Sunday Open Mat

27 degrees outside but as someone once said " some people stay in bed and dream, while others get up and pursue their dreams".
What is my dream? To improve a little each day.
The only goal I had this morning was to not get arm barred, that failed miserably. I rolled 5 rounds and was arm barred 4 times and triangled once.
I felt great though as it was an opportunity for me to observe and roll with Coach and three purple belts.
The feedback I received was awesome in terms of what holes they saw in my game and some tips to work on improving.

Things to work on:

While mounted: focus on escaping!

use one hand to defend against chokes
use one hand to set up escape (place on upper thigh to create space)
think of your hands as "fish hooks"
once space is created, slide knee through space and hook opponents thigh
hip escape and slide other knee through to set up butterfly guard


Tail choke -

once set up, make sure to get a higher grip on lapel (opposite hand, the one not gripping the "tail" of gi).

Techniques learned to date

Based on memory, these are techniques that were introduced, learned and drilled during the past few months.
Of course, I am not proficient with any of these techniques at this point however they are in my tool bag.
This list is created to jog my memory as there were a lot of techniques learned the past few months, I'm not sure I remember them all let alone the names. There are many variations to these techniques but for now, creating a list of techniques is the goal.

In no specific order:

Base
Posturing
Grips
Breaking Grips
Hand fighting (defense)
Closed Guard
Half Guard
Spider Guard
X Guard
De La Riva Guard
Side control
Mount
North / South
Kesa Gatame
Kata Gatame
Cross Face
Knee on Belly
Hip Bump
Hip Escape (shrimp)
Passing the  Closed Guard
Passing the Half Guard
Passing the spider guard
Over wrap arm to lapel (not the proper name of this technique, I'm sure)
wrist locks
Grapevine

Flower sweep
a few more sweeps I forget the names to...

Arm Bar
Triangle
Kimura
Americana
Bow and Arrow Choke
Ezequiel
Guillotine
Rear Naked Choke
Cross collar choke
Palm up | Palm down choke
"Tail" choke
Clock choke
Baseball choke
Bread cutter choke
Omoplata
Barrackoplata ???

Takedowns -

Learned a few takedowns (around 10-15), don't remember the names, I'll notate these once I figure out how to describe them.

Catching up to the present - a snapshot of the past few months

Documenting the few months based on memory:

The first few months were tough, there was not a single day that I was not sore. The training was and is real and that is what I love about BJJ.
I have never stepped foot on a mat prior to my first class and the learning curve is steep. My primary focus was to survive and learn to defend.  As I become better at defending I will expand my  focus on escapes.
I'm finding that I'm tapping to arm bars and need to figure out how to defend against this. The good news is I'm not getting choked out as much as before (so I guess I'm learning how to defend against chokes).
I need to figure out how to stop getting crushed by teammates that outweigh me by 100-150 lbs. or more.


Classes attended: 92 estimate, the majority of the classes were noon classes.

Tapped out: millions (meaning I was tapped out)

Injuries: chipped tooth, minor bruises, cuts and abrasions, one bloody nose

Seminars attended: 2, Julio Cesar and Megaton Diaz

Books read: 12

Grappling 101
BJJ white belt handbook
Jiu Jitsu on the brain
Beginning BJJ
BJJ: Blog Barf and Butterflies
Borrowing the Master's Bicycle
Bruises
My Mastery
Psychology of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Tapmonster
The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Globetrotter
Jiu Jitsu University

I stayed away from You Tube in terms of watching video presentations of techniques. I have however watched numerous documentary type of videos on BJJ.

Gi's purchased: 12
Academy Gi - A3
Inverted Gear (Panda) - blue, white and bamboo, all A2S
Platinum  Gi - Fu Dog, A2
Hayabusa - Gold Weave, Blue, A2
CTRL Industries - Black Luxe, A2
Meerkatsu - Heavenly Gi, Black, A2
Tatami Estillo 4.0 - White A2L, Navy A3
Ground Game - Titan Gold Weave, A2
Origin- Black Ops (have not shipped), A2 top, 34x32 pants

Gave both Tatami Estelle's and Ground Game away.

Based on my body type, ectomorph (tall and skinny), I am on a quest to find a gi that fits perfectly. Learning that each manufacturer is a little bit different in terms of sizing it is a challenge to find the perfect fitting gi. With that said, with my limited experience in BJJ, I'm not exactly sure what a "perfectly fitted gi" means. I'm really not caught up on the branding of a gi although aesthetics matter to me, fit is paramount on this quest.
Do I really believe this or is this my excuse for my Gi addiction?

I'm going to review each Gi from a white belt's perspective in a future blog.

Wow, I finally decided to document my journey

I've finally decided to document my journey as I venture down the rabbit hole known to me as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). I'm documenting my journey primarily for myself so I may record my training and all other thoughts on BJJ.

If anyone else reads this and actually finds anything of value then that would be awesome.

I'm 48 years old and have been training six months. I'm currently a two stripe white belt, I signed up for my first class nine months ago and had to take three months off due to a work project. So realistically I trained in two, three month blocks.


I think the outline for this blog is to:

1. Training Journal - techniques learned, drills practiced, sparring (rolling), techniques attempted during rolling, things to work on.

2. Gi's - reviews on Gi's that I own

3. BJJ apparel business - thoughts on my journey to start and run a BJJ apparel business.

I will add to this if I decide to expand this blog, but for now, this will do.

Here goes, let's see what happens going forward.