Owner: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu - Steve's BJJ Log URL:http://www.stevebjj.com Join Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 13:45:59 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: This is a training log chronicling my ups and downs as I learn (or try to learn) BJJ under Lotus Club Black Belt, James Foster. Site statistics:Click here
Back Update #5 2007-05-22 09:23:00 Pretty much no change. I've got another session of PT scheduled for this afternoon. My back actually feels great. My sacroiliac is out of whack. It's a sort of dull but constant pain throughout the day, but for whatever reason acts up at night. I'm sleeping through the night now, but tend to wake up with a lot of soreness and pain.I can't wait until this is all healed up. I've been avoiding the gym for the past few weeks, and doing really like warmups at class. I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to begin working out again. I'll talk to the PT about this today.On the plus side, I haven't gained any weight. I'm still trying to watch what I eat, and am maintaining at about 182 lbs. I'm still hopeful that if I can lick these hip/back issues, I can begin working out in earnest, bump up the cardio and lose the last 12 or so lbs to get down to a more ideal weight. Read more:Update
Foster BJJ Featured in NW Fight Scene Magazine 2007-05-31 09:55:00 That's right. Our school is featured in issue #3 of NW FightScene Magazine
. The write up is very cool. They gave us two full pages just on the school. James details a technique, which is a new feature they're starting. So, James has a full page for his technique. There's also a very nice, full page ad for the school where James looks suitably stern and imposing.There's an IFL event in Everett, WA on Friday. NW FightScene is handing out 1000 copies of this magazine to people in attendance. We're all going to wear our brand new Foster
BJJ shirts, and try to... I don't know... look cool, I guess. James assured me that there was lots of flair on the T-shirt, so that's a good thing. I'm all about flair. James seems very happy about the positive exposure for the school. Read more:Featured
Class Wednesday 2007-05-31 09:27:00 Quick Back/Hip update: My back feels great. My hip, not so much. I went to class yesterday and don't seem any worse for wear as a result. My hip was very sore after class, but after I got home and sat in a comfortable chair for an hour or so and played my new video game (Forza 2), it eased up considerably. I actually slept better last night than I have in days and woke up without as much pain. In class, I jogged during warmups, but didn't go crazy. The impact of running is rough on my hip. Other than that, I was able to do most of the warmups. Well, now that I'm thinking about it, we did some warmup drills that I just didn't even attempt. We did some flippy, acrobatic type stuff. I was impressed to see two of our biggest guys cartwheeling and kipping up like Bruce Lee. I felt able to spar yesterday and did pretty well. I was a little frustrated at one point. I was sparring with Keoni and he overcommitted on a pass attempt. I was able to raise my hips, control his lef Read more:Wednesday
General Blog Writing Question 2007-06-01 11:37:00 I have a completely unrelated, general blogging question to ask to my "Faithful Fifteen" (those 15 or so people who for whatever reason read this blog on a regular basis.What's up with the blogs where people refer to their friends by a capital letter? It's very distracting to me. I can understand pseudonyms, but in one's blog posts, I don't understand the usefulness of the convention of referring to a "Lil C" or "Big B". Is saying, "I just ate lunch with Sean, and we drove over to Hannah's place to meet up with Iggy and Tom," any more revealing than using a capital letter? "I just ate lunch with S, and we drove over to H's place to meet up with I and T." The conspiracy theorist in me wants to put all of the capital letters together to decode the secret message. If someone doesn't know me, would it make any real difference if I said "Hannah" or "H"? And if someone does know me, wouldn't referring to "H" be pretty clearly referencing Hannah? So why not just say "Hannah?" Two Read more:General
, Question
The BEST Job Safety website EVER - non-bjj post 2007-06-06 17:31:00 Wow!!! This was shocking, surprising, funny and actually informative. Canada put together a website
at http://www.prevent-it.ca . On this animated website, you'll be guided around by a young worker who has a bloody stump where his hand used to be and the preload screen is his hand falling to the ground.It's graphic, but the intended audience is young workers. Do check it out. Read more:Safety
Back/Hip Update 2007-06-06 09:37:00 I've had three decent night's sleep in three days. That's pretty darn good. My back still feels really good and I'd put my hip at about 70%. It's sore, but not nearly as bad as it was a week ago. It feels almost like a charlie horse right on my hip and in the surrounding muscle along the upper thigh. I went to the gym on Monday and worked the elliptical at a pretty good clip for 20 minutes. I'm going to go back today and then to class tonight, although I'll probably still avoid any drills that put undue stress on the hip, so no backward rolls, no leg lifts... that sort of thing. But I'm fit for whatever else. Someday soon, I'm going to be able to start working triangles and armbars from guard. I don't tend to work on these much because the defense involves being stacked up and that's about the only thing that really kills me in sparring right now. But soon. Muwahaha. Seriously, though, I've been working on my game from guard and without those two basics, I have b Read more:Update
Another rant 2007-06-04 10:14:00 First, I want to make it clear that I'm not a consumption stickler. I use the occasional paper plate and have no problems with using a paper cup. It's unnecessary, gratuitous consumption that bothers me. Wasting a few dollars on something I don't need. Fine. Using a $20 bill to light my cigar? Not fine.About two weeks ago, I put a travel mug in my car. I realized that I've been hitting the Starbuck's drive thrus pretty often over the last couple months, and felt like I'd been throwing away more than my share of cups. So, I pulled out the old travel mug. Okay, here's my problem. I hit the drive thru, order my tall Americano in my own cup (for which I receive a $ .10 discount) and merrily make my way up to the window. At this point, the lady takes my cup, rinses it out (thanks for that), then takes a tall Americano that she'd already prepared and pours it into my cup. The last step killed me. She threw the cup away. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, but I did s
Melee!!! 2007-06-04 09:49:00 Yesterday was pretty hot. We had the door propped open and the fan on, but still... hot. We had about 16 students at class yesterday, had a pretty decent warmup where we jogged, did some drills and some abs. My hip held up pretty well. Got sore from the jogging, but wasn't bad. The only two exercises I didn't do were the leg raises, which put too much strain on my hip right now, and about half of the neck exercises. Those kick my butt. I need to start doing those outside of class to increase my neck strength.Melee
was, in Medieval times, the most dangerous and bloody event of any festival or tournament. Far more dangerous than jousting, this was the event where multiple knights would fight each other. Sometimes, these were mobs where it was every man for himself, and others would be divided into two teams. Some people believe that these bloody affairs resulted in Soccer. My opinions of that will have to wait for another post. At yesterday's class, we had our own version
Friday means FUN! (yay) 2007-06-09 00:26:00 Well, not always, but tonight was fun. I'm a little banged up, but I've missed too many classes as it is. My elbow is sore, but not very sore and my hip is holding up well. I even did some leg raises in warm-ups, although I still abstained from the rolls to protect my back. Even without the rolls, I got a good workout. Rick was in a mood, I guess. :) We jogged for a short while to get warmed up and then started duck walking and lunging our hearts out. Most of us are still nursing sore thighs from Bill's workouts Sunday and Wednesday, but I didn't find it too bad. We did some alligator crawls, some hip escapes... pretty normal stuff. Then we did the rolls (I did some squats, just to keep the blood flowing). We did a lot of abs today, which I always like, and some supermans, too. The superman exercise is normally a pretty easy one for me, but once again, I'm finding that my hip is a real impediment. Oh well. Won't be long now. It feels so much better than it did even a Read more:Friday
Wednesday Class 2007-06-07 11:00:00 Had a good class yesterday. Warmups weren't too bad. Worked abs and neck. My hip seems to be holding up, although I'm definitely not 100%. I found that out when in sparring, I wound up on the bottom of north/south (I was trying to remember a submission technique from there and got rolled). I couldn't bridge up with any real strength. Hip escapes are marginal, but doable. I can't really explode with them, but I did manage to push my hips out far enough to recover full guard from half-guard. The technique we covered was a variation of a single leg takedown. Shooting in on my opponent's left leg, I'll start with my right foot (on this side, should be my lead foot), knee down, and then swinging my left foot around to the side. At the school in Olympia, the instructor called this motion a "windshield wiper" motion. Coming around with my right arm in a high crotch and securing a gable grip around the leg. I'm coming around the side becuase this angle makes the takedown har Read more:Wednesday
Martial Development Haiku Contest 2007-06-12 14:54:00 So, at lunch today, I'm goofing off and browsing through some MA blogs. I stumble upon one called MartialDevelopment
, a Seattle based Martial Arts blog. I'm not sure I agree with a lot of the positions the blog author holds on martial arts, but I'm not arrogant enough (quite) to believe that I'm knowledgeable enough to know better. We all have different ideas on martial training.Anyway, on it is a newly announced Haiku
contest. Now, I'm not a great poet, and Haiku has never been my favorite closed form, but I like to write and thought I'd give it a go. If I have more time I'll try to come up with some more worthy entries, but the following are two that I could write on my break:Gasping for more air,I shake hands with my partner and begin again.Sweat stinging my eyes,so I close them and see morethan ever before.Granted, I'm much better at fart poems and base humor than anything else. Here's one that combines the two. Martial arts and a blatant, low comedy fart joke. Ah Read more:Contest
New Digs for the school 2007-06-11 10:25:00 Big news was announced last week. Foster BJJ is moving to Kent. I'm really looking forward to it. It sounds like James has thought of everything, looking to put in padded walls, a quarter of a cage, so that our MMA guys can train, heavy bags, locker rooms, and all sorts of stuff. The school's a little further away for me now, but I'm sure it'll work out.He's also going to expand the schedule. From what I understand, there will be additional classes, making it easier to get to class each week. There will also be kids classes, conditioning, and more MMA classes. I think my son might be interested. I'd love to get him active. He not a complete couch potato, but like many kids these days, he spends as much time on the computer or a video game console as he does outside. I sincerely wish I'd had the opportunity to train in BJJ as a kid, and so it would make me feel really good to be able to get him involved early in his life. That said, as every parent knows, we can't wan
Friday Class 2007-06-15 21:41:00 Tonight was a rare class where Coach Foster wasn't there. So one of our purple belts ran the class. Bill likes tough warm-ups, but tonight wasn't too bad. I think there were too many people to throw out the heavy bags and do sprawls. Still, we did sprints, lunges and Kermit jumps. Fun, fun, fun. My hip was a little sore, so I did my best on the leg lifts, but was glad when we moved to crunches. As I write this, I'm realizing that warm-ups were harder than I remember. Maybe I'm blocking out the pain! Sparring was fun tonight. I rolled with Bruce, a big guy. I pulled guard, stayed busy attacking his neck, trying to keep my hips moving and working to maintain angles. I also tried to attack his arms. At one point, he was pulling back to try a smash pass, I think. I managed to isolate an arm and went for a triangle. That didn't work, so I transitioned to an omoplata and almost... almost got it. I just barely had enough oomph in my hip to flatten him out, but couldn't s Read more:Friday
Wednesday Class 2007-06-14 09:11:00 Not much to write about from yesterday's class. I was able to get through warm-ups. My hip is feeling pretty good, and am trying to increase mobility. I need to be more diligent about stretching my hamstrings during the day. I've heard from about 10 independant sources that my hamstrings are tight enough that they could be causing many of my problems. Class was fun, but very much like Tuesday's class, except that we wore a gi yesterday. We continued to work on the Standing Kimura. One detail that was reinforced yesterday had to do with keeping a lot of pressure on the shoulder. This is a pretty slick move. After yesterday's class, I just had to see the Kazushi Sakuraba vs Renzo Gracie. Anyone who's seen this fight has seen a standing kimura work against one of the best BJJ practitioners around. Be warned, though. Renzo doesn't tap like anyone with a last name other than Gracie probably would. He just stoically allows his elbow to go and waits for the ref to stop the Read more:Wednesday
Tuesday No-Gi Class 2007-06-13 10:02:00 First a back/hip report: My back is feeling good. My hip is at about 70% or so. Not bad. I had my last physical therapy session yesterday, and now it's up to me to keep working on flexibility. So, yippee. My hip really only gives me an problems when I'm on the bottom and have to bridge up. Otherwise, it feels pretty strong.In no-gi class yesterday, we worked on two techniques. One was a back to basics lesson on executing a Kimura from side control. I won't detail this technique (google: "side control" and "kimura" if you want to know more), but I will mention a few details that will help me out. The first detail is, when I've got the arm at a 90 degree bend, and I'm all set to start cranking out the submission, I'll sit out, bringing my leg underneath. This will give me more leverage to crank the submission. Another detail was to keep his chest on my own, not allowing a lot of space. The second technique we learned was a Standing Kimura against a rear body lock. Sup Read more:Tuesday
Sunday 6/17/2006 2007-06-18 10:34:00 Father's day!Sunday
was a small class, probably because all the dads were out golfing. I don't golf, so I ended up down at the school. We worked again on the kneebar that Bill taught us on Friday and because it was a smaller class, got lots of sparring in. We also went down to see the new space after open mat.First, though, sparring was great. I started with one of the more experienced blue belts and ended up spending pretty much the entire match trying to work out of his spider guard. I got swept once, and feel like I did a pretty good job of staying up on my side, working to get a knee back in. I re-established half-guard and tried to stay busy. We ended up resetting at one point, and I ended up back in his spider guard. Man, that's rough. I got one of my arms free and ended up neutralizing him pretty well by controlling a leg, but that's about it. I feel pretty good that while I didn't get past his guard, he didn't sweep me again or submit me... but at the same time I
Couple of Pictures 2007-06-22 10:00:00 Not training related, but one of the guys from the school snapped a few photos for me: Read more:Pictures
Tuesday No-Gi 6/19/2007 2007-06-20 09:10:00 No-gi, submission wrestling class started out with drills and warm-ups, as usual, then worked on a particularly cool sweep from half-guard and then sparring. We did some new drills, which was fun. Probably the hardest drill, and one that was assigned as "homework" was a drill where I put both of my feet on a wall with my knees bent, back to the floor in a basic "open guard" position. Throughout this drill, my feet should stay in contact with the wall. If I'm going to move down the wall to my right, I'll bring my right foot underneath my left. I'll then raise up my hips as I roll up onto my shoulders, rotating around to my right as I walk down the wall. This is a lot harder than it sounds... or maybe not. If you're a ninja, it's easy. I could do this, but not without cheating and using my arms to keep my hips up. Another drill we did was the beetle drill, or dead bug drill. I'm on my back in a basic guard position. My arms are up and in and my knees up, too. The drill Read more:Tuesday
Just for fun 2007-06-29 11:16:00 Today, I woke up and for some reason, I felt rested. With the kids in day camp, we've all been struggling to adjust to waking up a little earlier than normal. As a result, the kids and I have been tired all week. But last night, my body just crashed and I got a very restful night's sleep. Then I woke up and my muse visited me. So, I bring to you a few more haiku:Strength flows from within.Protein Shakes and CreatineThe smell makes me tap.Here are a couple of general fart poems that came to me. These are open form poems in the spirit of, perhaps, the great William Carlos Williams, one of my favorites:I weptAs I saw your eyes close in a moment of passion.TweeeeeeetHere's one I like to call Easter Sunday:Wafting from afar, I sniffed, and at once you were with me.Roasted peanuts andA touch of Easter egg. This is sort of like a haiku. I was working with a 7,9,7 form instead:Tofu makes noises, waterSloshing around clumpy white goo.Is soy a musical fruit?And I don't even begin to
Wednesday Class 2007-06-28 09:13:00 Well, we're getting down to the wire. Friday is the last class in this location. Saturday, we'll get the mats moved and then Sunday is the first day of class in the new location. In class yesterday, we worked on a few variations of the guillotine choke. First, we worked two standing guillotine chokes, and then how to finish the guillotine choke when you have one arm in. The standing guillotine technique was started from a clinch. I want one arm free, and am controlling my opponent's head with my hand wrapped around and a little on top so that I can pull his head down. I also want to keep my elbow in, to help prevent my opponent from shooting in. As I pull forward, I jump up and try and put my chest on my opponent's back, to keep him from posturing up, locking my hands into a slightly modified guillotine grip. Instead of the blade of my forearm being deep in my opponent's neck, I'm trying to get my wrist more on his throat, with a good gable grip keeping it tight and secur Read more:Wednesday
New Digs! Verdict is... 2007-07-01 22:13:00 In the immortal words of Mr. Burns, "Excellent!" We're in the new space and it's great. It really feels good. The mats fit like they were cut for the new space. Wall pads are up. We can talk as loud as we want and the best thing of all is that it's ours. All ours. While James may not know this, I'm actually a Feng Shui expert. I've read the Idiot's Guide to Feng Shui cover to cover. I'm here to tell you that the chi in that new school could be bottled up and sold as a narcotic, it's so good. I did the Lo Shu magic square... thing... and used every number between 1 and 9. Wait. That was a sudoku puzzle. On a completely different note, how many people realized that while sudoku is a puzzle, sodoku is a form of rat bite fever! Well, regardless. The chi is good.The school is still a few weeks from being done, but it's already very comfortable. I'm looking forward to getting my conditioning back up to where I can begin attending the competition classes again. That s Read more:Verdict
Two movies being produced that I can't wait to see. 2007-07-01 21:31:00 I get a lot of emails related to having a blog. Only a few of them are really surprising. This was one of those. Before I really get into it, though, I think I'll share a little background. Lucky you to be reading my blog after I've had a couple of glasses of wine! I've always been a fan of counterculture movies
. A Boy and His Dog, Repoman, Harold and Maude, Sid and Nancy... just to name a few. Heck, I can't tell you how many afternoons I spent watching the Heavy Metal / Pink Floyd's The Wall double feature at the Neptune Theater in Seattle. I like movies that highlight things that aren't part of mainstream media. One of the guys at my school is, in addition to being a maniac who's made me wanna puke from shoulder pressure, a gifted videographer and director. He's putting together a documentary on MMA that I can't wait to see. Walking To The Cage (smoke&mirror trailer)Add to My Profile | More VideosCheck Matt out on Myspace. I'll be able to say I knew him before h Read more:produced
BJJ Class Friday 06/29/2007 2007-06-30 09:14:00 The school is moving and we had our last class at the old location, in the Aamerican Colleges of Karate. This morning the task is to move the mats to the new school. In class yesterday, we worked again on the guillotine techniques from Wednesday. Finishing the guillotine has always been a challenge for me, so learning some of the nuances of this basic technique, as well as the variations such as how to finish the arm-in version, was great. Sparring was very productive. My hip held up really well. I was rolling first with another white belt who is very strong and I'd put him in the 240 lbs category. He tends to tire. I pulled guard and distracted him by immediately attacking his neck. I used this to set up a quick sweep. I still don't do the scissor sweep with enough flair to end up in mount, but I managed to settle into side control. So, I concentrated on shoulder pressure and establishing good position. I guess rather than do a complete play by play I'll highlight the t Read more:Friday
Thursday No-Gi Takedown Class 2007-07-05 21:54:00 Now that we're in the new space, James has really given some thought to the schedule. In addition to more MMA training, there are now entire classes specializing in some areas that can easily be neglected. There is a new Strength and Conditioning class, and also Takedown classes with Gi and also No-Gi. I intend on a regular week to make three BJJ classes and at least one takedown class, either Thursday
No-Gi or Friday Gi. I'm going to mix it up so I can get some experience with both.Another side benefit so far is that opening up the calendar has really lightened up the classes. Where we were getting an average of between 20 and 30 students per class at the old school, we're down to 10 or so with more mat space. So, more room to roll, meaning more pairs for sparring at a time, meaning time on the mats!Tonight was my first takedown class. We started off with a half-hour warmup and stretching. Then we were taught the Russian Arm-Drag and a transition from there to a takedown...
Tuesday BJJ Class 7/03/2007 2007-07-03 23:26:00 Class number 2 for me at the new location. Hot, although I didn't think it was all THAT hot. Coach says to Bill, "Can you walk them through some warmups? Wait. Just do stretches. It's too hot."Bill: "Okay. Muwahahahaaaaa. Okay big circles to the left. *we do that* Hey, you know what? I'm going to try something on you guys. I've got a couple of drills." And then the grin. But overall, it was okay. There was a sprawl drill that was hard. Basically we partnered up and on guy leads the other in sprawls. So, I'm watching my partner. Left hand down, I sprawl with that side hip down. Right side, same. Both hands down and I sprawl to the middle, both hips down. It was hard. I got tired.The next drill was actually not that bad. I could've done this one for a while. I take my partners feet and wheelbarrow him to the other side of the mat, where he then jumps on my back and I sprint with him back to the other side. Then he wheelbarrows me and so on. I found that dril Read more:Tuesday
Tuesday BJJ Class 07/10/2007 2007-07-10 23:23:00 It was very, very hot today. In the 90's. In Seattle. Where we have no A/C. The new space was actually not too bad. Hot, to be sure, but the fans really kept it pretty cool. Today's warmups consisted of jogging, abs, and the basic drills, all of which were twice as difficult because it was so hot. That and I haven't been to class since last Thursday, having missed Sunday's class.Technique was reversing side control. The first technique was for when you have good position. I'm on the bottom and my arms are in tight, elbows in. My opponent is on my right side putting a lot of pressure, so I can't hip escape to bring my knee back in. The blade of my left forearm is in his neck. What I'm going to do is get that SOB. So, I'll widen out my left elbow to create some space. I'll then reach through with my right arm and sort of hit him (not really hit, but jar) with my right bicep. At the same time I'll use my left leg to bridge up a little and then pull myself through Read more:Tuesday
Good luck to all Foster BJJ Competitors!!! 2007-07-13 17:48:00 The Revolution BJJ/Submission Wrestling tournament is tomorrow! I'm not competing in this one; however, many of my teammates will be.Good luck to all of you. I'll definitely be there, and I'll bring my video camera and tape as many matches as I can!Anyone who's in the Seattle area, if you're interested in watching or competing, Jeff's tournaments are well organized. This one's at Bonney Lake High School, and I've been told that there will be four full sized wrestling mats going at all times. Can't wait! Read more:Foster
, Competitors
Wednesday BJJ Class 07/11/2007 2007-07-13 12:12:00 Late write up of this class. My brother is down from Alaska and was able to come out and watch the class. That was cool. Hopefully, he'll join us on the mats before he leaves. Now that the weather is cooling off, I think he might do that. Seeing how relaxed everyone in the school is, and how it's not about competition or ego, he's more comfortable with the idea. I also made sure he understands that we just do as much as we're capable of doing. It's up to each of us to motivate ourselves to improve.So, with that out of the way, we did some warmups. We did the standard drills, plus the forward and backward pop-ups. I can do the backward ones well, but the forward pop-ups kill my hips. Well, technically, it's the fact that I can't do them and end up landing squarely on my hip that kills my hip. If I could do them, I'd probably be fine.Technique was the same. I worked on paying attention to the details and experimented a little with Jeremy on the gator roll finish.Sparr Read more:Wednesday
Pic from Sunday's Class 2007-07-17 11:28:00 Rolling with Mikey, he attempted some kind of fancy armbar transition. My arm wasn't in any real danger here, but my dignity was taking a few blows. As I said after class, I think that in some cultures we're married now. It was a good roll, though, and even though I have a good 30 lbs on him, he kept me busy the entire time. Read more:Sunday
Sunday BJJ Class 07/15/2007 2007-07-15 23:15:00 First, congratulations to all of the Foster BJJ guys who competed yesterday! You all did great!Warm-ups were relatively light, although the ab work was on the tough side. Coach told us that sometimes the tournaments highlight a skill or technique that we need to work on as a group. Apparently, many of the guys competing yesterday, including our guys had trouble passing half-guard. I guess they'd get to where their legs were locked up and be unable to move into mount or into side control. So, today we reviewed the details of doing this, many of which I hadn't heard before. We're presuming my opponent is in a good, solid position, so he's got my right leg locked down and his right arm is across my neck, widening his elbow out, and his left arm is on my hip, keeping space and allowing him to remain on his side. I want to free my right leg so I can make him pay for all of the smack he was talking. The first thing to do is to make sure that he's flat. The "correct" way to do t Read more:Sunday
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