Brotherhood

Woke up this morning and felt like a 100 year-old man – muscles and joints aching and a sore body reminds me that I finally went back on training and I wasn’t wishful thinking again.

A surge of excitement came over me as I drove to the gym and as soon as I opened the door to the gym, I was greeted by the familiar environment and even more familiar and friendly faces I have come to know – Dante, Elliott, Gerry, Little Steve, and soon after, Keith and Guy.

I can’t help but savour the moment as I’m getting myself kitted out – rashie, knee braces, gi, and belt. It feels like slipping into your favourite robe but also, it’s like preparing yourself for battle, knowing that at the end of the class, you are going to be sore, maybe a bit bruised and bloodied. Still, you wilfully step onto the mats to join those who had the same thoughts as you. Together, you learn, share, pit each other’s skills against each other, and say, “Well done, brother!” afterwards.

I’m at home here. Feels good to be back.

The mystical bond of brotherhood makes all men brothers - Thomas Carlyle

So much drama...

Clearly, “touching wood” doesn’t do much for luck, as I was set back from training for a further two weeks since I posted this.

Like I said before, I have been getting a lot of drama from my shoulder preventing me from being back on the mats. The shoulder is relatively better but in these last two weeks, it was my work that has been giving me a lot of drama. Circumstances in the past days has put a massive dent on our manpower and environmental resources and also evoked a lot of negative emotions from the people that I work with. I can’t delve much deeper into this but it has taken a lot of my time and energy to help get things back in order.

Good thing I'm bald, else I'd have a couple more gray hairs because of this.

Pinoy Open Mat

October 16^th marked the first time the Pinoy BJJ Group met up for an open mat session. Myself, Bong, Diosa, Jonathan, and youngest member, Jodi, met up at Hitchin Combat Club in Hertfordshire. Nearly didn’t happen, as the original venue in South London became unavailable earlier in the week. Fortunately, Bong came to the rescue and used his contacts to secure another one in record time. I tell you, this Bong guy is a saviour - must be a superhero in disguise, hmmm...

After a slightly panicky situation when we couldn’t figure out how to open the front door (Hub? What hub?!), we managed to get access to the building. The gym is very nice – wall-to-wall matting, heavy bags, changing rooms, and a fully kitted boxing ring complete with a timer.

As we were early, Bong decided to have a light rolling to warm ourselves up. As I was a bit rusty with my rolling skills, my body’s definition of rolling seemed to be off a bit, as I nearly took out Bong’s eye in the first minute. Good thing that the rest of the group turned up soon afterwards, as I was getting creamed by a half-blind BJJ player with skillz...

Talking about skillz, Jonathan and Diosa, both blue belts under Leao Teixeira (Escola de JJ), have so much of it and ran the session like a clinic – guard passing, sweeps, reversals, etc., and lot of drilling with techniques, as well. Both Diosa and Jonathan clearly earned their belts and are very good teachers. Bong, who has recently earned two stripes in his belt earlier in the week, has also been giving me useful tips. As the newest BJJ player in the group, I was like a sponge and was soaking it all in. There were only four of us on the mats but the support I was getting was more than enough.

Towards the end of the session, we did several rounds of rolling. This showed me how far I still had to go. They could have submitted me anytime they wished, but they chose to flow...

Knackered, we headed off to the nearest Nando’s for food, rest, recuperation, and the all-important chismis (chatting/gossiping). Filipinos love to chat as much as they like their food.

Facebook has received its share of knocks about how it takes over people’s lives and that, but thru this social networking site, I have come to meet and personally know people who share a common passion. I’m pleased to say that they are not JUST my Facebook friends anymore.

The journey in BJJ is long and fraught with obstacles, but having people like them to help out along the way makes the trek worthwhile.

Bigger, stronger?

Met up over the weekend with Elliott and Keith to watch the IBJJF London Open 2011 in Crystal Palace. We saw a couple of BJJ luminaries, e.g., Roger Gracie, Pippa Granger, Felipe de Souza, Dan Strauss (Raspberry Ape), etc., who came to support their school.

One of our fellow Filipino BJJ players, Diosa, (Escola de Jiu Jitsu under Leao Teixeira) came to compete at the Blue belt female featherweight category. She came in with her hubby, Jon (another blue belt), and lovely daughter, Jodi. My source tells me that although she tore through the comps when she was a white belt (she received her blue belt within a year of starting BJJ), this was her first comp as a blue belt.  It was a tough fight and although she gained positional dominance several times during her match, she succumbed to an armbar late in the game. Well, her opponent went to win the Gold anyways, so no shame in losing there. And she got a Bronze for her effort. Also a t-shirt. ;)

Looking at the athletes – male and female, competing at this level, I noticed their physiques and saw how fit and muscled they are. Seeing pictures from the recent ADCC 2011, I noticed the same. A lot of these athletes supplement their BJJ training with a lot of cardiovascular training and weight-training to be able to compete at the highest levels of the sport.

This made me wonder:

Wasn’t Brazilian Jiu Jitsu developed to demonstrate how a smaller, relatively weaker person can beat a bigger and stronger opponent thru the use of technique and leverage? And wasn’t that the reason why the Gracie family chose Royce over Rickson to demonstrate this mantra?

Food for thought.

Onwards and upwards

Touch wood, I should be back in training tomorrow.

I had some issues with my left shoulder that took me off six (!) weeks’ worth of training. If I didn’t go off training, I would have been a blue belt already (I keed, I keed...).

Seriously, being off the mats will have a huge impact on my BJJ skills and rolling cardio. But, either that or a possible worse injury (torn instead of strained RC muscles) and longer time off mats... No brainer, really.

Anyways, I haven’t really been slack with BJJ-inspired things to do. The BJJ group that I co-founded with Bong Abad, CEO of Gawakoto Fightwear, the Pinoy BJJ Group UK has been taking off quite nicely. We have chatted with other like-minded BJJ players and decided to have an open mat session this October. Joe, another friend who lives across the pond, has created the Pinoy BJJ Group of North America, and should be taking off eventually.

Furthermore, the group has developed a logo that looks siiick!

This design, courtesy of our resident graphic artist and comic book illustrator Bong, will eventually feature in our t-shirt and rashguard. The t-shirt printing hit a little snag but the rashguards are a go, done in partnership with Mad Dog Cage Ring Mats.  The rashguard features the group's logo, a carabao, a Filipino symbol that depicts hard work and a sense of industry. I am hard-working, really. No, really.

Also, on the right-hand sleeve, there is some Baybayin - an ancient pre-Spanish writing system in the Philippines. The word is "Dumog", the filipino word for Grappling.

Did I tell you that there are Gi patches, as well?

Nice, 'no?