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Archive for the ‘Jiu Jitsu’ Category

Blue Belt Week 65, March 15, 2012.

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , , , 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.

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Blue Belt Week 64, March 8, 2013

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, Uncategorized, tagged , , , 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.

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Blue Belt Week 63, March 1, 2013 Workout With A Heavy Weight Pro Wrestler

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , 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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Blue Belt Week 61, February 15, 2013. Third Stripe

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , on February 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This week I earned my third stripe which put me in a good mood. I hadn’t been in a while. I’m getting closer to purple belt.

In the advanced grappling class, my practice partner was a purple belt from Russian. After that class, I had to sit out a few days of training because of a knee sprain and sore shoulder. I hope he left there in the same condition. For the record, I don’t like training like that where I get injured, or I injure someone needlessly. I will avoid working out with him.

I added two new supplements, Dhea 50mg a day, coQ10, and started drinking matcha green tea.

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Blue Belt Week 60, February 8, 2013, Upa

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , on February 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Around this time two years ago, a purple belt, had brought me to Gracie Jiu Jitsu for my first lesson. Upon entering the mat, he immediately taught me the Upa. That was what new students learn in their first lesson. The upa is a defense against an attacker where the aggressor has you pinned and is throwing strikes to the face. The aggressor’s hips must be on top of your hips in order for this to work.

Normally, an instructor will show the student, but the fundamental class was on lesson 15 and the Upa is lesson one. I was impressed and knew that was a great defense. After class, I signed up for a year.

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Blue Belt Week 59, February 2, 2013

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , on February 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

After two and a half months, I went to a fundamentals class, which I had avoided. I’m trying to push myself out of my comfort zone by attending advanced classes. I admit that advanced courses has not been easy. In fact, it has put a lot of self imposed self doubt upon myself. However, I was glad to see the white belts that I worked out with there before, as well as, higher belts. It was like a reunion. I will re add a fundamental class into my weekly schedule.

This month, February, makes two years of Gracie Jiu Jitsu study. I would say that my life has improved a lot because of it.

I planned a 24 hour fast for Sunday but moved the fast to next week because of the Super Bowl.

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Blue Belt Week 57, January 19, 2013

Posted in Jiu Jitsu on January 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I improved my choke techniques because I trained with a higher belt that really knows the teachings and better than I am. Training like this will improve my technique and sparring. I have to wear a collared shirt to cover up the scratch marks all over my neck. My family will start to complain if they see it.

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Blue Belt Week 56, January 13, 2013. Low Mount

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I had a flash back during Tuesday’s grappling class taught by Profesor Pedro. The wrestling coaches at my high school back in the late 80’s, Archbishop Spalding, Severn, Maryland, would constantly remind us, ” The person whom first achieved the takedown, usually won the match.” That was our mantra. From personal experience, it took a lot of energy to get the opponent to the mat by a takedown. It took a lot of energy to be on attack. Wrestling was physically exhausting. Three minutes seemed like an hour.

Once you got them to the mat, you had to hold them and prevent the escape. You worked hard for the position, you absolutely didn’t want to give up position. If you landed in the low mount, victory was very close. So, the focus of the grappling class, at least for me, was using my body weight on the opponent to pin in preparation for the finishing move. I worked hard for the take down, now, I wanted the win from the mounted position.

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Blue Belt Week 55, January 5, 2013. Keeping fit with judo pushups.

Posted in Jiu Jitsu, tagged , , , on January 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A good conditioning exercise for jiu jitsu is the judo push up. Judo push ups kept me fit during the winter break. So what is a judo push up? See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etHzNRxMfZw

In words, you start out in a bear crawl position. Try to get low to the floor while you pass over your hands then stretch into a cobra with arms fully extended. Come back to start in reverse order. It is a tough exercise. I try to do three sets of 10 judo push ups when I workout. The judo push up works more muscles than a standard push up. Also, the motion of the judo push up helps to remind you to use your body weight to pin your opponent.

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Blue Belt Week 54, December 29, 2012

Posted in Jiu Jitsu on December 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Lately, my enthusiasm for Jiu Jitsu is up and down. I guess I could use some encouragement. I will keep pushing through. I want to go, and I don’t want to go.

What is my problem? Injuries and people that want to cause injury. Flashback. What I liked about judo was that it was just friendly competition, and we all tried to make each other better. From the movie, 100 years of Judo, I learned that Judo is really a weak form of Jiu Jitsu where the harmful things were removed by Jigaro Kano, the creator of judo, so as to allow everyone in Japan to practice. Judo is a national pass time in Japan. The ending remarks in the “100 Years of judo”, from Master Jigaro Kano,the ultimate goal of judo is to develop fine people.

Before, I would attend class like I was going to a gym, which was the wrong mind set. Since that incident, the attempted broken ankle, I’m now training with a driven intensity, like a fire that was lit inside of me, or training for an important wrestling match against a rival school. I started weight lifting with purpose. I’m working on power and speed. Instead of losing weight, I want to put weight on. I know I should focus on technique but having size and strength is an advantage, but I realize with a loss of flexibility.

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