Recently in General Category

Finally got back to the mat today after 3 weeks out.

Drew had his heelhook seminar and it was phenomenal. Showed a lot of really great setups from a lot of different positions and I think I took to them pretty well. 

I plan on implementing heel hooks into my game immediately, I'm very comfortable in most of the setups, especially top half-guard, which I find myself a lot of the time.

I still don't plan on rolling for a couple weeks, but it still feels great just getting into the gym to drill some techniques instead of watching from the sidelines.  I goto the doctors tomorrow for my followup and I hope that she wont be discouraged about me training in a couple weeks.  I'm looking to compete at the June 28th Grappler's Quest, and I'd like to get down to 180 then if at all possible.

It's good to have goals.     

Yeah, so. Been about a month since I've posted anything. Haven't trained much in the last 3 weeks due to some unexpected abdominal surgery.

Long story short, I have no more gall bladder.

In more important news, I believe that I will be attending Drew's heel hook seminar on sunday afternoon, and that will be my first time back training in almost a month.  I really can't wait.  Being on the bench sucks, and I have no idea how people do it when it has to be 6+ months like with a knee injury.  I only hope I never have to be off the mat for so long.

So, not much to report here. I'm moving on the 1st, so that will take up some time as well but as soon as that situation is settled I'm hoping to be training on a more regular schedule.

Hope is the key word

Have you ever just laid in bed going over various techniques in your head? [This is rhetorical, I know you have]

Has it ever kept you up at night?

It's amazing to me how the mind and body work so independently of each other.  I got in bed at 12:30AM last night; sore, dead tired, and expecting to pass out instantly. Instead, I laid there for 2 hours going over the days training over and over and over and over in my head, to the point where it was actually irritating me because I couldn't get to sleep. I think I finally passed out around 2:15 after going over every possible half-guard scenario in my mind.

I can't say with any certainty that this happens to me every night after training, but I would go as far as to say that it occurs at least 40% of the time.  I'd like to think that I'm a relatively cerebral person when it comes to most things in life, and I hope that this is an attribute that I can use to my advantage in jits, however sometimes it gets the best of me.

Along with being someone who is very cerebral and analytical, I'm also someone who tends to overthink and overanalyze most aspects of my life.  From my job, to women, to family issues, and almost certainly to training.  When rolling I tend to find myself essentially 'pausing' and thinking out the next few moves, or how I'm going to escape.  When I train with higher belts they can obviously sense what appears to be a 'hesitation' of sorts and they are able to capitalize on positioning.  This pause isn't so much to say that I stop moving physically, moreso that I put my mind into neutral while I decide how I'm going to counter, escape, or attack something.  What is really just a split second of "pausing" seems like an eternity in my head, and perhaps thats why I do it.  Sub-consciously I realize that I'm getting a lot out of this neutral state-of-mind, while not actually slowing down for any discernible amount of time to my opponent.  What I need to learn, and what I hope will come to me over time as I train more, is the ability to realize that even a split-second of indecision can be the difference between a neutral position with an opponent, and them getting a dominant position.

Instead of constantly "pausing" my reactions while I roll, I will just let things flow.  I want to get to the point where I instinctively know where I need to be, and where I'm likely headed to.  I want my body to instinctively know to keep my elbow to my knee when passing someone's guard, or to start the process of escaping an RNC while they are attempting to sink their hooks in, as opposed to letting it happen and then escaping.  When I do find myself in a position where I can take a mental break of sorts [such as getting them in my guard] - then I can use my analytical skills to think ahead.  Tapping to my own mind is something I hadn't envisioned when I began training, though the more I analyze that, the more sense it starts to make.

One of the balance affiliates Hassett's Jiu-Jitsu held belt promotions on saturday.

I hadn't been to a promotion ceremony before, so I thought this would be a great chance to check one out, as well as visiting one of the affiliate schools and getting to train with some people that I hadn't met before.  ...Well, that was the idea anyways. Staying out drinking until 4:30AM the night before doesn't really lend well to training the following day at 11:00.

We got there right as Phil's seminar started.  Phil started off with a technique that we had done the night before at class.  Starting from half guard -  keeping the person on top off with a knee, arm dragging their right arm while posting up on your own arm, you can get up to your knees while keeping your legs locked in half-guard.  From there we went over a couple different techniques, first taking the back, and also shooting your arm under their head and dragging them back down into a choke while elongating your body to lock it in.  Chris helped a lot with some minor details and I felt pretty good about it by the end of the seminar.


Following the seminar, Hassett had all the people being promoted onto the mat for matches. I didn't count all of them but if i had to guess I'd say they ran about 30 1 minute matches. I was feeling pretty drained only getting 4 hours of sleep the night before so I only rolled once, but it was great to watch everyone training and to talk with some people from the forums.   After the matches came the actual ceremony, it was awesome to see everyone giving props to the people being promoted.  After the ceremonial "whipping" of all the people being promoted, it came time for Jason Guerrera  to get his black belt and  take his beating.  Unfortunately for Jason, Ricky didn't have a belt, so he used his hand.  Results can be seen...           
     

Going back after not training for 2 weeks is rough.

Back when I was in the beginners class I had taken a couple weeks off for vacation, and even back then getting back into the swing of things was tough.  Aside from stretching in the mornings I was relatively inactive during those 2 weeks, unless you count walking around malls all day with my family. The first few days back after a break like this can be tough on the joints, so I generally don't roll at the end of class until the middle/end of the week.

The 2 week lapse this time around was due to some trouble with the knees. I had a doctors appointment on the 10th, so I took the week and a half leading up to that appointment, and the few days after to rest. I didn't want to do something in the week leading up that might take away from what I was going there to check out. I was trying to figure out why my knees get (abnormally) sore during training (even with knee-pads), and the occasional burning sensation I get if I drag my knee across the mat a certain way.