On the way to the Mendes seminar, Rachael and I decided to do something a little crazy. It may not be a good expenditure of money, but whatever. Going to stay mum on the details until it happens on the off chance that anyone from my gym reads this.
This week in class has been markedly better than the past couple of weeks. I pretty on Monday, as evidenced by doing much better than usual against Jason S. Chris N. took it relatively easy on me. I wish he had a little bit more of a middle ground, but to be honest, a lot of people probably think that about me too.
Did Wed morn and night class, my first double in several weeks. Rolled pretty well in both of those. In the evening class it was KOTH, win by back, mount or sub. I started off with Jay and after what seemed like quite awhile I got to his back. After that it was Levi. He's a tall, strong MMA fighter who's a white belt that has submitted me before. I knew that I was up against, and worked to tie him up in my guard. I went for and failed on a couple of arm submissions. I was able to maintain guard, and at one point he sat so far back in my guard that I was able to get the hip bump sweep into mount. Jenny next, who got to mount but wasn't able to maintain for 3sec. I came out on top somehow, don't remember how. Finally it was very new guy who was strong as an ox. Again, I tied him up in my guard, where he had good instincts when it came to not getting too far forward or back and avoiding me getting my knees inside. However, his offense consisted of grabbing my wrists in a death grip and not doing anything else. I wasn't able to break the grips, and I was starting to get concerned as to exactly what I was going to do to generate offense. Time was called, which saved me from figuring it out.
Rachael and I did three no gi rounds after class. I also rolled no gi with Chaz, who gave me a really balanced roll which was pretty nice.
I'm working to get back to lifting, even if it's just a little bit. Three times a week under the bar and see if I can stick with it.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Gui Mendes Seminar
Two day seminar, one day in gi and the other day in no gi. Three hours each, consisting of two hours of instruction and then about a half hour of rolling and another half hour of Q&A.
The instruction was very good, and covered pulling guard, getting into the KOD position, bolo, setting up the knee cut pass, pass drills, etc. I think the biggest benefit that pulled from it was general principles as opposed to specific techniques. For example, when Gui passes to side-control, he walks the hips back so that your opponent is in a leg drag position instead of just flat on their back. This is a better control position and gives you possible back-take options.
The Mendes brothers tend to take one of their students to seminars as the uke, and the two of them seemed very insulated. They were more than happy to answer questions and help with technique while we were drilling, but outside of that they didn't interact with participants. Not a huge deal b/c I didn't attend the seminar to become their friend. However, the seminars where I've been able to just chat with the instructor were really outstanding.
A couple of our guys rolled with Gui on Saturday, and everyone except for myself rolled with him on Sunday. I did roll with Mason, his purple belt. He was great to roll with, as he was clearly more experienced but was happy to flow to different positions and not try to kill me.
I took some notes from the seminar that I'm going to have to write out soon otherwise I'm going to forget which would be a real shame.
The instruction was very good, and covered pulling guard, getting into the KOD position, bolo, setting up the knee cut pass, pass drills, etc. I think the biggest benefit that pulled from it was general principles as opposed to specific techniques. For example, when Gui passes to side-control, he walks the hips back so that your opponent is in a leg drag position instead of just flat on their back. This is a better control position and gives you possible back-take options.
The Mendes brothers tend to take one of their students to seminars as the uke, and the two of them seemed very insulated. They were more than happy to answer questions and help with technique while we were drilling, but outside of that they didn't interact with participants. Not a huge deal b/c I didn't attend the seminar to become their friend. However, the seminars where I've been able to just chat with the instructor were really outstanding.
A couple of our guys rolled with Gui on Saturday, and everyone except for myself rolled with him on Sunday. I did roll with Mason, his purple belt. He was great to roll with, as he was clearly more experienced but was happy to flow to different positions and not try to kill me.
I took some notes from the seminar that I'm going to have to write out soon otherwise I'm going to forget which would be a real shame.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Vacation
Took a week off of everything. Stayed at a friend's cabin in the woods near a lake. Did a lot of hiking, eating and sleeping.
Back to Friday morning class, then off to Seattle for a two day Gui Mendes seminar.
Worked with Opal and Anjela for technique, which was ok. I wanted to work with someone who was more experienced, but the numbers of the class dictated a group of three. I wanted someone with more experience as we were doing fairly advanced cross guard techniques. Selfish of me to not want to work with people who were newer, but there it is.
Rolls were ok. Rolled with Kelly first, who has decided to stop cranking my neck. He did several rolling back attacks, to which I had a decent defense. He came out on top most of the time and apparently wasn't looking hard for submissions.
Rolled with Opal, and I gave her some tips on the knee cut pass.
Rolled with Chuck and was doing fairly well until I paused at a dicey top position. He came up on top and very nearly got to mount.
Roll with Chris N. He pretty much kicked my ass. He was going pretty hard, getting a kimura from bottom side-control, a choke from top turtle and maybe something else. I got pissed near the end and started rolling more aggressively. Once again I got my ass handed to me by a blue belt, and once again rolling was no fun. I'd like to think it's a continuation of runaway hormones. I'm going through that phase where I'm sick and tired of being the worst performing purple belt on the mat. The fact that I have two stripes seems like a kindof joke. I know I need to disregard the belt color and blah blah blah, but I'm caught up in it for some reason.
Looking forward to the seminar and hoping it shakes me out of my rut.
Back to Friday morning class, then off to Seattle for a two day Gui Mendes seminar.
Worked with Opal and Anjela for technique, which was ok. I wanted to work with someone who was more experienced, but the numbers of the class dictated a group of three. I wanted someone with more experience as we were doing fairly advanced cross guard techniques. Selfish of me to not want to work with people who were newer, but there it is.
Rolls were ok. Rolled with Kelly first, who has decided to stop cranking my neck. He did several rolling back attacks, to which I had a decent defense. He came out on top most of the time and apparently wasn't looking hard for submissions.
Rolled with Opal, and I gave her some tips on the knee cut pass.
Rolled with Chuck and was doing fairly well until I paused at a dicey top position. He came up on top and very nearly got to mount.
Roll with Chris N. He pretty much kicked my ass. He was going pretty hard, getting a kimura from bottom side-control, a choke from top turtle and maybe something else. I got pissed near the end and started rolling more aggressively. Once again I got my ass handed to me by a blue belt, and once again rolling was no fun. I'd like to think it's a continuation of runaway hormones. I'm going through that phase where I'm sick and tired of being the worst performing purple belt on the mat. The fact that I have two stripes seems like a kindof joke. I know I need to disregard the belt color and blah blah blah, but I'm caught up in it for some reason.
Looking forward to the seminar and hoping it shakes me out of my rut.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Perspective
There are some thoughts that I've been wanting to articulate since this weekend, and I think I finally have the space to give it a go.
The first is that I was completely stunned at how well the three of us did. I keep throwing the word "proud" out there when it comes to my teammates, but it doesn't sufficiently convey the depth of my feeling, even if it's accompanied by a bunch of adverbs.
I wasn't anxious, but I wasn't particularly excited about competing in my own bracket. I was drained from running around to their matches and all of the involved emotions. Having breakfast and then a few snacks throughout the day was nowhere enough food to be at top form by 6pm. I made a huge error in not figuring out how to get food.
Related, I regret not doing absolute. I had a solid chance to double-medal and even get another gold. THAT would have been pretty amazing. Had I managed the food situation better, I could have chilled out after my win and just sucked it up to compete. I knew from previous experience that absolute often runs late.
My second win was sloppy. I'm not at all pleased that I gave up a sweep so quickly. I knew she was good at deep half and I still tried a risky move to take the back instead of making staying on top a priority. If nothing else, this is an opportunity to learn from a win.
I'm really over the bandying about of the term "world champion". It's fun to joke about it with friends, but the reality is that I won two matches. Two. The tournament happens to be called 'World Master'. I am not a world champion. I won my division at a tournament, that's it. Buchecha and Mackenzie Dern are world champions. James is making a big deal about having three world champions, and I'm not feeling terribly comfortable with it.
Now that Rachael has been promoted to purple, we're going to have to figure out how we're going to handle tournaments. We knew this would come up sooner or later. It's possible that I could drop down to Med Heavy, but I don't think I'm going to want to do that except for possibly Pans and Worlds. I think my plan until next May is to compete adult divisions. If I get consistently steamrolled then I should reconsider doing adult Worlds next year. I might do it anyway...I really want to see the black belt matches at Worlds. Even if I suck in comparison to my division I'd regret not trying. Next year will be my last year in my 30s and possibly my last year at purple. I don't expect that I'd be promoted to brown before summer of 2017 but it's possible.
My game the whole week has been absolutely sucking. I don't know what's wrong. I don't feel extra pressure, I just feel kindof clueless on the mat. I'm fairly certain that it's just a phase and will pass.
The first is that I was completely stunned at how well the three of us did. I keep throwing the word "proud" out there when it comes to my teammates, but it doesn't sufficiently convey the depth of my feeling, even if it's accompanied by a bunch of adverbs.
I wasn't anxious, but I wasn't particularly excited about competing in my own bracket. I was drained from running around to their matches and all of the involved emotions. Having breakfast and then a few snacks throughout the day was nowhere enough food to be at top form by 6pm. I made a huge error in not figuring out how to get food.
Related, I regret not doing absolute. I had a solid chance to double-medal and even get another gold. THAT would have been pretty amazing. Had I managed the food situation better, I could have chilled out after my win and just sucked it up to compete. I knew from previous experience that absolute often runs late.
My second win was sloppy. I'm not at all pleased that I gave up a sweep so quickly. I knew she was good at deep half and I still tried a risky move to take the back instead of making staying on top a priority. If nothing else, this is an opportunity to learn from a win.
I'm really over the bandying about of the term "world champion". It's fun to joke about it with friends, but the reality is that I won two matches. Two. The tournament happens to be called 'World Master'. I am not a world champion. I won my division at a tournament, that's it. Buchecha and Mackenzie Dern are world champions. James is making a big deal about having three world champions, and I'm not feeling terribly comfortable with it.
Now that Rachael has been promoted to purple, we're going to have to figure out how we're going to handle tournaments. We knew this would come up sooner or later. It's possible that I could drop down to Med Heavy, but I don't think I'm going to want to do that except for possibly Pans and Worlds. I think my plan until next May is to compete adult divisions. If I get consistently steamrolled then I should reconsider doing adult Worlds next year. I might do it anyway...I really want to see the black belt matches at Worlds. Even if I suck in comparison to my division I'd regret not trying. Next year will be my last year in my 30s and possibly my last year at purple. I don't expect that I'd be promoted to brown before summer of 2017 but it's possible.
My game the whole week has been absolutely sucking. I don't know what's wrong. I don't feel extra pressure, I just feel kindof clueless on the mat. I'm fairly certain that it's just a phase and will pass.
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