MMA & Jits

Had the oppurtunity to train and hang out with BJJ blackbelt and legendary MMA coach Ricardo Liborio over the weekend. Some really good stuff was taught that was applicable for MMA grappling. Watching the UFC fight with him was very cool as he shared his experiences and gave his insight on the match. It was definitely one of the best UFC’ cards Ive ever watched.

Trained at Ronin a little bit last week as my hand had healed and was off due to having a crappy cough cold thing. back today and learned some defenses and attacks from the back position. Thanks to Ryan for the lesson. I learned a cool new(to me) way of finishing the Rear Naked Choke today, no flexing of the arms, just simply taking a big breath. so simple I would never of thought of it, that’s the itricacy of Jiujitsu.

It’s good to be back.

Back on the horse…briefly

Back in training after losing at the tournament felt good, Vadi went over the importance of having go-to moves from each positions. We worked on nailing the scissor and flower sweep from gaurd, including how to get the grips and break the opponents posture to set up the sweep.

I noticed I was rolling better than before and the energy seemed to echo the renewed commitment to training I have.

Unfortunately, although I escaped injury free from the tournament, right before the last roll of the lesson, I got my hand stuck under my body and sprained my thumb.Now my left hand is swollen and I don’t have much movement in my thumb.

Bollocks.

-food + chokes = Tournament

This was breakfast today, keeping my weight down for the tournament.

Well, I was on target with weight to spare for my Gi division, so that was one worry off my mind.

I stepped on the mat and unfortunately lost my first gi match via collar choke. I was kind of kicking myself as I felt I wasn’t dynamic enough.

I took it as a learning experience and looked ahead to my no-gi match. As there was no-one else in my bracket Medium Heavy (188) I asked to jump up a weight category to heavy (202 lb max).

I had two matches and lost both, the first by rear naked choke and the second by arm triangle. I felt happier with the first match but I was pissed off by the second, I pulled guard to half guard when I should have driven forward and I left my arm up which gave him the arm triangle. My stance was too high as well.

Looks like I’ll be working on my choke defenses and improving my wrestling.

So frustrating but I’m glad I did it and it pushes me to improve more before my next one.

Thankfully I came away injury-free.

Two More Sleeps

Good rolling this week, I was feeling the nerves for my tournament on saturday and my rolling has helped to turn apprehension into impatience. I can’t wait to get on that mat!

Ran in my new gi’s (Gameness Air) this week and apart from the pants making me feel a little like MC Hammer, they are good.

My weight seems to be on target, weighing in at 186 right now and will need to be 188 on the day.

So one more day of training and a day off inbetween and it’s showtime!

 

 

Less Great Expectations

My teacher Wade brought up a good point today, when some newer whitebelts were rolling. He reminded me of what it was like at the start of training in BJJ: no idea of the basics, just confusion, doubt and the thirst for knowledge (how do I do a flying leg lock armbar?). There was no expectations on you in that short time, you had no idea of the length of time it would take  to even be able to survive past pulling guard. Then you learn more and in challenging yourself in stepping on the mat in the first place, your knowledge comes with your peers and YOU challenging yourself to do better; roll smarter, don’t give up, you know this!

It’s a tiny moment of the journey , that has many constant memorable experiences.

 

I’m seeing more pieces of the puzzle come together and I am hyped up for my tournament next week. Win or Lose I’m gonna give it my all.

Keep on growing.

I’m finding that I am retaining more of what I have learned in a lesson when it comes the time to be able to use it. It feels like it less acquiring soup into a cup but more differently lego blocks that are building a castle (Thanks to Wade for the analogy).

Due to peoples scheduling I have been exposed to different sources of teaching over the last few weeks. Ive found it very enjoyable and a great learning experience.

The Heat Is On!

Got my fulltime position today working in my field of multimedia. Got a email that my cheque to sign up for the grappling tournament has been received (I think that was the gist). It’s pedal to the metal!

Been looking into the ancient aliens idea and an interesting theory was thrown in by Joe Rogan; that technology could get so advanced that we get dumbed down by it and are no longer able to operate it. Society reverts to its basic level and we abandon the cities until we come back and rediscover them. Thinking that there is no way that the current intelligence could have built these it would be plausable that aliens had.

 

Who’s knows? maybe the Incas/Mayans etc had reached technological mastery and they relied on it so much that it made them unable to function intelligently anymore. Much in the same way that the appendix no longer serves it’s purpose.

It’s an interesting thought.

It’s a crazy time we live in though, retail company landmarks like Blockbuster and KFC shutting down stores? Who’da thunk?

Just Do It

Put in my details to sign up for the Ottawa BJJ open and am just awaiting confirmation. I was debating whether to stick to gi but decided to do both, if it’s worth doing it’s worth going all out.

I’m looking forward to the experience and learning from it.

I’ve started increasing my training to encompass wrestling and the more advanced classes and obviously competition centered lessons.

Learning a lot and aching a lot.

Revisiting the basics is very important and the most basic stuff is sometimes the most difficult to execute. sounds weird but it’s true.

A Video Interview with Rener Gracie and the Return of the Gracie Technique of the Month (via Jonny’s Jiu-Jitsu)

I caught up with Rener Gracie at Destin Academy of Mixed Martial Arts and was able to pin him into a corner for a quick interview.  We covered a lot of material, to include but not limited to, the upcoming release of the blue belt stripe 1 test, politics in jiu-jitsu, cataloging his grandfathers techniques and last but not least the Gracie Technique of the Month for September 2011!!  Check it out! Big thanks to Rener Gracie for giving up his time … Read More

via Jonny's Jiu-Jitsu

Double Duty

“Pouring the coal to ‘er” now In my training, did beginner class and went over some second stripe curriculum in the form of armbars from mount and Americana from mount.

I found that I’m getting my style a little bit.

Stayed for the competition class and got rolled up into a ball. I think I held out pretty well though, some of the re-guarding techniques came back to me as I was rolling.

Mount escape is definitely an area I need to work on as is sweep from half-guard.

Almost had the outcome of the ufc given away but managed to avoid hearing the results.