On December 13th, two of my teammates and I competed in the "Submission Hunt" tournament in Minneapolis. All in all it was great tournament. My buddy Andrew got a gold and silver in two division and got wins in the absolute divisions. I was able to win both my gi, blue belt division and no-gi division. Our buddy Will got his first tournament wins! As a team we placed 12th (Cedar Valley Jiu Jitsu). It was a successful trip. Below are a few random notes/thoughts about the weekend:
This is me, you could say the "thumbs up" is my finishing move....
Will made so many friends.
This is Dostal, he is mildly impressed with his win.
Thank God there was no snow from Waterloo to Minneapolis
It sucks to cut weight only to have your weight classes combined into 3 groups with your original weight class being the lowest class (e.g, you weigh 160, your group ends up being 160-190). I could have just been my normal tubby-self the 3 weeks before.
Chipotle is great after cutting weight
Chipotle 2 times in 5 hours....might not be your best bet.
If you can stay at Dostal's sister's awesome condo the night before, do it! This is probably more specific to my situation.
Moldy bagels the morning of the tourney will not hinder you as bad as you think.
Dostal tapped a black belt with a knee-bar, dude is a bad bad man.
Everyone thinks BJJ tournaments are fast paced. No, they are a lot of sitting and waiting. Then they call a bracket and you start to warm up and it is not your bracket...it is never your bracket.
There are few things as personally rewarding as tapping out a college wrestler who is bigger than you. Then hearing him refer to you as a "fat, f*cking old man" in the locker room.
Most competitors at a BJJ tourney are awesome, cool and friendly. I grew up wrestling, it is a far friendly environment at BJJ tourneys.
You are always disappointed not signing up for the open division when the names start getting called. I would not have won the blue belt open, but I would have loved to give it a go.
Dante Leon won both absolute divisions. Do yourself a favor and look him up, dude is an animal.
Submission Hunt is a really well run tourney for a great price. Also, St. Paul and Minneapolis are great towns to visit. If you are in the area, give it a shot. I was glad I went and got to hang out with Will and Dostal. Both are great guys, competitors and friends. If you are thinking about competing, go for it! There is a Combat Corner tourney in Milwaukee April 9th, some of my team will be there. If you are a midwesterner and thinking about competing, this is a good time to try.
Hello everyone! I am back from my Holliday break in blogging. I have two guest blogs coming up. My two guest bloggers are being slow and lazy, so I thought I would throw together something on my Saturday night.
It goes without saying that you will have boo-boos, ouchies, nicks and bruises when training BJJ. At it's essence, BJJ is all about trying to make your opponent quit through threat of injury, or actual injury. However, there is a big difference between being hurt and being injured. Hopefully, this blog might help you better decide if you should "suck-it up buttercup" or take a little time off.
My broken pinky toe, because I want you to feel sorry for me.
Before I get into the meat of this blog I should make a disclaimer: I am a doctor, with that being said, I am not the type of doctor that actually helps people (I have a PhD in Child Development). So, any advice I give is purely earned from experience and not a medical diagnosis.
I have been very fortunate in my grappling career. I can think of two instances that have forced me to miss time on the mat. Our coach separated my shoulder on a throw and I got my knee popped on a cheap heel-hook, other than that, I have been able to train without major injury. But, it seems like I always have a sore part or two. We have a great club that tends to be incredibly safe and friendly. If you are at a gym where guys are getting seriously injured on a regular basis, you are at the wrong gym. Find somewhere else that values your health. Nothing trumps mat time. It is far better to roll at a lesser known gym a lot, than a premier gym where you are missing time because higher belts are ripping your arms off for trophies.
Good example of why to tap.
So, what type of injury should you not roll with? Any broken bone, anything you cannot put weight on, anything that if it is more seriously injury you will not be able to do your job. We have several construction workers who come to our class, if they broke their leg, blew out their knee, etc. they would be off the mat for awhile and losing money they use to feed their family. DON'T MAKE YOUR FAMILY GO HUNGRY. You can always come back to the mats when you are healed, but if your bone is broken or a joint is seriously injured, it will eventually force you off the mat. You might as well heal it now and get on the mat sooner, than tough it out and roll like poo for 2 weeks and still have to rehab the injury. Here is a great article about common BJJ injuries.
The more tricky situation is when you are hurt and not sure if you should roll. I would suggest you start to build a stable of partners you can roll "light" with, to test the injury. Typically, an upper belt is going to be good for this job. They have better control over their body and will not maul an already injured appendage. Also, they get subs all the time, tapping out a white belt is not going to be a notch in their belt. If you can roll light with little or no pain, then you should increase the intensity when you feel comfortable.
In the event a you are not able to finish a light roll without getting getting hurt, you should take it easy. I would suggest coming to class and still doing technique. When you are unable to do technique without pain, try to roll light again. After you can roll light with minimal pain, start to increase the intensity.
Respectable instructors and fellow BJJers will not frown on you for getting yourself healthy after an injury. The only time classmates and instructors will start to question your injury status is when you are taking to long to tap (typically this problem takes care of itself) or you are using a former injury as an excuse to get out of rolling. I am not sure why anyone would want to get out of rolling, that is the best part.
Eventually, we all decide that we want to speed up our
improvement in BJJ. If you don’t decide that you would like to get better
faster, you are either 1) at a gym where you are not being challenged. 2). I
don’t know what is going on. At our gym, guys often start asking how they can
improve quicker after about 2-3 months. I imagine this is because the “newness”
of BJJ wears off and people start to get annoyed with being tapped every 20ish
seconds. That is great, you should want to get better!
First off, don’t start to question if you are “good” or
“bad” at BJJ after 2 months. To be frank, no one knows how good someone will be
after two months. We have had students who come in and look like “world-beaters”
their first month and never get better. We have also had new guys that faired
worse than a department store mannequin would during their first month and
turned out to be really solid after their first year. If you ask me how good
you are in your first few months, I will tell you that you are doing better
than I did in my first 2 months and then give you pointers to improve on.“Am I good or bad?” is a fruitless endeavor.
Just say “no” to that mental game.
Often times we have students who show up almost every time
our gym is open their first 2-3 months. Then, miraculously they start to miss.
When we ask them where they have been they say something like, “I am too weak,
I started Cross-Fit Monday through Friday. I will come in Saturdays and then
when I get better, I will come back in 3-4 times a week.” If you want to be a
strong competitor, you will probably need to do some cross training. However,
it should supplement your training, not interfere with it. If you want to get
better at lifting things and looking good naked in the mirror…do Cross-Fit! If
you want to get better at Jiu-Jitsu, don’t do Cross-Fit at the expense of your
time on the mat.
So, what can you do to get better? First off, get on the
mat. My first 3-4 years of BJJ, I never turned down training. If someone posted
on our Facebook page or sent a group text, I was the first one to say “yes.”
There were weeks I was in 6-8 times a week. I quickly outpaced the other guys
who started at the same time I did. If you know me, then you know I am an
average athlete on my best day.It was
my commitment to time on that mat that helped me improve so fast. There is no
substitute for mat time. Here is a great article on how much time the Miayo brothers spend training...spoiler alert, it is a crazy amount.
Roll with people who challenge you. My friend Mandrew (not
his real name) and I were driving back from a tournament this weekend and we
were discussing the tourney. Mandrew rolled against one of the best brown belts
in the country and took him down in the course of the match…then he got
submitted. It would have been easy for him to be down on himself, or in awe of
his competitor’s prowess. Nope, he was pumped he got to roll against a stud,
but also felt it gave him confidence that he hung with him for a bit. It is
hard to explain the level of Jiu Jitsu a brown or black belt possess. The only
way you can experience the pressure a black belt can put on you, is by actually
experiencing it. Find upper belts, role with them, soak up their knowledge. Then,
unleash it on new white belts. It is the circle of life.
Here is video of Marcelo and Ryan Hall rolling because, awesome.
Attend seminars whenever you can. If you are in a rural area
like I am, you may have to travel to get to a seminar…awesome! Get some of your
classmates, get a cheap hotel, and party after the seminar. Obviously, you will
learn a ton at the seminars. The second benefit of going to seminars, you build
a bond with your club members. It is harder to skip class when you know people
will notice you are gone. Also, becoming friends with club members will make it
more likely they contact you if there are any informal mat times. Which means
more time on the mat, which means you will get better.
Well look at that, it is a picture of me with Nate Diaz at a seminar!
There really is no secret to getting better at BJJ, the more
time you spend at it the better you will get. Any time on the mat will improve
your skill (drills, live rolling, technique). So….quit reading this and get on
the mat.
P.S. Mandrew suggests "Take your gi with you when you're stuck traveling to that family reunion or business trip. This allows you to pick up new style which no one in your gym has. Plus, most gyms are happy to see a new face. Worst case, a $10 drop in fee." And the dude knows, he wins tourneys like it is his jorb.....
Welcome back
from Thanksgiving ya’ll. Hopefully you stuffed yourself with food and then
tried to roll, resulting in someone getting sick on the mat. It really is the
only way to go.
The weekend
before Thanksgiving our instructor (The Honorable Greg Halsor) promoted two of
our white belts to blue. Aside from live rolling, belt promotions for other
students are one of my favorite things our club does. We are a tight-knit club
and we do not promote quickly. So, when someone finally achieves a higher belt,
it is a pretty big deal. A belt promotion is also a success for all the higher
belts. There was a lot of time and effort put into my progression (as a white
belt and currently as a blue belt) and my teammates should (hopefully) feel
equally responsible for any success I achieve.
With all
that being said, belt promotions in BJJ are a lot different from other martial
arts. First off, when a student is given their belt many school have different
ceremonies to recognize the achievement. Some gyms whip students with their belts,
Greg and Jeff Curran have always thrown us,
The throws look basically like this....
other gyms visit a Turkish
Bathhouse (I am not sure if that is true, but it sounds plausible).
I like the
idea of throwing students, it reminds students that no matter your rank, you
are doing this to practice the art. I don’t get the belt whipping, it seems unnecessarily
punitive (Caio Terra doesn't agree with the belt whip). Turkish Bathhouse is cool if that is your type of thing.
The other
enigma related to belts in BJJ is how a student is actually promoted. The process
is awkward to say the least. Some schools have a set testing curriculum (our
organization is moving that way), other schools just promote when a student is
ready, and still others have been accused of only requiring money. In addition,
the length of time a practitioner has to spend at each belt varies greatly by
school. The IBJJF has a set standard,
as do several other organizations. With
that being said, belt promotions are really handled from school/organization to
school/organization.
However,
there is one thing that every BJJ gym I have went to says to all new students, “Don’t
worry about your rank, just come in and train.” There are undertones of this
saying I love and their implications I do not. First, I think one of the main
goals of this statement is to remind students that they are only as good as their
ability to roll on the mat. Simply put, if you are a black belt and get handled
by blue belts in live rolling, does that really mean you are a black belt (see this link for an extended discussion on promoting people too quick)? It
is best for the new student to focus on learning and improving their ability to
roll with their teammates. Great lesson, everyone should read it 10 times
before they go to bed.
On the
downside, “don’t worry about the belt…but keep coming in and training and
working towards the belt” is really ambiguous. As anyone who has participated
in BJJ knows, it is a sprint not a marathon. 2-4 years to a blue belt (in some
schools) is a crazy long time. To add to this ambiguousness, many instructors
are not great at communicating with their students about their progress and the
expectations for promotion (for the most part this is not our school or
organization). Finally, students pay a lot of money to participate in BJJ (most
of it well earned by the instructors, I understand they run a business). This
all adds up to a very arduous slog towards progress. Yes, progress needs to be
an internal desire on the student’s part, but desire is fostered by success and
vice-versa. We had a former students who had outstanding attendance, busted his
butt to get his blue belt. Finally, he tested for it, received it and then
never showed up again. Some of that is on him, but I also think the process of
working towards that belt burnt him out.
What is a
new student to do? First off, pick a good school. An instructor that is honest
and cares about BJJ and their students will solve many of these problems. Second,
set intermediary goals on your way to getting a belt. Some schools “stripe”
belts, which is a great bit of encouragement. But, students should also remind themselves
when they achieve a success. Did they last 40 seconds against the purple belt
when they typically last 20? They should buy themselves a McFlurry on the way
home…unless they are lactose intolerant, then they might want to go with some
McNuggets.
Can't all be this happy everyday....
What has
helped me the most (remember, I am for sure not the “fore most” expert on this
stuff) has been to seek feedback from upper belts. They are typically amazingly
encouraging. When I started out there was a blue belt named Brian whom kicked
the crap out of me all the time. However, after we would get done rolling, he
always had something complimentary to say. Such as, “wow, you are getting your
guard back quick when I pass it” or, “dang you didn’t feel nearly as close to a
dead fish as you did before.” I remember driving home and thinking, “if someone
that good notices my advancement, it must really be happening.” When I asked
for feedback he happily gave it to me. When he learned a new move that suited
my style and skill level, he eagerly showed it to me. This all kept me coming
back. I try to emulate that quality to our new guys and it seems to keep them
around.
So, you have made the decision to start BJJ. You have researched schools, read about the Gracie lineage, and even practiced leg locks on your dog. You are driving to your first night and then you have a moment of panic....what should you wear? Should you stop at the local TKD club and get a dobok?
Maybe this is a gym that wears wrestling singlets???
Ohhh my.....
Have no fear, I can honestly say your best bet is to go to your first class and talk to the instructor. Every gym is a little different. At our gym, we are happy to let people try class for a few weeks and then make a commitment to buy a gi. Other gyms don't use gis. Some gyms will have you buy one the first night. The main thing is not to panic.
With that being said, if the gym you go to uses a gi (and in my opinion training in the gi is really important) you will want to buy a decent one to start out. That is not to say you need to plunk down $350 on a used Shoyoroll, but you should get one that fits well.
A couple reasons:
A nicer gi (roughly between $90-$175) is going to fit well. It seems odd in a rough and tumble sport that fit is important. However, I have owned a good number of gis and I have had several that fit weird. They quickly were at the bottom of my rotation and the money I spent on them was wasted. Honestly, if you stick with BJJ you will end up with 2-5 gis at anytime. If you have one that just doesn't fit right, you won't wear it.
That money spent is going to force you to commit to coming. I don't like to spend money on useless items. When I plunk down what amounts to 15 - Six Pack and a Pounds, I am going to make sure I use that item.
A new gi makes you feel badass! You are going to wear it around your house when you get it. That is fine, take some pictures, trash talk the mirror, try to choke your significant other out with the lapel, live your life.
The main thing to remember, you need to ask your instructor what they prefer. Our gym is pretty loose with the type of stuff you can wear. Some gyms only want white or blue gis. Don't plunk down what amounts to 30 - KFC $5 Fill-ups and then have to sell it. If your gym has no rules, talk to your gym-mates, try on their gis. You are going to find they are really excited to share their knowledge. Currently, I roll in a 2 Fuji gis and a 12NV gi. They range in price between $120-$150. I previously owned a $200 Atama and really couldn't tell the difference between it and my cheeper gis.
As far as other equipment you might want to invest in (probably over your first 6-12 months):
A mouth piece. I chipped my tooth in June of this year. Like all issues, I just assumed it would resolve itself. It sure didn't, I further chipped it 3 months later. My dentist was impressed with how bad I chipped it! She did not give me a reward for my insolence. She did give me a $400 bill (that is 40 - Drunken Noodles at Ginger Thai). Protect those pearly whites. Most $5-$10 mouth guards will do.
A pair of grappling shorts. You can get by with basketball shorts or athletic shorts for awhile. But, eventually they will get annoying. They will slip off, they don't stretch as well. There are tons of different types of grappling shorts on the market. In my experience, grappling shorts below $20ish dollars are crap. Anything above will do just fine. A $60 pair of shorts is not 2x better than a $30 pair. I just got a pair of Jaco shorts from BJJHQ.com . It has some great rolling deals, if you are in to that type of thing.
Checkout my new Jaco shorts.
Compression shorts, nut-cup, bra with reinforced cups. Mix and match for your primary and secondary sexual trait needs.
A rash guard/compression shirt. This is one of those things you don't have to drop a lot of money on. I rolled in a $5.99 Champion compression shirt for my first 5-6 years and thought it was great. I upgraded to a $30 compression shirt from Meerkatsu and really like it. You can get rash guards for $60 (if they are blessed by Marcelo Garcia....I hear you will get the power of flight). The upside of a more expensive rash guard are the cool graphics and the quality of the shirt. There are some really neat looking rash guards on the market. The other big advantage of a more expensive rash guard is the quality of the material. It is thicker and holds shape longer. Finally, you will find both long sleeve and short sleeve. I like to rub my arm hair in peoples' faces, so I go short.
This is my current rash guard
That is about it. You really can get by spending $200-$250 dollars over the course of your first year. You can also drop well over a grand if you have that money. However, the more you compete and the more serious you get, the nicer equipment you will probably want. Also, the more you train, the more equipment you will need...because you will wash your gi. Believe me, the last thing you want to be is the smelly kid.
It happens to all of us, we think we are making progress. We
have made it to tons of classes, we are practicing moves and then you go up
against your “white whale.”
A quick diversion from
the initial story, a person’s “White Whale” is a term stolen from Moby Dick. In
the book, Captain Ahab is obsessed with catching Moby Dick (a white whale) that
took his leg below the knee. See it is apt for the post because a person’s
white whale is someone they really want to submit.
Back to the main point, we all have the one person in class
who subs us, over and over again. Humility is important in Jiu-Jitsu, but so is
a desire to get better. It is Ok to want to submit guys who are better than
you, it shows you care about your progression. So, you go up against your
“white whale” and POW!
They submit you. You shake it off and then POW!!! Same
move! It happens again and again. You can feel that heat rise up in your
cheeks, you start talking to yourself, you are getting really frustrated.
I will be the first to admit, this happens to me. Recently,
I have been getting caught in knee bars…all the damn time. It bothers me, the
other day I punched a wall after getting caught twice in a roll by the same
knee bar.
Dumb idea, the wall didn’t knee bar me and it didn’t really get hurt
when I punched it. I ruminated on the fact I got subbed by the same move on the
way home. I Googled, “ways to stop knee bars”, “how to not get caught in knee
bars”, “why do communists only use knee bars?”, “Why are Sambo kurtkas red? Is
it because they are communists who use knee bars?” Needless to say, I am
invested in solving this knee bar problem. Which I think is one of the few
times where frustration can really benefit a person in BJJ.
In my experience, there are two types of people who get
frustrated in BJJ. There are the people that quit when they reach a level of
frustration and people who persevere. The former are not able to handle the
fact that they don’t get a move or keep getting beat by a move or the same
person beats them over and over. They look for immediate rewards, which come
often when you start BJJ. As a person moves along in BJJ, those gains become
less frequent. The extrinsic motivation fades and they end up quitting.
Could be worse! Am I right?!?!?
However, the other type of person looks at the issue causing
frustration as a problem to solve. They take agency of their problem and look
for solutions. Eventually, they will solve that problem and their motivation is
reward with a new challenge. In this way, frustration is great, it motivates
BJJ practitioners to get better.
If I were to give advice to myself starting out 6 years ago,
I would say to try to solve problems for myself early on. This ability to take
agency for my own development will serve be a huge advantage when I am one of
the top 4 or 5 people at my gym or when I am coaching. At this point, there may
be no one at the gym that can answer my question about stopping the inverted
guard, I will have to figure it out on my own.As long as I look at it like a puzzle I can solve, the frustration will
only motivate me.
P.S. Still working on stopping that knee bar, thanks Doodles
For anyone that has ever attend a martial arts class,
watched a kung fu film, or talked to someone who does martial arts, they know
that humility is something that is preached.
To be sure, humility is an important part of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as well.
However, the road to humility and the vehicle through which it is taught, is a
lot different than many other martial arts.
Kanye knows about humility
I have had my fair share of experiences in martial arts. I
took Tae Kwon Do and Shurite as a child. As a college student I participated in
Judo and Hapkido.
Shuri...what?
In all of these disciplines respect and humility is preached.
Often times a creed is recited before and after class. There are symbols for
the concepts of humility and respect hung on the wall (typically in an Asian language).
I think this is great, especially for kids. In our school and all the others I
have trained at, there is less of an emphasis on overtly talking about the
importance of respect. As a result of the structure of BJJ, there is not really a
need for this verbosity.
Here are some symbols for humility...or from a take out menu. It could be either.
At it’s core, Jiu Jitsu is an art/sport where people compete
against each other every class. As a result, humility and respect get infused
into the culture for about 45-60 minutes at the end of class (when we try to choke or break someone's arm). If someone thinks
they are the best person on the mat, they will get a chance to prove it. If they
submit everyone that night, they will have to do it the next night, and the
night after that. Eventually, that person will get subbed. In that moment,
there is probably going to be a reckoning with the high opinion they hold of themselves.
Often times, participants quickly learn that it is far easier to be happy to
have the opportunity to learn and quietly celebrate when they get a submission
against an upper belt or congratulate a person when they are submitted. In addition, when applying a submission to a training partner, it is always in my mind to be safe...at some point that person will catch me and I hope they return the favor.
About 4 years ago, we were getting ready to start class when
a very muscular ex-service man came in. He had tribal tattoos and lifted a lot
at the gym (so he was pretty certain we knew he was for realz). As we were warming up he turns to our coach and says, “I already
know this stuff. I have got armbars you guys ain’t never seen. I just want to
roll live.” In that moment our coach was faced with two choices, explain the
importance of humility and respect. Let the student know that BJJ is a process
and takes many long hours of improvement before a person gets better, etc. Or, let him role
with one of his students and experience why humility and respect are a
virtue. To our enjoyment, he picked option number 2!
Enter my good friend Ned (not his real name). Ned is an
outstanding competitor. He is also somewhat of an enforcer for our class. This
is a good thing, every class needs a Bob Probert.
Bob who????
Our coach set the clock for
six minutes, the young man made it maybe 2 minutes against Ned. Clearly, he had arm bars
we had never seen. The problem was, they were really ineffective.
Essentially, the match looked like this
2 side points: 1) I am categorically against beating up on
new people and teammates. That is a dick move, it ruins a club. 2) There is a lot of hyperbole around respect and humility in BJJ. There are pictures of chiseled swarthy men in gis, staring menacingly into the camera, with captions like, "Lions eat elephants which are bigger than them, so be nice.....OSSSS!!!"
Like this. I want to believe it, it's in black and white!
I don't think we need all that. The beauty of BJJ is that it self regulates egos through challenging a person's skill. After a person gets beaten so many times, they either become humble or become an ex-BJJ participant. This wasn't a case of a new guy getting picked on, it was a person who needed a reality check of their skill level. After his beating, he faked an injury, said he would be back next class and never returned. He could have been a great guy, he could have been Charles Manson, I don't know. What I do know, he wasn't ready to participate in BJJ at that point.
We have a lot of different personalities at our gym. We have had (at most) one or two instances where someone has had to step between two guys that were
ready to fight. Honestly, a person doesn’t need to fight in class to assert their
dominance in BJJ. Everyone in class knows that by the end of class that will
have taken care of itself.
Chipotle 2 times in 5 hours....might not be your best bet.
