Thanks to a cool blue belt in Canada, some gis are making their way to Moldova. Andrei Tarasenco of Gracie Barra is leaving on May 24 and graciously handcarrying gis and belts.
I figure the easier thing for financial donations will be to set up a Paypal account, so I have inquired and will post results on that shortly. Christian, the BJJ Globetrotter, just racked up $285 for them by holding a charity BJJ seminar in NY! Read about it here...
Hope you have a lovely weekend on deck.. I'm off to open mat now. Stupid knee is still sore, but haha, of course not sore enough that I feel I can't train.
Good luck to Mike D. at the first Big Apple BJJ tournament, hosted by Shaolin this weekend!!!!! :) :) :)
Edit: Slideyfoot just posted a VERY thorough rundown on side control escapes including a lot of crossreferenced material from other points of view... if you ever get stuck on bottom cross side, I highly recommend his post on the subject..
Friday, May 13, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
It's all in your freakin' head...
Congrats to Australian purple belt Kit Dale for his Brasileiro win (and thanks to Matt at the Grappling Dummy for the find).... Kit's no slouch, having taken gold recently in the Abu Dhabi Pro World Cup. Check what Kit had to say:
"On the way there I remember running scenarios through my head, and getting into a positive frame of mind. This is very important with high level competing, as the game is 98% mental and 2% physical, it is easy to have your head ravaged with negative thoughts, creating negative emotions. This can make or break a competitor, so I put a lot of emphasis on controlled thoughts. If you can control your mind, anything is possible. But if you let your mind control you, you’re in a whirlpool of uncertainty and pain."
This is SO RIGHT! If there's anything big-picturey that I've learned in my competition experience (I have done 12 tournaments in about 2.5 years of training) it's that your MIND is 90% of your match. I don't think it's 98% but that's just me at my stage of development. 10% of any given roll is your physicality, your physical understanding of the movements and your ability to feel and discern timing and biomechanics, and your muscle memory; 90% is your mental attitude. (I think that perhaps at a lesser-experience place, maybe the percentages shift even more, maybe 70-30?)
Anyway, go read Kit's account of the tournament experience and watch the video on there of his finals match... some judo, some spider guard, two nice sweeps (who says scissor sweeps only work on whitebelts?) and some situp guard :)
More from Kit on the benefits of being observant in the pre-match time period:
"While in the back going through my mental preparation I noticed my opponent in the corner with his coach going through some interesting scenarios on the matts. The thing that struck my mind were that the positions he was going through were my favourites from passes to submissions; this said. . . That I had already got him on the back foot, knowing that he was practising worst case scenarios and defensive tactics gives me the picture that not only is his coach thinking in a reactive manner but he is engraining it into his student. So while he is focussing on what to do, if this happens and what to do if he does this, I am focussing only on what I will do; how I will dictate the match, and if for any reason I start thinking negatively for example; (what will I do if he takes me down) I immediately block that thought from my head and reinforce positive thoughts, for example; (I will take him down or I will sweep him this way). I believe that using the power of thought (quantum physics and neuron linguistic programing) is the best way to attract what you want into your life whether it be money, happiness or in this case success."
"On the way there I remember running scenarios through my head, and getting into a positive frame of mind. This is very important with high level competing, as the game is 98% mental and 2% physical, it is easy to have your head ravaged with negative thoughts, creating negative emotions. This can make or break a competitor, so I put a lot of emphasis on controlled thoughts. If you can control your mind, anything is possible. But if you let your mind control you, you’re in a whirlpool of uncertainty and pain."
This is SO RIGHT! If there's anything big-picturey that I've learned in my competition experience (I have done 12 tournaments in about 2.5 years of training) it's that your MIND is 90% of your match. I don't think it's 98% but that's just me at my stage of development. 10% of any given roll is your physicality, your physical understanding of the movements and your ability to feel and discern timing and biomechanics, and your muscle memory; 90% is your mental attitude. (I think that perhaps at a lesser-experience place, maybe the percentages shift even more, maybe 70-30?)
Anyway, go read Kit's account of the tournament experience and watch the video on there of his finals match... some judo, some spider guard, two nice sweeps (who says scissor sweeps only work on whitebelts?) and some situp guard :)
More from Kit on the benefits of being observant in the pre-match time period:
"While in the back going through my mental preparation I noticed my opponent in the corner with his coach going through some interesting scenarios on the matts. The thing that struck my mind were that the positions he was going through were my favourites from passes to submissions; this said. . . That I had already got him on the back foot, knowing that he was practising worst case scenarios and defensive tactics gives me the picture that not only is his coach thinking in a reactive manner but he is engraining it into his student. So while he is focussing on what to do, if this happens and what to do if he does this, I am focussing only on what I will do; how I will dictate the match, and if for any reason I start thinking negatively for example; (what will I do if he takes me down) I immediately block that thought from my head and reinforce positive thoughts, for example; (I will take him down or I will sweep him this way). I believe that using the power of thought (quantum physics and neuron linguistic programing) is the best way to attract what you want into your life whether it be money, happiness or in this case success."
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Reviews...
Yes, yes I have many reviews to write. Short version here but more to come.
Hemp gi: been wearing the crap out of it to test it fully; one loose thread in the seam of the pants and wanted to see if it would disintegrate. Far from it; I really dig the gi.
Dom gi: Love the jacket because of the peachy microfiber lining. The pants split from the rear down the leg, near the inside seam, despite the "ripstop" fabric. This was after 5 full training sessions, at the start of the sixth (THANK GOD while I was still in the changing room.) I squatted down in a deep knee bend to put something in my gym bag and it went riiipppp. I'll be emailing Dom a picture and see what their customer service is like.
Jiu Jitsu Style magazine: I will be reviewing this shortly!
DVDs: Gracie Bullyproof (been playing these games with innocent neighborhood victims, muahahaha); Abmar Barbosa; Tony Pacenski's Sao Paulo Pass System; Roy Harris; Whitebelt Bible by Roy Dean; and hopefully later this summer, the Gracie Women Empowered set too... (salivate!)
Hemp gi: been wearing the crap out of it to test it fully; one loose thread in the seam of the pants and wanted to see if it would disintegrate. Far from it; I really dig the gi.
Dom gi: Love the jacket because of the peachy microfiber lining. The pants split from the rear down the leg, near the inside seam, despite the "ripstop" fabric. This was after 5 full training sessions, at the start of the sixth (THANK GOD while I was still in the changing room.) I squatted down in a deep knee bend to put something in my gym bag and it went riiipppp. I'll be emailing Dom a picture and see what their customer service is like.
Jiu Jitsu Style magazine: I will be reviewing this shortly!
DVDs: Gracie Bullyproof (been playing these games with innocent neighborhood victims, muahahaha); Abmar Barbosa; Tony Pacenski's Sao Paulo Pass System; Roy Harris; Whitebelt Bible by Roy Dean; and hopefully later this summer, the Gracie Women Empowered set too... (salivate!)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The Three P's
I have posted before about how much I like Cane Prevost's insights about teaching and learning jiu jitsu. Well, he's recently posted another concise exploration of what the Three P's model means and how it came to be. I suggest you give it a read. He calls it the Fallacy of Technique. It reminds me of my bookshelf analogy.
I usually think of my brain (as far as jiu jitsu goes, anyway) as being like a bookshelf affixed to the wall, without sides to it. I go to class and each technique I'm taught is like a book being handed to me.. I scurry and scurry, putting books on the shelf as quick as I can. But the dang shelf seems short, and for every book I put on the left side, one is falling off to the floor on the right. It's like an old I Love Lucy-type of physical comedy. Occasionally I get a second to run to the pile of books on the floor and fumble through them-- rediscovering old delights-- and every once in a while I realize the shelf has gotten a little bit longer, so I can add a book from the floor pile...
But really, it's a question of knowing which books to try to add to the shelf, and which ones to just flip through whilst in the library. It totally makes sense that each of us groove on different genres of reads... likewise, different techniques click with us according to our varying attributes and mindsets. And the techniques we think we've "invented" (the ones that occur to us naturally) are the ones (it seems) that stick with us the best. Which feeds into exactly what Cane is talking about in his post.
Genius :)
I usually think of my brain (as far as jiu jitsu goes, anyway) as being like a bookshelf affixed to the wall, without sides to it. I go to class and each technique I'm taught is like a book being handed to me.. I scurry and scurry, putting books on the shelf as quick as I can. But the dang shelf seems short, and for every book I put on the left side, one is falling off to the floor on the right. It's like an old I Love Lucy-type of physical comedy. Occasionally I get a second to run to the pile of books on the floor and fumble through them-- rediscovering old delights-- and every once in a while I realize the shelf has gotten a little bit longer, so I can add a book from the floor pile...
But really, it's a question of knowing which books to try to add to the shelf, and which ones to just flip through whilst in the library. It totally makes sense that each of us groove on different genres of reads... likewise, different techniques click with us according to our varying attributes and mindsets. And the techniques we think we've "invented" (the ones that occur to us naturally) are the ones (it seems) that stick with us the best. Which feeds into exactly what Cane is talking about in his post.
Genius :)
Monday, May 09, 2011
Stunning lack of competitive drive.
I was about to preface this with "This is how I always get" but that sounded a little funny, as this is only my third spring in jiu jitsu... pretty small sample size. Nonetheless it's accurate. I "always" get fired up to compete after being off the mats for a week over the Christmas holidays... and fired up to work hard and lose all the extra pigs-in-blankets, champagne punch, fudge and lemon poppyseed cake blanketing my derriere. So I jump in with both feet in January-- train 7 days a week, galloping towards the Pan. I'll do 2-4 tournaments on the way to the Pan, then (last year and this year) come to a shuddering stop in the first match there. After that, I'm kinda.. meh. Like right now for example.
Yeah, my knee's fine-- a little fat-feeling, a little stiff when I first get out of bed or have been sitting for a while, but it's not hurting and my doc says it's A-OK. (In fact I'll confess, it felt all right enough for class Sunday morning... it was too late to drive all the way to Dallas for the tourney though. And I did lunch open mat today.)
But I have a choice to make pretty quickly-- Mundials or stay home and visit with the in-laws. What does it say that I'm actually TORN?
A) Her in-laws must be pretty cool;
B) She doesn't want to compete much at all;
C) All of the above.
Yeah, pretty much C here. My husband's parents are very sweet people, totally the antithesis of the "in-law" image popularized in modern media. My MIL is quiet, easygoing to a fault, and a good cook. My FIL is quiet, with a wry sense of humor and a drive to FIND and FIX things which need fixing. (For a visual and aural image, picture a hybrid of Yoda and Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid.) More stuff gets done around the house and garage and yard when he's around than you could possibly imagine. They make no demands (except a half-kidding 'make a grandson!') And they're coming at the beginning of June for 2-3 weeks, for my husband's birthday and to see his brother and the preemie twins up in Dallas.
So there's that-- we could miss 5 days of their visit, and we already have plane tickets. But I am just not jamming on the idea of competing. So I'm analyzing just what exactly drives me to compete. Haven't made up my mind yet, going to talk to the hubs tonight.
Anyway, had a good open mat today-- first rolled with a whitebelt, then a purple, and last a visiting blue belt chick . She's come before so I already knew I was in for it. We're fairly evenly matched size-wise, but I feel like she's a year or two ahead of me-- I haven't yet answered her counter to my halfguard sweep, or her both-feet-in-one-bicep sweep (though she's taught me how to foil her TWICE now. And I WILL remember it for her next visit.) This time we rolled a while and I felt good about it.
Check out this super motivational and awe-inspiring highlight. Filched from Jodi's Combat Sports Review, an excellent blog I always enjoy reading. Here's her comments:
"It's not so much this video that I find inspirational, but the person. His name is Panom Yeerum. You may know him as Tony Jaa. Chances are you’ve never heard of him. He was born an elephant herder in the poverty-stricken and war-torn northeast region of Thailand. His inspiration to study martial arts was Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. Jaa used that inspiration to overcome many obstacles and become an accomplished martial artist, gymnast, and stuntman. Not only does he hold the record for the longest uncut fight sequence, he also appears to defy gravity and to have rewritten the laws of physics. In this video you will see him in action, no strings attached (literally) and on fire (literally)."
And then check out this ninja roll (backtake from top, feet-facing side control) courtesy of Leslie at BJJGRRL...
And last... a sweep or a back take, counters to the torreador pass... I found this on my very own ;) From a Pedro Sauer affiliate in Honolulu..
Yeah, my knee's fine-- a little fat-feeling, a little stiff when I first get out of bed or have been sitting for a while, but it's not hurting and my doc says it's A-OK. (In fact I'll confess, it felt all right enough for class Sunday morning... it was too late to drive all the way to Dallas for the tourney though. And I did lunch open mat today.)
But I have a choice to make pretty quickly-- Mundials or stay home and visit with the in-laws. What does it say that I'm actually TORN?
A) Her in-laws must be pretty cool;
B) She doesn't want to compete much at all;
C) All of the above.
Yeah, pretty much C here. My husband's parents are very sweet people, totally the antithesis of the "in-law" image popularized in modern media. My MIL is quiet, easygoing to a fault, and a good cook. My FIL is quiet, with a wry sense of humor and a drive to FIND and FIX things which need fixing. (For a visual and aural image, picture a hybrid of Yoda and Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid.) More stuff gets done around the house and garage and yard when he's around than you could possibly imagine. They make no demands (except a half-kidding 'make a grandson!') And they're coming at the beginning of June for 2-3 weeks, for my husband's birthday and to see his brother and the preemie twins up in Dallas.
So there's that-- we could miss 5 days of their visit, and we already have plane tickets. But I am just not jamming on the idea of competing. So I'm analyzing just what exactly drives me to compete. Haven't made up my mind yet, going to talk to the hubs tonight.
Anyway, had a good open mat today-- first rolled with a whitebelt, then a purple, and last a visiting blue belt chick . She's come before so I already knew I was in for it. We're fairly evenly matched size-wise, but I feel like she's a year or two ahead of me-- I haven't yet answered her counter to my halfguard sweep, or her both-feet-in-one-bicep sweep (though she's taught me how to foil her TWICE now. And I WILL remember it for her next visit.) This time we rolled a while and I felt good about it.
Check out this super motivational and awe-inspiring highlight. Filched from Jodi's Combat Sports Review, an excellent blog I always enjoy reading. Here's her comments:
"It's not so much this video that I find inspirational, but the person. His name is Panom Yeerum. You may know him as Tony Jaa. Chances are you’ve never heard of him. He was born an elephant herder in the poverty-stricken and war-torn northeast region of Thailand. His inspiration to study martial arts was Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. Jaa used that inspiration to overcome many obstacles and become an accomplished martial artist, gymnast, and stuntman. Not only does he hold the record for the longest uncut fight sequence, he also appears to defy gravity and to have rewritten the laws of physics. In this video you will see him in action, no strings attached (literally) and on fire (literally)."
And then check out this ninja roll (backtake from top, feet-facing side control) courtesy of Leslie at BJJGRRL...
And last... a sweep or a back take, counters to the torreador pass... I found this on my very own ;) From a Pedro Sauer affiliate in Honolulu..
Saturday, May 07, 2011
crap my knee.
I woke up this morning with a knee roughly approaching the size of a ruby red grapefruit, and about as likely to bend in the middle.
So I alternated warmth and ice, took some ibuprofen, and tried to walk around some to loosen it up. Lately I seem to notice this knee being a little stiff and fat-feeling in the morning, and usually it works itself out in a few minutes. Not so much this time. I finally had to make the call about an hour ago- Dallas or no? And since my teammate Courtney wasn't depending on me for a ride, I decided to bail. It doesn't hurt much, just feels... weird. A combination of tight and loose, opposite of where things are supposed to be tight or loose.
Good luck to my teammates Rebecca and Aaron who will be competing tomorrow!
So I alternated warmth and ice, took some ibuprofen, and tried to walk around some to loosen it up. Lately I seem to notice this knee being a little stiff and fat-feeling in the morning, and usually it works itself out in a few minutes. Not so much this time. I finally had to make the call about an hour ago- Dallas or no? And since my teammate Courtney wasn't depending on me for a ride, I decided to bail. It doesn't hurt much, just feels... weird. A combination of tight and loose, opposite of where things are supposed to be tight or loose.
Good luck to my teammates Rebecca and Aaron who will be competing tomorrow!
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Oh HELL YEAH!
And saving the best for last.....
Yes, that's right... Allie's writing a BOOK!
Coming out in 2012...
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Gis for Moldova
Sorry, too busy at work to investigate this option, but a friend in DC (Hi Home Improvement Ninja! update your blog!) suggested I look into crowdsourcing or crowdfunding to get some charitable donations going towards the Moldova project.
Anyone out there have a few minutes to look into this?
How about maybe doing donations through Paypal??
Tonight I will be culling my gi collection and packaging up at least two to head to Rumania!
:)
Anyone out there have a few minutes to look into this?
How about maybe doing donations through Paypal??
Tonight I will be culling my gi collection and packaging up at least two to head to Rumania!
:)
Your assignment, should you choose to accept it...
Found this reposted on Side Control's blog. Check it out.
"Here's your assignment.
Ok, check this out, I recently had my students focus on this because at some point you have to become a Master at your go to moves. Most people will become really good at their go to moves "over time" but I've been focused on cutting that time to a mere fraction of the normal time it takes most people.
Over the years I've proven it with my students and at first I proved it with myself as my own test subject.
As a motivation for my students you've probably heard that at tournaments I have what I call 'Money Moves', these are moves that if my students pull off they get paid. Like the UFC bonues but I was doing it before Dana White. :-)
For example, The Kimura Kid made $450 at the pan ams for his submissions.
When I want my guys to focus on X choke from the mount I'll make that a money move for a tournament and during the training I only allow the X choke from the mount(if they get to the mount).
I also will do position specific LIVE drills from the mount to force them to work on it.
SO WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?
Here's my Sunday assignment for you, I want you to pick one sweep and one choke from positions that you get to the most and only use those 2 moves for the next week, if you like it I want you to push it out for 2 weeks.
So your assignment right now is to write down what your one sweep will be and what your one choke will be.
Then think about the positions that you need to get to for the move and which of your teammates you're able to attain these positions on.
Then make sure that you get to work with them, you can also ask your instructor if you can get paired up with them because you want to work on a specific technique set and they are the best partner for you.
That's it. Saturday afternoon let me know how the week went.
Have fun.
Lloyd Irvin aka The Grappling Renegade
Forever The King Of Leglocks"
"Here's your assignment.
Ok, check this out, I recently had my students focus on this because at some point you have to become a Master at your go to moves. Most people will become really good at their go to moves "over time" but I've been focused on cutting that time to a mere fraction of the normal time it takes most people.
Over the years I've proven it with my students and at first I proved it with myself as my own test subject.
As a motivation for my students you've probably heard that at tournaments I have what I call 'Money Moves', these are moves that if my students pull off they get paid. Like the UFC bonues but I was doing it before Dana White. :-)
For example, The Kimura Kid made $450 at the pan ams for his submissions.
When I want my guys to focus on X choke from the mount I'll make that a money move for a tournament and during the training I only allow the X choke from the mount(if they get to the mount).
I also will do position specific LIVE drills from the mount to force them to work on it.
SO WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?
Here's my Sunday assignment for you, I want you to pick one sweep and one choke from positions that you get to the most and only use those 2 moves for the next week, if you like it I want you to push it out for 2 weeks.
So your assignment right now is to write down what your one sweep will be and what your one choke will be.
Then think about the positions that you need to get to for the move and which of your teammates you're able to attain these positions on.
Then make sure that you get to work with them, you can also ask your instructor if you can get paired up with them because you want to work on a specific technique set and they are the best partner for you.
That's it. Saturday afternoon let me know how the week went.
Have fun.
Lloyd Irvin aka The Grappling Renegade
Forever The King Of Leglocks"
Hahaha the joke's on me...
Once registration for the Dallas Open closed, the IBJJF updated the competitor lists... now there's *3* of us in middle heavy... and *2* in middle.. and *4* in light, which is my weight class... so I didn't need to register in middle heavy after all! Oh well, what the hell, jiu jitsu is for the smaller person, right? So let's go see what it's like in middle heavy :)
A friend pointed out a new (to me) gi company and I notice they sell chocolate brown gis.. also pink (of course)... and pink and white... and 3 versions of camouflage. Anyway-- check out Yamarashi Kimonos.
Work is really keeping me busy, so I'm not training intensely for the Dallas Open. I'm just going to "wing it" so to speak... wish me luck. Training is going well though; last weekend I attended a Cleber Luciano seminar at my husband's academy and learned a nice counter for a darce-- a sweep into an nontraditional armbar. When I got a chance to roll with Cleber, he showed me one little tweak for escaping side control that made me do the facepalm thing as it was super simple and obvious, yet I didn't do that (yet.)
I'm feeling kind of blah about jiu jitsu right now. I think it's because my ego is getting in the way of my progress. I find myself feeling like I don't need to push myself quite so hard, and I'm tempted to buy a new (clean, tidy, fresh) blue belt because I'm getting tired of people commenting on my shredded ratty looking one. I don't feel like I'm rolling to the level of my belt, if that makes sense. I'm feeling kind of pouty and resentful about the whole making weight thing; I've been going through an "I want to cook" phase lately, sorting out recipes and cookbooks and stuff like that... but I always have this debate in my head about what I "should" and "shouldn't" be eating, and I feel deprived and grumpy. So then I go eat what I shouldn't eat, and get fat, and have all the bad and none of the good. I should either shut up and train and eat healthy food only and be strong and not fat, or I should shut up and train and cook and eat whatever I want and not worry about weight classes. Not hybridize the two.
And Donald's out of town this week and next, which will make it a full month I haven't attended a comp class. Blech.
One last thing... kinda funny (though I hate Britney Spears' music)-- this from Afghanistan...
A friend pointed out a new (to me) gi company and I notice they sell chocolate brown gis.. also pink (of course)... and pink and white... and 3 versions of camouflage. Anyway-- check out Yamarashi Kimonos.
Work is really keeping me busy, so I'm not training intensely for the Dallas Open. I'm just going to "wing it" so to speak... wish me luck. Training is going well though; last weekend I attended a Cleber Luciano seminar at my husband's academy and learned a nice counter for a darce-- a sweep into an nontraditional armbar. When I got a chance to roll with Cleber, he showed me one little tweak for escaping side control that made me do the facepalm thing as it was super simple and obvious, yet I didn't do that (yet.)
I'm feeling kind of blah about jiu jitsu right now. I think it's because my ego is getting in the way of my progress. I find myself feeling like I don't need to push myself quite so hard, and I'm tempted to buy a new (clean, tidy, fresh) blue belt because I'm getting tired of people commenting on my shredded ratty looking one. I don't feel like I'm rolling to the level of my belt, if that makes sense. I'm feeling kind of pouty and resentful about the whole making weight thing; I've been going through an "I want to cook" phase lately, sorting out recipes and cookbooks and stuff like that... but I always have this debate in my head about what I "should" and "shouldn't" be eating, and I feel deprived and grumpy. So then I go eat what I shouldn't eat, and get fat, and have all the bad and none of the good. I should either shut up and train and eat healthy food only and be strong and not fat, or I should shut up and train and cook and eat whatever I want and not worry about weight classes. Not hybridize the two.
And Donald's out of town this week and next, which will make it a full month I haven't attended a comp class. Blech.
One last thing... kinda funny (though I hate Britney Spears' music)-- this from Afghanistan...
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