A New Mindset for Competition

Tonight was my last night of training before the Abu Dhabi Trials and Grapplers Quest this weekend. For the first time, I feel relaxed. I remember the last time I did the Trials, I looked at the competitor list and promptly bugged out. I googled all the names, tried to figure out their rank, and tried to find video footage. This time, I saw the list of girls in my division, and continued what I was doing. I don't really care who is in my division, what their games are, how tall/big the other might be, or where they train. Because frankly, it's irrelevant. I'm 121lbs right now and the upper weight limit for the Trials is 139; I know I'm going to be one of the smaller ones in my division, but who cares! Is my game going to drastically change in the next 3 days because of something I found out about them on YouTube/the Internet? Probably not!

I've realized it's best for me to just focus on implementing my game against my opponent as opposed to worrying about what they will do to me. And logically that's made sense to me for a while, but it's finally clicked in my brain. I'm relaxed and confident without feeling cocky. This time, I doubt I'll be listening to loud music while getting amped and tense before I compete. I'll probably read or listen to something calm before I go out to compete. I'll post an update after Sunday!

Also, I'd like to thank Killer Bee Gi. After emailing them to ask when their women's gi was coming out, they responded by asking if I was sponsored. Since I wasn't, they extended a sponsorship opportunity to me! This is especially great for me because I'm not getting paid right now. Without the support of Killer Bee, I would not be competing this weekend because I wouldn't be able to afford to do so. I can also honestly say that the Killer Bee Gis are awesome; they are durable, have a clean design, and are within a VERY reasonable price range. I'll post a review in the coming days, but for now, go on over to Killer Bee Gi's website to check out their selection of men AND women's gis!

Shelve It For Later

After a weekend in Atlanta for the wedding of one of my old coaches and training partners, I came home on Monday and went to the gym yesterday as well as this morning to make up for lost time. We've been doing some drills in class that have really been helping my game, and I've been rolling outside of class to stay sharp.

Jason said something about BJJ that really resonated with me. He said that sometimes you just aren't ready to learn certain moves or positions yet. For example, when he was shown Reverse De La Riva, his first thoughts were "What the heck, this is just some kind of weird half guard, why would I ever use it?". Of course he eventually learned Reverse De La Riva and can use it/teach it in many situations. But his advice was not to get frustrated if something doesn't click immediately or quickly because sometimes you just aren't ready for it yet. By the time you're a black belt, you'll have strengths and weaknesses, but there won't really be any more "mysteries" in terms of knowing and understanding moves, concepts, and positions.

That sentiment is kind of how I feel about my jiu-jitsu journey. I would see some of the things my coaches taught and it just wouldn't click. And I'd think/wonder for months if I was a bad student, if I was dumb, would I ever understand it, is it the teaching style, etc. But in reality, I just wasn't ready for some moves. I know some blue belts who LOVE the berimbolo, but to me it's still kind of a mystery. What seems "fancy" and intricate to some isn't to others, and it's not really anyone's fault nor does it point out some kind of deficiency. Sometimes you just need to shelve things for later.

Full Circle

This morning I stepped on the scale and weighed in at 124lbs.  This gives me five pounds for my gi, belt, and rashguard, meaning I'm good to go for featherweight! I'm excited because I think this is the weight class I really belong in.  I can't say I've altered my diet too much other than cutting out snacks/junk food and replacing some of my carbs with vegetables. I feel much better and think I've even gained some strength. I'd never starve myself to go down a weight class or deprive myself of food, because in the long run it'll wreck my metabolism.  I've been experimenting with different recipes and I'm happy I'm not one of those people who has to miserably eat a salad for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Since I've been very busy studying for the GRE and applying to graduate school, I've held back on competing.  I also recently picked up a part-time internship, but since it's unpaid, I'm also on the hunt for something paid (tuition money anyone?).  That being said, I'm back at Jason Scully's school in NJ because I am no longer in the city every day and can't afford to pay to train there and don't have the time to go into the city on days I don't work solely to train.

Jason's school has a mixed-levels class that goes for about an hour and a half.  When I trained at Shaolin's, I took the 5:30pm and 7:30pm classes, giving me about 2.25 hours of training per day. Even though I'm only getting 1.5-2 hours of training per day in now, I feel like I'm improving. Improving a lot, in fact. I'm not running out of the door after class with wet hair so I can catch the 9:30 bus back home and wake up at 6am. Instead, I'm leaving the school and driving 20 minutes home, and the latest I'm home now is 9:30pm and I only have to wake up at 7:15am every other day.

This brings me to the title of this post. A year ago around this time, I was getting ready for my new job in NYC and signing up at Shaolin's.  Now I'm just getting started with my internship and once again joining a new(ish) gym. As busy as I was last year, I'm even more busy this year because there is more on the line (grad. school). I'll be working like crazy until the winter, and then hopefully I'll get to train even more in the spring!

Although it would be nice to stay at one jiu jitsu school for more than a year...

The Future

Today I went back to the Grappler's Guide Academy. It was an open mat day and I thought it would be a good opportunity to switch things up a little, not to mention it's kind of rough to hike out all the way to NYC just for Shaolin's open mat every week. One of Jason's old students who now trains full time at Lloyd Irvin's Camp Springs location was visiting as well. I didn't get to roll with him, but I did get several good nogi rounds in. My work schedule doesn't coordinate well with the days Shaolin holds nogi classes (which are only twice per week anyway) so it had been a while since I did nogi.

One of the good things about being at Jason's school is that a lot of the guys are significantly bigger (at least 20 pounds more) than me so I really have to focus on technique. Jason also teaches more leg locks than Shaolin does, and is also great about ensuring that students do NOT crank or ever really finish a leg lock. My first round I was leg locked and wrist locked quite a few times and then got used to watching out for them. I got to roll with Jason for a round as well. I don't really get the chance to roll with black belts but it's the best opportunity you have to see where your weaknesses are. Jason has been preparing for NoGi Worlds in California so he took today easy in terms of rolling. I could tell he was looking out to see how I was executing each technique and as expected, Jason was always one step ahead of me. He wasn't really going for submissions but definitely working to better his position at all times. At the end, he pointed out that I needed to work on the knee cutter pass. I'm still not really used to doing the knee cutter in nogi, but all you need to do is get the underhook in the opposite leg you're knee cutting and go for the pass.

I'm pretty certain I'm going to do the Grappler's Quest in December in NJ. Apparently the Abu Dhabi Trials were postponed until next year, so maybe if I have more time when that date is announced I'll be able to compete in that.

Additionally, I had to have the "what are you going to do with your life" talk with my parents the other night. They weren't too pleased that I wanted to work for one more year before attending graduate school, but frankly, I don't have time to visit schools, study for the GRE, take the GRE, write a personal statement, and apply to graduate school with my current work schedule (and would like to make some more $$$ to pay for higher education!). I don't even have weekends to myself- I'm working 3 out of 4 weekends this month! The point of my saying this is that they told me that training will really have to take a back seat next year if I'm applying for graduate school in fall 2013. This is something I obviously knew, but didn't want to really address. I hate not being able to train at least three times per week, and having next to no training next year is really going to be rough on me. I doubt whatever job I get next year will be as taxing as mine currently is in terms of hours per week at work, but regardless all that work for graduate school is going to take up a lot of time and is ultimately more important than training. I'm going to try my best to take morning classes or something, but I'm really hoping I don't stagnate too much next year.

New Job, New Gym

This past Monday I was able to catch one BJJ class before my first day of work today. I rolled with a lot of newer people so I took the opportunity to try and improve some of the things I've been working on. I worked a lot of open guard, specifically spider guard. I normally use spider guard to get people off balance, but I tried to work on 1-2 definite sweeps this time. I've been watching Tinguinha's spider guard dvd when I have the time, and I think it's paying off. Spider guard is definitely my favorite open guard but I need to strengthen it.

Unfortunately, Monday was one of my last classes at Jason Scully's BJJ school known as the Grappler's Guide Academy. I found out today that starting next Monday, I will be working at Fordham Law School's Feerick Center for Social Justice for the next ten months. I won't be back home on time to get to train at GGA, especially since Civic Corps expects its members to work an average of 43 hours per week. Vitor Shaolin's BJJ school is about a 15 minute train ride from where I will be working. I've dropped in and trained there once and it seems like an awesome atmosphere and everyone was very friendly. Of course it remains to be seen whether a 43 hour work week will give me that much time to train, but I'll figure all that out once orientation is done and I see what my work schedule is like. The real world is nuts!

Open Mat

Jason ran a tournament this weekend, so I didn't get to train this Friday or Saturday. Instead, I opted to go to the open mat on Friday for one hour. Jason's open mat always has a pretty good turnout, and it gives students a chance to work on certain moves and openings they have noticed during class. I got about 6 or so good 5-6 minute rounds of nogi in.

One of the guys I rolled with was in his forties or so and I think he was either a wrestling coach or had a lot of wrestling experience. He helped me clean up my single leg a little and showed me some variations. Stand up is one area of BJJ that I really need to clean up, so I was excited that there was someone there with wrestling experience. Jeff, one of my coaches when I trained in Atlanta, has been wrestling for a ridiculously long time and therefore also incorporated wrestling takedowns into the women's class. Between Jeff's drills and this guy's help, I was able to pull off three single legs on one person afterwards! This was exciting for me, because I always try and go for a takedown, but almost always end up pulling guard. All of my sparring sessions were pretty technical, and I did a better job of balancing being calm with being aggressive.

I noticed I was getting caught in some leg locks and calf crushers. Especially at higher levels and in nogi, I'm going to have to start getting used to having leg locks applied on me. I don't even go for them normally but I think I might start to in the future. Jason has always stressed to NEVER crank on leg locks, and his students definitely respect that.

This week I begin orientation for Civic Corps, which lasts for four days and is in four different sites. I think they will be in four of the boroughs and will not touch Staten Island. You can guarantee I'll be bringing my gi to orientation so I can check out the BJJ schools in each borough :)

New Beginnings and Back to Basics

Tonight's BJJ class had some pretty insane drills. Jason first had us go one round without using the right arm, then not using the right leg, and then two rounds with our eyes closed! Strange as it sounds, I think rolling with your eyes closed is less difficult than the other two. Once you grab someone's gi, you can kind of figure out what position you're in and what you can do. It also makes you think a little more while rolling, because it's more complicated to figure out what move to do and how you're going to do it. He has had us doing some very slow and technical drilling lately, and I think making us roll with our eyes closed made us apply it during rolling. I think drilling is very underrated, and one of my pet peeves is when people just stop drilling because they've "done it enough". Unless you have 100% effectiveness in pulling off that technique from any position and setting it up from any position against anyone, you haven't drilled it enough. The top level guys drill the same moves over and over and that's how they get as good as they are. If they're still drilling, you can certainly do it for a few more minutes.

This has been a crazy couple of weeks for me between being out of training and going on job interviews. After many rejection emails and phone calls, I finally have a job. I will be participating in the NYC Civic Corps program, which is a partnership between AmeriCorps and the NYC Department of Service. From August 2011-June 2012, I'll be working on a service project in one of the five boroughs. I'll receive my project assignment next week during orientation, and will start working at my host site the following Monday. Given that it's an AmeriCorps program, my stipend is smaller than the salary for a full time job. I am a little nervous about not being able to pay for training, as a great deal of the stipend will go towards my train pass and Metrocard. I'll see what happens and how my finances work out, but after next week, I'm not sure where or how much I will be training.

FINALLY back to training

After having company over for a week and then going on vacation for another five days, tonight was my first night back training. I become restless when I stay away from doing anything active for too long so I was really craving some BJJ. I managed to get some running and did circuits on two days, but you can't really replace BJJ! I still haven't caught up on sleep from my 6am flight the other day and almost didn't hit the mat today, but I couldn't resist!

I get to the gym and the first thing I realize is that I forgot my belt, which has never happened before! At my gym, if you forget your belt, you have to wear a pink belt. So I definitely got some weird looks and laughs when I put on the pink belt, especially since there were quite a few new faces on the mat today.

I had no problem with the first class, but the second class is where it showed that I had not trained in a while. Jason had us drill for the first half of class. We started from open guard and had to drill a pass followed by a submission of our choice. This gave me the opportunity to work on my strengths and moves I would do in competition. I definitely blanked on what I needed to be working on. I was messing up some basics for the knee cutter pass and was unsure of what to do once I passed. After a few tries I finally got into the groove and Jason helped me clean up the pass. But I definitely felt a little embarrassed when I wasn't sure what to do. We then did 2:22 rounds, which allowed me to pick up the pace while rolling. I need to work on becoming more aggressive when rolling without going nuts, so drills like this are good for me.

I could have some really exciting job news in the next couple of weeks, and if everything works out, I'll be training in New York City. Now where to train...

Private Lesson and My Grappling Game Plan

Yesterday I had a private lesson with Jason Scully. We went over what my gameplan was, as I realized I had never evaluated my strengths and weaknesses in BJJ. I never took the time to think if I preferred playing guard, passing guard, being in mount and submitting, etc. Jason has a sheet called a "Grappling Game Plan". I believe you can find it if you subscribe to his newsletter, which you can do by going to http://www.grapplersguide.com.

What the sheet does is it lists every position (being in guard, having someone in your guard, being on the bottom while the other person has mount, etc.) and your job is to list what moves you do the most in those positions. Not the moves that you know you can do from each of those positions, but the moves that you do most often. Once Jason and I figured out what my "go to" moves and what my most comfortable position was, we were able to figure out a sequence of moves that would be the most effective in competition. So for example:

Start standing-->single leg-->half guard on top-->bullfighter pass-->side control-->mount-->mounted triangle

That is an example of what one sequence would be. That isn't one of mine, but Jason and I went over what several scenarios would be for me. He also made the point that those sequences are thing I should pull off in competition, but should work on all aspects of my jiu jitsu during regular class. That's the difference between doing well in competition and being good at jiu jitsu; being good at a few moves is different than being able to do many with a reasonable level of competence.

I found Jason's lesson very helpful, and now I have a blueprint for my own grappling that's going to come in handy during competition. It also gives me some good things to work on. I don't have any plans to compete soon, because I really need to apply to some more jobs and focus on finding something full time for the next year or two. I'll train as much as I can, but I also need to work on becoming a "real person" :)