Getting My Ass Kicked

So Wednesday I went back out to the Brothers school. The Intermediate group in Arvada is advanced beyond the group I train with at the Denver school. The training went well enough, but for the randori session afterwards I got my ass handed to me. Paired up with a high level blue belt, I couldn't even get the guy into my guard. I couldn't get to the mount, or maintain any sort of control over his movements. In short I felt totally ineffective. It certainly isn't easy to admit that, but I'll be damned if I am going to come away from the experience deluding myself. The reality is that practice, and time and skill outweigh enthusiasm. The only way to counter what I experienced is to push forward into the unknown, the unpracticed. To learn from what happened, and then keep on learning until it won't happen again. The thing is, there will always be someone better, stronger. Some people might consider that fact to be fatalistic- to take that reality and consider it bleak. Those people might quit. They might look at their 35 yr old body and develop a belief that they are past it.
I'm not past it. Actually, for what I set out to do I am doing pretty well. I never meant to become a world champion. Just stronger. Time, effort, persistance, and patience will have to be my new tag words. This is a refresh of my will to fight.

Somebody call a Doctor...

Not cause I am injured or anything, but I did need to see a doc about a physical today. The good news is I have clean bill of health. Having spoken to the doctor I learned that his background was in Sports medicine, more specifically collegiate wrestling programs. He was sufficiently impressed with the benefits of grappling. We discussed explosive effort as it relates to Jiu Jitsu, and the conversation was quite pleasent all in all.
The primary reason for getting checked out was to get clearance to run in The Tough Mudder up at Beaver Creek June 23rd. Tough Mudder is a 7 mile run, up ski slopes, over 12 ft walls, across rope netting and through frigid water while ducking under barrels and other obstacles. It is a confidence course, and I am pretty psyched for it. I stumbled into a team. A friend of mine from an online car forum recruited two more of his buddies. The four of us will be participating, and in the meantime will be looking for another 2 members to fill out our team.
What does this have to do with Jiu Jitsu? Nothing really, but it is training. I'll be working the couch to 10k program in an effort to build up my stamina to endure the run. It can't hurt my grappling to cross train and build up my endurance.

I 18 Guard pass over and under standing to open

Thats Heavy...

The kid I rolled with Thursday was a beast, and he is no slouch on the mat. He was using a spider guard to very effectively create space and transfer my weight in his favor. Basically, he grabbed my sleeves at the cuff and that controlled my hands, he then planted his feet on my shoulders pulled me in. With his hands controlling my arms, and his feet planted with heels in my armpits I was unable to get away. the only way out seemed to be a side pass, but with him controlling my shoulders, when I sidestepped for the pass he had openings for a triangle, or an armbar. It was a very frustrating and effective game.
I tried to sit my way out of it, but ended up swept, and then he was in side control and I realized that strength is getting to be an issue. When I roll with big dudes I am getting crushed plain and simple. I need more core strength to bump my way out of these lay and pray situations. It also wouldn't hurt to have more power from the chest for framing, and pommeling.
As usual, when I am having a class where I am struggling I started to doubt myself, but then I was matched up against a fast, but smaller guy and I dominated. the technique is there, but the strength to deal wih mass is not. I need to work on that.

Doubling Up

Monday I attended back to back classes. I started with the Fundamentals class, and then stayed for the intermediate class. It was a lot of time to spend in the Gi, but I felt like I got more from the training since I was already warmed up coming into the intermediate lesson.

Part One- Fundamentals
I got paired with 2 partners, which I generally don't like. the rotation sucks, and someone always ends up getting shafted. The stand-up lesson was obtaining control through grips- Gi lapel, and sleeve. We started setting up for takedowns, but didn't actually get to the takedown portion. The ground lesson was halfguard escapes using a method that seemed far less effective than the half guard escape I learned in Arvada the Wednesday before. One of my partners was a first stripe, and the other was in his first class. The lesson felt pretty muddled to me, and I didn't pick much useful information up. We finished up class rolling with the intermediate students. This was an up-down-out configuration starting from the half guard. I found myself using the lesson from last week in Arvada when I was rolling with the more advanced belts, and then allowing for the days lesson with the first level white belt guys.

Part 2- Intermediate
The intermediate class used the up down out exercise as the warm up so we got straight into the lesson. I was paired with a blue belt who seemed annoyed to be matched with a white belt. 3rd level or not. He didn't stay long. a half hour into the lesson they convened an advanced course and he moved over to that. We primarily worked the half guard escape that I had learned in Arvada. We concluded with up-down-out, but no free rolling which I was a little disappointed with. I like working multiple methodologies like we get to with an open format randori.

My feelings leaving the gym were that I had gotten a good workout but the lessons felt lacking. I didn't feel like I had really learned anything new or useful, and I was also disappointed that I wasn't really refining the techniqiues I had learned a week before.

I am looking forward to tomorrows delivery. I'll be doing my first gear write-up once I have had a few days to roll the new Gi I hunted down. I am expecting good things from this new Gi, lord knows I had to chase after it in order to get one. Is that enough suspense?

Commitment vs Vanity... Vanity is the winner

I am not going to become a professional fighter. That was never the goal, or the intent of training. Thus there is a small problem when committing to grappling training- my ears. I cannot get cauliflower ear. This is not permitted, as my wife will freak out, and my vanity is way too well developed to deal with swollen, nasty pinna. For this reason I am seriously shopping for a headgear.

You gotta draw the line somewhere, and when the Professor "snapped" past my ear during a collar choke demonstration last night I realized just how fast this could become a problem.

The Wall

You encounter them all the time, a mental or physical barrier that prevents you from making progress. For me, getting past the intimidation factor to start training was a wall. Just setting foot on the mat was a mental hurtle for me. It is 8 months down the line now, and I can't really remember what my mindset was, but I do recall being a little concerned that I was going to show up and get laughed at. It wasn't that way at all of course, but it was a legit concern in my mind before I understood the mentality of the school.
I felt a similar sensation this evening. It was a wall. I hadn't trained in a week due to travel, and here I was going into a foreign environment- a different school with instructors and students that were unknown to me. The wall presented itself as a deal I was making with myself on the way to the school- I'll just have a look. I'll see what it looks like and if I don't like what I see, I'll just keep going, head back home and watch The Ultimate Fighter. I was making excuses in my mind.

I countered the excuses with commitments

The first commitment was just pulling into a parking spot in front of the School, and putting the car in park. The second was grabbing my gear bag and heading inside. After you are standing in the School, bag in hand you are going to train, and that is exactly what I did. It wasn't my best night on the mat, but I went through with it and I feel better for it.  In the end the deals were just distractions. I drove to the School, I went in, and I trained. I learned something too- not just on the mat. I learned that these walls are getting easier to overcome as I go.