Tonight was kind of awesome! Tim has had some nagging injuries over the last week so we have been doing some light drilling. I walked in tonight with the expectations to drill Monday's techniques. Instead we all warmed up and Tim told the class that he wanted a higher belt and white belt to pair up and for the white belt to learn from the blue. Ingenious!!!
I paired up with a blue belt and there was some awkward silence to begin with, but then we started talking about tournament strategies and game plans. I have never came up with a game plan, but he went over his with me a little bit. It was cool to get to see his thought process and how he worked his moves from different positions from higher percentage moves to moves where he would lose his advantageous position and his counters. He showed me a really cool arm triangle from half guard that I had never thought of. It works well if you have really long arms like he and I do.
We went back and forth talking techniques for awhile then we had open mat. I started rolling with one of the newer guys who has only been there about 3 months. We started rolling and I ended up in his guard. He went for a flower sweep, but he made the same mistake I did in my tournament. He grabbed the wrong side arm and I was able to post out. I stopped and showed him how to grip the correct arm. Then I had the idea to just roll and end in positions, in his guard, to see what techniques he could remember. I was surprised, he remembered a couple of sweeps from guard and a couple of submission attempts.
Overall, I give tonight's class 4 stars!! I made it to class 2 times this week(thanks to my wonderful wife), I felt better tonight than I have felt in months, it was cool to see some of the newer guys progression, and I know a couple of new techniques. So yeh, 4 stars!!
I had to visit the doctor this past Tuesday to review some lab work I had done. He likes to keep an eye on my kidney function and why not since he is a nephrologist (Kidney specialist) and I do have a kidney disease.
I sat there has he went over my labs with me and he decided to drop the bomb on me. He wanted me to start IV Chemotherapy Treatment!
Apparently before there were so many drugs for kidney disorders, they used to use low level chemotherapy treatment and the main drug used in IV therapy is Cyotxan.
After hearing the news, I broke out in a sweat, mainly because the thought of Chemotherapy and the fact is that I am getting ready to get stuck with some huge needles. I showed up at the outpatient center to begin my therapy Wednesday morning and kicked off a long 7 hour stay at the hospital for the treatment.
The nurse came in and read me the laundry list of side effects of the drug and I almost went screaming out of the room. One of the side effects was a lower immune system which would make me susceptible to infections and other things. It was suggested I stayed away from rough sports, where I could get bruised, cut, or be easily exposed to bacteria. All I was thinking was thank goodness I don't play football or rugby.I am glad Jiu Jitsu is known as "The Gentle Art." I guess I am going to have to be more careful and buy tons of anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, and Lysol everything.
Back to the topic at hand. So while starting the IV process the nurse, who I think really enjoyed causing me pain, was trying to find a vein in my forearm. She must have thought by digging the needle around in my arm like I was some sort of needle point project would help her find the vein. I broke out in a sweat, got light headed, and almost passed out. I have always had a fear of needles, but over the last couple of years I have had to over come that fear. But guess what!? The evil nurse with the needle brought the fear back!
Luckily I do not have another treatment until January, so that will give me another 2 months to get over my fear of needles once again. I do not however ever see me getting over the thought of me doing chemotherapy. I wonder how this treatment is going to affect my BJJ life and experience on the mats. The treatment can cause some hair loss. But, I do not have to worry about that; I am already ahead of game in that aspect.
With Christmas fast approaching, I decided to put my Christmas list out there for Santa,my wife and everyone else to see. I doubt I will get any of this,but who knows. I have been pretty nice this year!
This just came out a couple of weeks ago, and being that I took a seminar from him and had a chance to learn from him and see how he interacts with people. He has become one of my favorite BJJ practitioners. This is definite for the BJJ Christmas list!!!
2)Numero Dos!
The Shoyaroll batch #11. I know it will not be here until March/April of 2012, but to be honest I can wait. This item goes on sale at Budovideos.com and is pre-order at 12am (PST) Friday morning after Thanksgiving, or 3 am here on the east coast.
3) My 2nd choice for a gi! Is the Break Point Reversible gi.
Okay so I haven't really figured out item #5, but that one is on my to do list and has not been transferred over to the Christmas list.
Those are some of the items that hope to find under my tree! I am sure this list will change 100 times before Christmas. What is on your BJJ Christmas list?
It has been well over a month since my last blog entry, mainly because back on October 7 at 11:54am I became a father to a beautiful 6lb 15oz baby girl named Roxie Addison Bair.
I was one proud daddy, little did I know how much my life would change over the next couple of days, weeks, and forever. My priorities went from Crossfit and Jiu Jitsu to trying to change her diaper with out waking her up.
Like I said, no working out for a month and no Jiu Jitsu!!! A Month!!! I took two weeks off of work and found myself staying up all night with the baby, eating cheetos, drinking soda, and watching TV. Once I went back to work my eating habits followed, and I am slowly slipping back into the clutches of honey buns and cinnamon rolls.
After sitting around and finally getting little Roxie and gaining about 10 lbs, I finally had a chance to go do some no gi one Sunday afternoon. There was a big turnout, which is unusual for a Sunday No gi session, and I was a little nervous to get back to the mats. We decided to do 10 rounds with a 5 minute time limit and 30 second rest.
Everyone grabbed a partner, and I obviously was still in some sort of hot pocket induced haze. I realized that the only person that was left to roll with at the beginning was Brian, an awesome practitioner, with a lot of credentials. I immediately charged in thinking I had the same conditioning that I had a month prior, but needless to say I was wrong. That was the longest five minutes of my life and I held back wanting to throw up several times.
Needless to say, the next 9 rounds I paced myself as I ran the gauntlet and tried to fumble my way through the rest of my skilled friends. I ended up taking a water break every time between rounds, and the only other time I did that was when I first started. I almost went through a gallon of water, and felt like I sweated out 4 gallons.
I was not surprised to see how big of a hit my conditioning took in a months time. After my Sunday baptismal by fire return to the mats, I started to wonder will I ever get my wind back, or be able to develop a routine that I can enjoy Crossfit and Jiu Jitsu again.
It may not be right away, but I am sure I will be back in shape or maybe even better once things get settled down around here. As for right now, I am just going to enjoy life, and enjoy spending time with my new baby girl.
Have you ever been drilling a technique and realized that it works better from one side or the other?The thought of my left side being so inefficient and my right side techniques flow a lot smoother has been bothering me for several weeks now. I am to the point, where I need to focus on improving my weak side to improve my techniques from any position and help me work more escapes and others.
Since my loss in focus and concentration a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across a gem of a book called, Body-Mind-Mastery: Training for Sport and Life by Dan Millman. This book discusses how to use natural laws in nature and life influences your training and performance in whatever sport you are currently involved.If it outlines some really deep ideals on training and performance in sports and how it interacts with your life.
Now, I was reading the other day in the book about symmetry between your body and muscles. If you were capable to perform any movement with either your weak or strong side you could reduce injuries, by not limiting yourself to one side, you could train longer, by switching side to side, and you would be come more versatile in your sport.
Naturally, you are going to favor your dominant side and move somewhat effortlessly in your movements. If you could train your weak side to be as strong as or stronger than your dominant side, would you take the time? I am sure a majority of you would say, “Yes!” Who would not jump at the chance to improve their game?The list of pros definitely outweighs the cons in my book.The only con I could come up with is the sheer awkwardness of trying techniques from the other side. I am sure there are others, but the pro for me would be less fatique on my dominant side, more escapes, more submissions, and the ability to increase my skill level by utilizing 100% of my body.
I am going to start trying to do things with my left side and see if I can activate the opposite side of my brain and increase my efficiency on my left side. Some things I have already started doing, I moved my mouse over to my left side and I have started trying to do things with my opposite hand. I managed to write the alphabet 10 times with my left hand, it looks like chicken scratch, but I felt like I was concentrating and focusing a lot more than I would have done if I were just writing with my dominant hand. This is going to be a fun experiment and I will try to keep you posted on my progress. How do you train your opposite side or have you ever tried to use your non-dominant side during your daily activities?
Well, last weekend I competed in my First tournament and I had an absolute blast despite being really nervous.I was so nervous, I thought I was going to throw up on the way to Myrtle Beach and while I was weighing in at the tournament.
I made it through the weigh ins at 213lbs, which is where I wanted to be and started looking at the competition that had signed up, only 3 people in my division. One of which was, Billy, another white belt from my school. He and I would square off against each other in the 200-225lb division and have several matches to boot.
Billy lost his first match by points, and that set me up to go against my first opponent.We squared off and slapped hands and the crowd went silent. My heart beat was echoing in my ears and my breathing was erratic. I kept trying to get the take down, and pulled a very sloppy guard. There was a back and forth exchange of positions and we ended up back on our feet. I managed to grab a leg and get the single leg take down. I tried several kimuras from the top and got swept. He left his arm in and ended up getting him in a triangle. After watching the video and getting some feedback from everyone at my school, I missed several opportunities earlier in the match to go for a triangle.
I was on an high as I rolled into gi and submitted the same guy with a triangle I had submitted in no-gi. Then Billy and I faced off, there were several reversals back and forth. He got me in an Omaplata and rolled out and got side control. Eventually I caught my friend in a key lock and won the match by submission to take 1st in Gi. Do not worry Billy got his revenge on me in the Absolute white belt
Going into white belt absolute, I was more nervous for this division. I ended up going against a guy that was about 175lbs and who seemed to me to be the Flash, disguised as a white belt. He was all over me and I could not shake him. He had my back and racked nice cushion of lead of 9-0. I ended up trying to escape and forgot to block his leg and ended up in a triangle. Ironic, huh?
Then Billy came back, and took third place in absolute, by defeating with an arm bar submission. By this point my cardio was shot and I was tired and hungry.
I ended up with 2 first place finishes and a not so bad showing in absolute for my first time. Overall, I am proud to have finished like I did. I never would have thought that I would have ever got enough nerve and would have ever been this physically ready to do something like this. I have exceeded a goal and met my biggest fear by doing this tournament. Now, unfortunately, I have the bug and I want to compete again! Congratulations to Billy, for a great showing in his first tournament!
Things to work on before my tournament:
1) Cardio- Back to Crossfit and Rolling more
2) Game plan- Get one and use it
3) BREATH!!!!
4) Drill my escapes over and over
5)Do the best I can, and learn from what I did wrong
Any and all feedback is welcome and let me know your thoughts on my performance or any tips that you would give me to work on for my next tournament.
I was out of town all last week in Virginia and did not get a chance to train at all. Now I am back in good ole South Carolina, and back to hitting the mats and the weights in preparation for this tournament this weekend at Myrtle Beach, SC.
This is my first tournament and I definitely felt the butterflies earlier in the week. After talking with all the guys they reassured me I would do fine and I probably would have some adrenaline rush and gas out early. It actually felt like I was already competing; I was sweating and my heart rate was through the roof since from listening to them describe my first tournament.
I then turned to internet for guidance and searched through several blogs I follow, and read everything I could about tournaments and competing in all of them. It was nice to see all the people that have competed for the first time and survived to compete again, and kept us newbies informed so that we can learn from their experiences.
Preparation for this tournament is nil, but I am going in with no expectations and will definitely learn from this weekend. My mind has been racing all week with antici......................pation (using my Dr. Frankenfurter voice).
After 8 months of training, here I am face to face with something I thought I would never do. This is a milestone for me in my life. Win, lose or draw, I am going to have fun and meet some fellow practitioners and do I what I love to do, Jiu Jitsu. Wish me Luck!
