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 #3 2007-05-10 17:28:00 Last night really stunk. I got very little sleep and what sleep I did get was restless. I am tired today. I bought a back brace thingy at Walgreen's last night. One of THESE doohickeys. I just put it on and it seems to be helping. It's back support, but also has magnets in it as well as a hot/cold insert. I'm doing cold now. Ahhhh... I hate using these things, as I don't want to develop any sort of problems as a result of overuse. But I also think that if there's ever a time when I needed one of these, it's now. I just got off the phone with my physical therapist. I had scheduled a massage several weeks ago for tonight, but it occurred to me that it might not be good for me right now. My physical therapist assured me that it would be good, so I'm waiting for the Ashmead student clinic to open up to give them a call. I want to make sure that they're okay with me being in pain. The masseuse I'm scheduled to see gives an AWESOME deep tissue massage, and I could rea Read more:Update
Back Update #2 2007-05-09 16:21:00 Yesterday was my second trip to the physical therapist. First, she told me I didn't have to suffer in silence. I assured her that I have been whining constantly... just not to her. My first visit resulted in a somewhat intense inflammation of my lower back. So, yesterday I went in for session number two. First thing she did was ask how things are working out. So we talked about the pain, where it is, how far it radiates... all of that. Ultimately, she said that the distance between the injury and the pain is one indicator of progress. So, in my case, since my pain is no longer shooting down my legs, but has instead confined itself to a bundle of joy in my lower back (mostly), this is a good sign, even though it's a more intense pain. For treatment, she showed me a few positions that seemed to help the pain. I tried them last night and they seemed to help. Then ultrasound and electro-stimulation. I'll find out the technical term for the electro-stimulation. So, then I wen Read more:Update
Martial Arts and Promotion 2007-05-08 21:59:00 I was talking about grade testing, belt promotions and the way different schools handle both of these issues the other day with some folks from my BJJ school. It also seems to be coming up frequently on several of the various MA blogs I enjoy, and I've left a couple of comments on their blogs. All of this has got me thinking, a dangerous thing indeed, about my views on the subject.First, I studied at another school prior to training at Foster BJJ. My old school was a style that incorporates many different ranges of combat: striking, clinching, some ground work. The training, the style, the science... all of this really appealed to me in theory. But ultimately, it was the culture that drove me away.I love BJJ. There isn't a single thing about it that I don't enjoy. I like the conditioning. I like the technical complexity. I enjoy the competitive aspects of it. But it's the culture that really appeals to me. I've said more than once over the last few days that I really Read more:Martial
, Martial Arts
Back update 2007-05-08 16:26:00 Last night was bad. Since starting physical therapy, I've been trying to diligently do my stretching, but man, I'm in a lot of pain. The pain is different now than it was before. Before, it was a sort of nerve twanging kind of pain, where it started as an ache that radiated down my siatic nerve. Now, it's like an inflamed kind of ache that goes from my lower back into my glutes. I am going to go back to the PT today for another session. I'll talk to her and see if this is normal. I'm not averse to the idea that things get worse before they get better... as long as they do get better. I am not sure whether I'm going to make no-gi class tonight. If I do, I'll take it easy. I really hate missing BJJ.On the weight front, I'm holding at 182-184 lbs. I've been here for about a week now. I gained about 4 lbs as a result of post tournament binging. Of course, binge meant a total of about 6 beers over a four day period, and a moderate amount of junk food. So, those pound
So, this stuff really works 2007-05-07 03:03:00 I mean really. I mentioned a few posts back, after I lost at the tournament, that I need to work on collar chokes. So, I've been doing a little research on some lapel/collar chokes, and trying to be more aware of them for defense. So, today in sparring I pulled guard, reached up and got a nice, deep grip on Todd's collar. I gripped underhanded, across his neck. He started to try and posture up and said, "Wow. That's pretty tight." So I reached up underneath my right arm with my left and grabbed his other lapel and just started turning my wrists and pulling my elbows out. Over the last... oh, I'd say 2 weeks, I've received several tips on locking in chokes. First from Jeff (a purple belt), to stay aware of my elbows. Sometimes I want to bring my elbows together and other times I want to widen them out. Just last week, Coach talked about locking in a submission in general terms. His advice was to not go balls out right away; rather, he suggested slowly increasing pressur Read more:stuff
Wow... Spiderman 3 sure sucked! 2007-05-05 07:27:00 Actually I haven't seen it yet, and it's probably going to be a few days. Coach just didn't want anyone to spoil it for him before he goes, so I thought I'd be a jerk about it. (Just kidding... I'll just tap now)Class today was really fun. We had a good warm-up with lots of sprawls. I actually enjoy those now. Twisted, I know, but I can actually do a lot of sprawls. I try to get 4 or 5 sets of five sprawls during every 2 minute round. So, today we did three rounds... that's a lot of sprawls. Did I mention how many sprawls we did? What made class fun today was that we didn't do technique or sparring. We did a drill for a full hour where four guys (three plus Coach) started from guard. Our job was to pass guard and their job was to sweep or submit. We worked for a full 2 minutes, and if one or the other succeeded we just reset. At one point during the first two minute round, one of the guys passed guard and when he was told to get back into guard he asked seemingly Read more:Spiderman
Back in Training 2007-05-02 16:45:00 After a weekend of eating and drinking a modest amount of junk food, I'm back at training. Tuesday is no-gi, and yesterday we worked on an arm triangle.During warmups we drilled some techniques, the most difficult for me is the takedown drill. Rick held a heavy bag and we had to hit it with a single/double leg takedown. The motion is very foreign to me. I'll have to work on it. The arm triangle is great. There are techniques that we learn and I think, "Well, that's a long term goal." The omoplata is one of those. I'll have to screw that one up a billion times before I get it down. But this arm triangle is in line with what I tend to set up and do well. We started in side control. So, if I'm starting with my hips on my opponent's right side, I've got good control of his near side arm, and either one or both of my knees are up tight. At the very least, I've got my right knee up tight and am blocking his potential hip escape. The setup for this technique comes from th Read more:Training
Trevin's matches from Saturday on YouTube 2007-05-01 17:38:00 Trevin said he didn't mind having his matches
on YouTube
, so if anyone wants to see how he did (very well), then here you go:Match 1: Won with an Americana.Match 2: Won with a straight leg lock (couldn't see it, but he promises to maneuver to a more camera friendly angle next time). Read more:Saturday
Couple pictures from Saturday's Tournament 2007-04-30 02:19:00 Getting ready for the first match. I was putting the colored belt on strictly to identify me for scoring purposes.And the gang. A couple of guys had to take off, but this was most of us. Josh won the sword for... I don't know... kicking a lot of butt, I guess. I think he's a ninja, now. Read more:Saturday
, Tournament
Matches from today 1st 2007-04-29 05:10:00 Here's the first match from today. I won 11-0 on points. I did a lot wrong, but I was able to win primarily I think due to size and strength.
Matches from today 2007-04-29 05:09:00 Okay, so this was my first tournament. I won one and lost one: Here's the one I lost.
Weigh-ins today 2007-04-27 16:09:00 183 lbs this morning. Weigh
-ins are this evening. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. I've got the video camera all charged up and ready to go.
Looking forward to the competition 2007-04-26 05:38:00 We had another promotion tonight. Jeff was promoted to Purple. While my opinion holds no weight, I think he really deserves it. He's very technical and an excellent teacher and example to the rest of us. He's a small guy (I think about 135 in a sweat soaked gi), but moves well against anyone regardless of size. He's also always willing to share a tip or answer a question, no matter how fundamental. So, congrats to him!Tonight was my last class before the competition
on Saturday. Saturday is the 4th Pac NW BJJ Competition. I'm as ready as I'll ever be. I've been training hard, and may surprise some people. But I'm also going in with modest goals. I plan on having a really good time. That's my number one goal. I want to have fun. I can't see how I could possibly fail to achieve this goal. I mean, even if I get choked out in 10 seconds, it's all good... but I'll try like hell to keep that from happening. I'll still do a light workout tomorrow and Friday at lunc
Updated weight check 2007-04-21 16:43:00 184 lbs this morning. I've made my target weight. Woohoo! I'll easily lose a couple more lbs before next Friday. Unfortunately, this weight wasn't lost in the best way. A flu has been working through the house, and while I'm on the good side of it, it wasn't fun. I kept lots of fluids down, but eating was hard. And I missed another day of training. I'm feeling much better today, and look forward to getting back at it tomorrow.
New template 2007-04-20 22:35:00 Only peripherally related to BJJ, I got tired of having one of the regular old Blogger template
s, so I played around with some clip art I found and customized my blog. Hope it's not too hard on the eyes. I like it a lot better.
This has nothing to do with BJJ 2007-04-20 02:02:00 Watching this just makes me happy. I'm not sure if it's the music, the production number choreography or what.
Weight Check 2007-04-19 18:28:00 185 lbs this morning. No class on Thursdays, but I'm going to hit the gym at lunch and do a 1/2 hour of cardio. My back is still sore, and I want to make sure I rest it, so I'll probably end up doing 1/2 hour on the elliptical. I can push the pace and still be gentle on my lame back. Stupid disc. I think that, after the tournament, I'm going to take advantage of my health insurance and get to a physical therapist. I want to continue training, but I also want to make sure that I'm making my back stronger and not doing more damage over time. I guess I felt like if I lost weight and worked on my core strength that my back issues would magically disappear. Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case. Pisses me off, really. Read more:Weight
, Check
No-gi class on Tuesday 2007-04-19 02:58:00 First thing, I'm missing class
today. Spouse is down with a crud and I'm going to try and make her as comfortable as I can. Not to mention that I slept poorly last night because of the coughing. Hopefully I won't get this, too! I'm focusing my chi (or whatever it is I'm supposed to say in order to sound more mystical).On the good side, I went to the no-gi class last night. It was really fun, and I learned a couple of good takedowns. Give me 6 more months and I might actually be able to get them to work on an unwilling opponent. Read more:Tuesday
Weight Check 2007-04-17 01:57:00 186 lbs this morning. I went to the gym, but only did a light workout, with almost no cardio. Some abs, but mostly just stretching. Read more:Weight
, Check
Sunday Competition class 2007-04-17 01:37:00 Sunday I went to the competition class
. Fun, but I'm SO sore today. My thighs are so tight I can hardly walk down the stairs. I went to the gym today and did some abs... about the only part of my body not really sore.Competition class starts with "a harder workout". Yeah. And then finishes up with 1/2 hour of sparring. I got to work from standing, which was good. I didn't completely stink, but it's pretty bad. I got some good tips, though. I was pretty much done at the end of that class. But then the regular class started. We worked on the omoplata from earlier, as well as a sweep and a transition to armbar. Between the warmups for this class and the 1/2 hour drilling the omoplata I felt much better by the time we started sparring. I feel like I did pretty well... got a tap on an Americana in my first match. My second match was with Chris who's strong, big, smart and much more technical than me. I pulled guard at first, and it was about 1 minute before I tapped. Bu Read more:Sunday
Friday Class 2007-04-14 21:47:00 Well, I can honestly say that I've never been as tired as I was yesterday during class. I didn't get sick, but there was a point after my second match sparring that I felt like it was a distinct possibility. Every time I think my conditioning is getting pretty good, I get a nice reality sandwich.But I feel pretty good about the class, even though it's difficult to recall much of it. Honestly, after warm-ups, I was sparring on an empty gas tank and critical thinking sort of shut down. I think that getting one more class on Tuesday will really help me take my conditioning to the next level. It's good to see the guys in class who never seem to get tired. Their endurance is so good that they seldom get really tired and even then they recover fast. That's the goal. Weight wise, I'm at 186 and dropping. I feel great. Woke up a little dehydrated, even though I drank lots of water in the evening after class. At this rate, I'll probably get into the 170's by sometimes in May.. Read more:Friday
Wednesday 2007-04-13 02:56:00 After having had Sunday off, it was good to get back in. We learned how to do the omoplata from cross guard.The setup was pretty much like an armbar from guard. I start from guard by securing my opponents right wrist with my right arm, and then reaching through and grabbing his right leg with my left arm, moving into crossguard. Here, I lift my hips and rotate around, twisting his arm around my leg and driving forward until he's flat. If he doesn't go all the way down, I can twist until he's flat. Then I bend my legs away from his body, scoot my hips out, control his upper body and lift my hips to get the tap.Bill taught me and the guy I was drilling with how to transition from the omoplata to a heel hook. Very cool.Sparring was good. I sparred with three different people. The first was one of the females in the class. I was able to get her on an Americana from mount, and I guess that really pissed her off. In her words, I saw her angry eyes. I hadn't seen them before and was genui Read more:Wednesday
Back at it 2007-04-05 05:25:00 Literally. My back just really got bad last week. My herniated disc was throbbing and the sciatica came back. While I've accepted that my back is usually sore, I don't typically lose much range of motion, and once I'm warmed up it ceases to be an issue. Well, not last week. On Friday the warmups were murder, and the backflips were killing me. And then we moved into techniques from the triangle. Oh boy. So, for the first time since I started training, I abstained from sparring. I ended up taking Sunday off, too. But I'm glad I did. I tried to rest my back as much as possible, and it's definitely on the mend. I felt pretty good today, only asking not to get stacked up in sparring in my last match.So, I'm back at it, looking forward to competing in Seattle on April 28th at the 4th Pac NW Jiu-Jitsu tournament. Yay! I'm going to compete at 184 lbs. So, with this in mind, I went and bought a scale a few weeks back in an effort to make sure I make weight. I'm doing
Wednesday's Class 2007-03-29 17:26:00 Good luck to all of our guys going to the PanAms in California. We've got five guys headed down, including Coach Foster. They've all trained so hard, and they looked ready to go. I pity anyone who has to compete against Bill. Class warmups were light... mostly stretching. We went into technique a bit early and got lots of sparring in. The technique covered was a baseball bat choke from side control, knee on belly and from mount.In any position, the choke is performed by gripping the lapel on one side of the neck with four fingers in, then gripping on the other side of the neck with the thumb in. Same way you'd grip a baseball bat. The "fingers in" side is going to come across the throat while the other arm is going to remain straight. Once I get the grip, I'll put my weight on my arms so that I can swing around to where my legs are pointed in the opposite direction of my opponent's. Keeping my "thumb in" arm straight, I'll bring my others arm across the throat, driving Read more:Wednesday
Oops... I missed a day 2007-03-26 22:42:00 Looks like I didn't every write up Friday's class. Well, I'm sure it was, as the kids these days say, "totally rad." Wait, I'm being told now that kids haven't said that in 20 years. Ah well.We worked all week on the Americana, details regarding side control and the setup to the... arm lock/reverse armbar thing. Not sure what that's called.On a side note, my back is killing me. Has been for several weeks. It's fine once I get it warmed up, but when it cools off, it's just sort of inflamed. Not a terrible pain, like when my disc was bulging and it was really bad, but still not good. I'm trying to stretch, and I'm hoping that continued fat loss, shrinking the beergut, and strengthening my core will ease up the pressure on my spine. We'll see. I don't think anything I'm doing is making it worse, even if it isn't make it better. Class yesterday was great, though I may have overdone it a little. Class itself was relatively light, with a light warmup and technique dr
Massage Kicks Ass 2007-05-11 06:14:00 Anyone martial artist or athlete or, hell, anyone who moves needs to get regular massage. I waited so long before trying it. My wife nagged me for years to try it. My best friend nagged me for years, and ultimately, if she hadn't actually called and scheduled me a massage, I'd probably still not have gone. But she did, and I did and I'm here to tell you that it's the best thing since fried dough. And I'm not just saying that to suck up to my masseuse... really! My lower back is still pretty sore, but it's nothing like it was. Plus, all of the tension that walking around for a week in pain, not sleeping well and just general bad back suckiness is gone. She really worked it out. While I'm definitely not 100% (more like 60% or so), I feel like I can go to class tomorrow and participate, even if it's at a lighter pace. I'm officially on the mend. The bad news is that the school is closed for a break between terms, so it's going to be a MONTH before they come back. On Read more:Massage
, Kicks
Back Update #4... or is it 5 now? 2007-05-19 18:40:00 Every day, my back is feeling better. It turns out that I have two issues, both treatable. The first is a herniated L5-S1 disc, which is what drove me to treatment in the first place. The second is a really, really irritated sacroiliac joint. This inflamed SI joint is what's been causing me to have trouble sleeping, and to walk around like Igor from Young Frankenstein. And this also explains the change in the nature of the pain I was having in my left leg due to the sciatica and the more recent pain in my right side after beginning treatment. As it turns out, my disc is responding very well to treatment. The sciatica is gone and my back feels good. The bad news is that the SI joint is being a real pain in my butt... literally! And in my hip, and even down into my upper thigh. But even that joint is beginning to calm down.The bottom line is that I'm feeling better. I actually slept in today and was only a little stiff and sore when I woke up. A well rested Steve is a happ Read more:Update
Feeling better, slowly but surely 2007-05-17 06:48:00 Well, I finally made it back to class. But I made it back to class finally!First, the back report. My back is still screwed up, but it's getting better
every day. I'm still optimistic. I'm moving okay during the day... today in particular, I was stiff all day but no significant pain. At night, however, I'm just dying. But all of that aside, I made it back to class. I didn't spar today, and tried to take it easy. I think I might be up to rolling light on Friday. Hopefully.I'm glad I made it back today, because technique this week is half guard reversal/sweeps. I'll try to post the particulars of the techniques on Friday, but they're definitely some moves that I can use. Mostly, it was just good to be back at class. It felt good to get some exercise and just be moving around again. Looking forward to being 100%. Read more:Feeling
Friday Class 2007-05-19 17:06:00 I did go to class yesterday. It was fun to be back at class. I even felt well enough to spar, even if it was light. Running killed me in warm-ups, but it's temporary. I'll be back up to speed before too long. I even got lapped by Bill. Haha.Technique was back to basics. We drilled the basic armbar from guard and from mount. As white belts, we were expected to execute the technique completely, taking as much time as necessary to do each step correctly. So, if I'm going to armbar my opponent's right arm from guard, I'll start by reaching across and locking down that arm with my own right arm, cupping behind his elbow and keeping my own elbow in tight to my body. If I'm doing this right, it shouldn't be easy for him to pull his arm out, with or without a gi. I'm also pulling his right arm across his centerline. I'll also reach over with my left and hold his shoulder down so it's more difficult for him to posture up. Then I'll unlock my closed guard, put my left foo Read more:Friday
Interview Thingie 2007-05-22 14:45:00 So, several of my buddies out there are doing this particular meme. I don't as a rule enjoy these sorts of things, but this one seemed relatively harmless and fun. So, there it is, then.This meme has been circulating the internet for a while now. Here are the rules if you'd like to play:1. Leave me a comment saying "Interview Me."2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.3. You will update your blog with the questions and answers.4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview readers in the same post.5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.Here are the questions supergroup7 asked of me: 1.What makes Brazilian Jiu Jitsu different from Japanese Jiu Jitsu? Simple answer: BJJ is a branch off of the Japanese Ju-Jutsu tree specializing in ground fighting. There are many places where you can get the entire history of Judo, which derives from JuJutsu, and of BJJ, which was a derivative of Judo. Jiu-J Read more:Thingie
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