I love competing and like Charlie Sheen I'm especially fond of winning!! Like any other great ape, I always want to be the Alpha male. As I've grown older and "wiser" I've realised that the Alpha has to work damn hard to become the big dog, especially when you are running with a pack of other crazy monkeys who all want run shit as well. It's easy to be the Alpha of a pack that consists of lazy flea picking, arse scratching, banana split eating sloths. But who wants to say they are the head of that pack.... not this Orangutan!!
I competed in a couple of comps while I was a white belt with varied results. I think my comp record is 3W- 3L. I’ve picked up 3rd in a couple of brackets but there were not many competitors, so it was no big success. I’m yet to compete as a blue belt.
Earlier this month I decided that I'm going to compete at the BJJ Pan Pacs in Melbourne. The Pan Pacs is Australia’s biggest and most prestigious Jiu-Jitsu tournament. It’s on the 16th 17th 18th September, so my preparation has started now. My training intensity has already picked up.
A small group are also going from my gym but because I'm so isolated from my gym's coaches and training partners, I'm setting up my own fight camp. I will train with my team mates at least once a week but most of the preparation I'll have to organize my self.
The fight camp is going to be just under 8 weeks long.
I've broken down the areas I need to work on to do well in the comp. I will also set some mini goals along the way.
Organization- Training Schedule encompassingall 7 areas, goal setting.
Nutrition- 94kg Aug 16th, Calorie counting, I'm taking some vitamins as well in an attempt to keep healthy and on the mat.
Technical- Game Plan, Drilling, High intensity sparring,
Strength/Power- Kettle bells, Body Weight circuit, Grip strength, Core strength
My first objective is to get my weight to 94kg in 4weeks.
I've never been in peak physical condition ever in my life. I plan to get as close to that as I can over the next 8 weeks.
I'll keep a weekly blog right through the camp and do a bit of an analysis of the camp and my performance after the Pan Pacs. Hopefully it helps keep me on track.
Right now in Jiu-Jitsu I'm on the cusp of pushing through in to uncharted territory but I'm starting to throw some excuses at the problems I'm currently facing.
Being able to confront my problems and push through them has always been my biggest stumbling block in life. I'll just toss some excuses at the problem and sometimes back down from it if the going gets a bit tough.
My favorite excuse is and always has been my weight and fitness level. But over the years I think I have proven to my self that they are unacceptable excuses. Partly because I have total control over both those things.
My weight is still coming down a bit. I'm still a pear shaped 100kg hairy ranga but I've lost about 25kg since I started BJJ just over 2 years ago. My diet is still terrible. I drink more water now days but I'll still choose a Triple Cheese burger over a Garden Salad.
My training is going well. I'm getting in at least 3 sessions a week. But I'm only getting in one training run at Advance SC and two at home with a mate due to work and family commitments. I can't see that situation changing for quiet sometime and is out of my control.
The training I'm getting in at home is still quiet good but I'm not really pushing my self hard enough. I'm making excuses and only doing a short training session at times.
A few years back I heard a saying that was something along the lines of this, "If you keep doing the same shit You've always done, You'll keep getting the same shit you've always got." obviously I've taken some poetic license with the quote but that's how I remember it. I need to push myself harder when I'm on the mat.
One of my coaches reminded me last night of something I always said when I was playing footy. The only way to get fit to do a sport is to compete at that sport. Doing Kettle bells, hill sprints and techniques will definitely help your jiu-jitsu but not as much as actually rolling with an evenly matched or better than you opponent.
I need to push my self more when I'm rollin' to get to that next level. Especially in the rolls when I'm tired and my muscles are building up lactic acid and some dude is trying to pull my arm out of socket, choke me or trying to drive his knee through my stomach and into my spine. Pushing your self when you are in these positions and you believe you are completely trapped and there is no way out is very very difficult. But if you have faith in the technique and go for it with conviction, weight or fitness level is no longer an excuse. That push comes from your heart and your will to fight. Not from how much you weigh or how far you can run or even how much you can bench press. It's all heart and faith!
Training this week has been awesome. I'm flowing between positions nicely and having some great rolls. Worked on some stand up wrestling earlier in the week which was very good. It's something I enjoy and think is very important for a jits dude to get familiar with. It's a huge advantage to be able to take some one down or avoid a takedown in competitions. Also I feel it's important to make my grappling for self defence much more effective.
I feel like I've really turned a corner mentally on the mat and my jiu-jitsu has really progressed quickly since this mental shift happened. It's a combination of a few things but at the middle of it all is that I've been able to let even more of my ego go.
Some dudes i think are a bit intimidated by me on the mat, I'm a 102kg bald dude with a red beard. But anyone who has rolled with me knows that the fear is a bit unfounded. When i roll I'm not aggressive, I always play guard at the start of the roll and try to 'flow with go' but the moment I slap hands with some of my team mates I know they really want to go for the kill and tap my fat arse. Now this is cool and I still enjoy the rolls but they are missing out on so much jits fun by going down that road.
I usually try my hardest to not let anyone tap me. But tonight I thought fuck it, anyone who aggressively wants me to tap tonight I'm going to tap. I didn't just lay there and give it to them but if they got position and were going hard i kind of let the chokes slip in, then fought it off for a bit and then just before i went out, i tapped. Now this nearly back fired on one of the strong whitebelts, he pulled off a nice technique that we were working on at the start off class. I thought 'Kudus to you dude for going for the techniuqe' So I let it get deep before I started to fight the grip and then I tapped but I went out for a micro second. Was just like some one reset my computer. Weird feeling man. It's amazing that I haven't been put out before this considering I've been training for a bit over 2yrs. He knew I some what gave him the choke and was apologizing but it was all cool it was actually what I wanted. I wanted to get put deep in some chokes and tap.
After that tap I felt really good. It was like I'd just let go of some more of my ego bullshit. Tapping to guys who have not been training for as long as you is always something grapplers try to avoid. But I feel it's healthy for growth in jiu-jitsu. I get to feel how deep I can go with chokes before I tap and also it shows that I'm willing to tap every now and then.
One of our killer purples who I often have some awesome rolls with, really went at me as well. I was really trying to play some jits with him but I could feel he wanted my blood. So I didn't exactly give him anything but I definitely wasn't going to try and shut his game down with my size and strength. I wanted to play Jiu-Jitsu with him but he wanted to do fight Jiu-Jitsu with me.
After our roll, in which he tapped me like 3 times and tryed to crank my neck for a while. I had to say something. He's totally a cool cat who I have much respect for and probably the guy at the gym I have the most in common with. So I felt I could voice my opinion with him. I said that the roll was fun but if we just flowed a bit more we could have pulled off so much more beautiful Jiu-Jitsu. He agreed and we rolled again straight away. The difference was huge we got through so much more technique and I think if we had a couple more rolls that night we would have been able to put on a good display of technical Jiu-Jitsu and I would have learnt some cool shit from him.
I'm not saying by any means that when you roll you should not look for the finish but the finish is just that 'the finish'. I would rather keep the roll going. Move to the next transition, give something else up, try the escape and so on but always moving, always connected and always trying to link all my techniques together. I really think that the beautiful Jiu-Jitsu is found in the movement not the finish.
As a little kid growing up in a small rural town, I had heaps of heroes. Mr T, Monkey on Monkey Magic, Wally Lewis, Jeff Fenech. But these characters didn't make me who I am today. The fault of my ruptured personality lies with my childhood role models. My Family, my friends, my school teachers and my coaches. Weather I liked it or even if these people weren't aware of it, they were my role models.
Now that I'm a grown man I still think it's healthy to have hero's and role models. My modern day heroes are people like Ali, BJ Penn, Wayne Bennett, Shane Webke, Rickson Gracie, Saulo Ribero and the list goes on.
I'm always conscious of trying to improve myself as a person. I try to look at what the people I respect and admire do to achieve there goals. I try to read biographies on these people and pick up as many tips as I can. But it is the people that I have physical access to that can really help me improve myself.
Now at the risk of sounding like a complete suck up, brown nose I don't think getting to roll with Rickson Gracie would have as great an effect on me as training with my coach Ryan Dunstan over the last few years. Now no offense to Ryan but Rickson is clearly the greatest BJJ practitioner to ever wear a Gi but i don't know Rickson and he doesn't know me. So as much Rickson is a hero of mine he can never be a role model to me. But I have seen Ryan in many situations in the years that I've known him, under extreme pressure competing, training, coaching, reacting to big wins and loses, partying and just hanging out and the way he carries him self in all these situations is what a role model should look like. Now I'm not saying he is a saint or anything like that, he has faults like all of us but that is just how a role model should be, real and accessible. I'm extremely lucky to have found the right gym and coach for me. I clicked there straight away and I've made some solid connections with some excellent like minded individuals. The quality of the instruction and the leadership from Coach Dunstan is in my eyes nothing short of world class and to not absorb that and try to put some of that positive energy back out into the world would be selfish of me.
Cage door duties is a real privilege.
Especially when two true martial artists are in the cage together.
As a father, an uncle, friend, training partner, and sometime coach. I am fully aware that I myself have become a role model. I think about this a lot. I really want to conduct my self more as a martial artist and have positive affects on the people I come in contact with.
If I wasn't doing BJJ and had not met my coach and team mates I think everyone I come in contact with would not get the best of me. I owe alot to Jiu-Jitsu.
I'm very apprecitative of the art and the men and women I train with and especially my coach.
I believe we are all connected. Or in the words of Genki Sudo "We Are All One". I think our sub-conscious minds are somehow all linked up. You know the feeling you get when you walk in to a seedy pub or club full of sus dudes and a wave of gloom just washes over you. Or when you are at a music festival and everyone is so in to the music and having such a rad time a wave of euphoria comes over you. I think those waves are the collective sub conscious of the group connecting with your own. Yeah it's official, I'm a hippie.
I think we can somewhat recreate those positive connections consciously. When ever I get to hang with a new mate I always try to look for that connection. Usually it's music. I love metal but I also listen to lots of other shit. I like hip-hop, break beat, punk, grunge, 80s cock rock, blues, folk, even some country. It's all good except for heartless pop and mindless trance.
BJJ is another way to make connections. If you both have trained for a while then you have heaps in common. I think that's why my blog gets a lot of traffic. Any one who has trained for a few months can totally relate/connect with what I'm banging on about.
At a philosophical level I could talk to a fellow Jits practitioner for hours. But actually rolling is the best way to get on the same page and communicate. The moment I slap hands it's possible to make those sub conscious connections again. Sometimes in the roll the art of bjj takes over and guides the collective sub conscious towards being totally immersed. But in the same way as when you walk in to a seedy pub, the roll can go bad when the energy is just off.
My coach has been working hard on getting everyone in the gym to roll with control and flow through all of our techniques. His philosophy on BJJ is very similar to Roy Deans ideas in the video clip below.
There are some guys in the gym I have some great conversations(rolls) with, back and forth and very stimulating. Some times I listen too much and should be a little more ascertive and some times I get in to yelling matches. But as in life off the mat, it's always better to try to listen and respond in equal amounts with people if you want to make some meaningful connections. I try to use as much etiquette and decorum as possible but I also try to add a little bit of my own accent and cool where I can.
Jits is not only a great way to keep fit, stimulate your mind and learn one of the most effective martial arts on the planet. It's also a great way to meet some most excellent individuals and make some rock solid connections.
I just turned another year older.... so anyway training is excellent. Worked on ground n pound with one of team mates at Saturdays open mat session. That was super fun. I love testing out my jits under some pressure. Finding out what works and how I react to being punched in the face. I'm not a huge fan of being smacked upside the head but it makes me fine tune my game from the bottom. I found in closed guard I had success with an armwrap and head control. I'd wait for my team mate to strike with his free hand then control that wrist hip out a little and look to set up a triangle or omoplata. I found that the omoplata worked for me real well. I'd at least get a sweep out of it. Then transition to the sidecontrol crucifix position and drop some hammer fists then maybe setup an armbar.
I found my self having trouble pulling the trigger and punching my team mate in the face. The grappling gloves we train with have some padding... but not much. So even those little hammer fists do some damage. It just feels a bit awkward but once your team mate cracks you a few times and the adrenalin gets going it becomes a bit easier. The trick is to keep the punches hard enough to make them have to react but not that hard that u risk hurting or splitting a guy open who's getting ready for an upcoming fight.
I don't think I have ever hit anyone with my full power, ever. Even in the few street fights I've been in. I always pull my punches a bit and try to hit them often and fast.
Would be very interesting to get in the cage and let it all hang out one time. I've worked a lot of boxing technique over the years with my old man and brother and I think my boxing is at an ok level. Wow, listen to my self. Who am i kidding? At the weight i am at the moment i would have to fight dudes the size of Brock Lesnar... no thank you. Also the amount of time and effort I see the guys put in to prepare for a fight is crazy. Time I don't have right now. I wonder what my actual fighting weight would be if i got super fit though? I'm about 178cm tall but I've got big legs and I've got a deep core(fat arse) and chest(man boobs). I always thought it would be around 93kg. But it may be as low as 85?? hmmm.
Last nights training was mainly free rolling. Getting through all our positions and techniques. We also drilled the low butterfly pass, a transition from butterfly to x-guard and an x-guard sweep. Was a good session and i had some real nice flowing rolls with a couple of my fellow blue belts.
I've got a couple of my mates from Gympie in to BJJ, which is cool. They have both come down with me to train at advance now and are both real keen to keep it going. So see how it goes but hopefully it mean I'll have some local dudes keen to train and travel with. They both have picked it up real fast and will get good quickly, as long as they train 2-3times a week at least. Hopefully they get the jits bug like me.
Trained twice last week and I'm happy with how I'm rolling at the moment. I'm flowing a lot better and getting through a lot of techniques. Mainly due to the way we are rolling in class. Coach has been trying to get everyone to roll with control and going almost go for go with your training partner. This really helps to make the roll much more enjoyable. Instead of the roll getting to certain positions and both training partners clamping down. Both not willing to let the other person get any advantage. Not willing to try something in the fear of getting submitted or swept. As I've blogged about before Don't Let Fear Hold You Back! Once you let go of that fear the game really opens up and becomes something really special. Rather than a game of who has the tightest grip.
Been helping my old footy team with there wrestling/controlling the ruck. Nothing to full on, just how to pummel, how to maintain side control and how to escape to the knees. It's a good chance for me to work on my teaching skills. I really enjoy helping out. Before I discovered BJJ footy was the sport I was passionate about and I still think it's a great game that can really bring the best out of people. Hopefully I can help them out in someway and may be get some new people interested in trying some jits one day.
Training at home is underway. I did a session with a young mate of mine. He's a keen ufc fan and was keen to try out some bjj. We did some circuit training which consisted of 8x2min rounds of gi-pullups, g n p bag, heavy bag and tyre chops. Then I gave him his first lesson in jits. Taught him to hip escape. How to come to the knees, Upa, the posture when in closed guard, how to break the closed guard and the double under pass to side control. Sounds like a lot but he was soaking it all up really well so I kept it going. He must have enjoyed it because he wants to come down to training with me at AdvanceSC tonight.
Teaching jits is definitely a technique in it's self. I'm not sure if I'm doing a good job or not. But as with any BJJ techniques it requires reps to get better at. I want to make sure I'm teaching correct techniques that I actually use and have a depth of knowledge on. I really want every technique that I teach to connect easily and flow together nicely. This is the way I was taught and it has helped me a lot.
I'm still watching what I eat very closely and cutting back on the amount of crap I stuff in to my pie hole. It's not easy some days... well actually everyday. Right now I'm feeling a bit weird. Headaches, bad moods and tummy rumbles. I think it's due to my body craving sugar. I'm definitely not starving myself, but my body is used to having a constant stream of sugar and carbs being put in to it. Now it's not getting that, it's freaking out a bit. On the days I train jits it's not so bad because my mind is on the upcoming session on the mat and then afterwards I think about what I got done and what I'm going to do next time I roll. My brain's not thinking about food. But on a day like yesterday where I worked in the morning then chilled in the arvo on my couch watching the UFC, it gets real tough. I crave junk food real bad kfc! nachos! chips! coke!. But I've held strong..... so far.... but I'd choke my own mother for a Beefy pie and a 600ml coke right now.
