a fellow blue belt who was trying to learn the lesson for the first time. In the fundamental’s class, I know what is going on but in the advance class, I am the waterboy. I was struggling to learn a spinning armbar from the guard. Next advance class, I will try to pair up with a brown belt. There are a lot of lessons to be learned in Advanced. Wow, another mountain to climb. This was lesson 33. I know that jiu jitsu is mostly experience and very little book learning; however, I need a notebook.
Blue Belt Week 65, March 15, 2012.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged Buddhism, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, meditation, road to black belt, time, vitamin D on March 16, 2013| 1 Comment »
In our life, a lot of present time goes un noticed. I’m trying to live in the moment. Right now. Not the past. Not the future. There is little benefit in dwelling in past memories. There is little benefit in worrying about the future. The eteneral present which is really the only time there is.
As we lined up to bow to our professor on Friday’s fundamental class, I was the highest ranking belt, a first time experience. However, a little later, a purple belt and a brown belt showed up late. I didn’t feel conformtable being the one being looked up too, not yet. I thought to myself of my very first class which was a distant memory and here I am now. For me, the joy of the journey isn’t the final destination, black belt, but the journey to it.
Longevity. I am now taking vitamin D3. I was shocked to read that 100 million Americans, out of 300, are vitamin d deficient. A chronic low level could lead to cancer. Your body needs direct sunlight to make it. So, if you don’t get out in the sun very often, you should get tested. You body needs vitamin D for skeleton and muscle health. You need a blood test to know the actual level.
Blue Belt Week 64, March 8, 2013
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, Uncategorized, tagged Advanced grappling, baby aspirin, BJJ, Gracie Jiu Jitsu on March 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I had a great class on Tuesday, the advanced grappling. We worked on a pin and a technique to maintain it. I am feeling confident I could keep the Russian strongman pinned with the technique we just learned, unless he out smarted me. It is a fact that Russian’s are great fans of chess which jiu jitsu is similar. I have to depend on technique. Professor Pedro is going to teach the nine pins in the coming weeks which is something I knew about when I was a kid, they didnt teach everything at onetime, but wanted to learn but didn’t. So, I am looking forward to the coming weeks. That was the only class I could make because of the flu. I got it from my kids.
Anti aging stuff. I wouldn’t recommend Flex-a-min double strength, glucosamine. I’m now trying Kirkland Glucosamine HCI 1500mg with MSM 1500mg, 375 tablets, 2 times a day. This has 3x MSM than flexamin and it was 3 tablets a day. Side note, Costco, besides selling cheapest gas in the area, they have great supplements at low prices.
I started taking two baby aspirin, Kirkland, 162 mg, at bed time. There are some risks which you should consult a doctor before starting this.
Blue Belt Week 63, March 1, 2013 Workout With A Heavy Weight Pro Wrestler
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged bbj, Gracie jiu jitsu self defense heavy weight, russian wrestler, strong man on March 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Have you ever seen a strong man competition? Why would a strong man want to learn Gracie Jiu Jitsu? Well, on Friday, I partnered up in the fundamental class with a Ukrainian strong man, well; that was what it felt like. I estimated he was over 275 lbs and thin, 6-5, a miss match of more than 100 pounds. He had wrestled in Russia and had some judo experience. During the review, he did a hip throw where I felt like I was being launched to the ceiling. After that review, I was trying to do a bear hug from the front but he put me in a guillotine choke. I didn’t explain what I was doing very well. Because of the grip, I knew I was too late for defense 1 so I went to guillotine defense 2. Fail. I couldn’t get my fingers in between his forearms. I started tapping. Then we moved on to another series of moves, he practiced passing the guard but not any move I had seen. I had him in the guard. He slightly lifted me and chopped my thighs, stacked me, then chest to chest. With more than 275 lbs on my chest, I was firmly glued to the floor. Right then and there, I knew he had wrestling experience. He did a side mount, to a full mount, and into a stealth arm bar, gg gitani. I was impressed for someone so large how well he executed the moves. From there, he wanted to work on Kimuras from the side mount. That was when he started messing with me. It reminded me when I was in high school where the coach would make the heavy weight wrestlers practice with the light weights. The heavy weight wrestlers loved to torture the light weights. He did a Kimura but pretended he couldn’t feel my tapping or hear me. I thought my arm was going to snap so I started shouting right in front of the instructors as they laughed. He stopped but I was fully panicked. Review ended and we moved onto the lesson plan.
We learned a few moves. A two finger and thumb collar choke from behind. My choke hand wasn’t a problem but bring his arm behind his head to rest my back hand on his neck was a problem. It wouldn’t have been easy. It was better for my free hand to grab the other side of the gi. If you don’t, the opponent could turn into you while doing the choke and get free on top of you. Also, we learned a standing foot lock. He had trouble getting his biceps around the leg over the foot; however, his grab of the leg didn’t matter because I believe he could break someones leg without having the proper technique.
Over all, it was a good experience.
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