Thursday, September 02, 2010

Panentheism or monotheism on the mats.

Strep throat sucks. Antibiotics rule. Jiu jitsu is amazing and awesome.

This wasn't me but I have had strep this badly in the past. Thank goodness not this time.


But these were in me.


I caught strep Tuesday before last; did not train till last Friday, which was too early, and then watched 30 min of the Relson seminar last Saturday.

*** I'll note that I LOANED a gi to some girl who wanted to train for a month at our school before moving to Germany... I never met her, she trained at lunch only, so I loaned it indirectly via one of our instructors... this girl thanked me several times "for" the gi instead of for the "loan" of the gi, even though I pointedly told her when she was ready to leave she could just give it back to the instructor to give back to me. Anyway, I finally met her face to face at the seminar... again told her to leave the gi at the front desk when she left, don't even worry about washing it. And noooooo... a nearly brand new sweet-as-**** competition weight gi was NOT returned to the academy, and she's NOT returning phone messages. Of course because she's probably in Germany!!! Grrr... Ahh well, it's her karma. Hopefully it makes its way back to me but if not, great excuse once husband is hired again to get some more gis. My friend Max is totally enabling my desire to add to the collection. Fushida! OTM! Vangaard! Ayabuza!***

Still didn't train until this week... and it's been heaven to be back on the mats. Worked on a new side control escape, a back take counter to it, a counter to the back take, and a counter to the counter that flips them upside down and into your back mount... spiffy! And kouchi gari/ouchi gari..

I also have some backlogged pieces to write.. Got the interview answers back from China's first female blue belt and will be doing that for SubmissionControl.com soon. Writing a review of the last Girls in Gis for TxMMA.org and will do the next Girls in Gis for On The Mat's blog which has just opened up some job opportunities for writers and competitors.. check it out! And finally I need to write something for my bud Matt Benyon of Scramble Stuff fame. Just isn't enough time in the day, I swear!

But aside from laundry listing all the myriad things I am working, and need to work, on, I've been thinking about the nature of training as it's changed for me from white to blue to really being a blue. At white and new-blue, I came to every class and sat like a sponge, slurping it all up. I'd use open mat to work everything, because in every position I found something that needed practice, so I was kind of directionless. A panentheist view of jits, if you will-- where god and jiu jitsu are everywhere you look and in everything, and you are open to learning anything and everything.

But now I notice I am being much more selective, even monotheistic, in my focus. It's not that I won't attend class or only show up for the open mat section of class (so annoying!)... but more that I tend to categorize the technique(s) of the day as either relevant to the portions of my game I'm working on or the game I already have, or as less relevant.

If it's relevant, I'm all ears, though my drilling after the first 4-6 reps is likely to start in some position before the entry to the day's technique (so I can see how it flows from other likely starting places) or maybe it will be slightly amped up drilling maybe using 20-30% resistance. This of course assumes I have a like-minded upper blue or higher level training partner. If I am with a whitebelt, I'm all business and pure application of just that technique, straight up.

If it's not super tied in to what I want to be working on this month, then I go through the movements precisely and attentively for the required period of time, but I recognize I probably won't have that retention and application for a while, since it's a puzzle piece alone by itself instead of nestling into a handful of other pieces.

What do you do? notice anything similar or very different? Discuss, kittens...

Last, check out the choke at 1:10... thanks Mark!

4 comments:

SavageKitsune said...

I have learned to never loan anything- even to a close friend- that I'm not willing to lose.

Meerkatsu said...

Hey, make that a BIG NOTE. You do not borrow someone else's friggin gi and claim it as your own. That is very bad indeed, an outrage. Which gi was it?
Hmm will check out writing ops at OTM.

Georgette said...

My Ouano competition light gi... black with green... a gift from my sponsors at MMAOutlet.com... wahhhh!!!

Megan said...

That is muffed...up. I'm with Kitsune on the loaning. I either give or nothing. Still...a gi is a big deal, not a random pair of jeans. I can't believe she just ran off with it, intentional or not.