Kay's Declassified White Belt Survival Guide

Just a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu white belt keeping tabs on her self. Click on the "White Belt" Page for text specific posts about my development.

[clinchbinch-blog]

Mindset: What makes my training “good”

GraWhen I think about what has made my training fruitful and worth while, it hasn’t only been that my body is stronger, but also the attitude I bring with me on the mat. It has changed how I interact with people and how I think of people.  Having a positive mindset when you’re being challenged daily is really hard and when I started, I had to think about what I could do to keep me motivated and coming back. 

Resilience  To be pushed physically and mentally isn’t a comfortable feeling. There are always going to be days where you are kind of broken down. Maybe someone was too rough on you. Maybe someone else’s attitude towards you made you insecure. Maybe someone asks you point blank what you weigh, or asks you what the fuck you were doing at some point. I could also be that a coach is being particular with you. It can wear you down and you’ll feel negative about it, but you need to be resilient.  This doesn’t mean ignore your feelings.  ACKNOWLEDGE ALL OF YOUR FEELINGS. Talk about them with someone you train with.  But bounce back from them. It’s one moment in time when you are training.  Respect Respecting your partners and your coaches is just good practice. This doesn’t always mean that you agree with them, but it does mean that you acknowledge the experiences that they all bring. When other white belts coach me, I respect that they have different knowledge than I do. When coaches are making me work particularly hard, I respect their methods and work to the best of my ability. Showing resistance when someone is trying to help you is pretty disrespectful. I luckily have never seen this in how students act towards coaches.  I do see that students can be kind of rude to one another. I have probably been a jerk once or twice but with that said, I try to be hyper aware of how I treat my teammates.  I shake their hand and introduce myself, I always ask them how they are comfortable starting. If I am giving pointers, I try very hard to never give wrong information , and I am encouraging to my partners. If something felt really smooth and comfortable, I tell them. That’s the teacher in me. It’s probably annoying for some people but no one has told me it isn’t helpful?

Honesty Being honest with yourself and others is so hard.  I know that I am prone to becoming overwhelmed, frustrated, and sad. I can’t hind how I feeling, but I also am not honest with myself or others about why I feel that way. This is an ongoing struggle.  I had a some teammates reach out to me after a particularly discouraging class (that one time I cried in the change room) and having to explain why I was feeling the way I did was so hard. It connects back to resilience.

It also matters when you are trying to communicate with someone you are rolling with. I’m not good at communicating. I’m not good at saying when something is too rough, or uncomfortable. I’m not good at being honest. I am continuing to find the confidence to be honest with people on and off the mat. 

Gratitude  Jiu Jitsu is so humbling because when you’re a white belt you are bad at it. You’re just not good. What I hope for other people who start Jiu Jitsu is that they learn that this process is one to be thankful for, and to thank others for being a part of. Every class, I thank my training partner. I thank them for being present and giving their best effort. I thank them for telling me how I can improve. I thank them for when they notice that I have improved.  I thank my friend when he unpacks the things I tell him after class. I thank my coaches after every class. I am a little bit obsessed with my gym and publicly acknowledge it all the time. 

I am thankful for the changes jiu jitsu has made to my body, to my mental wellness, to my confidence. I’m ENDLESSLY thankful for the friends I have made through my gym and I’m thankful for being able to support them through their successes in the gym. If you go to my gym and you are reading this, thank you. Shout out to W, MCL, and A: Three dudes who are always down to roll around and let me talk about my feelings.  

[arandomthot]

No shame in being an H2Hoe

[clinchbinch-blog]

relevant to my lifestyle

[clinchbinch-blog]

Arm Bars, “Strong Bois,” and Slimming Down

I’m finally getting back into reflecting on classes. My season with Symphony NS choir is done so all I am doing is working and training. I took four days off from the gym and had a very different response to not stressing about training. I could have went when I wasn’t performing but I would have had a negative performance.

Anyway

Last night I went to F1 and trained with a friend who is going to compete for the first time this month. He’s awesome: we had a really great rhythm for doing arm bars from closed guard I like arm bars a lot more than triangles, I have learned. A few points for the arm far that I felt were important but hard for me in the moments were to remember to keep my hips off the mat, and to cut the angle more after hipping out. Setting up the arm bar form close guard requires that you place your foot on the hip of the same side of the arm you are choosing to arm bar. When the knee comes up, it should be pressing on that arm, further giving you the control on that arm, which you bring across the centre of your body. From there, the other leg comes up, pushing the person into the posted leg, further putting the strain on their barred arm. After cutting the angle to get a more secure hold, your hip posted foot comes up to push them further. That is when you lift the hips. When getting to the ideal angle, keeping my hips off the ground was hard. We did some drilling surrounding

We also worked on doing this from the closed guard: the past few weeks of classes have been focused on troubleshooting things that did not go well in competition and something that a collection of white belts have done is put all their weight forward to put their forearm on the neck like a choke, crossing the centre line while standing in the closed guard. When someone does this, you can still get into this arm bar the same  way, except it is  important to get your hips up. if you are trying to maintain a closed guard long enough to get the arm bar, you need the space from the mat to do it. A neat point to keep in mind is that it can be harder to bring your hip posted leg around in this extension of your body so you can use your arm to give you a hand in pushing their head further away to make it easier for you to bring your leg back.

I had a pretty good class with some successes, but my last roll felt really bad. I was rolling with someone new to the gym. I’m not sure if he had previous training or he watched a lot of videos, but he was rolling to submit. I’m not a particularly good white belt in anything, but I am thoughtful and careful with my partners (or I try very hard to be). This approach really didn’t work well for me last night and ended up with my receiving some deep bruising and a sore neck. He wanted to start from standing and so I tried some guard pulling, he just muscled me down. At one point he was trying to choke me with my lapel but we had to stop because he said he had no idea what he was actually holding. He ended up behind me while he was standing trying to choke me with this super shitty zipper choke and bending me over myself. It was annoying and not fun for me. I told hip to stop. I’m not afraid to tap and I will happily tap early. But this felt chaotic, stressful, and overall I didn’t feel safe. I finished the roll but I will not be rolling with him again. Maybe I will train with him in drilling but I won’t be seeking him out.

In other news, my Gi jacket is closing more and more every week. It feels super baggy so I may buy a new jacket. I did order a fancy gi but we will see! I would like to get a gi from my gym but I might wait a little longer.  It’s nice to see the work paying off in how my body looks. Like, I feel hot to trot. and I feel sexy and powerful. Heck yeah. Go me.

[clinchbinch-blog]

First Competition: Round Breakdowns

In moving forward with understanding where I need to improve, I think I need to be reflect on the rounds themselves.

Round 1 : Loss

Going into this, I knew one thing about my opponent and it was that her grips were really strong, especially when standing. I only knew this because my friend trained with her for a while. Obviously not knowing if it were true, I decided that my main goal would be to establish grips first. I believe I have strong grips.  It is here is where things just.... don’t go well. 

Me being a scaredy cat, I was like “I will pull guard because that is safe!” to which she responded by passing my guard very quickly and establishing side control. It is here that I recognized my demise immediately.  So from here, in not knowing a lot of escapes from side control, I suffered under her pressure. I tried mostly to regain my frame. I couldn’t do much until that happened except bridge and shrimp which I mean, I should have been working harder. My adversary was aiming to submit me with a key lock but luckily she couldn’t lock it in and I was strong enough for her not to do that. I spent the rest of the the five minutes in her guard looking pathetic and effectively suffocating. I was trying to turn into her so that I could bridge, kick through and then sweep her. I need to drill it more. I think I could have gotten somewhere if I had remembered to get the under hook. She was working to cross face me to the right but she wasn’t able to maintain that in any round. In my frenzied attempts to not suffer, I was mostly trying to bench her and straight arm her neck which she just didn’t give a fuck and kept going for the key lock. Key take-ways from that debacle: Use the bridge and shrimp to create space to establish frame, and then the same to get to an under hook. I can then get from there to regaining side control if I can push her over herself. Round 2: Win

You know how white belt shouldn’t coach white belts? Well W did and I am glad he did. It was helpful and I  refocused. It was the obligatory “I know white belts shouldn’t coach white belts but don’t pull guard in the next round.” So I didn’t.

I had J in my corner for this one and immediately felt more confident.  “SHE WILL NOT HURT ME BECAUSE I GOT MY BOYS” Again, established solid grips, and worked on not being totally afraid of her. After talking with C, she said that you forget about 80% of everything that you know and when you only know 4 things, That leaves you with not even a full ... thing. Even though I took the other woman down, I didn’t get a solid side control because she got me in like, a really tight shitty quarter guard. This is where my inability to make choices fucked me up. I Wanted to go for a mount, right? But I was neither close to side control or mount in either case. I didn’t have my under hooks and I couldn’t get my leg free. I was just trying to yank it out but what I COULD have done was bring my leg as high as I could, then launch it out and up to break her lock on it. I think that would have been effective: my legs are larger and longer than hers.  If that was in effective, shift my weight and push/pull her leg open and go back to side control.  My worry is that had I taken my hands from the under hook or mini cross face I had on her, I would have lost the control that I did have and so I was in this really terrible act of trying to get to a new  position but not getting anywhere and It was a bad time however, those two points were nice. I wanted that mount so bad so I’m a little annoyed at myself. I could have pushed myself to try more. 

Round 3: Loss

Okay, so this one was very similar to the first one. The difference being that I didn’t pull guard. I again, established some good grips, got some solid under hooks in, really tried to take control while standing. It was great until it wasn’t! I again, tried another take down but if I am completely honest I must of blacked out for 30 seconds and then boop! There she was, side control. I must have resulted to a guard after a failed whatever and then she did her little dance and tried to lay on me for four minutes. This is where I started to try and remember the 80% of things. So, I try to shrimp out and she’s just kind of like a nice heavy human blanket at this point. Elbows on my hips.   I try to re-frame and her knees are right where they need to be, but I THINK???? I got back to frame but who knows at this point huh boss?  I keep bridging and shrimping to try and weasel some space between us and this is where I am feeling like an imbecile: I DIDN’T GET THE FUCKING UNDER HOOK. I COULD HAVE. I COULD HAVE DONE THAT. 

And so I just spent the round like a very sad floppy and tired fish. I will say she was equally tired. She was really working in the third round to not get thrown off of me. I will be working on improving my bridge strength in the gym. 

Here I am not being sad and looking happy of myself.

Anyway, tonight’s class is being run by Z and he is specifically doing a class on side control escapes for me. 

[phoenix-bjj]

[clinchbinch-blog]

But also

Chewy of Chewjitsu wished me luck for my competition so I guess I was blessed. 

[clinchbinch-blog]

First Stripe and First Competition

Something very special happened the same night as my last blog: I received my first stripe on my belt. I’m excited and feel almost like I am ready for it. I did train a lot through April and I feel like It showed, but I also feel that I have so much more to do before I can really say “I deserve this stripe.” The grading system at my gym is very much based on commitment, attitude and work put in and is relatively aligned with the IBJJF grading scheme based on time. My Black Belt Friendo (whose opinions I value very much) said that I a) should try to take as long as possible to “level up”  and b) not get my hopes up in relation to grading.

As a person who likes some sort of indication of how I am doing, keeping level is something that Jiu Jitsu is teaching me. It’s a process. I’m a musician and in a lot of ways, I have to approach this the same way: becoming a fluid and competent player takes practice and proper execution.

As mentioned previously in my blog posts, I also competed this weekend! Was it premature? Likely. Same pal I mentioned above said 6 months was probably a good time to start competing but you know what? Things happen. Two coaches encouraged me to do it and I don’t regret doing it. Some successes include:

I lasted for the entire duration of the round (5min)

Execute a take down

Win at least one of the first two rounds to go to a tie breaker (tall order)

I, of course, had many other goals but being an inexperienced butt baby, I was not prepared for her technicality or her weight and the pressure that comes with it. Even though I roll with bigger men, men are not committed to putting their full weight on me and the women in my gym are much smaller than I am.

Black Belt Friendo said that competing at this stage in my development acts as a good diagnostic tool first and foremost. He gave me a lot to think about following my rolls.

What is the difference between getting on your side and staying on your side?What were your successes? What were the challenges and how did you solve them? How could you have solved them?

I think I might Answer these in a different post and get more into the nitty gritty of what I was feeling and doing and what I need to work on.

I’m looking forward to taking lessons with Black Belt Friendo: I really respect him and he has been a big help in helping me understand what I have been learning. He was there coaching his team and seeing him made me very nervous for my last round although he just definitely was not watching my last match at all.

Round 1 and Round 2 felt very low stress to me but the tie breaker is when everything started to feel ridiculous. Originally I had Z in my corner for the first match which was fine. C was reffing. In my second round, C and J were in my corner which was great. Most of my classes have been lead by J and I find him to be a very calming and effective coach. He very much helped me feel confident enough to deliver a take down in round 2.

Round three though. Round three was like fucking fight club and I wanted to die. Thank god for my ability to chill the fuck out with my breathing because I was very confused and very uncomfortable. The match starts out with Z in my corner, and C joins in so that becomes a little bit stressful because I CAN’T FOCUS ON BOTH OF YOU and then J comes over from one of the white belt matches and he’s yelling and then the onsite doctor is screaming because he once coached wrestling and so four people are coaching me and so four people saying things was a bit a much. I felt better once J was taking over. I calmed down more and focused. The wrestling doctor though was very funny. “TURN TO YOUR RIGHT. NOO! YOUR OTHER RIGHT!” I received a silver medal and our team received the top team award for most points scored in competition. 

I don’t regret doing it. I am very lucky to had the small success that I did and I am ready to train hard and dedicate myself to this sport more. I will likely compete again in the fall.

[clinchbinch-blog]

Competition nerves

It has been a hot minute since I have posted. I’m a teacher and life happens and also emotions happen. I was training very consistently but with the looming threat of Parent Teacher interviews and report cards being due, I didn’t make time to post. The posts will probably be out of sequence and I will leave a few of the moves out. I also have two symphony performances coming up and that has been making me want to punch myself in the face. 

The biggest update i have is that I am going to be competing in two days. It came after a lot of thought, talking to coaches, rolling with upper belts and I still second guessed myself when I registered. I still am second guessing myself. What I am learning while I talk to my coaches about it is that I have nothing to lose. J was the first to be tell me to go for it and I flip flopped on it. My beginner teammates encouraged me to go for it and then when I spoke to C, she was very much of the opinion that I will learn a lot, and I have nothing to lose.  The brackets went up yesterday and there are only two competitors in the heavy white belt bracket so we have a best two out of three set up. My good pal W is driving there with me to be my “WOO GIRL.” He’s a good egg. 

I feel really nervous only because I haven’t trained since Monday. Work got in the way and my knee was all kinds of angry. As much as I hated missing it, having two days for my knee to heal was a good thing.  I’m training this evening and then also hoping I can roll a little tomorrow somehow. It may have to be a request to do F2 tomorrow night. I don’t think there is any other option than that.  Anyway. Competing.  It’s happening. 

[clinchbinch-blog]

You’ve heard Missy Elliot’s “Pass That Dutch,” but have you heard “Pass That Guard?”

Right, so, every class is like Russian Roulette in a way because you never really know what will happen but I am really digging these guard pass and sweep lessons. My bottom game is absolute fuckery at this point and so my main goals are to regain my guard, and to escape. Submissions and me are a lost cause right now but the ol’ bean can hold you down. Today was my second lesson on Scissor Sweep with Z. I had one way back at the beginning of March with NoGi J, and so this refresher was a delight. There were a few differences in how NoGi J taught it and Z taught it. Z made an interesting point that a Scissor Sweep is not really something advanced practitioners use, so it is geared towards white belt babies, but like who knows? I’m sure some black belt overlord could dish it out real smooth. 

I like being able to use my closed guard because my leg holes are pretty strong so this sweep was up my street and really easy to follow. 1) Put your partner in your closed guard

2) Get your grips. You want a sleeve grip and a lapel grip on the same side. What ever side you want to sweep them to, that is the side you will take your grips on.

3) Open the guard and plant your feet.

4) Shrimp your hips to the opposite direction you want your partner to go, and bring your top knee to their chest.

5) Kick out your other leg and bring it back to their knee, at the same time, straighten your back and pull those grips up to the corner of where your sweep is going so that your partner’s balance is compromised. Something I was not doing was looking  to that side (the same as if you would look to which direction you are bridging). All of this is designed to get them on their back after rolling over your leg. 

6) MAINTAIN THE GRIPS. This is really handy if you are not the greatest at following through in to the mount. This can act as like, a little pully and keep your momentum so you can go into a

7) mount. Dancers think about lines with their body to get the desired shape and form so I was thinking about that with my leg that was originally on my partner’s chest. Continue to extend it and that will hopefully bring you into a mount. My tendency was that my mount was lopsided so if my partner had a really strong bridge, I’d be fucked.  So once you are up, get into a really secure mount. If you maintain the sleeve grip, you could definitely turn that into an Americana. Kurt Osiander has a different way of describing the same thing, and also his grips are different. His lapel grip is very deep and his grip is near the elbow rather than cuff and you’ll see why are the end https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-PA21_0xTg&t=175s

We also went over if your partner/opponent is larger than you. That was the case for my partner tonight as he is 13 and still working on that thing called growth. If your partner is considerably larger than you, instead of chopping with the leg that’s down, you can bring it up and place it on their knee and push it out from under them. It’s effective, but you have to be efficient. It’s important that you are aiming lower on the knee: the closer your foot is to the mat, the easier it is going to be to slip their leg out and get the sweep, otherwise you’re just pressing on their thigh and it’s more annoying than anything.

We also got into a triangle from scissor. The set up is the same, but instead of the knee coming to the chest, the knee comes up on the outside and connects with the crook of their arm, and you push out to create more space. Once  that space is there, you can cut the angle so you can bring that same leg over their head, grab your ankle, cut the other direction and bring your other leg over. I was trash garbage at this but you know… keep doin’ it. Chewy does a good job of explaining this and probably did it a little different than Z (I don’t remember being told to put my foot on the hip but like… makes sense) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oZSl5lJd1M

It was a good class and during our regular rolls, I made a lot of progress in passing guard and regaining my own. It is really great when you start to notice differences week to week. For a beginner, I’ve been told I train a lot (I’m in there 4 to 5 days a week), but when you show up all the time, it gives you that time to improve and to have those minuscule successes.  So, keep showing up and keep yourself inspired and reach out to your teammates too. It makes a huge difference. 

[clinchbinch-blog]

More Guard Passing and Rolling with Black Belts

Monday’s Class was really… special? I am a big fan of the small class size model so it just seemed more intimate and nice to be with some of my favourite teammates. My pal who hurt his knee a few posts back came back and started doing technique and even some gentle rolling.

I trained with A2 and as I mentioned before, he’s such a great partner and says so many helpful things so I a) don’t hurt people and b) make the most out of the technique. Our class was lead by CC who is… well… there are not enough positive descriptors for that man. He is an angel. Also the warm up he lead was so different and so zesty. I’m looking forward to to having my Tuesdays free soon.

We went over a few guard passes that have you in the standing position, and your partner in a butterfly type guard and you just double ankle.. scoop? them so that they fall backward. When they come up because they will, your inside leg steps into their guard and then PSYCHE you kick that leg back, jump up with the other leg towards their hip, and bring that leg you just kicked back to their hip. Your going to use your inside hand to grab their lapel and outside hand to their knee, and sort of Torreando them so you get a heavy side control or use you legs to push their knees up to their chest. Just... lay on em. Give em a nice hug. Show them you care. Submit them. Whatever makes you happy.  You can also double scoop them and immediately go to stack (Double Under Stack Pass), remembering to Gable grip over their hips, hoisting them onto your lap. CC recommended that you not have live toes because you can be lower, stabilized and have more security before you bring up the knee of the side you’ll turn too. Keep them stacked until you’re ready to bring on a heavy side control. When you go to move, then you wake those toes up. I sadly couldn’t find good examples of this online. 

I finished the night with rolling with CC and I just keep thinking about it because it was so good. I’m really lucky at my gym to have the most helpful, direct, and gentle coaches. These people are so in love with what they do that they want you to love it. 

They never make you feel dumb for making a mistake when rolling and they coach you through it (even though they will 100% trick you and submit you). Like, J has been trying to get me to get out of these shitty bottom positions for weeks with shrimping and this and that and everything else, and sometimes it just takes another person to give you that one extra hint to make more sense of it. So, shrimp and get into a combat mount, put your hand on their belt and go through with the motion and get up. I have a lot of body to move so it’s these simple changes that make all the difference. CC said I have made big improvements.  Still thinking about it and I want to cry. I AM NOT WORTHY.

[clinchbinch-blog]

Open Mat and Nourishing Yourself. Renzo Gracie?

It’s been a minute so let us chat about what has happened in the past few days!

Sunday I went to Open Mat which was an excellent choice. It really put me on the right track for the week and I feel super pumped for this week’s training. I got my ass handed to me slightly less on Sunday, and also did more rounds on Sunday. My second Open Mat was really tough and I couldn’t even do the warm up. A lot of advanced belts show up (blue, purple, and brown) and so the warm ups are a little more… well they feel different than the warm ups for our fundamentals class. A couple of wins included: “You have great pressure” “Good grips” and doing a little back flip to get out of a choke proposal, breaking his grip (and this is the blue belt that really let me have it the week before).

I am way too afraid of hurting people and never really use my weight to my advantage, especially against MUCH stronger and larger men, with their long limbs and muscles and stuff. It’s like rolling with beefy Daddy Long Legs sometimes. 

On Saturday/Sunday, I also started making some positive diet changes to facilitate weight loss for training, but my days are backwards. I barely eat on training days because I hate feeling sluggish, and then on non-training days, I eat more. I am trying to nail the protein side of things so my body actually heals, but I find that to be very tricky. Carbs make me feel like a garbage dump so I am very selective of what kinds of carbs. Fruit and veg for sure, and multigrain rye bread if I want it. Also, if you don’t put peanut butter on your apples, what are you even doing? A good alternative is sunflower butter you get in the natural section. Significantly less sugar which the apple makes up for (green apples are my favourite). Since I am training today, I afforded myself of PB since I won’t eat again until either after training, or tomorrow morning. A lot of practitioners I have read posts from really get away from dairy and I wonder why? If you are a BJJ dynamo, please tell me what you eat and if dairy has a place in your meals. I’m not into the Keto/fad diets and so I am really just trying to work with more whole foods or nutrient rich foods. I’ve been dicking around with my diet and lost a lot of progress I made previously. I lost 50 pounds and was on my way to 60 but... things happen. Just keep trying, right?

Water intake is usually on point, but today my water tank broke and so now I don’t know how I will survive. This is it. I am no longer. Dehydration is setting in. Tell my mother I love her. 

A few days ago I found out that Renzo Gracie would be in my city in May and so I signed up for his seminar. I mean, why would I ever pass that up? Out of excitement, I meal prepped my week. It’s also nice that my friend W is coming too. I don’t know if any other folks form my gym are going but we are. It’s nice to see other training facilities too. 

[whitebeltbrazilianjiujitsu]

Ouch 😥 @whitebeltbjj @bjj.wiki @bjjdating @iveyleaguemixedmartialarts @ibjjf @crazy88mma @bjjgoons_official #bjj #jiujitsu #jits #bjjgoons #goonlife #bjjproblems #brazilianjiujitsu #ibjjf #mma #ufc #judo #bjjdating #bjjwiki #bjjmeme #whitebeltbjj #wbbjj https://www.instagram.com/p/BvdoWsoh09L/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1n7e2wv4l6ch3

[clinchbinch-blog]

relevant

[clinchbinch-blog]

Observing Classes, First Stripes, and Passing Guard.

Sitting here on my Saturday night watching the Rickson Gracie “Choke” Documentary for the second time (He was dreamy in 1995). If you haven’t watched Choke, do it. It is a true testament to the Gracie Family and to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. But also, Yuki Nakai was so stellar as well. Go watch.

Had a yumbo taco salad because ground turkey and chicken were on sale. More on diet later I guessssss.

I really love observing classes. I love listening to the coach and looking at what my teammates are doing with the information. It lets me be a little more critical and specific about what I should be looking for in my own movements and adhering to technique. I’m a musician and as a musician, my technique was kinda meh so I guess I’m trying to make up for it, hahaha.

I observed Thursday’s class which was double leg takedowns and what to do when a turtle position comes into play if and when said take down doesn’t work out. J also covered rear naked choke, and a this seat belt rolling thing that I forgot the name of because my notes weren’t detailed enough, But I can see it in my brain hole.

After this class, I also realized I really know nothing about chokes. I know one choke and it isn’t the rear naked choke.

As much as I love observing classes, I really regret not doing that class. I felt like I needed a rest, but the more I think about it, the more I probably could have done it. It ended up messing up my body and mind not doing that training, felt like shit after work on Friday, cried about it, then went to bed. I went to class today and I am feeling so much better. I feel inspired to keep training and make a difference in myself. I am a better person when I train and I need to maintain that schedule. I am also feeling inspired because a few of my friends/training partners got their first stripe today. They work hard and I really have learned a lot from working with both of them . I try not to worry or think about getting my stripe because it’s so nice to just enjoy the process. I love celebrating the successes of other people. At my very first class, I saw two or three people get their first stripe and I think seeing how happy it made them was the best part.

I also had a friend come with me for her first class and we trained together. In this class we went over Ippon Seoi Nage from a rear choke (great intro class right?) and then O Soto Otoshi from the rear choke (hook their leading leg, turn to that side, and push down or take them down over your leg) (Ippon Seoi Nage, no choke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vr0DbedK_c) (O Soto Otoshi, no rear choke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltj1d_ooC_E&fbclid=IwAR2sqGyS5amrxmR2Q0SkYxUFcrgSbRI4laA5Inc3GU1ru512edJJx0nc9yw)

From there we dug into going from closed guard into arm bars (I really struggle with this and would have liked to have drilled it more), then closed guard into a kimura, then closed guard and sweeping into a mount (I like this a lot even though I’m like a trash bag stuck on a poll trying to drill it). My bottom game is really poor and so I keep trying to find ways to get around that obstacle. I am getting better at getting out of being mounted and into their closed guard. After that, I have a fighting chance because my legs are thiccccc.

So I’m going to work on these sweeps we’ve been tackling. Kite Sweep, Scissor Sweep and the one we covered today (missed the name cause the Gangster Rap was too loud).

We’ll see what happens at open mat tomorrow. Probably more blue belts fucking me up. Good enough.

[clinchbinch-blog]

O Goshi, Spider Guard, Kite Sweep, and Omoplata - April 4th

I am tired today. I’m sore. My grip strength is weak as heck. My biceps are bruised to shit.

Love it.

I rolled over my neck for the first time like a fucking dweeb after seeing improvements in my backwards roll and it was weirdly embarrassing. “OVER THE SHOULDER” for the rest of the lane drill, HOWEVER, my coach gave me some solid affirmation on my front roll to breakfall because I didn’t bend my knee - trail leg staying straight heck yeah.

My training partner last night is a good partner to have if you really want to work. He’s really into NoGi so last night was his first time back at a gi class in a while. I know a lot of upper level folks would say that white belts shouldn’t coach white belts, but I think to some extent, they have to. Even just simple technique things that someone like me might not think about helps a whole bunch. Obviously the finer workings of technique for safety need to be given to the coach/Professor, but I mean, reminding me not to hold my body square when throwing a punch isn’t the end of the world, or telling me that I need to use both my legs for a sweep is just being a good teammate.

O Goshi (large hip) is a judo throw that is part of blue belt testing which I’m down for. I got big ol’ birthing hips so there is more cushion for the pushin’ so to speak…I think as a throw, it’s simple, but the isolated movements are really particular. Like, I always overshoot how far I’m stepping to T up with my training partner, my squat into them is not as strong, and my pulling up at the end so they don’t fricken die is that of a weak little baby (gotta develop these guns). I think as I move forward with it, I need to hesitate less before taking control but I’m always like “OMG I DROPPED THEM.”

As for being thrown, it only hurt once. I did get a really stellar breakfall in there which so, so satisfying. A painless, resounding slap on the mat.

We did a lot of spider guard which explains why my arms are in pain city.  I have been trying to like spider guard and play it a little more frequently since learning it, but I have a lot of weight on my abdomen so getting my hips up is trick-ay. Feels bad when you’re slippery. Which… I was hella sweaty last night. Probably the most I have sweat since I started.

But! I will say that the combination we learned of Kite sweep failure to omoplata was really eye opening and I hope I have a regular roll soon to try it. Or like… a kite sweep that didn’t fail. Novel idea.   (Kite sweep: pop the leg out to their knee, follow through with the raised leg and grips, note for Kay: pushing the knee out from under the other person is a variation not drilled in class https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whBGP4C9NNE).

During a roll with my coach, I had really nice moment of knowing where I was going in a specific moment. Bless him for going easy on me and giving me the opportunity, but I didn’t think as mechanically about going into an omoplata. My goal is always to be more fluid in where I am going and to be confident in my decisions and to not give up on them if something goes askew. Reset my guard or position and try that specific move again. Everything is always about survival but I’d like to be able to survive AND make a move. I don’t care if I get a submission in a regular roll. I had a seminar really early in starting BJJ (2 or 3 weeks in) with Emily Kwok of Princeton BJJ, and the thing that has stuck with me the most from listening to her is to always keep looking to move forward in a roll.  Even if you get a good position, don’t stay there, keep pushing for the next leg up. I think as a white belt, 2 month beginner, that is key to not being as discouraged when someone just wrecks me (Sunday, when I blue belt was relentlessly fucking me up). I want to keep going and I will keep going, but embrace the suck.

[phoenix-bjj]

[phoenix-bjj]

[clinchbinch-blog]

I have had the pleasure of making BJJ my hobby for about two months now! Every week is a little bit wild and scary: learning curves are steep and you have them everyday you train, and you're liable to have the moments when you are frustrated. I had a little breakdown in our change room the other day; while it was Cathartic, it was ~embarrass-ante~. This month has been a big bunch of falling down, and getting back up in a very literally sense. The past week or so in particular has been a lot of starting from standing be it take downs or pulling guard. I still have a lot of trepidation when it comes to starting from standing because as an obese person, when you go down, you go down hard. I didn't actually learn how to fall safely until probably... 3 or 4 weeks in? Definitely not in my first week. When you add another person into the mix who is actively trying to get you on the ground, there is more anxiety thrown in because something can go wrong and you can suffer minor ouchies, or big injuries. Last week, my friend's MCL was torn and that is the nature of the beast but, I really don't think it should be an expectation to be seriously injured. But like... that is a discussion for another day. Anyway... Now, at this point in my development if I had to choose between a take down or taking control in a controlled way, you can bet I will take the latter. I think most people would agree cause she’s -safe-. On Wednesday (last week), Z went over guard pull into Omoplata which is a neat submission that I can actually remember, but I noticed early on that even though I could get my foot on their leading hip, my other leg just wanted to take a little adventure 90 feet away from their shoulder (where it should be). In any time where I have my sleeve grips, I need to remember one foot on the hip and one on their should for four points of contact. I think that main point only clicked on Sunday (thank you J). Going from standing into the Omoplata makes so much more sense to me than doing it from the ground (not to say that I don’t try to make omoplata happen from closed guard).   Also this past week, after being arm barred into oblivion, I FINALLY LEARNED SOME ARM BAR ESCAPES. I was just rolling with the arm bar at first because what else you gonna do? AND THEN! I LEARNED THAT YOU CAN DO THAT AND STACK THE PERSON WHICH I AM HERE FOR. That was an exciting moment especially after all the blue belts rubbed my nose in all my misgivings at Open Mat. Wanna Stack? Lemme Stack. Ben’s a ho.