I am chronicling my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training here on this site. I think writing about it will give me a better perspective on how my training relates to my overall ability. My training sessions are broken into the following:

1. 1. Warmup/Learn and Practice new technique.
2. 2. Do drills against opponents trying only to escape your technique.
3. 3. Sparring against fully resisting opponents (Rolling). This takes up the majority of class time.

Thoughts and best/worse matches:

Last night we went over the rules regarding competition BJJ as opposed to street fighting BJJ. We also geared the class around training for competition (as we normally train for more realistic scenarios).  It was a different feeling trying to go for points rather than trying everything we can to obtain a dominant position and submit our opponents. It is definitely a little safer, and allows us to branch out our technique without fear of getting punched in the face. Mostly we worked on takedowns and did mock-competition matches with  each other.

Rolling was a lot shorter, so I did not gas. I have never gone a whole class without gassing before. I did manage to fit in 3 opponents. Two advanced guys, one guy of about my level. The first advanced guy (blue belt) is the same I have fought the past 3 classes, and as per usual, he made quick work of me. I am going to try to see if he can work with me some during open mat next Saturday. His game is really solid and he’s a good teacher. The next advanced guy usually tools me pretty badly, but while he got mount,  north-south, side control, and everything else he wanted, he did not submit me. That is a victory in itself. Against the guy of my equal level, I choked him while he was in my guard, and he submitted due to exhaustion while I was in side control. Although I dominated him, it felt like a hollow victory because he quit during the second fight.

It was an easier class than usual because we spent so long clarifying competition rules. I hope Thursday is more intense.

The best way to describe Saturday evening’s PRIDE event is this: Un-freaking-believable.

First of all, this card is stacked by some really big names. The main event featuring two current title holders, Dan Henderson (Welterweight champ) and Wanderlei Silva (Middleweight champ) with the Middleweight belt on the line. Some of the best fighters in the world in all divisions were competing that night and honestly, I expected a bunch of one-sided slaughtering due to most of the good fighters fighting cans. This was most definitely not the case and I ended up seeing some of the best underdog victories in MMA history. Here is what I am talking about:

Frank Trigg VS. Kazuo Misaki: This was the second fight of the night. Frank Trigg is currently known for two things. He is the English-language color commentator for PRIDE, and he loses constantly via the rear naked choke submission. Words cannot express my true hatred for Frank Trigg. He is a horrible horrible commentator and says things that constantly make me angry. Misaki is an amazing Welterweight and the winner of the last PRIDE Welterweight Grand Prix championship. This means he won a tournament featuring the best Welterweights in the world. He even beat Dan Hnderson (current Welterweight champion) but did not take the title because of the tournament setting. OUTCOME: Trigg wins an honestly deserved unanimous decision. I wanted him to lose so bad.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira VS Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou: This was by far the biggest upset of the night. A quick background on Nogueira (lil nog) basically entails that he is one of the best boxers in Brazil, AND a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black belt (His brother Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira [big nog] is considered one of the top 3 heavyweights in the world, and the best grappler in MMA). Lil nog is also considered to be among the top contenders for the Middleweight belt. Sokoudjou on the other hand, has no background. He’s a judoka. Nobody has ever heard of him before, and most folks considered him a can to be fed to Nogueira on his road to a title shot. OUTCOME: Sokoudjou wins via KO in TWENTY-THREE seconds. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I would honestly say finding a stack of cash on my doorstep when leaving for work in the morning is more likely than the outcome of this fight. This proves anything can happen in MMA.

Takanori Gomi VS Nick Diaz: This was the fight I wanted to see most of all. Gomi is the current PRIDE lightweight champion. He is a great striker, has good cardio, and has beaten the best in his division. Nick Diaz is no slouch either. A pro boxer, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu brown belt, and successful UFC veteran. He is most famous for his childish smack-talking and cursing when doing appearances. Gomi was the clear favorite to win, and I would have bet money on him too. OUTCOME: Diaz wins by GOGOPLATA. Seriously, a gogoplata. Not only this, but he honestly dominated Gomi even when standing. Good for you Nick! Now grow up, stop being a tool, and keep winning fights. Honestly, I do not know why the Lightweight title wasn’t on the line for this fight, but Diaz surely deserved it.

Main Event - Wanderlei Silva VS Dan Henderson: This is a fight that I would have sworn would end one of 3 ways. Wandy by decision, KO, or TKO. This is a meeting between two champions well established in their division as good strikers and have both enjoyed long reigns at the top. Wanderlei is a Chute Boxe veteran and has proven his knees and wild punches truly lethal. He has a killer instinct and is very fun to watch. Henderson has been dubbed ‘Decision Dan’ by some folks, mostly because he wins a lot of fights through the judges. He has been known to throw a heavy right hand. OUTCOME: Henderson wins via KO in the third round! What a slugfest this fight was. I am an instant Dan Henderson fan after his domination of Wanderlei Silva who is considered to be one of the best fighters in the world.

This was one of the best MMA events I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. If you would like to watch some of the fights, contact me and I will try to work something out.

I am chronicling my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training here on this site. I think writing about it will give me a better perspective on how my training relates to my overall ability. My training sessions are broken into the following:

1. 1. Warmup/Learn and Practice new technique.
2. 2. Do drills against opponents trying only to escape your technique.
3. 3. Sparring against fully resisting opponents (Rolling). This takes up the majority of class time.

Thoughts and best/worse matches:

I was pretty discouraged this week after the complete destruction I had endured on Tuesday night, but I was still really happy to be in class. The whole day I was dizzy, exhausted, had a sore throat/stuffy nose, and just felt really off. I didn’t even have time to eat a proper dinner beforehand and I was prepared for another sound beating. Warmups were alright. Try jumping in the air for an entire 2 minutes as high as you can with your arms straight up like you’re trying to grip the ceiling. No big deal right? Two minutes is a long time to go all out. It’s harder than it sounds. We learned some nifty passes while in an opponent’s spider guard, and an escape from a bicep crusher. I didn’t do so well with these. I honestly attribute it to my newbishness because my much more experienced partner was doing them quite well. We also worked on more spider guard bottom position transitioning between a sweep, armbar, and triangle choke. These were basically review, so they went well.

After Tuesday night I was chatting with my instructor and I was concerned with my perceived lack of improvement. He told me I was improving quite well and told me to try an experiment. During rolling, we get 3-4 opponents over the course of the night. He said to pick someone who is much more advanced than me to test my defense, then pick someone the same level as me to test things I am comfortable with, and finally pick someone newer than me so I can work on things that are a bit riskier and judge how far I have come. I did exactly that. Against the guy who was newer than me, I choked him out 3 times and armbarred him. Against the guy who was equal to me, I tapped him with a kimura and controlled him the rest of the fights fairly easily. Against the first advanced guy I rolled with, he obliterated me, but was very happy to give me suggestions (the advanced guys at my school are really cool for the most part). Against the second advanced guy (not as good as the first advanced guy), I did really well. I kept a dominant position for most of the fights and even got him once with a wrist lock from mount. He did not submit me.

I would have to say this was my best night rolling despite feeling physically drained and awful coming in. It’s amazing what adrenaline can do for your overall sense of physical well-being. It was really nice to feel like I am doing well, rather than picking the best guys to fight and being constantly humbled. That being said, there is SO much I have to learn and I need to train harder to get where I want to be.

I am chronicling my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training here on this site. I think writing about it will give me a better perspective on how my training relates to my overall ability. My training sessions are broken into the following:

1. 1. Warmup/Learn and Practice new technique.
2. 2. Do drills against opponents trying only to escape your technique.
3. 3. Sparring against fully resisting opponents (Rolling). This takes up the majority of class time.

Thoughts and best/worse matches:

I went into class last night fairly excited because I had missed open mat last Saturday due to being at the Estrella War. We learned three fairly cool techniques. We learned yet another sweep from open guard, this time from spider guard. We also worked on triangle choke technique and a sweet transition from the sweep to an omoplata. These came fairly easy, but the sweep specifically has to be done very fast I think in order for it to work. I really dug the omoplata because it was a very flashy move, and those are fun to do.

Rolling went pretty badly. I rolled against 4 guys who are all much better and more experienced than me (including one blue belt). The best match for me I think was the first. I only got submitted twice which is honestly saying a lot against him. My worst match was with a guy who is just about to get his blue belt. He had mount and was going for a choke. I was defending pretty well, and in frustration he rammed his knuckles into my throat and ground them against my windpipe. While effective, that kind of maneuver is frowned upon because it is obviously dangerous. I don’t think he did it on purpose, I think he was just not paying attention. Either way it hurt like hell (and still hurts now). This morning I could hardly get out of bed due to my ribs, back, chest, and throat hurting like crazy. I guess if I am dumb enough to do this sport, I have to take the bad with the good.

That being said, I am pondering taking private lessons with my instructor. I really want to take my game to the next level. He is a good guy, and offered a deal if I buy multiple lessons. I just might take him up on that.

Thanks to a good friend, I did in fact venture into the eccentric and eclectic world of the SCA for one evening this past weekend. Estrella War is this gigantic gathering where people take a week out of their lives, pitch up tents, camp, and dress up/talk/act like they imagine people would in the 12-1400’s. This involves exotic clothing, armour, robes, swords, shields, and horribly fake cockney accents. One really cool activity is large scale ‘battles’ with upwards of 1000 people in full armour beating the scyte out of each other with sticks for hours on end. With any kind of large gathering involving a few thousand people, there was of course a multitude of different things to purchase so you could be more ‘authentic’.

Now, one would expect to see about a 80/20% nerd male/female ratio at such an event, but it was actually more like 60/40%. There were also tons of insanely hot women. These women of course had an entourage of hopeful suitors chanting the likes of ‘m’lady, a kiss for your honour’ or something in the hopes of actually getting some form of action. I was surpised at the fact that there was a complete and diverse mix of all types of people.

The one night I did go (last Friday), is the night of the ‘big parties’. A lot of my friends go to these SCA events, so they helped organize a large party near their camp. There was probably 300 or so people crammed into this little area. There was an open bar, games, and of course, the ‘bucket’. The ‘bucket’ is a homemade drink that consists of a variety of things usually mixed by my good buddy. I believe it contains vodka, sprite, vanilla stuff, fruit, and tons of ice in a large steel bucket. Normally someone goes around from clique to clique at this party and offers everyone a drink of ‘bucket.’ Me being the hospitable fellow I am, as well as being TOTALLY destroyed thanks to a friend’s Ouzo offering less than an hour before and some mystery drinks from the open bar, I decided to be a ‘bucket’ bearer. Despite my unbelievable inebriation (I am seriously not a big drinker to be honest), I managed to take this bucket around yelling at everyone I saw to ‘Try some bucket!’ (in my worst English accent of course). I came to find that the ladies especially loved this drink. They loved it so much that I actually had some following the bucket in hopes of getting another sip. I remember threats of being ‘goosed’ if I didn’t ‘give up the bucket.’ Others were seriously grabbing my junk so I would not walk by without offering ‘the bucket’. It was very surreal.

The next morning I felt fine (amazingly) and spent the day wandering the shops in the hopes of finding some cool things to bring home. Just like the Renaissance fair however, there was not much variety from shop to shop and most things were grotesquely overpriced.

All in all I had a great time and would definitely go again. This may make me a horrid nerd, but you know what they say. If the shoe fits, wear it.

I am chronicling my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training here on this site. I think writing about it will give me a better perspective on how my training relates to my overall ability. My training sessions are broken into the following:

1. 1. Warmup/Learn and Practice new technique.
2. 2. Do drills against opponents trying only to escape your technique.
3. 3. Sparring against fully resisting opponents (Rolling). This takes up the majority of class time.

Thoughts and best/worse matches:

Last night was one of the best nights I have ever had in class. Warmups were quick but brutal. Try doing 10 fast pushups, then 9 fast pushups, then 8, etc. without resting or ever letting your knees hit the floor. It’s harder than it sounds. After warmups we did some more sweeps from open guard, most notably Butterfly guard. These were really nice to learn as I had been in these situations with nothing to do other than trying to keep someone from passing. I noticed that during the technique exercises I am much less winded than I have been during other practices.

Last night was also one of the best nights I’ve had for rolling. I went the whole evening not being submitted. That’s a nice feeling to be honest. My first match was against someone of equal skill. We rolled a while, but I kept dominant positions almost the entire time. I couldn’t finish though. Next time I’ll get ‘im! Honestly that was my worst match. My best match was against someone with much higher skill. I managed to get an armbar on his far arm while in side control. Granted, I honestly think he was being nice and giving me a bit of a break by not sweeping me prior to the armbar. Despite this, I had never finished anyone with that specific armbar so it still made me happy.

Saturday during open sparring time, I will hopefully get some of these more advanced guys to show me some more guard passing techniques. Being chubby and kinda slow, it’s hard for me.

Seeing as how I may not have many things interesting to say, I will chronicle my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training here on this site. I think writing about it will give me a better perspective on how my training relates to my overall ability. My training sessions are broken into the following:

1. 1. Warmup/Learn and Practice new techniques.
2. 2. Do drills against opponents trying only to escape your techniques.
3. 3. Sparring against fully resisting opponents (Rolling). This takes up the majority of class time.

I will talk about the techniques we learned in class, and how the rolling went, and what my best/worst matches were.

Last night we worked some sweeps from open guard. The sweeps we worked were geared towards a standing opponent who was trying to get himself into a more dominant position (past your legs). It’s hard to describe, but after working these sweeps, it made me realize how many times I’d be in someone’s guard, stand, and then get swept to find myself not only on my butt, but have my opponent be in a better position than I was in on top. Not to say standing is never a good idea, but I have to remember to do it intelligently.

While rolling, I did ok. I honestly didn’t make the mistakes I usually make (mostly because my opponents were closer to my level as opposed to far above). My biggest problem is still the fact that I use way too much strength and power, and not enough mindgames/technique. This causes me to gas quickly and when we are rolling for 45 minutes to an hour, you don’t want to tire out after the first 5-6 minutes. The good guys at my school rarely sweat and they barely use strength. My best match ended with me in side control, doing my patented ‘fake’ mount attempt make it easier to get their far arm into a Kimura. My worst was being submitted by someone who shoulder-locked me from his guard. That’s the first submission from guard they teach you, and I fell for it. Ahh well.

Hello Internet. I made this site under the direction of my good friend Slob. You should give his site a read, it’s good stuff.

It is Monday. The dreaded time when we leave the blessed carefree freedom of our weekend and go back to slaving away for the ‘man’. For me personally, it means a little more. Due to the physical nature of a couple of my hobbies (notably brazilian jiu-jitsu and the gym time that goes along with it), I find myself pretty sore throughout the week. Sunday is my day of rest. No gym, no BJJ, just sitting on my keester with no motivation to do anything other than nothing. This makes the following day much less harsh. Monday’s dark shroud of responsibility to provide for myself and loved ones gets softened by me feeling physically rested and ready to start my week.

That being said, I wish it was Friday. Happy Monday folks.