Damn! I'm Part Of The Obesity Epidemic

So in keeping with the spirit of my blogs brutal honesty, I'M OBESE. Clinically obese according to my BMI. Now I don't put to much stock in BMI's due to it not taking in to account peoples body type. But i think it's a good indicator of how fat my arse is on a world recognized scale.



BMI 34 = OBESE



One of my goals this year is to get my weight down under 100kg. But now looking at the BMI I may have to tighten that number up to under 95kg so I'm only just overweight and not obese. I think it's a realistic goal. It will greatly improve my BJJ game and also help in lots of other areas of my life.



My weight loss so far



My first step in shedding some lard has been to keep track of what I'm eating. This has already given me some results. I've found that if I keep a diary of all the food I'm inhaling I tend not to eat as much. I've been using a free app I downloaded for my iPhone to track it all. It also counts the calories and tracks any exercises I do. I've been doing this for a bit over 2 weeks and I've lost about 2kg.

I'm trying to keep the philosophy of "energy in, energy out". BJJ burns quiet a lot of energy and if I had better access to my gym I would train everyday but I can only make training 2-3 times a week. So I really need to control my energy in on the days I'm not training.

Part of this years goals is to get my weight under 100kg for the first comp but the first comp of the year clashes with my son's birthday. So I can't compete. But I'm still going to prepare with the team like I am competing and I'll also cut the weight as if i was still competing as well. That gives me just over a month to lose 8kg.

With some determination and hard work I'll get it done.

C u on the mat,

Rex

Purple People Eaters

On Tuesday night this week one of our assistant instructors, an excellent training partner, good mate and fellow blogger at UnderhookIndustries graded to purple belt. His promotion has been coming for quite a while and as our head black belt instructor from Advance Brisbane said, all belt promotions in Jiu-Jitsu should be over due by the time you receive it.

The grading stuck with the tradition of our ironman style continuous hard wrestling. He was in the middle fighting off fresh guys for 60mins!! Amazing he didn't pass out. Not only did he not pass out, he was still pulling off beautiful jiu-jitsu techniques right up to the final roll against a Black Belt.
In my roll with him he had already faced 4 or 5 of our top white belts and I was the first blue belt to punish him. There is a very different feel in the gym grading night. It's almost that nervous kind of energy that you get at competitions. We are expected to really push the person grading no matter how tired they are. It is almost the only time that I go full tilt at my team mates in the gym. It's a weird feeling, kind of like fighting with your own brother. I felt bad pushing him so hard while he was clearly starting to wear out and feel the intense aussie heat but I did what I hope he will do to me when or if I ever grade to the next belt. Make me earn it.

With only one small break to run outside and have a chuck, he pulled through the best I have seen any one who has been through an AdvanceSC belt grading. He's the first purple belt to be graded to that level at AdvanceSC  and in my opinion he sets an excellent example of what an advance purple belt should be like.

In Australia, especially out side of the major cities, purple belts are few and far between. So much so that it is the rank of most BJJ gym owners and instructors in those areas. As time goes on though the rank of all the dedicated guys is getting higher and higher. When I first started 2 years ago, I thought purple belt was an unattainable goal for my self, because of the level those dudes are at and the dedication required to get there. But BJJ gets in your blood and becomes a passion and before you know it that distant level of ability doesn't look so far away. My mate the Purple People Eater gives me so much inspiration that I'm now sure I can reach my own BJJ goals. Congrats again MiniJitsu!!!
C u on the mat,
Rex

A Little Bit Of Redemption

Did the day training today. The trip down was such a massive effort. Traffic was crap so it added about 30mins to the trip. But it did give me plenty of time to think about my previous couple of training runs and what is going wrong with my rolling at the moment.
In my head I broke down all the things I've been doing right and wrong on the mat over the last month. By the time I got to the gym I had come to a couple of conclusions.

Firstly I need to relax a bit more and just react to what is happening in the roll rather than over thinking the moves and halting the flow of the roll.
Secondly I'm going to work out a position and a series of techniques to really focus on and specialize in.

Man that first conclusion really worked well for me today. I made some vast improvements on my previous rolls. I pulled off some of my half guard sweeps that I haven't used in ages, my transitions were a lot smoother, I was able to string together some nice techniques and I took the back in all my rolls. My coach even commented that I should of filmed these rolls instead of the one from Saturday. Yeah they would have made me look a lot better but if I hadn't had filmed those crap rolls and really analyzed where I'm at, I don't think I would have made the rapid improvements.
My second conclusion is going to be a bit of a work in progress until I decide what position and what specific techniques I want to specialize in. I think that if I have a 'go to' position with a few really tight techniques from there, my game will really benefit.
I like to play guard and try to be technical so I'm thinking one of the guard positions. Closed guard makes the most sense to me. it's a reasonably safe position with lots of options to submit or sweep. I will have a chat to my coach and see what he thinks my best area would be to specialize in.
I've been on a high all afternoon. Normally the hour long trip home after a session when I don't roll well is tough but when I have some fun rolls and use some of my techniques well like today, It really makes the trip home much more enjoyable.
Ahhhhh the Jiu-Jitsu high better than any drug I know!!
C u on the mat,
Rex

Warts & All

I feel like my training has hit a little plateau. I'm trying to add new moves to my arsenal with varying success. But I really feel like i'm not getting better.
I watched a video of my self rolling from the open mat Saturday and it's not pretty. I knew after the roll it wouldn't look good. It felt clunky. I thought about not posting this up and filming my self totally owning a newbie, but that would be dishonest. The team mate i'm rolling with is a really cool cat. He's on the verge of getting his blue belt and is currently training for his first mma fight. So here it is warts and all.

Here is my analysis of the roll.
11sec I went to my back way to easily from my pass.
30sec My deep half guard sweep was very lazy I needed to sit back on to my base much faster.
50sec I sat in turtle for way to long trying to catch his arm for the roll under sweep that I learnt at the Perosh seminar. This resulted in my mate getting one hook in.
1:06 When I went to shrug him off I forgot about my base and I rolled clumsily on to my back.
1:25 I then got that sweep from turtle i'm working on and set up the darce. My darce needs some work. 1:55 I could have sprawled my weight on to him more and got the tap much quicker.
2:29 I needed to sit my arse out much more when I went for the armdrag from butterfly guard. From half guard I was stalling a bit.
3:10 When I got closed guard I should have attacked more and really committed to throwing up that triangle.
3:25 I didn't grab the leg when I went for the sweep so it wasn't smooth.
3:50 When I had the back with one hook in I could have easily put the other hook in but I was too worried about my grips.
4:26 I got shrugged off way too easily and i missed a transition to an armbar while I was being shrugged off.
4:41 Got the Perosh sweep from turtle again, then when I went for the kimura from knee ride 4:56 I was way to loose on controlling his body.

Over view.
I'm not pulling off my techniques perfectly.  I go to my back to easily. I'm being a bit inactive from halfguard and closed guard. I need to push the pace more. I need to be much tighter.
The most obvious is that i'm really over weight. If i could get my weight down some more i'll move a lot better and have better flexibility i'm sure. I'm not transitioning to the next technique smoothly. I'm either stalling or rushing, not flowing.
I think I need to drill my old techniques as well as my new ones a lot more to keep my game sharp. A good way of doing this is by flow or slow rolling with a partner and trying not to pull the same technique twice. Really makes you think and reach deep in to your technical knowledge.

So although the footage is embarrassing due to my poor movement, poor techniques, lack of cardio and my fat ass showing towards the end of the roll. It's still a really good example of where my no-gi game is at the moment. It needs lots of work.
The journey continues.....
C u on the mat
Rex

Will BJJ Help Me In A Zombie Apocalypse??

My town has been flooded for about a week. And one of the many well wishing txts i got from my mates got me thinking about something. Yes I'm safe from the flood waters but I'm not sure if I'll be safe if a Zombie plague breaks out.

Sure Zombies are slow, stupid, unco, and can be pulled apart with a bit of force. But one bite and you're screwed. So what skills do I have to fend them off?

The first thing I think of for Zombie defence is cardio. One has to be able to run good distance at a steady pace to keep ahead of a pack of hungry zombies and while I can run at a good pace I'd have trouble keeping it up for a long time in my current physical condition.

So I may have to go to the 2nd line of zombie defence, Shotgun. Hands down the best way to rid your area of pesky zombie hoards is a shotgun blast to the head, but unfortunately I don't own a shotgun.

3rd line of defence has to be a bat. One good crack upside the head with my Kookabura Big Bird cricket bat would dislodge an undead head real nice. But if i drop my bat,

Then it's 4th line of defence, hand to hand combat. Now things get tricky. In a normal fight I would throw some hands look for a takedown. and try to catch a submission but as slow unco and stupid as zombies are it only takes one bite.

Say I get a nice single leg takedown then pass his undead guard go straight to mount. Might work some ground n pound till he gives me an arm. Then I go for the armbar but I pull his rotting arm off and as I adjust and transition to the triangle he bites me on the doodle. I'm done for, even if I choke the shit out of him and elbow his head to pulp. I'm still intimately infected with the zombie plague.
Zombies 1 BJJ 0
Even though BJJ may not be use full in hand to zombie combat I still think my 2 years of BJJ training are not for nought. I'll be able to think clearly under pressure and use my functional strength that I have gained from grappling to help me survive in the apocalypse. But i think the kicking martial arts would be your best bet in hand to zombie combat. May be some Muay Thai or TKD to dislodge undead head with solid high kicks from a safe distance.
So what have I learned from all this,
1- I need to work on my cardio
2- I need a shotgun,
3- I should work my stand up more.

C u on the mat,
Rex

Zombie Cage Fighter!!

This Guy Uses His BJJ Against Zombies With Some Success (but he is a black belt)