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 from the brink... 2007-10-04 10:40:00 Well, it's been a week and a half since my last post and I finally felt up to going back to class. I'll write that up next. I've been getting over a crud that started as a result of a ton of cleaning I've been doing around the house and at work. I'm allergic to dust, and so the cleaning really got my sinuses in a tizzy. Just to make matters worse, my wife brought home some kind of mutant cold from Canada. Anyone else catch an episode of Kitchen Nightmares? It's a show where Gordon Ramsey goes to restaurants in trouble and fixes them up. So far, the recipe seems to be dysfunctional staff lacking clear leadership and a really gross kitchen in which either nothing works, everything is rotten and gross, or both!I'm halfway through a four month developmental detail where I'm working as a supervisor. The office has a new manager who I really like, which is great, and who wants to work on the office culture and environment to make it a nicer place to work. I've been working
10 Questions with Yours Truly 2007-10-15 15:42:00 Blogsweluv.com is a website all about spreadin' the love. That's how they roll. One of the things that they do is sort through billions* of questionnaire submissions, culling them down to a select few that they post.So, if you want to read about some interesting blogs on an interesting blog, check out blogsweluv.com and read 10 questions with me.*by billions, I mean some unknown number. I'm guessing high, because billions just sounds good. Certainly better than that it was a terribly slow week for the blogsweluv crew, and they were stuck choosing between me and the "Famous Face Found in Food" blog. Read more:Yours
Sunday BJJ Class 10/14/2007 - It's Go Time! 2007-10-15 14:19:00 Sunday's class was pretty rough! Bill ran the class as Coach was still getting settled after the trip to Oregon. What's really good about Bill is that you would have to really work hard to not get caught up in his enthusiasm. The phrase that pays for yesterday was, "It's go time." When you're in someone's half-guard, you do X, Y, and Z and then it's go time! And if your opponent has the temerity to try and defend... well, that's his mistake. We worked on a few techniques from within someone's half guard. Maybe we tried to pass and got a leg caught. The beauty of these two techniques is that they are both an effective way to pass guard and also set up submissions. The first technique is for when I can avoid the underhook. I'm on top of my opponent. He's got good technique with my leg locked up and is looking for space to hip out and re-establish guard. My goal is to put some pressure down on his arm so that he pushes back. I'll use this to shoot his hand underneath Read more:Sunday
Congratulations on the Oregon Tournament 2007-10-15 13:13:00 Congrats to all of the guys who competed at the tournament in Oregon
on Saturday. Coach Foster took several guys down to Oregon to compete in the tournament hosted by Impact Jiu-Jitsu and they did very well. Bingo, Josh and Trevin all represented, and while Rick went down to compete, there were no purple belts that were big enough to give him a match.Josh ended up taking bronze in his first tournament as a blue belt. He got two matches, and ended up losing to the guy who eventually won gold 2-0. Trevin lost a match 8-7... so close. He did well, too, winning a bronze medal. Bingo won the white belt division after what Coach described as four hard matches. Coach Foster was prepared and awarded Bing his blue belt on the podium. How cool is that?So, congratulations to everyone who competed, and to Bing on your well deserved promotion to Blue Belt. Read more:Congratulations
, Tournament
Wednesday BJJ Class 10/17/2007 2007-10-19 15:14:00 I went to Wednesday
's class. Close to missing out. I was driving from downtown Seattle to Kent, where the school is. This is usually about a 35 or 40 minute drive, but on Wednesday traffic crawled ALL THE FRIGGIN' WAY. It was grueling. Fortunately, I had a podcast to keep me occupied, so I was relatively content to listen to the latest information on the UFC and Randy Couture's unexpected "resignation" (not to be confused with a "retirement" which could freeze his contract and keep him from fighting again). So, I rolled into class and made it out onto the mat with moments to spare before warmups started. Technique involved a method of getting around spider guard. I've written in the past about Todd's spider guard and how I couldn't even break the grip, much less pass. Against someone who's got long legs, being caught in spider can make you feel like you're a marionette on the wrong end of string. Dance, monkey boy, dance!The first thing to do is break one of the grips.
Fun with Google & English 2007-10-24 08:50:00 Well, I didn't make it to class last night. I got off work late, which was very disappointing, as I was really looking forward to training. As a consolation, however, I heard a turn of phrase that I thought was very funny. The reason I was late was a conference call, and in the notes that followed the call, something was characterized as being "overwhelmingly satisfactory." I'm not sure why, but that just really makes me giggle. It's the very best and worst of business speak. I thought, as we enter into a new appraisal period, I might try to incorporate some phrases along a perfectly flat spectrum of mediocrity... a five point, perfectly equivalent line starting with Overwhelmingly Satisfactory and ending with Satisfactorally Overwhelming."Joe, I want to start by thanking you for your continued contributions to the unit. Your work has been consistently satisfactory. In fact, it is overwhelmingly so. Over the next few months, I'd like to see you contribute to the success of the divi Read more:Google
, English
Sunday BJJ Class 10/21/2007 2007-10-23 16:17:00 Well, it's Tuesday and I'm still sore from Sunday
. We reviewed again techniques for passing spider guard, and then did several short rounds once again. Coach seems to like that as a way to keep a lot of people cycling through in larger classes.Not a lot to report. We did 2 minute rounds, which means that you have to really go for it to get anything going. I rolled several times against several different guys and feel like I did pretty well. In my match with Matt, I feel pretty good. He's a really big guy (about 270 lbs) and I almost got through his guard a few times. At least, I felt like I might have gotten around had he not been so much stronger. Usually, I'm mistaken and wasn't as close as I thought. Hehe. Anyway, after about 90 seconds, I got swept, but was able to bridge up and get my knees under him to prevent mount just as the timer went off. I think my work on the side is helping out in that regard.The other match that I recall was with a blue belt. He's a very
Non-BJJ stuff 2007-10-30 16:31:00 I have a couple of non-BJJ related items to throw out to the general population.First of all, my friend over at Black Belt Mama is having a hard time. For those of us who are getting into Martial Arts for fitness and fun, particularly those of us pushing 40 (or in BBM's case, 29), being injured just sucks. I know I came into BJJ feeling really bad and that it's been a huge part of my health and general well-being. So, every injury that kept me from training really made me feel bad. I don't know about anyone else, but I've NEVER enjoyed organized sports or exercise in general. I've always been athletic, but never an athlete. What I mean by that, is I've always been coordinated and able to play sports well, but never been driven either externally or internally to TRAIN. BJJ is the first sport/form of exersice that I've been compelled to stay with. I love it and I love being in shape. So, injuries suck. I've been lucky to avoid anything long term, and beyond my back/SI Read more:stuff
Monday Class - Drills and Conditioning 10/29/2007 2007-10-30 15:55:00 Oh man, how I wish I could make this class every week. One of the Jeff's runs this class and it's just a great class. The warm up was grueling. While I'd love to say something snide about how I could do without it, or something along those lines, all I did was feel a little ashamed about my effort. Following warmups, both Jeffs felt compelled to deliver a short lecture on committment and the sincere desire to improve. One Jeff, who I've never heard say more than 20 words in a class, talked for a bit about how cardio and fitness is the only thing you can control. You can't practice BJJ without a partner, but nothing stops you from going out and running some sprints or doing some burpees. The other Jeff spoke about how there's a point where you have to take control of your training. When you start you can't help but improve. Simply because "you sucked so bad to begin with" it is almost impossible not to see improvement simply by being a warm body on the mat. But then one Read more:Monday
A brief Starbucks rant 2007-11-02 09:13:00 Starbucks. Drive thrus. I'd like to hear your beef with either. I'll start us off.For the record, though, I love drive thrus. They're convenient and are very handy. I also don't hate Starbucks. I get, oh, I don't know... one or two Americanos during the business day on my breaks. I do, however, have problems with some of what they do and how they do it. Right now, topping off my list is their drive thru script.Most places, you go to the drive thru and they open with some combination of "Thanks," and "Order when you're ready," with an occasional, "We'll be right with you." Not Starbucks. That's not faux friendly enough! Close your eyes and picture this. Wait. You're reading this, so don't close your eyes... but still, try to picture this. It's 5:30 am in Seattle, dark, about 45F and raining. I am in my little car about to hit a 40 minute commute on I-5 along with an obscene number of fellow commuters all doing the same thing. I'm tired. I'm probably a little cranky. And as Read more:Starbucks
NaBloPoMo 2007-11-01 21:39:00 What does that mean? The hell if I know. BBM asked me to do this, and I'm a sucker for... you know? Now that I think about it, we can just end that sentence there; I'm a sucker. Having joined, I am committed to posting every day in November. Do I know why yet? No. Do I know what NaBloPoMo is? No. Do I know what posting every day in November will do for me? Nope. No idea. To be quite honest, I am barely registered on their website. But I promised, so I will do my best to comply. This is post number Uno (or for you traditional martial artists in the crowd: Ichi). I've got a few things to post about. Of course, much of this will be non-BJJ. I'm in my last month working downtown, so I'm still making only 1 or 2 classes per week, but I'll try and post something interesting every day, and I'll try and post regarding BJJ related stuff as I can.
Martial Arts for Disabled People 2007-11-09 08:45:00 A few years back, when I was at my previous school, the focus was on training kids, and for some reason many of the kids were autistic to varying degrees. Prior to meeting these kids, I really had no idea what autism was. I mean, in a very abstract way, autism was to me something that Rainman had... idiot savante type stuff. Crazy math skills and not much else. Turns out, lots of kids are autistic and more are being diagnosed all the time. While it's unclear as to what is causing the dramatic increase in the number of autistic kids, I've heard and read many theories. While some will point to over-diagnosis and medical fraud, I just don't see it. The kids I met were clearly struggling to make his body follow his mind's instructions. The theory that seems most reasonable to me is the increase in multi-use vaccinations that use what is in theory a safe form of mercury, thimerosal, as a stabilizer/preservative. Some of the theories point to environment, food allergies, but we began usi Read more:Martial
, Disabled
, Martial Arts
Non-BJJ Public Transportation Gripe 2007-11-07 08:28:00 As some of my friends and relations are aware, I've been commuting from the land of cows, horses and alpacas to downtown Seattle for the last three months. November is my last month, and I just have a couple of observations about the train I've been taking.See, one of the cooler things about commuting into downtown is the Sounder commuter train. It's fast, relatively comfortable, has WiFi on some of the cars and, since the end of September, has a relatively good schedule with five trains running as early as 5am from Tacoma.There are some people I'd like to say a few words to and since I'm trying to post every day, I thought I might say them here.So, to the guy who thinks it's just fine to tap me on the arm and ask me if I like my iPhone when I'm watching a TV show, please just read your book. My earphones are in, I've just finished up Jon Stewart and am rolling into the Colbert Report and someone wants to chat. Really. I bought the iPhone because it does a lot of neat things, l Read more:Public
, Transportation
, Gripe
1 Year Anniversary: Things I wish I'd known when I started 2007-11-05 15:15:00 Before I ever stepped into my school, I had done a lot of reading. I wasn't satisfied at my old school for many reasons, but didn't want to make the same mistakes again. So, I did some research.On a slight tangent, I owe a large debt of gratitude to the core participants at Bullshido.net. There is a lot of static that you have to get through. But there's also a ton of knowledge and some very valuable, necessary resistance to popular martial arts dogma. It wasn't until I began reading some of the articles on Bullshido that I could even begin to articulate the problems I had with my old training. I was already unhappy, but hadn't yet figured out specifically why. Reading the articles, I found myself nodding my head in agreement to many of the things that were written. Learning about Matt Thornton and the concepts of "aliveness", I actually found some tangible, concrete traits that I could then look for in my next school. And most importantly, that there WERE schools still doing thin Read more:Anniversary
, Year Anniversary
Sunday BJJ Class 11/4/2007 2007-11-05 10:58:00 I don't know whether it was the humidity in the school or just my irregular attendance at class, but I was very tired all class long. Low energy. It was really good to be at the school, though, and lots of people were there who I haven't seen in a while. First, less than a week into the month and I've already blown the one post per day thing. I stink. Sorry! :)Technique started with a way to take someone's back when you've got them in your half guard and then a technique to deal with a common counter. Then sparring, 2 minute rounds again because the class was large.The technique starts with me on the bottom. My opponent is in my half guard and I'm going to take his back. The starting position is always up on my side. If this is my right side, I'll have my right (bottom) leg hooked around his right leg, my right (bottom) hand posted on his hip to help create space and my left (top) hand on his left shoulder, or gripping his lapel if it's available, with my forearm in his Read more:Sunday
Tuesday BJJ Class 11/13/2007 2007-11-14 08:51:00 After Sunday's wheelbarrow warm-up extravaganza my arms were really tight. I thought I'd better get into class to try and loosen them up a little. Of course, that was before the pushup extravaganza. In all seriousness, the Sunday class started off with what I'd consider to be a medium level warm-up. Jogging and such, followed by somewhere around 60 pushups, crunches, side crunches and leg lifts. Nothing too out of the ordinary, other than my arms being tired from Sunday.Technique involved showing us a few ways to get to a particular attack position from open guard. I've been caught in this position before and don't like it. Basically, it's where I have good control of my opponent's wrists/cuffs and have my knees inside his arms with my feet posted on his hips. It's a tough position to get out of if you ever find yourself in it. Coach showed us this to help us counter wrestlers who are content to stall in closed guard. If you've ever been taken down by a good wrestler, Read more:Tuesday
Happy Veteran's Day 2007-11-12 12:12:00 For some people, Veteran
's Day is a "shopping holiday." In my family, it's a time to relax, but also a time to think about all of the people who have served in our armed forces, who are still serving and who have died. I would also like to give thanks to all of the veterans who are returning home from overseas with permanent disabilities, many thousands of whom will never return to their "day jobs" that they held and supported their family with before being called up. Because our field medicine and emergency care is so much better than in the past, more soldiers survive battlefield injury than ever before. While this is most definitely a good thin, this means we have more disabled vets than ever before returning home.I am vehemently opposed to our occupation of Iraq, and believe that our current administration is about as morally bankrupt as any could be, making decisions involving the welfare of our nation and of our troops for personal and political gain rather than national se Read more:Happy
Sunday BJJ Class - 11/11/2007 2007-11-12 11:47:00 Sunday's class was very good. Because I'm not making as many classes per week (I think a minimum of 3/week is required) I feel like my cardio is slipping back a bit. My goal for December is to get my attendance up to 3 BJJ classes and then Jeff's Drills and Conditioning class as often as possible. That one's going to be a challenge regardless of my commute because it starts at 5pm, but I think I can make it more often than not.My daughter has also expressed an interest in training with us. I'm not sure if it's going to be something she's going to stick with or not, but I'd like to give her a chance. The girls do very well, and if she starts this young and sticks with it, she'll be in great shape. BJJ is a tough sport, but it's also a legitimate life-long pursuit if someone remains motivated. Lots of guys continue to roll regularly and even compete into their 50's. The kid's classes all start very early, so getting her there will be a challenge, but I think we can ma Read more:Sunday
Readability, Non-BJJ 2007-11-17 12:30:00 Nathan, over at TDA Training posted a link to determine how readable one's blog is. I dutifully entered my URL and came out like this:I think that it's interesting to see how things change over time. After four years working toward an English degree with a minor in Philosophy, my written voice was probably only understandable within the delicate ecosystem of a University. Having worked in training for the last several years, I'm not surprised at this rating. What's cool about having this blog is that it has allowed me to try and rekindle my love for creative writing, a skill that I had largely lost in my professional attempts to pare down my written voice to only the essential, most efficient means of communicating information. And they never appreciate a good fart joke. Sad, really. :)
Sunday Class 11/25/2007 2007-11-26 09:12:00 Well, my run downtown is over, and I'm back to a regular commute. I'll be able to attend class on a much more regular basis in the future. On top of that, my 10 year old daughter is anxious to begin training herself. She's been bugging me about it for months, and now that the commute is easier, we're going to try and make it work. I hope she really gets into it. There are a number of reasons that I'm hoping she gets into training in BJJ. The first is that it's a legitimate life sport. BJJ is something that a healthy person can continue doing for life. The health benefits are great, there's an active competitive aspect should one desire it, and it's relatively cheap, requiring nothing more at its root than a pair of board shorts and a rashguard. In addition to these reasons is of course my desire for my daughter to grow up confident and capable. While I don't necessarily think that she will need to defend herself from a dozen ninja attacking her in her sleep, I would f Read more:Sunday
Sunday Class 12/2/2007 2007-12-03 16:02:00 Sunday we reviewed the chokes we learned earlier in the week. The collar choke on a turtled up opponent, and the Rodeo Choke. We also learned a choke called the Bully choke, due to its resemblance to a bully's headlock.Not a lot to add to my last post. Sparring was good. I'm very sore today, particularly my neck. I guess drilling all those chokes took a toll. On another, slightly related note, we were watching Ninja Warrior on the TiVo. We love that show. If you're not familiar, it's a Japanese show where athletes work through a series of very difficult obstacle courses. There are open events drawing the occasional female, and then all female events. The obstacles are very difficult, and everyone from gymnasts to fishermen to olympic decathletes have tried and failed. Last night, we were watching the 6th female event and guess who competed? Well, I'll tell you. Kyra Gracie. My daughter thought that was pretty cool. Kyra Gracie is a BJJ black belt. But unfortunately, Read more:Sunday
Friday Class 11/30/2007 2007-12-01 10:02:00 I never did get the time to write up Tuesday's class, but I'm very happy to have officially made three classes this week! I'm also going to start tracking my weight again. Back in March, I really worked to get down to 184 lbs for the tournament in Seattle. Since then, I've been maintaining that weight fairly well. Now I'd like to drop a little more of the fat and get down to a competition weight of 170 lbs. Over the last week, I've been watching my diet and my goal is to make four classes every week, one being the Drills and Conditioning class on Mondays. If the weight doesn't want to come off, I might end up going back to doing cardio workouts at lunch.My daughter's first BJJ class was on Wednesday. The classes are three days each week and they teach the kids grappling and some striking. The primary instructor is a blue belt in BJJ and a black belt in some kind of Karate. He's a competent guy who teaches the kids some striking as well as grappling. He's a nice guy Read more:Friday
Please vote for me! Best BJJ Blog of 2007 2007-12-31 01:59:00 The Fightworks Podcast is conducting their Best BJJ Blog of 2007 right now. Take a moment and go vote for your favorite BJJ blog (pssst... if you're reading this, hopefully that would be this blog!). Voting ends December 30th, so I'm leaving this at the top until then.PS: I better get at least two votes in this thing, or my mom and my wife are in trouble! Read more:Please
Uh oh! 2007-12-12 13:07:00 Looks like my brother's well on his way. He received his first stripe on his white belt. Won't be long before he's killing me!Congratulations!http://www.anchoragebjj.com/news.php
Monday's Kids Class 12/10/2007 2007-12-12 08:23:00 My daughter went to class on Monday
and continues to have fun. She's still learning the routine. It's funny because she's very small. She's obviously not a bruiser, but she's stronger than she looks and she's in pretty good shape. So, she'll do the warmups and they're not all that difficult for her... jogging around and all that. But when she catches me looking at her, she'll pretend to be tired. Very cute.We each got new gis as an early Christmas present, both Gameness. I bought myself a new Gameness Pearl, after noticing that they are now available in both blue and black. I have a white one and it's a terrific gi, durable, extremely lightweight and sharp looking without many of the patches present on the Gameness Platinum Weave. That said, I prefer a blue gi. The blue color hides blood, and I think they just look cooler.My daughter got a Gameness kids gi... and she wanted the patches. Initially, based on the size charts, I ordered a 00, but there were problems finding them.
Sunday Class 12/09/2007 2007-12-10 16:18:00 Sunday's class was, as usual, a review of the technique we've been working on through the week. This week, we reviewed the butterfly guard sweep.Sparring was brutal for me. I felt really good and tried to work hard, but boy did I get my butt kicked. Rolling with Bing, I managed to stay busy and while I never got around his guard to establish any sort of control, I also managed to avoid being swept or submitted. I can't say the same for my match with Josh. I did manage to pass his guard, but I also got swept twice. Once was a nice sweep that I saw coming and still couldn't manage to avoid. He rolled into a kimura, which I defended well. Of course, he ended up taking my unprotected neck for a choke. I also rolled with Coach and with Bill. All in all, a good class.Most importantly, I'm feeling really good. I think that next Sunday I'm going to start going to the competition classes and then see where I'm at physically. While this is a very hard season to lose weight in, I'm still Read more:Sunday
The Beginnings of a BJJ Dictionary 2007-12-10 11:58:00 Ever been curious about the BJJ vernacular? What's the RNC called in Brazil? Another of the blogs I've stumbled across as a result of The Fightnetwork Podcast's blog contest is Words, Words, Words. This isn't strictly a BJJ blog, but the author is training in BJJ. He's posted an English to Portuguese dictionary, or at least started one. Definitely worth a look. Read more:Dictionary
New Award 2007-12-08 10:29:00 I've mentioned before that I kind of backed into this blogging thing. It started as a strict training log and still is primarily just that. It's also a place to goof off and experiment with some other writing, even some that's not strictly BJJ related.But one of the things I hadn't anticipated was how many people out there blog. Lots of people. I think the latest number is up in the low gazillions. Or something like that. But most don't actually like to write, and their blogs disappear. Most of the people who blog do so intentionally, and actually know how to blog along with all the rules of blogging. I often don't, so I mention them as they come up. You may or may not remember that I posted about memes. I had no idea what they were.Well, today I officially received my first award. It's basically positive feedback from other bloggers... sharing the love. And who doesn't like that? Amy, over at You are a Fly - And You're Sitting on my Wall, gave me the Friendship Read more:Award
No-gi Clock Choke 2007-12-08 02:06:00 I mentioned a few days ago that we learned the ClockChoke
and mentioned in that post a no-gi version that Coach taught us. Coach Foster posted a video on YouTube of this technique:
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