Little did I realize that this cartoon would be my BJJ career

Show up get beat down then smile at the guys and tell them see you tomorrow.  Oh yeah and sometimes be saved by the bell. 

Had to stop sparring last night.

We have a long class on Tuesday.  We do an hour of drilling then 1/2 hour of warm up/conditioning and then 45 minutes of technique and another 45 minutes of rolling.

The Professor/Instructor was a Black Belt who substitutes sometimes.  He is from the Police Department and many of his moves he shows are what he calls Pain Compliant.  The point of the move is that they are just painful so they make you want to comply with the Choke etc just to stop the pain from the move.

The Class is run a little differently when he substitutes and I really look forward to attending when he teaches.  Last night we went over chokes from the mount.  He taught us 4 very good ones that were very strong chokes.  Mostly blood chokes and not air chokes.  We used the pain compliance methods to get them to move an arm or hand so we could get to the carotid artery to apply the choke.  As a good sparring partner does I blocked the move and allowed my partner to use some pain compliance before administering the choke.  I found that after an hour of this I was getting pretty light headed.  I should have sat out warm up and conditioning but was too stubborn for that and kept going.  Then we did another 45 minutes of chokes.  I was already dizzy and having headaches before the sparring started.  We were going 8 minute rounds and then at the end of my first round I took a knee to the head (on accident I was trying to pass his guard and he was trying to recover his guard and caught me).  Then my next round I was just gassed.  Not sure where I was even at.

I took off the last  3 rounds of sparring.

My question is, do you think if you are drilling chokes for that long that you go into some kind of oxygen debt and it causes your body to shut down.  Just like when you cross your VO2 max and you start to build up lactic acid in your muscles?  Is this a real thing or was I just tired from training so much.    Just trying to figure it out for next time.  

Being a Blue Belt is like putting a target on your gi.

I have only been a blue belt for week and I have been to work out 5 times and it just feels different.

I feel like the higher belts go a little  harder on me not giving me the benefit of age that they did when I was a white belt.

The stripped white belts also are working harder to get the satisfaction of saying they taped out a Blue Belt (which is much more satisfying then saying I taped out an old guy white belt).

On the opposite side the newer white belts now tap much quicker then they did before.  They seem to think that the Blue Belt means  if I get them in a Submission Hold that I will be able to finish it better then before.

I also spar a little different.  Last week going against a white belt who I have done well with in the past I wanted to work on getting out of a guillotine so I let him catch me in it twice and I got tapped twice with what were more neck cranks then chokes but I still taped.  I guess I got to just keep eating the humble pie and being a blue belt does not bring any special magic powers with it.

Not sure if anyone else who has been promoted to Blue Belt feels this way.

It is funny.  Sometimes I keep looking down at my Belt to make sure I am really Blue Belt.  I was told by many before I became a Blue Belt  that I rolled like a Blue Belt.  Now I'm a Blue Belt I am starting to think maybe I need to work a little harder to make sure no one thinks I roll like a white belt.

I got my Blue Belt last night.

So I got my blue belt last night after almost 2 years of 4-5 times a week at BJJ practice.  It was kind of interesting.  6 of us (5 who have been together for almost 2 years) received their Blue Belt Promotions last night.

There was not a lot of surprise as we were all told going on in who was going to be promoted.  To be honest my feelings were a little mixed.  I think I was feeling overwhelmed and maybe emotional when I got my first stripe. I worked very hard for that stripe and it meant a lot more to me then I thought it would.  I thought I would have some of the same feelings but that is not the way I felt.

I think part of the reason I had the feelings I did was because I was expecting those feelings, and also it was a not a surprise, so raw emotions were not triggered.  The other could be because of the anxiety of having to spar with everyone in the class and then getting whipped by them and thrown by the Black Belts.

I have always been an anti hazing kind of guy so when I saw my first belt promotion about 18 months ago I was kind of taken back.  The instructors told me if I was around long enough to get promoted that I would have a choice of being whipped or not.  In reality when the time came I knew I would have to take the whipping.  No matter what they say about leaving your ego at the door goes out the window with the Peer Pressure of those going before you taking the beating and then you having to face the piper.

To be honest because I am older I know that they did not hit me as hard as they hit the younger guys.  I still got welts and bruises and I would be lying if I said it did not hurt but all in all I think that I had to participate.

I know not all gyms do this and in fact it seems like fewer and fewer academy's do the whipping.  I guess the bottom line is if you don't like the culture of the whipping then you can switch academies.

Also I was truly impressed by the congratulations on receiving the Blue Belt.  Not only from those there but from others I have worked out with or known in my short 2 years.  The congratulations all seemed heart felt and genuine and there is a real sense of camaraderie in the BJJ Circles that you don't seem to find in other places.  White Belts through Black Belts alike all seemed to be sincere in their congratulations.

Took 2nd Place at NABJJF World Championships

First of all I didn't write for a couple of weeks because we have been just swamped at work.  

Second I'm writing this at 2 AM because my neck is so sore I can't sleep.  

I thought I would be going against a Judo Black Belt but he moved to The Blue Belt Division so I had a choice to take the Gold or drop age groups and compete.  I chose to compete.  

My first match was against Carlos Reza.  I was hoping to avoid the grips but all that was thrown out the window when I found out he was blind.  What an inspiration to compete as a blind man.  The referee gave him the choice of starting standing or kneeling.  He chose kneeling so that is how we started.  I was able to get side control on him and his defense was very good.  Very mobile and strong bursts of energy.  He defended all of my submission attempts and the match ended 5-0 in my favor.  He was an excellent player and I had the utmost respect for him.  The match could have gone either way. 

Then came the finals match. I went against a gentleman named Jaun Avena. I thought I had the take down as I was deep on a double leg but he guillotined me.  It was very tight and actually cut my ear but I was able to fight out of it.  He was very strong and spent most of the match controlling me with a head lock.  I thought I had his back but somehow he rolled through got me in an armbar and I tapped. I think if I could have just created some space I would gave been okay but he was able to control me and keep my posture broken with his string headlock.  I was ahead on points with when I tapped. 

I am thinking I should buy stock in Motrin because that is what I'm going to need to take to get to sleep. 

We had 6 people from Higher Ground BJJ compete it was great comraderie and I'm looking forward to competing again.  

To cut weight or not to cut weight.

Not sure if I mentioned this before but in my upcoming tournament I was supposed to face a Judo Black Belt who is also an instructor at one of the Dojo's downtown.  I really hate being thrown and I am not very good at break-falls so I was a little worried about it.  I just checked the registration and the guy has moved out of my weight class to an heavier weight class.  I assume he signed up thinking he was going to lose some weight and then in the end decided it was not worth it so he just jumped back to his regular weight.

I am currently about 6 lbs under weight so my dilemma is should I try to drop another 6 lbs and drop a weight class or should I just go at my regular weight.  I have decided to stay at my regular weight.  I am 53 and cutting weight (especially water weight) really does things to my system.  Also being underweight gives me the advantage or eating regular meals leading up the tournament.  I might catch a beast at the tournament because I have had to drop an age group to find competition but I mostly think that there are not that many 46-50 year old white  belts who are taking this so serious as to cut weight and kill themselves before the competition.  Really how many white belts over 40 think they are going to make a living doing Jiu Jitsu.  We all have jobs and other responsibilities and Jiu Jitsu is just a hobby to help us deal with the stress or maybe we are going through a midlife crisis.  I have a good friend who sent me this yesterday.  I know it is a quote from a book she is reading "Brene Brown's Gift of Imperfection" but I think it really sums up what a midlife crisis is about.

"People may call what happens at midlife a crisis, but it's not. It's an unraveling - a time when you feel a desperate pull to live the life you want to live, not the one you're supposed to live. The unraveling is a time when you are challenged by the universe to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are."

I think we get to a spot where we just want to do what we want and don't really care to follow the way we have up to that point living for what others wanted or expected of us.  I think for those of us that start BJJ in our late 40's early 50's we are trying to get back something we always wanted to do but were not able to until this time.

What do you think?

How do you train when you travel.

Usually I try to train while I travel.  This week I was at the SEMA show.  The problem at the show is it is hard to control your time.  You have to be there working the booth for a set amount of time and then you have to entertain customers after the show so finding time to train takes a back seat to making a living so you can afford to train.  I will be back at it today to get the rust off two weeks before my competition.

I did have a good time at the show.  Here are a couple of good ole boys I ran into.  They told me they could use the grappling hook to get some of those gators that got away.  They were very genuine and really nice guys.  They even told me they would put a www.ninjasupply.net sticker on their truck if I gave them one.  Maybe I need to get some made up.  #swamppeople #sema