This entire week I have been babying my back. My back and ribs have been very sore this week after the seminar. We’ve had new people starting morning classes, and Eric is back in school every morning, so we have been doing alot of the “safety” techniques as I like to call them. Learning to fall backwards, and to the sides, standing and sitting in base. All these, over and over again all week have been killer on my back. So I haven’t rolled all week. I think Eric has been annoyed as after class he’s wanted to roll with me, but I have been trying to take it easy so I scooted out after class. Today I went in feeling pretty good, It was a good thing too, as it was just me and Bryce, today. Eric came on the mat, wearing his gi. Usually he has a pair of fight shorts and a sweatshirt on, and then throws his gi top on at some point if he wants to roll. Today, he came ready for war. He didn’t say anything to us, he just came in, started some music on the stereo, and stretched out. Bryce and I looked at each other and gave a mutual, “Ohhhh boy!” type look. We rolled through the entire class. Round Robin style. 3 minute rounds…30 second rest. So I would start with Eric, he would then roll with Bryce, I’d roll with Bryce, then roll with Eric.  So basically, 6 minutes on, 3 minutes off, for the hour. I was having the time of my life. I really missed rolling. We haven’t been doing it much. I was excited to try some things I have been studying. BJ Penn’s Book of Knowledge has some great stuff from what he calls the sit up guard. I think this can be very effective for me, posting up to try for the sweep, then convert to kimuras, armbars, omaplatas…Anyway, anytime I could pull guard, I did so with Bryce, with Eric, it was about survival. I’ve been working my armbar defense alot lately, and I think I’m getting pretty good at defending them now.

Anyway, the hour flew by, I was feeling great. Eric said class was over, then turned to me, and told me I was ready for my second stripe on my belt. I felt like jumping in the air. What a great day it was for me. I rolled, got to try some things, got to work my game, got a great sweat going, and to ice the cake, I got my second stripe. 2 stripes down, 2 to go before I reach goal number one, my blue belt.

One more day of class tomorrow, then the weekend. I’m hoping the weather stays nice so I can go out and walk a couple hours this weekend. For now, I’m off to the pool for some sunshine and a nice swim to loosen up the muscles. See you all soon.

This past weekend marked my second seminar with Rodrigo Gracie. I was incredibly excited to see what we would learn. I got to the gym 15 minutes early to put some extra stretching time in so my back wouldn’t give me any issues. My back has been tight and sore the past couple weeks so I was hoping everything would be fine.

It was the same as the last time. Excellent stuff. Saturday we concentrated on gi work. We worked on more collar chokes, some very interesting variations of a cross lapel choke from when someone is in turtle. I even got that choke when we rolled later on. The day was filled with great instruction. Rodrigo is a fantastic teacher. He knows exactly what needs to be said to get you to understand when you are confused.

After 3 hours of working the techniques he was teaching, we rolled. First up was Tony, just like last time, he smothered me. This time when passing my guard he flopped down on my nose which started bleeding so I had to spend the majority of rolling at the end stopping my nose bleed. When it finally stopped, Bryce and I rolled, we had a good hard-rolling session which ended up with me getting wacked in the nose again.  Bryce and I were scrambling for position, and I moved to take his back, my grip slipped and I fell on his elbow, caught me square in the nose, it dang near knocked me out cold. I ended rolling with Jordan. At the end of the seminar, Bryce and Tony got their blue belts. No stripe for me, I was a bit disappointed, but as Royce has always said. A belt only covers two inches of your butt, the rest is up to you. I still feel I am getting better. I know I’m better than the newer guys, I pretty much tooled the guys who were newer than me. I even held my own for a while with the blues on Day Two of the seminar which was all no gi. It just gives me more drive to be ready for when Royce is here in August, and if not then, then maybe in October when Rodrigo comes back.

Day Two we worked alot of guard passes, Jordan and I partnered up today alot. He’s the senior most student in the school when it comes to Jiu Jitsu, a wealth of knowledge, and a fantastic training partner. I was glad we were teamed up, as he helped me get through the issues I was having with the arm triangle drills we did today.

No rest for the weary, I’ll be back on the mats tomorrow, training and testing the new things I have learned. I hope I don’t forget everything over night.

So for the past few weeks, Bryce and I have been taking a self taught stance on our jiu jitsu training. Our instructor hasn’t been able to come in for morning classes because of some other issues that had to come first over Bryce and I flopping around on the mat. So he graciously allowed us to continue to come in to the gym in the morning during normal class time, and drill the Blue Belt Requirements over and over again. Originally it was just supposed to be time for us to practice and refine our basics before Royce came in June. As time went on, I began to make it my personal mission to be sure Bryce, who is a 4 stripe white belt, is ready for the seminar, and will be on point so he might be promoted to blue belt at the next seminar.

We also started getting a couple of other guys come in to class in the morning. Gus, Dan, Ben, and Mark all started showing up from time to time to give us a fresh body type to drill on.  Ben and Mark are relatively new to the jiu jitsu world, we did our best as white belts to help them tune up their guard passes, their armbars, guillotines, kimuras, sweeps….we have gone through a ton of material in a month. It really got my mind working on the idea of some day, 8-10 years from now when i have my brown belt…if I would be interested in opening my own school. Or at least try to teach….it gives me more to think about and something else to strive for….we shall see I guess…

Anyway, Jordan has agreed to come in Tuesday-Thursday every week at least until the seminar to give us pointers. Jordan is one of the top students in Jiu Jitsu. He has one stripe on his blue belt. He has a wealth of knowledge in the sport, he’s laid back and easy going, and a great teacher…I’m really glad he’s willing to help us out.

As a quick update, Royce will not be coming to do a seminar in June, we found out last week, that his manager had double booked him for a seminar, instead, Rodrigo will be back for a second time this year, I’m still pretty stoked. Sorry about the slow updates, but I didn’t want this to become some stupid drivel with no substance, so I waited til I had something a bit more significant to post besides, oh, we did armbars from guard, the end…….see….aren’t you glad I waited?

More to come friends, stick with me…..

The study hall style continues this week. Yesterday, Bryce and I went over the Elevator sweep and a couple of other things. It’s a short note today, I went to class tonight to roll with Someone my own size and boy was he ever. We worked on Elevator sweeps in night class as well, along with a sweep that hooks the posted leg and helps sweep them over. It was a good class. Very warm in the gym as I was sweating buckets after we shrimped and stretched.

My highlight of the evening was stepping on the scale for Eric to chart my progress to the 250 lbs goal on July 4th. I am happy to report that I am down to 277.  Only 27 pounds to go by July 4th…woo hoo!

This week has been kind of study hall like. Bryce and I have been working on the Blue belt requirements all week. Today, we finished our first run through of the self defense techniques. Though I must admit, we just went through the motions on a few of them, as neither Bryce and I thought we could handle a week of being thrown to the mat. I was surprised as to how many of these SD techniques are handled with set ups into hip tosses.

Aside from that, we worked on some submissions from mount, as we both tend to spaz a bit once we get the position, I don’t like the mount position that much, I prefer to stay in side control, I feel I have a bit more control over my opponent that way. But as Bryce pointed out, I really do need to get comfortable in Mount, with my sheer size, it could be very VERY bad news for someone in a real life situation should I attain the mount. So we flipped through the books, went down the sheets, and got some serious stuff done this week. I really have been enjoying this method of study for us. But I do miss formal classes. I’m headed to my 2nd night class tonight. I am really looking forward to it. Have a great weekend all. See you next week.

So Bryce and I have worked out some options to supplement our training at the gym. We try to get together daily, and drill things we are going over in class, as well as the basic Royce Gracie Blue Belt requirements. So as of now, we use the Blue Belt requirement list, and Rodrigo’s Virtual Gracie as the basis for our extra training. This way we feel we are learning the traditional moves as well as some of the more inventive techniques to keep us sharp. It’s all about being productive. It’s all about putting together things that will fit in our jiu jitsu game. Man, I feel alive in my jiu jitsu again. After having the last couple weeks off, it sure feels good to be alive.

After a 2 week hiatus due to circumstances beyond my control, I hit the gym tonight for my first evening jiu jitsu class. I have to admit, the butterflies were going in my stomach. I felt like it was my first day of training all over again. But soon we got into the normal routine. 6 guys tonight. That’s 3 times what I am used to. So it was a success just for that reason. We worked a couple of submission combinations from the guard tonight. First we did regular armbars, then we did an armbar/triangle combo to practice a switch up in the event your opponent pulls his arm free from the armbar, we transition straight into a triangle choke. This was a bit difficult for me as my knees are not that flexible, and my legs aren’t all that long, so it was a challenge trying to get my triangle deep enough. I have to work on getting my crossed leg high enough on their back to sink my ankle into the crook of my knee. From there we went to a armbar/triangle and then switch to the other arm to armbar that side.

After we drilled for a while, I rolled with a couple of the guys. While it was fantastic to scrap on the mats again, I realized how badly my cardio has gotten in the last 2 weeks. I have to make an effort to do more cardio type exercises on days I can’t make it to the gym.

The diet is going well. Fresh fruits and veggies, my meal suppliment shake in the morning. Lean chicken, tuna fish, all sorts of goodies.  I haven’t stepped on a scale in a while, so I don’t know where the weight is at, but I feel good, and for now that’s what matters. Alright guys, time to stretch while watching some Tivo’d WEC fights. See you again next time

I just wanted to write a quick blurb apologizing for my lack of updates as of late. In the past week I have moved into a new apartment, 20 miles closer to my gym and work, and then been sick for the rest of the week so I have stayed home as to not spread my illness to anyone else I train with. I am feeling much better now, and, barring any other stupid issues that could come up I should be back to training next week. I am now going to have to make up for lost time as the Submission hunt is less than a month away. I stretched out last night for the first time in a week and boy was I ever stiff.  Today I will join my roommate in what will become my daily walk 2.25 miles, (we measured our route with a Garman GPS watch yesterday) in an effort to get some more cardio exercise in my training. Diet is doing better since moving into my new place. I can get to the grocery store a bit more often as it’s only a couple blocks away. So I’ve been living off of salads, turkey sandwiches, water, juice, fruit, and triscuits.

I just woke up, irritated that I overslept, but apparently I needed it. Because of it, I missed class today, so i thought I would update my blog considering I used to write everyday, but now find it increasingly difficult to write anything of substance.  But I’ll give it a shot anyway, as you my loyal readers deserve it.

Monday was a major snowstorm, so I was stuck in the house. I spend my 2 hours I would have been at the gym watching matches from my ADCC tourney DVDs.  My roommate sat down to watch with me, thinking it would be exciting as a UFC fight. He got up about 5 minutes later saying, “You have got to be kidding me D, this is boring.” I guess it is kind of a boring sport to anyone who doesn’t practice a type of grappling. I found it fascinating to watch the greatest grapplers in the world do battle.

Tuesday and Wednesday, classes were run by Derrick as my Instructor was out on business. We worked on guard passes and side control escapes on tuesday, and yesterday we worked on Kimuras and Guillotine chokes from guard. We also worked on guillotine escapes.  I learned some tricks to making these work for me. Namely shrimping out slightly to give me more room to complete the submission.

As for today, well, since I overslept, I will be going for a walk in a bit, then stretch out for a half hour.  Then.. a nice nap as I am thinking I am getting over a touch of a cold. Don’t want to get sick, now when I am this close to the Submission hunt.

Til next time sports fans.

So today it was just Matt and I. When Matt comes to class, at least for now. I know it’s going to be a technique drilling day. We warmed up and stretched. And then Eric went down the list of technique requirements for receiving a blue belt in Royce Gracie Jiu Jitsu. We went straight down the list Got through 1 of 4 columns of techniques. It was nice to go through these techniques, some of which we hadn’t done since my first couple of weeks of training. Mostly the self defense things, wrist grabs, front chokes, lapel grabs, and the counters for them. Then we did forward rolls, learning to fall backwards and to the side properly. It was a nice technical day. No class for the next 2 days as Eric will be unavailable.

The diet continues.  Since I have no class to attend tomorrow and Thursday, I am going to do some drills at home, and then go out for a walk. If I work hard and continue to eat right, I think dropping 1-3 pounds a week should be achievable. 15 weeks until July 4 which was the deadline for my goal to be down to 250. I stepped on the scale today, one week after my initial goal setting day, and I am down 4 pounds. It could be nothing, less water, etc….but if I continue to be down 1-4 pounds a week, that’s 45 pounds putting me at 241 on July 4th. From there, we will set a new goal. I would be extatic if i ever got back down to 200. 200 is a very trim weight for me. I don’t think I have been under 200 pounds since before 9th grade,  14 years ago. Wish me luck!