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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.

    So after several months of being broke, schedule conflicts, transportation issues, etc I'm finally making it a point to make regular appearances at both Crossfit Philly and Spear BJJ.  My workouts have been A) HIIT, B) circuit based, C) pulled almost directly from the Crossfit website for well over a year now.  Oddly enough, today was my first trip up to workout with Jason C. Brown, local Crossfit instructor and renowned kettlebell wiz.  The workout was awesome! Getting in and doing circuits with other people doing the same workout, as opposed to hording equipment at a gym and building circuits was a nice change.  I'm definitely going to make it a strong effort to supplement my circuits at Temple's gym with regular trips to work out with Jason and Pam.  (I definitely need to work on my kettblebell form, and who better to turn to, right?)
    After finishing up with tonight's Crossfit, I drilled some techniques from an omoplata position that I've been trying to develop.  I haven't gotten them all to where I'd like them to be yet, but when I do, I'll gladly post pictures/video.  I'm pretty excited about some of them, so hopefully they pan out. Also, I got a fantastic breakdown of the ezekial this afternoon with some really awesome set ups.  Once I start feeling confident playing that game, maybe I'll try to show one or two.
    Tonight's no-gi class was great for a number of reasons. First, I've been trying to catch up with Noah for a while.  His BJJ is really phenomenal, he's extremely cerebral, he has a fantastic teaching style, and in terms of physical attributes he's very comparable to me (if I were to bulk up about 20lbs).  For those reasons, one of my major goals for this year (at least) is to work out with Noah as much as possible.  Second, the class covered mainly grip breaks from the stall position.  The topic on it's own is obviously important, but the underlying theme is that coupled with a growing grappling vocabulary, I still need a return to basics.  Third, I realized that my conditioning really has fallen off.  In conjunction with the state of some of my fundamentals, that lead to several mistakes that I'm now making a very conscious effort to correct.  If you're training with me or competing against me anytime soon, please note this stuff and attack it.  It's what I need to get better.

    The List:
       - competency in the leg lock game.  (it's getting better, but I'm still a long ways off)
       - Basic fundamentals in transitions and attacking positions.
       - learn to rely less on flexibility
       - keep working on the Brabo chokes.
       - get my conditioning back to where it should be
       - being less repetitive from certain positions (x-guard and back especially)
       - work on my wrestling/takedowns. 

It's late and that's about all I've got in me for now.  There is really a lot that I'm thinking about lately, and a lot of material (DVD's, books, etc) that I plan on reviewing (over and over and over) that I'm sure will only inspire more thought.  I'm a little bit down on myself as far as my training and progress go lately, but I'm really beginning to see some cool things ahead.

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...