When I’m not training Brazilian Jiujitsu at the Rebellion Academy I also like to watch the UFC and other mixed martial arts promotions among other things. Most of the time I have several friends over and we will have fun by making small wagers and comparing fight picks.
A few years ago I created a template and started making printable fight card pool sheets/game boards that make remembering your picks and bets easy for every one. I figured its already made so there is no harm sharing it with other BJJ and MMA fans out there who might be interested in using it themselves.
I will now be posting everyone I make for every event here directly on my jiu-jitsu blog BJJ in San Diego. So if you like it and enjoy using it bookmark my page and feel free to stop by and download a copy for every event. Enjoy the fights!
Click the link below to download the printable Word file
Well, in the vein of recent proceeding I was forced off the mats yet again. Last Saturday after getting home from training with Justin I noticed a rash forming on my feet.
Part of being a good training partner is being hygienic and not spreading bacteria and what not to your training partners. For this reason I decided to stay off the mats until it goes away. Luckily for me its pretty much gone now so I should be good to train on both days this weekend.
I was able to work with Justin last Saturday for a couple of hours though. We worked on some half guard escape using the under hook and were able to pin point the two most common resistances you experience so we built of that.
Also a few post ago I spoke of a Half guard variation I was working on developing that Jeff taught me. Here is a link to that post HERE. I’ve been trying to use it in sparring as much as possible and I have to say things are coming along with it incredibly well.
I think the technique tends to be so effective for me because my long arms allow me to get around the leg and thread the skirt much easier. Once I exchange grips things seem easy from there.
Here are a few videos from last Saturday where I was able to use the technique effectively in sparring. I included time stamps below the videos.
ROLLING WITH JUSTIN 1
At 3:55 I start working for it and at 3:34 I get it and use it to sweep to top position
6:25, not from half guard but I was able to grab the gi skirt and use it to get a take down and get in top position
ROLLING WITH JUSTIN 2
This wasn’t the half guard variation but at 2:25 I was able to use Sean Williams guard to nail a omoplata sweep into side control, sweet!
1:30 kimura sweep to top position
2:26 used the half guard variation to get to my feet, get a take down and end up on top
3:40 half guard variation again used to get to top position
When I’m not training Brazilian Jiujitsu at the Rebellion Academy I also like to watch the UFC and other mixed martial arts promotions among other things. Most of the time I have several friends over and we will have fun by making small wagers and comparing fight picks.
A few years ago I created a template and started making printable fight card pool sheets/game boards that make remembering your picks and bets easy for every one. I figured its already made so there is no harm sharing it with other BJJ and MMA fans out there who might be interested in using it themselves.
I will now be posting everyone I make for every event here directly on my jiu-jitsu blog BJJ in San Diego. So if you like it and enjoy using it bookmark my page and feel free to stop by and download a copy for every event. Enjoy the fights!
Click the link below to download the printable Word file
This past weekend Grappling X, a local regional BJJ tournament promotion, ran an event and I went to support a couple of teammates that were competing.
I didn’t compete being as I’ve been dealing with injuries and being sick, as I’ve documented, so I really didn’t feel I’d been training sufficiently enough leading up to actual enter. By the end of the day though I left feeling like I normally do when I go to a grappling tournament as a spectator, and that is that I should have just sucked it up and competed anyway.
It was a good time as the events always tend to be but there was one thing that took place during the days events that really stood out to me.
There was an exhibition match and it was a little different than the exhibition matches I’m used to seeing at BJJ tournaments. Unlike the last exhibition match I saw at a Grappling X, that involved BJJ black belt Zak Maxwell, it wasn’t the pedigree of the people competing that made it so enthralling. I will say though that this exhibition match resonated with me even more though, and will probably stick with me a lot longer into my life.
Max , was the name of the warrior going onto the mats today. He wasn’t a black belt, he wasn’t a brown belt, he wasn’t even a purple belt. Max was a blue belt but there was something different about Max than most blue belts. As he approached the mats Shawn Fowler, the events promoter gave a little background info on Max.
Grappling X owner Shawn Fowler
Max found BJJ and loved it and started competing very regularly at white belt. Traveling around entering every tournament that he could. This is the part of the story though as a reader when you’ll see what is so special about Max as a competitor.
Tragedy struck and he fell off a balcony and as a result was paralyzed, from my understanding, from the waist down. This obviously forced him to stop training and focus on his recovery. In most peoples cases this would have deterred them and they would have just quit training all together, but not Max.
His love for the sport fulled him and as soon as possible he was back on the mats training despite his new limitations and as a result began to craft and develop a new game that would work for him and his current strengths and capabilities. The training as a whole is also now a lot tougher on his body, especially regarding recovery, as a result he has to now even work harder than you normally have to while training BJJ which is crazy considering how physically demanding it can be for someone that’s 100% able bodied.
This was a big day for Max, it was his return to actual competition mats for the first time since his accident. I was honored to be there to watch and experience it with him. Here is the match below, sorry for the shakiness of the video. I highly recommend watching the entire video but if anything at least skip to 4:45 and watch the end and try not to be inspired and feel something.
After the match Shawn said some words that really brought everything together and hit on the point I wanted to make with this blog post.
Shawn said, “For everyone who doesn’t believe take a step back and think twice before you say you can’t, because you can.”
BJJ is already a long hard road for anyone who chooses to take it. I will say its a very worthwhile and rewarding one as well though. Max obviously feels the same way and even now that the road has become harder and longer for him his drive, will, determination, courage, and toughness push him onwards towards continuing to achieve his goals. Whether they be old goals or new ones.
Max was very inspiring to me and I think I will continue to remember him as I continue along on my own journey. I’ll remember him when I feel like something is too hard and I want to quit. I’ll think about him before I say can’t. I’ll think about him when I don’t want to go train because I’m “too sore”. I’ll think about him and ask myself “How bad do you want this?”
On Sunday it was apparent to me how bad Max wants it. No amount of hard work would deter him, and for that I think we could all learn something from him. It was a pleasure to see you on the mats my friend, OSS.
“Courage is not having the strength to go; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” – Theodore Roosevelt
I read this quote yesterday and it really stuck out to me. First off just because its a great quote with deeper meaning that can tie into multiple facets of everyday life. Second because in my returning to training this past weekend I had a day that I left me wishing I would have known the quote earlier so I could have repeated to myself during training.
On Sunday during competition class we had quite the warm up. We started with laps around the mats and then moved on and did 100 push ups, 30 gi pull ups, and then took turns dragging every person that was training and 2 grappling dummies across the mats. It was brutal and left me feeling week and lacking any semblance of strength.
Gi Pull Ups
As you can tell by my musculature I’m no push up master. I’ve even pointed out recently that my strength and conditioning is something I really am looking to start focusing and improving on. Up until that Sunday class I don’t think I’ve done 100 push ups this year let alone 100 in a row.
I pushed through it but it got to the point near the end where I could only do sets of five push ups at a time and I struggled through those trying to regain my strength as I sat looking defeated between every set. All this before I had even started my pull ups.
Eventually I finished though and now it was time to move on to actual BJJ drilling. We did 10 minute rotations with the person who was in starting on their back in De La Riva guard, here’s the video of my turn below.
Competition Class Training Drill
After words I was exhausted, no I recant that. Before, during, and after the drill I was exhausted and I was getting lazy. Taking too long to reset and not fighting as hard as I could just accepting certain positions in order to get a reset instead of trying to fight out of them.
When everything was done my coach and head instructor Jeff had a discussion to me regarding some things he had noticed in my performance during the days training session. The main thing I’d like to talk about though related to my body language.
He noticed during the exercises that I was struggling. He said you need to take the mental approach that its no big deal, and remind myself its no big deal. Its hard but it’s no big deal. If I over think it mentally I’ll only make it harder on myself. He also noticed the extra breaks I was attempting to give myself during the drill and he wasn’t a big fan. He wanted me to expect more of myself and to not quit on myself and to never just lay down and take it, accepting the bad positions.
How I felt after the warm up.
He realized I was tired but expressed that’s when you get your best work in. When your tired having the ability to go on is what separates the strong that really want it from the weak who just think they want it. It’s up to me to decide which one of those people I want to be. It definitely was a bit of tough love but it was exactly what I needed to hear. I though about what Jeff said a lot over the next few days and what it really meant and how important it was when I stumbled upon the quote from the beginning of my post.
Like I previously said, its a great quote regardless of how you look at it but the quote becomes all that more salient when you consider the background of the man it came from. See Theodore Roosevelt was not only the 26th president of the United States of America, he was grinder. A fighter and a courageous man through and through who didn’t know the meaning of the word quit.
He was a wrestler, a championship boxer, and when age finally took his ability to box from him guess what? He started training Jiu Jitsu. That’s right jiujitsu. If he was still around I’m sure he’d be a big BJJ fan and would probably still be grinding.
Well, I’m coming off yet another lay off. I It turns out I messed my leg up a little worse than I thought and ended up needing to take another several days off for it to recover. Truth be told, its still not 100%. My insurance sucks so I never went to the doctor but discussing with my instructor and a few other people I’m lead to believe it was hamstring tendonitis. It was to the point where I couldn’t go up stairs and just basic bending of my knee resulted in a sharp pain.
It all goes back to the charity run I did. I overdid it a bit and over pushed myself. I had the cardiovascular fitness level to run for several miles straight but one thing I foolishly didn’t take into consideration is that I don’t really ever run. I even went as far as to say in my blog post about the run that I hate running. So now its pretty clear to me that I’m working and entirely different set of muscles while training BJJ than I use when running.
This mistake cost me lots of precious mat time. After 10 days off of stretching, icing, and ibuprofen I felt good enough to go in and train last Saturday and Sunday with plans to resume my normal training this week. I’m very excited to say the least.
What I looked like when I realized I was healed enough to start training again.
It feels as though the past month and a half has really set me back. On the mats this weekend I could really feel the difference in peoples games that have been training consistently while I’ve been gone. Especially my friend David who was promoted to blue with me.
That guy is going to be a beast a few years from now. His passing game is getting really good but the biggest difference I noticed was with his guard work. He’s getting a lot more active with his spider, de la riva, and x-guards. There was several times where I had to drop for straight ankle locks to prevent myself from being swept or because I just couldn’t pass his guard.
Straight Ankle Lock
This was good and bad. It was good because I was able to show him a potential hole in his game that he needs to plug and address but bad because when he learns to defend it… well then what? Also, its a cop out. If I cant pass his guard I need to work on my guard passing. What is he doing to give me these struggles? What am I not doing to halt his advancement?
These are the questions I need to be asking myself and addressing. While It feels good to know I can drop for the ankle lock and get the tap, like I mentioned before, that option isn’t always going to be there.
The only thing I know for certain is I’m glad to be back and I have a lot of catching up to do.
When I’m not training Brazilian Jiujitsu at the Harris Academy I also like to watch the UFC and other mixed martial arts promotions among other things. Most of the time I have several friends over and we will have fun by making small wagers and comparing fight picks.
A few years ago I created a template and started making printable fight card pool sheets/game boards that make remembering your picks and bets easy for every one. I figured its already made so there is no harm sharing it with other BJJ and MMA fans out there who might be interested in using it themselves.
I will now be posting everyone I make for every event here directly on my jiujitsu blog BJJ in San Diego. So if you like it and enjoy using it bookmark my page and feel free to stop by and download a copy for every event. Enjoy the fights!
Click the link below to download the printable Word file
Sore legs or not I went into the Harris Academy on Tuesday night and got my BJJ on. I’m glad I did though. I got some good sparring in and in the gi class my instructor taught me a half guard variation using the skirt that I felt like I could immediately incorporate into my game and experience success with.
I tend to use Z- Guard defensively a lot. In this position you have real easy access to your opponents gi skirt. For anyone unfamiliar with this terminology the gi skirt is the loose fabric of the gi that hangs below the belt. SO what you do is you grab onto their gi skirt with a firm tight grip.
Once you have a good hold of the gi skirt you put it between your opponents legs and hand it off to your other hand behind their butt making sure you continue to keep a strong grip on the fabric. In the picture below you can see the fabric in the bottom fighters right hand.
From there you just come to your knees and get on top. Your opponents gi almost acts as if its another hand and arm on a single leg take down. Really cool stuff that I was dying to try out. Fortunately it wasn’t long before I had the chance to give it a try.
The video below is from later that night as I rolled with an experienced and strong white belt training partner. If you skip to 3:38 in the video you will see Doug had me in S-Mount after I escaped into half guard I decided the positioning gave me a good opportunity to try the technique out so I did, and imagine that… it worked! Not only did it work, it worked great and before I knew it I had reversed positioning and had Doug on his back in half guard.
I shouldn’t be surprised though. My instructor likes to regularly make the joke, “What, do you think I’m teaching you the stuff that doesn’t work!?”
ROLLING WITH DOUG
There’s nothing like learning a new technique and being able to implement it immediately in sparring that same day. Words really cant describe how happy it makes me, so maybe a GIF could better portray how I was feeling inside. It was something like this…
Some other pretty cool stuff happens during the video as well that s worth pointing/checking out.
First thing first, right off the bat at the very beginning in the video I was able to hit that de la riva back take that I’ve been going for a lot lately. It seems like I’m hitting it more and more frequently and with greater and greater ease. It’s even starting to look like I actually know what I’m doing!
At 5:56 I also had a pretty sweet transition from turtle were I grabbed a single leg and was able to get on top and into side control with. Again, kind of looking like I knew what the hell I was doing.
Lastly, it was bound to happen at some point and it finally did. At 2:17 into the video I made some positional mistakes and put myself right into triangle position. Doug capitalized, made me pay, and got the tap. I’ve now been tapped by a white belt for the first time at blue belt. Hats off to Doug, couldn’t have been subbed by a better guy.
Only problem was I cranked my own neck trying to escape. DERP! Well, my knee is still hurting and has been the past two day plus it seems to be getting worse. Still going to go train again tonight though and hope it passes.
Well things have been a bit quite lately. I’ve been training, but admittedly not with the kind of regularity I’d like. I strained a hip ligament so I took a week off. Came back for a few day and got sick and was forced to take another week off. Finally got better and was able to train last Wednesday and Thursday night and I could already tell the two weeks worth of minimal training had already hurt my endurance.
This leads back to the conditioning issue I was talking about addressing in my last post. I’ve been coming in early like planned to make sure I get a proper amount of stretching in and I’ve been also doing some kettle bell work, mostly Turkish get up and swings.
TURKISH GET UPS
KETTLE BELL SWINGS
I am admittedly also am not a big fan of running or jogging either, imagine that. My wife lately has got a lot more active and into running so when she wanted to to do a 5k with me a few weeks ago I told her to sign me up. I figured incorporating more exercise as a whole in my life is going to improve mm progress in BJJ so why not? Well this past Saturday came and I completed my first 5k. Not being a big fan of running I didn’t keep my time but after I completed the run I wish I would have.
At the beginning of the race I decided to take the same mental approach to the run as I often take to the mats when I train or compete. I told myself to just push myself as hard as I can, leave it all out there, and get as much out of the experience as I could. I ended up surprising myself as I was able to run the entirety of the event without stopping and I kept up a pretty impressive speed throughout. When all was said and done and I had finished I still had energy left so I went the extra mile, almost literally, and double back all the way back to my wife and then finished with her as well.
I felt great, albeit a bit fatigued, afterwords. I pushed myself in another aspect of my life though, and was confident in myself throughout a situation where I might have gotten lazy or given up on myself in the past. Or not even tried for that matter.
When looking at the choice to start training BJJ and the benefits its had on my life its easy its easy to see the more tangible things. Feeling healthier, gaining muscle, losing fat, being in overall better physical condition, and the most obvious you performance on the mats.
On the other hand it’s easy to overlook the benefits that are the most impact full in your everyday life. Developing self belief, confidence, determination, drive. My time training Brazilian Jiujitsu has help me even more in building all of these.
There was one bad thing about the run though, for the past three days my legs have been sore it what seems like a different location everyday. Apparently running uses a whole different set of muscles than jiujitsu and I’ve been feeling that for multiple days now. Training on Sunday was pretty difficult as sore as I was to say the least.
My knees and ankle joints have been really sore all day but I’m tired of being off the mats. So I decided I’m going to go in and train tonight anyway and push through the pain. It’s pretty clear I’m sore and not injured so I’m going to make it work tonight.
