BJJ, Life & BJJ: 2008

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Training in Canada

While visiting Canada for 10 days I wanted to keep up my training regimen for my competition in late September. I was fortunate enough to have trained with Omar Salvosa at Salvosa BJJ Ascension Academy of Mixed Martial Arts in Scarborough, Ontario. It was an interesting experience to train at another school. ( I will talk more about the experience in another entry). Salvosa is a Black Belt under Master Marcus Soares, 7th Degree Black Belt of the Carlson Gracie Team, and he was one of the coolest people I have met. He had passion for the art and his students. I admired his style for as you can see he is shorter and light, so he is very fast and agile which has probably helped him beat many larger opponents in his BJJ career. I had the opportunity to grapple with him on a couple of occasions, and I made the mistake of blinking while we grappled. I blinked and when I opened my eyes I was armbared. He was quick and alway 3-4 moves ahead of me. It was a great experience.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Coming to terms with tapping out

"Even if I get tapped out I feel like I learn something and get some knowledge out of it. I feel it's okay to lose to my opponent. I feel it's not okay to lose to myself." I appreciate that comment ashkii. I have been wanting to add an entry on getting tapped. I have never had any problem tapping to others who have been in the game longer than I, but I have struggled tapping to those who are equal in rank or have been doing it for a shorter period of time than I have. I need to look at it as a learning experience rather than looking at it as losing to myself. When it occurs I see their progression, and I commend them for it, but then I ask myself, "Why are they progressing, and you are not? Am I not training hard enough?" I need to check my ego at the door, as one of my school motto's say. I realize how much you can learn when you intentionally put yourself in vulnerable positions; however, the psychological power of constantly beating someone at my level or greater is a very powerful force for my motivation. I see it as a pretty good measurement of my progression. (Maybe I need to develop a new measuring tool. If there is another that anyone knows of please comment to this entry and let me know.) I need to work on this, and look at it as learning experience as you see it ashkii. I acknowledge that there are racial barriers that exist in the world but don't exist in my world, or my dojo, but I haven't gotten past the superiority complex I have over those who have been training as long as I, or have been training for a shorter period than myself. I guess everyone is my equal no matter what their sex, color or creed are, and also if they have been there 10 years or 10 days. I need to realize this. I personally believe it takes a competitive personality to excel in Jiu-Jitsu, but I find that personality of mine getting in the way of me progressing in the art as I should.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Diversity at its finest

Doctors, Auto Mechanics, Computer Programmers, Oil Drillers, Lawyers, Pipe Fitters, Sales People, Business Owners, Military Personal, Chefs, Men, Women, young, old, Jewish, Hispanics, Native Americans, Anglos, African Americans, Christian, Muslim, Catholic, Judaism, poor, middleclass, upper middleclass.

This is my Dojo, what a beautiful place it is.

All together for one common purpose, to learn the art and grow together as equals.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Good techniques executed on very handsome man ;-)

Being Enchanted by Side Control

It has been one year this month, that I have been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I remember the first day training at the gym. We did all these drills that made no sense to me. During sparing time I got mopped by everyone I was matched up against. I did go in with a little knowledge (not much); yea my bother and I were fans of UFC since UFC 3. My friend actually had the first two UFCs recorded on VHS(remember VHS?), and from that day we were hooked. We ordered all the other UFCs following until they temporarily ban them from pay-per-view. Anyway, we would record them and then afterward, watch them over and over again, practicing the moves that the little Brazilian, 170 pound guy in a white Gi would use to defeat dudes virtually twice his size-you know who he is. So I had that under my belt. Once, when I was in college I joined a local cage fighting gym for a couple of months. I was only permitted to train there twice a week, for I couldn't afford the full membership. So I had that under my belt as well. Then I go to this gym and see people wearing gis and different belt colors. I didn't know a blue belt from a purple, or what the belt levels were or what they meant. All I knew was a Black Belt was badass and a Brown Belt was close to badass. I went up against blues, whites with stripes and a purple. " Purple is a feminine color", I thought, " so this purple belt cant be that tough." Those are my vague memories of that day, but what stands out the clearest in my mind that day was being put in side control. I knew what the guard was, I new what mount was, but never knew what side control was. (It was called side mount on UFC, but I never really paid much attention to it, for from an outsiders perspective it looks like a weak control position.) Every belt color at the gym was putting me in it, and I couldn't get out of it to save my life. It wasn't the many submissions I was put in that intrigued me, but side control. From being put in that position over and over, no matter how strong I was when I joined that gym (I was bench pressing way more than any of my opponents I went up against weighed), I felt helpless. I knew this gym, and this new found art was something very special from that point on.