Friendly Reminder About Being Mindful with Your Jiu Jitsu

Remember kids, it’s harder to break an  old habit than to create a new habit. Be mindful when drilling, work on being as technical and precise as possible, because it will eventually become ingrained into your jiu jitsu.

Have a great day everyone!

Science! A New Study Suggests Meditation is Beneficial on a Cellular Level

I usually try to wait until Thursday to post science stuff, but I thought this was pretty interesting: a recent study suggests that meditation can affect the human body on a cellular level. While the study says that the cells (the telomeres, to be exactly) have changed through mindful meditation and yoga, when reading the article it sounds like that portion of the chromosome is actually preserved- when the telomere is gone, the chromosome will degrade, which is bad news for the cell.

As I’ve stated before, you can view jiu jitsu as a sort of unconventional form of meditation- I would be interested to see how it stacked up to these other forms of meditation and exercise.

Check out the article and let me know what you think- otherwise, have a great day everyone!

BJJ: Understand Your Strengths, but Don’t Cater to Them

This is a pretty funny article, a satire of the “oh, only things this particular personality type will understand” articles that are floating around the internet right now:

Sorry I Murdered Everyone, But I’m an Introvert

And I guess as someone who wobbles between INTJ and INFJ, this is my favorite comment so far in response to the article- “…INTJs are the people who help you plan your party. We calculate the minimum effort necessary for maximum enjoyment, and plan ahead to reduce the stresses of being in crowds. Accidentally slaughtering all of your guests? That’s sloppy. That’s some ISFP nonsense right there.”

I feel like these articles almost excuse our personality traits-which, we should accept and acknowledge our strengths and shortcomings, but I have always disagreed with the concept of catering to them. For example, I just found out there’s an app for my phone where I can potentially have wine and liquor delivered to my house, just like a pizza.Will I use it and cater to my introverted nature that really hates crowds? No: buying alcohol for me is really such a rare occasion (maybe once every 3 to 6 months) that I can “put my big girl pants on” and face a store full of strangers just like everyone else.  Also, browsing can be fun sometimes.

To put it into a jiu jitsu context, I am pretty decent at chokes, but that doesn’t mean I should neglect joint locks. I really like one kind of sweep, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only sweep I should do. The examples could go on and on- there are certain techniques that work really well for me, some that don’t, but I try not to excuse the deficiencies in my game and only focus on my strengths. That leads to a lop-sided player in a way: almost like only working out the right side of your body but not your left, because the right side is your “strong side”.

Do you want to be the jiu jitsu equivalent of this guy? I don’t.

Understand your strengths- introversion, extroversion, right, left, chokes, armbars- but also understand that you have to work on your weaknesses on and off the mat to make yourself a more well rounded jiu jitsu player, and human being in general.

Lovato Out of Metamoris 5

Not to kill your jive this morning, but unfortunately Raphael Lovato Jr. (who really should dress as that particular Ninja Turtle one Halloween…but I digress) will not be participating in Metamoris 5 due to a tear in his shoulder.

This is the explanation he provided on Facebook:

“To all my friends, fans, & supporters, I regret to inform you that I will not be able to compete at Metamoris 5 against Yuri Simoes on November 22nd, due to a serious tendon tear that happened in training this week.

The tendon that connects my pec to my shoulder is torn.

Words cannot express the disappointment I felt when I got hurt this week and realized that I was going to have to step out of Metamoris and cancel my fight with Yuri.”

I truly feel bad for Lovato: not only does he train hard, obviously a top competitor, but the few times I’ve met him he’s just a really nice guy, and it’s a shame to see someone work so hard, they are so close to their goal and then an injury like this pop up, taking them out of the running.

I saw (I think it was Instagram…I don’t remember. Which, btw my username on there is @skirtonthemat if any of you are interested) that Cobrinha is clamoring to take Lovato’s spot: we’ll see how things play out over the next couple of weeks, I guess.

Who do you think should take Lovato’s spot in Metamoris? Let me know- otherwise, have a great day everyone!

Happy Friday: All About That Base (No Rebel) Edition

Happy Friday everyone!

I’m just gonna leave this here for you to enjoy…

Have a great weekend everyone!

Deep Thoughts About Jiu Jitsu, and Stuff

During the last day of our trip to Long Beach for Master Worlds, we ended up at one of the beaches in the area overlooking the gorgeous….tankers and industrial stuff that covered the shoreline.

Anyway, the team ended up walking/climbing along a rock jetty on the beach, which was pretty interesting, particularly because I was already in city shoes with little to no traction- not “walking and climbing on a bunch of big rocks” shoes. So what the heck does this have to do with jiu jitsu? I started to wonder the same thing as I climbed along. And surprisingly, a lot more than you would initially think. You climb along the rocks, jumping from one to the other- sometimes you leap over areas some people have difficulty navigating, sometimes you are temporarily stuck in spots that others may breeze through. Sometimes to continue you just have to make a leap of faith onto an area you’re not entirely sure is safe, and trust that you can land without doing any serious damage to yourself. You continue along, even gain a little rhythm, even some momentum to your movements. You occasionally stop to look back and you’re surprised at how much progress you’ve made, even though it feels like you really haven’t gone all that far. Sometimes you underestimate how well you’ll do, other times you overestimate and falter a little, but the important thing is that you keep going. As long as you don’t stop- you adapt, you learn, you continue to progress.

Those are just my “deep thoughts”. Just keep working at it, and you will eventually progress in jiu jitsu. 🙂

Have a great day everyone!

A Return to the East Coast and Article on BJJ and Joint Care

Holy crap, I think that’s the longest I’ve gone without posting for quite some time.

I went to Master Worlds- won one match, lost by points in the final of my division and lost by points in the absolute. A bummer, but I’m also taking it as motivation to get back in the gym and tighten some techniques up, adjust some reactions to things.

Anyhoo, while I get caught up on work and life things, check out this article from the Science of Skill on joint care. Because trust me, even if you don’t think you need to take care of your joints, you totally do.

Check it out, and have a great day everyone!