It took a lot of positive self talk to get me to sparring this week. I totally didn’t want to do it but that is the time I needed to go. As I waited for my name to be called, I felt like a bloody steak just about to be tossed into an alligator pit. I had four opponents, one American, one Brazillian, one Colombian, and one Russian. I received the most damage from the Russian, but I also learned the most from him. My body is all messed up. I will be ready for next week. I gave up my back at least eight times. This is not sports Jiu Jitsu, so giving up your back is the end of the fight. I tapped out at least five times. I did a few things right, I didn’t burnout. I had conserved my energy throughout all my matches. I didnt get overly aggressive and I remained calm under the pressure. I did a new take down,kukkiki toashi. I think thats the name. So, my goal for next week is to try to not give up my back as much. Work a new throw.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu | Tagged jiu jitsu, Martial Arts, self defense, sparring, submission, throw | Leave a Comment »
Six months ago, just before I bowed to enter the mat for a class, I noticed a small picture frame hanging on the wall at eye level. It contained a letter. The letter was titled, The Way Of The True Warrior. It had seven prominent words with a description beside each. During various lessons, professor Pedro Jr. would refer to this letter and mentioned that it was called the Bushido Code. It’s a code to live by. The seven words were as follows,
- Courage. * Note, the portuguese word for courage is Valente.
- Rectitude of Justice
- Benevolence
- Politeness
- Honesty
- Honor
- Loyalty
**** reference, http//artofmanliness.com/2008/09/14/the-bushido-code-the-right-virtues-of-the-samurai
After I started searching for more information about the Bushido Code, it led me to Buddhism. When I was in high school, I read a book by Hermann Hess, Siddarth, which is about Buddhism. It is a short book but very interesting. Twenty five years later, the study of Jiu Jitsu sparked a new interest in Buddhism. I turned to YouTube.com for information. I was interested in learning how to meditate so I thought a monk would know and I was right. There I found two monks, Yuttadhammo, of Canada, and Ajahn Brahmn, of England. Yuttadhammo has great videos posted on beginning Meditation. Ajahn Brahmn has great videos on how to deal with the problems of modern living. Anyways, it is worth checking them out on Youtube.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu | Tagged Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Buddhism, Bushido Code, Combat Jiu Jitsu, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Martial Arts, meditation, self defense | Leave a Comment »
Back in the late eighties, I was a high school wrestler. I loved watching the unlimited weight class matches. It was like an American sumo match. Today, there isn’t an unlimited class anymore. It has been banned. I believe the heaviest weight class is around 240 lbs maximum.
Every match that I ever saw, the first wrestler to be taken down lost. Most of these obese kids couldn’t do a single sit up, not one. So, when the obese wrestler is on their back and with a 200 lb opponent on top of them, it was just a matter of time before they lost.
Heavy weights ran out of energy really quick. Wrestling is exhausting. After three minutes, these guys would just lay there waiting to be pinned. This works well with Jiu Jitsu because the longer you wait, the faster they will use up their energy, and the quicker you will win. So if you avoid getting knocked out in the first three minutes, these guys will spend most of their energy.
The grossly obese struggle with balance. Hence, they are easy to take down if you can unbalance them. Stay away from the double leg take down because if it’s not done correctly, you could get trapped underneath. Also, the obese wrestler could fall on top of you and that’s when you could get hurt. So, it is important to be on top. It is crucible. We jiu jitsu players can win from the bottom, but that is the back up plan.
In conclusion, avoid being the guy on the bottom when dealing with a grossly obese opponent. When the obese guy is on top, it is a bad situation. Go for a quick take down. I recommend osto gari, or a cinturada with a foot hook. Stay away from double leg take down. Ride them till exhaustion. Three minutes later, escape, a choke,or a hand cuffing, you decide.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu | Tagged blue belt, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, kuzushi, MMA, police officer, self defense, Wrestling | Leave a Comment »
Monday, I went to the morning fundamentals class. It is important to me to have a great grasp of the basics before getting into advanced classes. A lot of fights are won with just fundamental knowledge. A champion is a champion because they do the fundamentals better than everyone else.
At the throwing class, I was paired up with a judo black belt. Note, I believe he is a judo black belt. He’s studying jiu jitsu at the studio. He gave great advise on things that I didn’t know. After the techniques part of the class, we moved onto randori, or sparring. I didn’t feel comfortable about being too competitive. Let’s be honest, a little bit of a challenge makes it fun. During the sparring, my practice partner, cut his toe. It was a small cut that he didn’t even realize until he saw small drops of blood on the mat. So, we spent much of the sparring class cleaning the mat with lysol spray and paper towels. I hope to pair up with him again because the judo insider information is a gift.
I am having trouble with the Japanese words. I found an interesting program called Human Japanese. It’s free. Check it out. You will like it.
This week I skipped out on the sparring class. I admit that I was putting it off and got over run with errands. Can you believe a brown belt asked me why I didn’t show up. I am looking forward to next weeks Thursdays sparring class.
I started doing meditation which I learned from a buddhist monk, Yuttadhammo, on Youtube.com, five minutes in the morning and five before going to bed. I’m thinking about posting an article on Meditation because I believe mediation can help everyone become a better jiu jitsu player.
Good chess players make good jiu jitsu players. This week, I played chess everyday on my kindle. There are lots of free chess programs on the Apple I phone and android network.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu | Tagged black belt, blue belt, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, buddhist monk, chess players, Combat Jiu Jitsu, free chess programs, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, insider information, Martial Arts, MMA, practice partner, randori | 2 Comments »
After two weeks of rest, I wasn’t ready for the throwing class so I put it off. Why? I didn’t feel confident about my falling ability. I am older than most students so I need to be sure that I am limber enough to move around. It is important that you feel confident about your actual ability to break a fall. As a general rule, every time I attend, I warmup with falling exercises. In the future, I’m planning to practice falling on a beach because of the soft sand.
However, I did go to sparring this week. Back in December, I took my first sparring class. It felt like an MMA event. I had four opponents and two were overly aggressive. I had never seen them. I was fighting for survival. At the end, I was completely exhausted and had marks all over my body and face. I violated the rule, To fight the slow fight, and conserve energy.
So, for the second sparring class, the one on Thursday, I took the advise of other students to conserve energy and not be overly aggressive. I communicated better with my opponents. The 2nd class was more staged. If one person wins passing the guard, you are supposed to stop resisting, wait, wait for them to move, and then you react. I didn’t have any injuries. For my first and second class, I admit that I was using everything but Jiu Jitsu. I used a judo pin with a choke hold. I used wrestling moves. Next sparring class, I will try to only use Jiu Jitsu. If I can do a throw, it will be from the clinch. Professor Pedro Jr. made it clear that he doesn’t want to see any throws that aren’t from the clinch.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, Self Development | Tagged blue belt, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Combat Jiu Jitsu, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, jiu jitsu, police officer, self defense | Leave a Comment »
Here are my Jiu Jitsu goal’s for 2012:
Keep coming to class.
Try to follow a weekly plan, one fundamental class, one throwing class, and one sparring.
Give 100% effort while training.
Make it past the first round of the next Grandmaster Helio Gracie tournament in October 2012.
Talk with white belts. Give them support.
Review my fundamental notes twice a week. Copy my fundamental notes into my phone.
Be able to do 40 military push ups and situps by the end of the year.
Practice Uchikomi. Note, Japanese word meaning self throw practice. Article to follow.
Eat a five vegetable soup everyday.
Improve flexibility.
Buy a chess game for my computer. Play once a month.
Learn all the bushido words to memory.
Try a meditation class.
Add pictures and videos to up coming posts.
Learn to make it a habit of executing throws from the clinch only.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, Self Development | Tagged blue belt, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Combat Jiu Jitsu, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, judo, police officer, self defense | Leave a Comment »
A question for myself is, “How can I maintain my Jiu Jitsu lifestyle?” since classes don’t restart until January 2, 2012.
Maintaining a healthy diet is part of the Jiu Jitsu lifestyle. Every morning, I drink a Gracie diet smoothie made with an apple and a banana. For lunch, I have a bowl of soup, preferably made with a minimum of five vegetables.
Jiu Jitsu lifestyle is staying physically fit. So, I do thirty push ups a day and twenty sit ups.
New Years is around the corner. I am preparing a Jiu Jitsu resolution list. Do you wish to make an attainable Jiu Jitsu new year’s resolution? If so, would you consider sharing some of your ideas?
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, Self Development | Tagged blue belt, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Combat Jiu Jitsu, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, police officer, self defense | Leave a Comment »
During the last two plays of my high school American football game in 1987, the coach put me in the game, as a tight end and not as a linebacker which was the position that I usually played. It felt right. As the game played, I clearly realized that I was better suited for a position other than linebacker. I always knew deep down that I was playing the wrong position, but I didn’t advocate for myself. From the first day to the last two plays, I was always full of tremendous self-doubt, lacked concentration, full of negativity, had poor self-confidence, and suffered because of an inability to let go of mistakes. I always felt like a stranger on the team. Mental toughness, I sadly admit, was something I didn’t possess.
I had a much better time when I practiced Judo as a kid and when I was on my high school wrestling team. Then I enjoyed the grueling practices, had great coaching, didn’t feel like a stranger there. I liked the matches and when I won, I felt like I had won a million dollars. I had a mental toughness that I lost when I played football.
So, what is mental toughness? It is being able to overcome a problem, a bad situation, an attacker, a competitor, or a competition, by staying positive and focused through the challenge. It is an ability to bounce back from an injury, emotional trauma, and change. It is the ability to go through training and keep coming back. The good news is that mental toughness isn’t something your born with, it is something you can develop via a process. The process is removing the negative thinking and putting positive thoughts in its place.
Here are some suggestions to help improve mental toughness for Jiu Jitsu practice and for your life:
Try and not view sparring as a competition. There isn’t a winner, nor a loser. Analyze what occurred after the match and try to make yourself better for the next session.
When things go wrong on the mat or in life, instead of complaining, try to find a solution and focus on it.
Before going to bed, rehearse previous lessons in your mind.
Listen to music before class. Music helps improves attitude.
Try to give 100% dedication to whatever you’re doing. Don’t hold back. Go all out.
Never take yourself totally serious.
Visualization. This is how you should visualize yourself. Relaxed under pressure. Focused. Not wasting time on unimportant aspects. Thick skinned, meaning, able to rebound from errors, bad habits, and failures. Be able to handle last-minute self doubts and negative thinking. Confident. Positive attitude, I can show them.
Thank God everyday. Try to do something good, for others.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, Self Development | Tagged blue belt, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Combat Jiu Jitsu, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, self defense | 2 Comments »
December 23, 2011, was the last morning fundamental class of 2011. During the class, Professor Pedro talked about fight strategy. Professor Pedro brought up an example of boxers and power. You never see a middle weight champion boxer challenge a heavyweight champion boxer. Why? It would not be an interesting fight because an average heavyweight boxer could easily defeat the best middle weight champion boxer due to the strength of the punches. It would be a bad strategy for a small to middle size person to get in a boxing match with a heavy sized person. So, what do you do? Distance control. Stay out of range. Pizon. Wait for the clinch. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is about the slow fight.
Most of this week, I was at Disneyworld with my family. I tried to put Jiu Jitsu aside for a few days. I could literally talk about Jiu Jitsu all the time. I noticed that I could be a bit fanatical about it. I planned to relax and start the new year with a renewed commitment to the study.
My weekly blue belt program will be one sparring class, one throwing class, and two fundamental classes. I asked Professor Jimmy what we blue belts should be working on as far as training, and he said ” Just reflex. Beyond purple up to black, it will be reflex and timing.” I was expecting him to say you need to work on escapes, kimoras, chokes etc. Just reflex.
I asked brown belt, Chris, if he had any tips for blue belts. Note, Chris had made it into the third round of the last Helio Gracie Challenge Event, at Valente Brother’s Headquarters, on October 1, 2011. The Helio Gracie Challenge is an annual event held in honor of Helio Gracie’s birthday on October 1. Chris didn’t have any advise. He said, ” The blue belt is really like you tried out for the team and you made it.”
Headquarters will reopen on January 2, 2012.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, Self Development | Tagged blue belt, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, Combat Jiu Jitsu, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, judo, self defense | 1 Comment »
What is the best defense in a bar brawl ??? That question comes up a lot during Jiu Jitsu practice. As a Jiu Jitsu student, you adapt to the situation. Generally, I know that I don’t want to take it to the ground. Bars are known to have broken glass on the floor. If your on the ground, someone could throw a chair on you or you could be kicked in a group attack. In my opinion, the best defense is not being there.
June of 1987 , Greg S., a friend from high school, and I went to Ocean City, Maryland. It was a tradition for recent High School graduates from Baltimore and the surrounding area. Ocean City, Maryland, is a small run down family vacation town on the Atlantic Ocean with a sandy beach. Near the O.C. boardwalk, there was a night club with a dance floor, which allowed 18 year olds into the establishment, but were not permitted to drink. We happily paid to get in and had to wear yellow wrist bands. Meeting women was on our minds. Note, we had a couple of beers on the beach before we entered. To be honest, I don’t recall drinking or how much but it definitely wasn’t an unreasonable amount.
As we were entering the bar, I believe we were being watched. It was about to get very ugly. The place was dark. As we were scoping out the dance floor for women, a ring of guys formed around Greg. Greg was in the center and another guy facing him. The guy next to me said, ” Stay out of this and you won’t get hurt.” Greg is a big guy and he could hold his own so I didn’t immediately object. Thirty seconds later, the man who told me to stay out of the fight, sucker punched Greg in the face. Just as his hand recoiled, I noticed that he was wearing brass knuckles. Brass knuckle is a small metal weapon; worn over the knuckles on the back of the hand. Greg was stunned and stumbling. To make things worse, as Greg stumbled, the attacker in front of him struck him. There was no time to get help. I didn’t remember seeing a bouncer at the front door. I had to act. Right or wrong, I forcefully grabbed the back shoulder shirt of the guy with the brass knuckles and the other guy on my other side by his shirt shoulder. I charged forward while dragging the two guys by the shoulder into Greg and the other guy. In a second, we were all laying on the floor in a pile and I was on top. My hope in collapsing the ring was to create chaos so that Greg could escape. This is when the whole situation gets really unclear. I don’t know what happened to Greg S. after that point.
My next memory is jumping to my feet after the pile up. When I got to my feet, there was a guy in front of me with his hands up with clinched fists. I quickly looked around. I didn’t see Greg. I jabbed the guy hard in the jaw. He returned with a hook. I immediately felt a cut under my eye. The cut on my face was from the attacker’s jagged ring. Blood ran down my face. I don’t have memory of the events after that. Perhaps there was another attacker, out of view, that choked me out? I believe I was knocked or choked unconscious at this time.
Next memory, I saw K. Hopkins, she graduated with me and Greg, standing with her boyfriend in front of us. Her boy friend was manic, wide-eyed, breathing heavy, and holding a broken tennis racket. It was weird. Her boy friend said that he thought he saw the attackers leave the bar. I don’t know if he came to our aid or after I broke the fight ring, the fight evolved into a brawl. After that, I remember the sun had risen. A cop was making a report. We started making our way to the exit. Someone yelled, ” Let them go, they had nothing to do with this.”
Next memory, I was in Greg’s car. Greg was in bad shape. One of his eyes had a broken blood vessel. He kept repeating the same sentence over and over. He had a concussion. I wanted to go to the emergency room but he insisted on going home, so I drove him home in his car.
Posted in Jiu Jitsu, Self Development, Uncategorized | Tagged assault, attacker, brawl, jiu jitsu, judo, knock out, police officer | Leave a Comment »
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