Priorities

I have been back in training for a couple of weeks now ( well, on-and-off, really) and have been noticing the numbers dwindling a bit. When I started in May, there was about 15 of us battling for space on the mats, but as the year wore on, the numbers declined. There were the odd days where we would get new people that boosted the numbers but they never stayed that long, for whatever reason they may have. Truly, with the exception of myself and Lanky Rob, the rest of the group at the moment all came from Kevin's Wing Chun school in Croydon. Myself and a couple of the regulars (heh, look at me calling myself a regular, haha)started noticing this and have become a topic of conversation several times. We thought that the school had a great location - Central Croydon, right up near the High Street, and there, to our collective knowledge, no other BJJ school within a 10-mile radius ( well, there is Zenith BJJ, but that doesn't count, as it appears to cater to a specialised few). We then thought that it needed advertising more, maybe flyers, posters, banners, etc. I also asked Kevin the other week about car stickers just to further rep the school. The others say that the numbers would swell up eventually, with people on holidays, etc. That was in August - it's now November, and the numbers are lower than ever.

It might have be due to the current state of the economy. BJJ and I guess, a lot of hobbies, are the the first to go when austerity measures are made. For a lot of people, it just isn't that high up in the priorities scale. I find it interesting when BJJ players are asked what would stop them from training. A lot of them say "Death", or "Nothing - BJJ forever!". While I applaud their dedication and commitment to the art, and probably envious of them, as well, I can't help but think about these people's other priorities in life that seem to pale in comparison with BJJ. I am probably as dedicated to learning the art as much as the next brother on the mat, but truth be told, my family and work come first. If I have the last £50 on my pocket and I have to choose between food on the table and BJJ - well, I'd be at home watching YouTube BJJ videos while my loving wife prepares a nice dinner for us.

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?

The path of least resistance

Back in training after being off for two weeks.

I admit I was feeling a bit anxious about it. In the past, if I have been off for a week or so, my cardio suffers and my skills (little as they may be) appear non-existent. It would be easy to forgo training this week as I am on leave from work until Monday but I shall be facing the same situation next week, and I would have been out for three weeks!

So, with this dread sitting at the bottom of my stomach, I decided to suck it up and drive my way to the gym. I made a conscious decision to come in a bit earlier as there were several road works along the way and I didn’t want to stress myself more than I already am.

Good thing that Elliot and Guy were already there and Elliot asked me to show him the Kimura from North-South position. I hope I did justice to it as he had the look of confusion on his face LOL. He then showed me Spider Guard position and how to maintain control, both from top and bottom.

There were only a few of us as Kevin took the class – in a way better as there was more space for everyone. It also meant that Kevin will be able to see our individual progress, both in BJJ in general and in today’s techniques, as there were less to monitor on the mats.

As part of the continuing Open Guard techniques, Kevin demonstrated Spider Guard how to maintain control from top. I believe the key here is to keep your elbows inside and not allowing your opponent to control your arms/position via his legs.

He then showed us an open guard passing technique, which involves stacking and keeping your weight on your opponent. This technique relies on  sensitivity and feel. It is not explosive and more of like a slow grinding move as you get into side control position.

Another technique he showed us was a reversal from bottom open guard (push-pull), which is something that Purple Belt Steve taught a while ago. Kevin showed us a variation, though, when if you can’t get an ankle pick. This entails switching the foot that was on your opponent’s hip and using your other leg to sweep his farthest leg. I and Elliot spent some time on this to get the details correct. Again, the key here is to keep your opponent’s  leg pinned on the mat with your leg/shin after the reversal to enable you to control his position as you come up to establish side control.

In all his teachings, Kevin has always emphasised the concept of the technique, rather than a specific technique. Sensitivity and tactileness is a good foundation to have as it allows you to move and adapt your position in relation to your opponent. This makes strength less of a factor as you are not strong arming your way into postion and you move towards the path of least resistance.

Sparring with Guy twice. It felt more like rolling and flowing to me as I wasn’t expending too much energy and I was able to move between positions with relative ease. I even tried a couple of submission techniques ;).

Maybe it was the weather. Or my partners today. Or being on holiday. But it appeared that I was more relaxed today. And less  tired. I felt like I knew what I was doing and was more conscious of my actions and positions. I felt like I know BJJ.

In saying that, I’m sure I’ll get smashed again tomorrow night...

Oh, well.

Calling all Filipino BJJ players...

As a Filipino practicing BJJ here in the UK, I’ve always wondered whether other Filipinos (aka Pinoys, Flips, etc) are into this form of martial art. In the Philippines, a lot of people have practiced Eskrima (aka Kali or Arnis) in some form or style, undoubtedly due to being it as a mandatory course in Physical Education classes. Other forms of martial art such as TKD, Karate, Hwa Rang Do, Judo thrived back home, as well, probably due to the nature of the people there who like physical contact (anyone who played basketball with a Filipino can certainly attest to that!)

Anyways, I did scour BJJ and MMA forums for like-minded Pinoys but had very few hits. This was until I met (Facebook-style) Bong Abad, owner of GAWAKOTO, and one of Meerkatsu’s acquaintances (here's his profile article of  Bong)  

We got into chatting and thought that creating a Filipino BJJ UK Group on Facebook might be the way to meet fellow Pinoys. We thought it'd be a great platform for Pinoys to share their love of BJJ and anything Filipino. It immensely helped that Bong is an amazing graphic artist – see his work below and also collaborated with Scramble to create Scrambleman. This relationship enabled our FB page to be shared to all of Scramble’s fans.

So far, we’ve got a few interested and hopefully, a meet-and-greet on the mats would be next...

>:(

No classes this week.

Dante and Little Steve thought it best to cancel this week's classes due to the carnage that has happened in Croydon. The gym is about 200 metres away from Reeve's Furniture Shop - the one torched by those good-for-nothing bastards.

I still can't get my head around as to why they would do such a thing. Barring any mental health issues, these people have absolutely no reason whatsoever to justify their actions. Unfortunately, there are people in our soceity wherethey believe that the world owes them something and that their rights are more important than their responsibilities.

I don't want to rant about this but I have little patience and tolerance to purveyors of mindless violence and thuggery. Especially if it affects my ability to do jiujitsu.

A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind.

Thursday with Dante. More people in today compared to yesterday. I guess many are busy with holidays and stuff this summer, including Kevin. Two women graced our mats today, I believe one of them is Dante’s daughter. Welcome.

After warm up, Dante demonstrated another judo takedown that involves a form of ankle reaping. Quite effective and easy but for some reason it felt awkward to me. Falling down  is more awkward ad slightly disconcerting as you fall backwards and not forwards nor sidewards  as in the other  takedowns I’ve learned. I think I sprained my groin muscle during that drilling. Ouch.

Afterwards , drilling a kimura from north-south position. I tell you, this is one nasty position if done correctly. In the north-south position, the top guy gets his arms underneath the bottom guy’s shoulders and reach to grab his belt by his sides. Top guy pushes hips forwards and downwards towards the floor to effectively distribute weight and smother the bottom guy. Real NAS-TEY!

Then once you’re bored being nasty, one arm comes across bottom guy’s chest to grab opposite lapel and then come up to knees.  Turn bottom guy on his side and top guy’s shin comes across bottom guy’s back to prevent him from rolling back. Top guy’s farthest hand grabs bottom guy’s top wrist, the releases lapel to grab own wrist. Turn bottom guy’s hand towards his back for a kimura.

After drilling this several times, we also did kimura from  side control as done in previous classes to familiarise ourselves with kimura from various positions.

Sparring time.  As it has always been in Dante’s class, he would pick couple of guys (usually 4-5) with advance/solid skills (in my opinion) to remain on the mats for the duration of the sparring time. Then the rest would rotate amongst them every 5 minutes, alternating sparring and resting. I‘ve always joked to guys like Big Steve, Keith,  Elliott, Gerry and others who always get picked by Dante  is that the problem with getting good at BJJ is that you get less rest during sparring.

Today, this opinion was crushed as Dante picked me to remain on the mats. Now, I KNOW I don’t have solid BJJ skills – my neck and joints would attest to it. What I can say is that my survival skills are  getting better – this is not about holding out on chokes and joint locks but about preventing myself from being in the position in the first place and awareness when I get myself in such positions to enable me to attempt to get out of it (sometimes).

But I am not one to complain for the honour and did my best for 25 minutes. At least I know my cardio is getting better...

Important point to note:

Big Steve complimented me on my burgeoning skills (gee thanks, Steve) but noted that my posture could be improved. I admit, I round my back on top position often and lean forwards too much. I need to be more mindful of this in the future.

Post title taken from one of the quotes of Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido.

30 degrees in the shade...

Kevin's on holiday so Dante takes the Wednesday class. Drilling on takedowns, disrespecting the legs to go into knee on belly. Loop choke from knee on belly. Quick note: Nearest hand comes in around to the back of the collar (thumb in), next hand comes in and grabs collar just under the other hand (same side but palm open). Then, nearest arm loops over partner's head to the other side and use scissor-like motion to effect the choke. Effective!
After that, a variation on escape from knee on belly. Farthest arm grabs partner's belt (or gi around this area), nearest hand on knee. The shrimp out and get to your knees. Forgo doing a single leg variation like before, but hand on knee slides down to grab the ankle. Drive forward to attain side control.

It was a very hot day and more so during class. I wish I was doing nogi...

Busy week...

Been very busy these past several days both at work and at home, hence this late post.  School holidays have always been a busy time in my line of work and I have a couple of much-delayed tasks at home that needed to get done.

Decided to install a different car stereo in my car over the weekend. What I thought to be a 30-minute job turned out to be two hours! This particular car entailed removing the WHOLE dashboard front just to change the stereo.  Well, after two hours and bloody fingers and arms, I managed to do what I set out to do. Have also managed to leave 2 screws and a fridge magnet (used to try and pick up THE two screws) rattling inside the dashboard.  And then I found out that I couldn’t get a radio signal because I forgot to plug the antenna. Oh well...

Last week, Kevi n drilled the S mount and how to get an arm bar from it. Also further drilling on double leg takedowns and sweeping.  This takedown variation requires the front/lead leg to come in deep between your partner’s legs for the takedown sweep.  Same procedure as before, i.e., grabbing the back of the legs and driving forward. This is good because I wasn’t able to attend the previous week when Kevin first taught it.

Thursday, Dante took the class, and as par normal in his class, we spent some time in learning judo takedowns. He taught the concept of “Judo eyes”, wherein you keep your eyes on your partner’s base of throat as you manoeuvre for a better position/set up for takedown. This way, your partner will not be aware of your intentions and keeping  your eyes focused on this location allows you to see your partner’s movements (limbs, body) as a whole.

We also did arm bar drills, which is always good. Drilling makes the techniques more familiar to your musculoskeletal and cognitive system.

At the end of the class, I found myself stuck in the parking lot again. The Croydon Martial Arts Academy is housed in a building that is shared by the supermarket chain, Lidl. The academy is upstairs and Lidl is downstairs, and uses the parking area as a loading bay for deliveries, which happens every Wednesdays and Thursdays (probably everyday but I only use the parking  lot on these days when I go to class) AT AROUND  9 pm. Elliot tells me that he found about this the hard way and decided then to shell out £2.50 to park on the road. I’m too stingy for that so I pay the price – every single time...

I guess as a consolation, some of the other guys and Dante were stuck, as well, and we just chatted away until the delivery guys finished their business.  Good conversation we had, though, with topics ranging from Kevin being likened to a modern-day Bruce Lee by Dante himself,  about resilience, and to how martial arts in general is perceived by different people.  Guy asks about spirituality in martial arts and Dante replied, “There is no spirituality in smashing someone’s face in. That is brutality. Spirituality comes from the years of doing martial arts but choosing not to use those knowledge and skills you have learned unless you truly have to.”

As a bonus, Dante demonstrated some Temeki  Aikido techniques that would be handy against someone with a knife. I found this interesting as a lot of these moves are similar to Escrima, which I have done in the past.

Sweeps are sweet!

Dante's class.

I was running a bit late, as a meeting at work took longer than expected. After which, I needed to pick my daughter up at school, grab a quick bite at home, before going to class. I don't like being late at anything, if I can help it. I always try to come at least 30 minutes early to class so I could leisurely get myself prepared and catch up with the guys before it gets too busy. No one could beat Elliott, though. Personally, I think he sleeps in the gym and only pretends to leave at the end of the classes...

I was really knackered. My work can be really mentally draining, and I have missed classes before due to work commitments. But then I remembered what Gerry said the other day, "Better be knackered at class, than be knackered at home." So here I am.

Nice to see familiar faces back in training - John, who had a whale of a time being Derren Brown's audience assistant (!!!) and Jack, who came to train yesterday, albeit still nursing an injured shoulder. We were asking around where Keith was, as it was very odd not to see him in class. We found out later that he was stuck at work, getting really pissed for not having the other half of his weekly dose of BJJ.

After the warm up and leg stretches that I think only Dante can do (amazing flexibility for his age), he then proceeded to teach variations of gaining positional dominance starting from bottom guard. Dante counts them as four sweep variations but I think (with all due respect) that there were only two - the other two were adaptive counter techniques in case the first two did not work.

These techniques are best employed if your opponent is just sitting on your guard and not actively controlling your body. For all the subsequent techniques, they involve grabbing his wrists and holding them against the sides of your hips using a thumbless grip.

 First technique: From the bottom, come up towards your opponent, bringing one arm diagonally across and over his shoulder to secure the opposite tricep. Check the knee on this side using your legs and continue securing the wrist against your hip to prevent him from adjusting his base. Pivot on the aforementioned leg to  complete the sweep, transitioning to a full mount.

If this does not work, e.g., failure to prevent adjusting base or opponent drives you backward, release the tricep and wrap your arm around your opponent's neck guillottine style - the object is to be able to secure a hold against his lapel on his opposite side. Control his posture by coming back down and employing a closed guard whilst securing a lapel choke.

Second technique: Come up as before and arm diagonally across and over opposite shoulder. This time, snake your arm (over and under) and grab your own wrist to effect a figure-of-four key lock (Kimura). Come back down, post opposite foot against hip whilst one leg comes across his back perpendicular to his spine (45 degree rule) to control his posture.

If you are not able to secure a key  lock in the first instance, e.g., arm was able to base forward to prevent you from grabbing your own wrist, use his movement to further extend his arm towards you and instead of trying to grab your wrist, secure his triceps as before and sweep to a full mount. Voila!

Sparring with Big Steve and Gerry. I've been  noticing that I have been getting paired with Big Steve a lot. I could see a twinkle in Kevin's eye as he scours the mats to look for me to partner up with big 'ol Steve. Not that I mind, of course, as big as Steve is (probably 20-odd stone, and I 13 stones) , he never uses his strength to bull-charge his way to a dominant position and always mindful of his partner's safety. On the other hand, Gerry is quite an enthusiastic player. You need sharp skills and match his enthusiasm to survive rolling with him.

I wonder what instructors think of when they pair partners with each other - size, ability, style?

Other points to note:

A blue belt Brazilian came to class with us and introduced himself as Wagner. Trains regularly at the BJJ School in Battersea. Quite friendly. Showed Gerry a tip to execute a kimura from mount. This entails sacrificing the mount to move to a far side control to be able to bring  your opponent's elbow down towards his hips so you can torque the lock better.

My ADCC ticket has come through the post the other day. I wonder if any of my BJJ brothers are going to Nottingham to watch in September as well?

Does your game flow?

Wednesday class with Kevin.

After a light stretch to warm our muscles up for the forthcoming pain later, Kevin then proceeded to demonstrate and teach an escape and reversal technique from side control. This involves positioning your hands/arms across your opponent's hips and shoulders and pushing away at a 45 degree angle whilst shrimping out. The key action in this techique is the ability to get a deep underhook using your far arm and getting to your knees to provide base and leverage. From this position, grab opponent's knee (underhook side) using a monkey grip to establish your new position. After this, you could either check the farther knee with one hand to prevent him from basing or ankle pick the farthest ankle, as you drive your body forwards to attain side control position. A variation of this technique is to pop your head on the opposite side of your underhook and execute a single leg TD.

What I love about this particular class is that after being taught the technique, Kevin the proceeds to teach how to counter THAT technique. How cool is that?!

Basically, this entails applying enough force on the back of your opponent's head to pin it on the ground. Then snake your opposite armover and under his shoulder to grab your opposite wrist and cinch it close as tight as possible. This would naturally enable you to move towards your snaked arm and apply enough leverage to flip him over on his back, effectively transitioning to a side control position.

After some drilling on this technique, Kevin demonstrated leg triangle from bottom guard. Apparently, he taught this the other week but as I wasn't present then, I welcomed the chance to learn it  from him but from my partners who have practiced it before. Fortunately for myself and Big Steve, purple belt Steve was warming up beside us and gave us essential 1:1 tutoring regarding this. Massive props to him!

Sparring with Keith, Guy, and James. I have to ask Keith at some point to give me pointers on TDs from kneeling. His was definitely very effective. I'm also starting to survive longer against Keith, which I hope is a good one.

Interestingly  enough, as soon as I met up with Guy, he immediately told me that he had no submission skills. I told him, "Great! Neither have I!" That didn't prevent him from trying a couple out, though.;)

James and I agreed to do a light rolling, as we were both tired at this point. With light rolling, there is a deliberate consciousness of your actions and reactions to keep it at a light level - something that higher belts seem to do with ease and white belts seem to struggle with. I believe it has something to do with having a greater awareness of the techniques and your body's position in space in relation to your partner's. This enables you to just apply the requisite amount of force to either counter your partner's action or to establish a more dominant position. This is what I'd like to call FLOWING.

Gas. Good for cars, not for BJJ

Thursday training with Dante. Because of the influx of new people yesterday and today, he focused on fundamentals together with sports-specific exercises. We then did double-leg takedowns transitioning to knee on chest. After that, an escape technique from it. Another one is controlling the legs from standing and moving on to knee on chest. Strung together, this makes for nice transition drilling.

During technique-sparring, Dante lines up the more experienced players to take on the newer ones, as he is wont to do, before swapping places. He states that under no circumstances should the lower belt/level practice a technique before a higher one. By letting the higher belt/level try the technique first, the higher belt effectively demonstrates the technique to the lower belt, which grants more opportunity to see the technique done correctly before trying it on himself. Makes sense. Elliott, Keith, Gerry, and the two Steves really helped me on getting my technique half-decent.

One thing that Dante said before the sparring sessions that made everyone chuckle, he said, "When your opponent is hell-bent on doing something, it's best to let them do it. It strokes their ego hopefully they'll won't be so hell-bent the next time."My sparring performance was marginally better than last Wednesday. I only gassed on the last match :(  I really need to work on my cardio. On the last match, I was letting my training partner slap on his submissions, as I was too tired to move. I also need to work on my takedown techniques from kneeling and need to be more assertive. Either that, or I really need to get my bottom game better.

By the way, props to Peter, who helped me a lot during the technique-drilling earlier. Quite a friendly and helpful chap. He emphasised the need to get a deep collar hold during knee on chest, coupled with controlling the outside knee to be more effective in controlling your opponent. I've only seen him today, but judging on the reception he received with the regulars, it seems that he used to train regularly before and is a popular guy. Looking forward to train with him.

By doing it wrong, we understand why we have to do it right

Went to class today after being off for nearly two weeks. Good to see familiar faces once more - Elliot, Keith, Little Steve, amongst others. Also saw Jaffer with his shiny blue belt. There were a couple of blue belts in the house, as well - Raz, who is fast becoming a familiar friendly face, and a Polish guy whose name escapes me at the moment. I think this is the first time I have seen this many blue belts in one class.  This led myself and Elliot to expertly discuss which shade of blue looks better. To be honest, I wouldn't mind which shade of blue I get eventually. I will be so pumped up I'll even wear it at home.

By the way, Kevin mentioned that the Motta Gomes seminar down in Portsmouth went very well and a couple of belts were also given. Dang! If I knew they were handing out belts I should have gone down and nabbed myself one. Hehe

Enough of the lame jokes and onto the training. We practiced pummelling again as a precursor to takedowns. Elliott kindly tweaked my takedowns a bit to make it more effective. I seem to be combining shoulder throw takedowns with the over the leg takedown. By erroneously having a wider base during shoulder throw, I had difficulty getting my opponent over my shoulder, as my hips aren't as aligned to his hips as before.

We then did escapes from side control  using shrimping combined with pushing at a 45 degree angle and moving your hips away from your opponent. To make the teaching more effective, Kevin asked us to escape without using the technique. Myself and Elliot did a bit of experimentation during drilling - getting the outside hand onto different positions to try and negate the technique. We also thought long and hard with regards to why the outside hand is placed against the opponent's near hip, instead of a monkey grip or by the outside hip. Elliot had a light bulb moment and surmised that it was to  prevent getting a knee in for a possible butterfly guard or half guard. Now, why didn't I think of that?

I liked the way we were able to rationale the techniques during drilling. A small part of my work is to train NHS staff to be able to prevent and manage aggression and violence. This necessitates teaching physical techniques to effectively manage a violent and aggressive individual. As a large number of staff I teach are not familiar with the techniques nor physically inclined to to them, I find it useful to break the techniques into manageable segments and to give rationale as to why "this hand should be in an overhand position,and not underhand", etc., by getting them to try the wrong way, to see the effectiveness in doing the right way. In my opinion, this creates an understanding as to why they're doing what they're doing - because it makes sense. I believe this was what Kevin was trying to instill in us by letting us practice the wrong way.

Annyways, the technique flowed onto a reversal, which highlighted the need to have a deep underhook using your inside arm. From then on, you could choose several variations: grabbing your opponent's outside knee and driving your shoulder forward to attain reversal, use of single leg combined with outside knee pick, or single leg combined with outside ankle pick. All of these end up in side control. Very effective techniques - as long as panic does not set in and you start muscling your way out of a side control only to find yourself in an armber or a choke...

I did not fare well in sparring today. I got absolutely tooled by everyone. My ribs started to bother me again on the second match and I was gassing out. Obviously didn't help that everyone had burgeoning submission skills and did not hesitate on trying them on me. I guess my blog title says it all : I am a grappling dummy.

My breath was coming in gasps, which impacted on my ability to survive. Let me make it clear - at this stage of my journey, my aim is to survive and start building my defense game. Tonight, I wasn't able to do any.

Funnily enough, during handshakes one of the new guys referred to me as BJ Penn. I probably am - cardio-wise.

The belt

Last week Kevin promoted one of our BJJ brothers, Jaffer, to  blue belt. It was done so informally and casually, that I couldn't help but stifle a laugh as soon as Kevin mentioned it to the group. It was the tail end of the session as we were gettting ready to do handshakes, when Kevin mentioned for Jaffer to bring his blue belt the next time he trains. The reason for laughing is that myself and Kevin were having a chat as I sat out a sparring session. We were watching Jaffer roll with a guest who was sparring 100% (Keith mentioned that 100% usually meant a fight, not a spar!!). Kevin was commenting on how Jaffer was just riding the storm and just waited for his opponent to provide an opening. I mentioned to him that the last time I sparred with Jaffer, I commented on how good he was, and that he probably was a "fake white belt", as a way of complimenting his skills. Kevin laughed at this. Little did I know that he was already contemplating on promoting Jaffer. Wahey!

Had a chat with Jaffer afterwards and reminded him of the fake white belt conversation we had and congratulated him again for the achievement. I told him that I surmised that Kevin doesn't subscribe to the stripe system that I've seen other academies do. Jaffer and I agreed that Kevin's way of teaching is to instill the concept of BJJ and to concentrate on the art, not the belt, as the belt will follow soon enough. This is something that I have mentioned several times in my other posts, as something I have noticed with the way Kevin handles his classes.

This concept might sound lofty to some but I do think this is how a true martial artist should think like, as in the olden days - it was about learning, understanding, and living the art, I suppose, rather than the belt itself. The belt signifies achievement, a milestone in your journey. In BJJ, there are a few milestones and that the time frames set to achieve them are more loose, as opposed to other arts. I believe that is one of the reasons why so many fall by the wayside in their journey. I come from a background of Kali Escrima, where length of training can be a factor in a promotion. That, and demonstrating the prescribed forms during belt gradings. Of course, you have to be proficient with the forms and techniques, disarms and attacks from various angles and distance, but there is THAT time element. As there are numerous belts between white and black, there is a temptation to be a belt-chaser, which can impact on your true understanding of the art of stickfighting.

A belt is beneficial to us at times when we are hurting from training, when we think that we have plateau'd in our game, when it becomes an absolute nightmare trying to balance work and familial responsibilities with time spent on the mats - well, besides keeping our gi jackets closed and a place to hook our thumbs whilst listening to your intructor teaching a technique.

I would like to get into this kind of thinking -to study and understand the concept behind the art. Not just to learn the techniques, positions, submissions, escapes and reversals, but to get it to flow, almost unconsciously, as I practice this art we call Jiujitsu.

Apologies for the FRAT but I do get into this rambling mode at times...

Keep on truckin'...

Having Wednesday's class as a confidence- builder, I followed the same mindfulness to training I had the following day. Purple belt Steve took the class but little Steve was prepared to jump in in case none of the higher belts could make it.

Steve's class takes a different flavour as compared to Kevin's and Dante's class. His was more physical in nature, and spends time on cardio, conditioning, and sport-specific exercises, as well as techniques-drilling and sparring.

Steve taught three types of sweeps from the bottom, one involving push-pulls using legs from bottom guard, and two from being caught in side mount short base. One involves cross-facing your opponent while moving your body away from his to create space before you kick your inside leg to provide momentum. The other one involves securing a far underhook and grabbing opponent's shoulder with your near hand whilst moving in to nullify space between the bodies as preparation for a throw using hip bump. That last one was particularly difficult for me during drilling, as my partner keeps on leaving his arm across my back as he throws me. I then land on his arm and his knuckles press on my back ribs, which leaves me short of breath because of my injury. Oh well...

The theme for yesterday's class was about achieving positional dominance thru sweeps and taking the back whilst standing grappling.

I was fortunate that Keith was back in training so we paired up initially in sparring - getting chuckles from the class as some kind of Chuck and Larry. The thing is, myself and Keith had a chat several weeks ago about pairing up for light rolling due to our injuries, which actually went very well. It allowed us to focus more on techniques, rather than going balls to the wall in sparrng. Even in the subsequent sparring matches with others, I kind of set the tone in my mind, which was immensely helpful. Even rolling with purple belt Steve didn't seem too scary as before...

What Nietzsche said...

Gone back to training this week after missing out several sessions due to injuries picked up in the last couple of classes. Turned out to be that at least 5 others were injured at some point since then. Keith had a possible broken toe, Jack came last Wednesday to say that he tore his rotator cuff muscle, and Brummie Sam injured his groin muscle playing footie tge other day. Kevin was concerned at the rate of injuries this past couple of weeks, though claims that this sport has got a high rate of injuries due to the nature of the classes.

So, bearing that in mind, I decided to focus more on the techniques and be mindful of how I roll later. Fortunately, Elliot was there and we were able to drill techniques, him being considerate of my tweaked shoulder and back.

Kevin took the class and explained the concept of BJJ thru the techniques. Buttterfly guard and sweeps, pummelling, and takedowns. The concept of sensitivity, tactileness and fluidity thru the use of the above techniques. Again, as before, it is not about waiting for the perfect moment to execute the technique, but to be consciously aware of your opponent's position with regards to yours. Through this, you then can formulate actions that take advantage of that position. He said that he likes using the butterfly guard as it works well wiwith his body frame and limb length. Generally, asians and orientals are average in height and reach, so this technique works well in this regard. Something very relevant to me, me thinks...

Transition drilling

Training yesterday with Dante doing the class. Quite personable – makes it a point of chatting to everyone individually and making introductions to new students.

Because of his judo background, he always would have judo techniques as part of drilling. On this class it was over the shoulder takedowns and “the thing where you cross the arms before you trip them backwards” takedown. With the first one, the tip is to lower your centre of gravity as you turn around then connect your hips to your partner. With the second one, it’s about controlling the posture thru crossing your partner’s arms across his body, as pointed out by George, my drilling partner. George is a massive guy but uses technique, rather than strength in sparring.

Afterwards, we did transition drills. This starts off from turtle position, then into closed guard or butterfly guard, then reversal into mount. The transition from turtle to guard is interesting. The key is to immediately control the far leg/knee by grabbing cloth using your inside hand. Afterwards, extend the inside leg and scoop hips to feed through the outside knee, going into either a closed guard or a butterfly guard.

To drill the movement, the one being mounted needs to get his elbow in between partner’s knee and your body. The key is to scoot your hip on the opposite side as you dig your elbow/push the knee away to create space and force your partner to spread his legs more, making the mount unstable. Once this is achieved, bring the knee into the space and rest foot on your partner’s hip. Then scoot to the other side to get the other knee out. You can now choose to implement closed guard or butterfly guard.

Sparring came next with Dante, Jaffer, and Steve. I survived most of the time and nearly got caught in a tight arm bar by Steve but thankfully time ran out. Whew. I did attempt the Ezekiel upon gaining positional dominance but wasn’t successful again. I managed to employ the Scoop and the Turtle defense from Saulo Ribeiro’s JiuJitsu University, so I was able to thwart any attempt to RNC me – good thing as my throat is still sore from last week.

Towards the end, we played King of the Circle, where we made a small circle on the mats from our gi jackets rolled and placed side-by-side. The object of the game is to move your enemy out of  the circle, sumo-style, or if any part of  his upper torso touches the area inside the circle. Good game and we had fun. The morale of the game is aggressiveness if you manage to find yourself in a street fight. Your martial art would not save you if you get pushed onto an oncoming vehicle. Aggressiveness and using your environment to your advantage is the key in a street fight, where no rules apply. Or fast legs for running away.

Good training all in all but I have niggling injuries that have been bothering me for the last couple of weeks. My dodgy left shoulder is acting up again, and a localised upper back pain. I was complaining to my doctor colleague about the pain I feel whenever I have deep breaths or a sudden sharp intake of breath such as sneezing or coughing. He said it could be pleurisy, wherein the outer lining of the lung is filled with air or fluid and is inflamed. That or I could have a busted rib. Either way, DAMN.