Gaining Momentum

One of our guys just came back from being away for a few weeks to move out to the ‘burbs, and mentioned how he felt like he needed to get back into the swing of things after what felt like such a long absence. It happens to all of us at some point or another, unless you have somehow managed to shun your entire family and live in a bunker or something. Things happen, life sometimes creates opportunities, other times obstacles, that need to be addressed. You just might lose momentum in the path to training because other, more pressing matters need attending.

While of course it is preferable to train as much as you can, as I am sure I have mentioned before it is also essential to address the personal and professional, immediate bumps in the road. Things that are long term (longer than a month or two)- well, that’s completely up to you. I personally feel if there is no foreseeable resolution within a month or two, then I would say still train, do what you can and if you still have to take a little time off, so be it. Don’t feel bad about it; we all lose momentum or get knocked down once in a while- the real test is if we can back up again.

Happy Memorial Day

Have a happy memorial day everyone, and be sure to have a moment of silence for those it honors.

Oh Yay!…Oh No….

Someone took a great deal of time and effort to create a ranking spreadsheet for those who have competed in IBJJF tournaments, and I am on the list, yay!

However, if Fitocracy has taught me anything, it’s that I am a ridiculously goal oriented person, and I will start setting up goal for myself to get higher in the rankings. Which shouldn’t be impossible, considering I haven’t been completing in that many tournaments period this year. But still, it means possibly pushing myself a lot harder.

Oh my.

If you are a competitor and want to see if you are on the list, check out the site: http://www.worldofjiujitsu.com/home

 

Teaching: More Stressful Than It Looks

So I taught class last night, kinda-sorta all by my lonesome, which was sort of my fault. There was another purple belt in class, but I asked him to take some time and go over some basics with a brand shiny new white belt.

While I have taught some techniques before, I never did an entire class from beginning to end, and while I did just fine, let me tell you, it’s a little stressful. I may have also been putting undue stress on myself, worrying about whether I was explaining something properly. I am a very visual person, and so then to describe an image that is in your head, I don’t know about other people, but I tend to worry that something will get lost in translation.

But, all in all everything went pretty well. So, hooray for being pushed out of my comfort zone, I guess.

RedBelt (And No, Not that Terrible Movie)

There is a gentleman named  Hywel Teague, who is the owner of the video site BJJ Hacks and he needs your help, y’all. He is currently working to raise money in an effort to go down to Brazil and film BJJ red belts, to immortalize these grandmasters.

Stealing a quote from Georgette‘s site, ”  He will track down, interview and film the remaining red belt masters living in Brazil. It’ll be an amazing film. In his words: “it will be an intimate and revealing look into the art of jiu-jitsu, focusing on a group of men with amazing history in the sport.’ ”

More information on the project and a place to throw monies at the project can be found here: http://www.indiegogo.com/redbeltsbjj

Apparently there should also be a site outlining the project, but all the links I have found appear to be broken, so I will update with a new link when I find one that works.

In the meantime, I highly suggest everyone to at least take a look at the little youtube video they have posted on their indiegogo site.

 

Getting an Outside Perspective

We had a girl from Colorado train with us last night, and I have to be honest it was nice to get “an outside perspective” on weaknesses in my game. Of course you can learn tons from your teammates, but after a while you start to follow a pattern and rhythm with teammates. So, it was nice to see what kind of game she played, and how we would react to it.

It probably won’t get to her from here, but whatever; Jen, thank you so much for visiting us! It was a pleasure to train with you!

In House Tournament, 5.20.12

Yesterday our academy had our in house tournament: it went pretty quickly and everyone fought well, both technically and with a lot of heart. The white belts are doing ridiculously well; pulling off really nice techniques and not freezing up under pressure. I can’t wait to see these guys compete at the next (outside) tournament. The ladies who also competed also did crazy well and I’m definitely proud of them.

Good job, guys!

Training with Kids: Harder Than it Looks

It’s one of those things you just assume will be easy: training with a little kind, we’ll say circa 6 to 8 years old. Let me tell you it’s not easy. Mainly because you are trying to maintain a delicate balance: going easy to make sure the odds aren’t unfairly stacked against them, but at the same time you don’t want them to just get away with everything. You want them to have to work for the positions.

So, my hat’s off to the instructors that train with kids and can successfully maintain this balance.

Sometimes You Just Get Lost

I found myself in that kind of position last night: I kept trying for certain techniques, the other person had something entirely different in  and it all got to the point where we were in some sort of unusual position, just kind of lost.

It happens, and its in this ambiguity where great things happen, or you kind of slog through it and hope to salvage some sort of position out the whole mess that is somewhat advantageous. As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of the benefits of training, dealing with that uncertainty and training yourself to improvise and look for openings.

However while keeping all that in mind, it still sucks occasionally.

New Site: GiFreak

Megan from The Tangled Triangle has been working on a new site which I think looks pretty cool: it’s called GiFreak.

The premise from a quick search is showing you what different kinds and brands of gi’s there are out there, along with different reviews from people.

Awesome! My only request is an explanation on what precisely the different weave names mean. I understand single weave vs. double weave but gold? Pearl? Hybrid? Whenever a gi describes themselves as something other than a single or double weave, I tend to pretend like I know what they are talking about, but if I were being honest I would just stare blankly and just say “okay.”

Go check out the site!