I was finally able to get a class in. I haven't gone for about a week and change until today. Work is killing me . . .

I doubled up on classes today and did the no-gi class followed by the mma class. The no-gi class was great. I paired up with a really great partner who is very good and also does not hold back on very useful tips during our rolls together. It also helps that he is around my size. Height-wise anyway . . . he's definitely still a bigger guy than I am.

Anyway, Leo was instructing today and he showed us a great move from the mount. In no-gi, there are less attack options from the mount because a lot of the choke attacks from there are depending on the gi. He showed us one option you can go to from full mount: taking the back.

One hand underhooks his head and I use my shoulder to drive into his face and pin it side ways. Assuming he's defending by putting his arms in an "X" shape under his chin, my free arm underhooks his same-side arm and I walk his arm up with my arm so that it looks like I'm trying for an arm triangle. Once his arm is against his face I sandwich it between his head and my head and replace the original arm underhooking his head with the arm that walked up his arm.

I wrap my hand under his neck and around his shoulder like I'm trying to dig downward into his armpit. I used that grip to turn him belly-down, while my leg kicks his legs down to spin him all the way.

After Leo's class, I took a 15 minute break until the next class, which is the mma class taught by Sapo. The technique of the day he showed us was a way to transition to full mount from side.

Shoulder pressure to make him look away, top arm underhooking his head. My bottom arm weaves under and then over his legs and I drive his legs away so that I'm pinning them down away from me. My head-side leg turns parallel and flush against his back while my other leg pins down his top knee that is pointed away from me. My knee is resting on the ground while my foot is stepping on his thigh and not the ground. The arm I used to drive his legs away and pin it down gets replaced by my knee, and I complete the transition to full mount by underhooking his far arm to make sure he does not put me back in guard as I make my way towards full mount.

I took a picture after class:

Me with Rafael "Sapo" Natal

I met up with with Pat after class. I went to his lion dance youth club today to work on some stuff with him. His club just got brand new gear and I had the chance to learn some kicks from him to break in their new banana  bag. It's too bad his gym does not have mats. The wooden floor is old and definitely not good for any type of barefoot activity.

I'm trying to look for some mats to donate to his club. He's trying to get something started at his club and I think it's a great idea. Like the character "Cutty" from The Wire, I also think that training in martial arts is a great thing, especially for younger people. It develops discipline. In The Wire it was boxing. At Pat's club, it's muay thai.

If the only thing stopping anybody from training is the lack of resources, I would always be more than happy to help. I really hope he gets something good going at his gym. I'm hoping it will also be a positive thing for him too because it might motivate him more to attend his own classes at his gym more often.

I renamed my blog in haste after I changed the wordpress theme for this site. It was just a random thought that popped up and I typed away. I think it's lame but have not been able to think of anything. Been thinking about it for almost two weeks.

In the meantime, I'll leave it for now. I was trying to think of a name that would describe what this blog was about but I guess not much came to mind. I don't mean to get all martial-artsy philosophical and shit, but jiu-jitsu and life have a lot in common.

Jiu-jitsu is about using brains intead of brawn. It's not about using force and hurting your opponent but rather to use superior skill in order to get compliance. Not much different from life is it? If you have a peanut, why would you want to use a hammer to smash it open when the smartest way is to just gently squeeze? Deeeeeeeeep right?

jj rewards patience and hard work. It's also fun. And isn't this all what life is about?

Well anyway today I got my ass kicked in the gym so that definitely was not fun.

*Forgot to add that the "corporate" part came from this band that I liked a lot when I was in college, Something Corporate. I always thought the band name was pretty cool.

Anyway, I thought it would be cool to do this, but with people I know instead. So far this is only the second week, but already some people have taken some pretty interesting shots. We are following the challenges that are posted  on http://www.photofriday.com/.

This morning, as I was walking east towards the train station the sun was shining directly in my face. I didn't have time to think of anything cool so I just snapped two or three shots and went about my way.

17.

Didn't quite get the effect I want but it'll do.

After work, as I exited the revolving doors of my building, I turned to my left and was met with the sun once again shining right into my face. I thought it would be a great shot, and it almost was.

I did not know what those ugly colored spots were so I asked my friend Steve. He schooled me on out of focus higlights. Better lenses produce more desirable oof highlights/bokeh. I think he said that one of the factors is the way the shutter is shaped?

Well, as you can see above, those ugly red hexagonal splotches on that picture ruin the picture =X

After I left work I went to my 7:30 bjj class. Had a very good training session today. I wasn't getting into dominating positions but for most of my rolls I thought I was moving and defending well. The techniques my instructor taught today were pretty cool too, since I can't recall the last time I learned a move from the north/south turtle position.

The first was a head and arm. D'arce? I don't know. My instructor, Magno Gama, said that all these names are new to him. I've heard another instructor say that in Brazil, all chokes are just chokes. Hell, most of the moves we learn don't even have names to them. It's either a "sweep" or a "choke" or an "escape."

The second move was another option in case he defends the first move by tucking in his arms. Magno was demonstrating the move when someone asked aloud if this was the Peruvian necktie. Magno said he does not call it that. Renzo was doing this way before people even started to call it the Peruvian necktie. If you want to call it that though, it's fine with me, he told us.

I asked someone to help me take a picture of me and Magno after class.

Magno Gama. One of the many instructors at RGA.

I don’t know anyone who has been training in the sport of grappling for an extensive period of time that hasn’t experienced a slump or been in some sort of rut. When you are in a training slump you may experience the following:

- You don’t feel like your improving and have the feeling that you no longer will.

- You’re starting to feel frustrated.

- You feel unmotivated.

- You feel like you want to quit training all together.

- You feel nothing is going right.

Being able to get through your slump in grappling could be the determining factor of whether you continue in your training or not. If you do continue and get through your first slump, then getting through other slumps will get easier. If you don’t get through your slump, then chances are that you probably won’t be grappling much longer. I’ve seen training slumps make and break many people. 

Continue to the rest of the article here.

While I did not personally find many of the tips useful, it's comforting to know that I'm not alone.

Everyone has their bad days I guess.

What matters more is what we do after those bad days. I really liked this quote at the beginning of the article

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached as by the obstacles that one has overcome while trying to succeed.” ~ Mark Twain

That's what it says on my mouthguard.

Today I had one of those days at the gym where it's so bad it makes me almost want to quit. I don't know if anyone who does not train can relate. It was the first time I've ever finished a class angry. I felt angry at myself for doing so poorly. It's been almost two years. Did I learn anything at all?

Today's just one of those days where I have to dust myself off and keep on going.

I recently read a post on a grappling forum I browse where the thread starter was complaining about how he was frustrated by how his instructors often never taught counters to the techniques taught in class. He felt that instructors should teach both the technique and the counter to the technique.

Now, I understand some of the arguments against this. One of the strongest arguments is that if a counter is taught at the same time the technique is being taught, students will be frustrated in class when they can't apply the move because they will be countered all day and will get the impression that it "doesn't work." They would be discouraged from using it because of their frustrated atttempts.

But most of the responses to the the thread starter was along the lines of "STFU you suck, just keep training." "Stop bitching." etc. etc. Everyone felt the TS was an idiot because, over time, you will learn a lot of this through experience on the mats. While I don't disagree that mat time is always the best way to get better, I was shocked that people did not feel that there might be a better way to approach teaching/learning brazilian jiu-jitsu.

I'm not saying I agree that a counter should be taught immediately alongside a specific technique, but why not during the same week? Or the same month?

I brought up that perhaps a more structured and focused approach to teaching might yield greater results. Not necessarily a strict curriculum, but maybe classes could be taught in such a way that a specific concept was focused on each week or each month. This was shot down with a response that basically amounted to "but it won't work!"

The current approach it seems is a haphazard "technique of the day" approach, at least from my experience. Each class, the instructor shows a particular move, but it is never tied in to a move learned the previous day or is seemingly unrelated to the previous lesson. While I have no doubt about the skills or teaching capabilities of any of my instructors, it appears that instructors figure out what they want to teach in class the day of.

Why should brazilian jiu jitsu be any different than a typical school teacher's curriculum? I believe with more thought and planning, bjj can be taught and learned more effectively. One day I hope to prove myself right by teaching.

Of course, not ALL instructors teach like this, and in fact some instructors DO put thought, effort and planning into what they teach their students.

But I want to prove the naysayers wrong. That the generally accepted way of doing things is NOT the best way. Just because world champions have been produced out of the current way of doing things does not mean that the system is perfect. There is always room for change and improvement.

Too many people have the mentality that just because they did things a certain way, that it is the right way to do things because hey, they turned out fine. Suggesting anything otherwise is nothing short of an assault on their character! This is true not just in brazilian jiu-jitsu, but in just about every aspect of someone's life.

I forgot how the question goes, but it's something similar to that. It's a question that I've come across in the past that I was never able to answer. It's supposed to help you discover what your passion is in life, or at least that's what they say.

Well in the past few weeks, I've been secretly entertaining an idea that will probably only amount to nothing more than a dream, at least in the near future. I hope to one day open my own bjj school, but I want to focus on a youth program. Schools in the city are notoriously expensive. Ideally it'd be a low cost after-school recreational type of thing.

I want to open up my own school because I want to spread the art. I love and believe in brazilian jiu-jitsu. I love the concept of minimum effort for maximum efficiency. Of personal efficiency to protest the stronger. The force of leverage against brute force.

I want to focus on youth because I feel it is not very known on that level. When parents think of martial arts for their children, they think of karate or TKD. I want brazilian jiu-jitsu to be accepted into the mainstream. To be viewed beyond the context of UFC, which is what many people associate it with. I also think bjj is great for youth because it'd help keep them in great shape due to the intense nature of the sports. Way better than video games. It's also competitive but fun at the same time, and most importantly, the skills you learn in bjj are PRACTICAL.

I'm a long way from opening my own school. Hell I'm a long way from even being close to being qualified to teach.

None of this means very much if I don't train hard. I have years and years to go before any of this can be a possibility.

5:20am: Wake up
6:30am - 4:30pm: Work
6:00pm - 7:30pm: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
8:45pm - 10:30pm: Get home, shower, eat, check all the websites that are blocked at work (email, fb, etc.), then sleep.

Rinse and repeat.

If I sleep any later than 10:30pm, I feel like shit the next day. One or two days of the week I substitute BJJ with the gym. A friend of mine joined the same gym, so it's nice to have someone to work out with.

I just did my first no-gi class in BJJ last night. It was fun but it felt completely different. It's weird not to have the grips on the gi to use, and the pace feels so much faster. I just placed an order for two of Matt Thornton's DVDs (FJKD3, disc 1 & 2). Expensive as hell. It's 39 a pop and there's 9 DVDs in the set. I only ordered the first two because it'll probably be more than enough for me to digest. The reviews were good, so I can't wait to check it out. The next DVD set I want to get is Brandon Quick's Fade to Black. It's supposed to be an amazing instructional, focusing on chokes.

In other news, if anyone has been following the news at all they might know about the shooting that happened in Binghamton on Friday. I went to SUNY Binghamton, and the place where the shooting happened was a few blocks away from the house I used to live at. This is a tragedy. I don't know why these mass murdering rampages have been so common in the past several years, starting with Columbine.

Anyway, I was upset to find out that the shooter was Asian. A friend of mine remarked how he thought it was funny how I got worked up about the fact that he was Asian. This is a tragedy regardless of his race/ethnicity/religion, but I cringed when I found out he was Asian because we have been in the media lately for some crazy shit. There's the Virginia Tech psycho. Then the Canadian guy who decapitated someone on a bus, and another Virginia Tech guy who decapitated a woman in a coffee shop. Now this.

I don't want people to have the impression that Asians are repressed psychotic individuals who will snap at any moment. May be a little too late for that though.

Anyway, as I was reading the paper this morning, some of the accounts from the survivors really got to me. One man told of how he wanted to protect his wife because all he could think about was how he needed her to be alive to raise their two children. He threw his body over hers to protect her, but a bullet that hit him went right through and fatally wounded her. He stayed with her body for over an hour until the authorities came in. Tragic.

So many senseless murders lately that it's almost becoming the norm. I just read this morning about the guy in Seattle who killed his five children and finally himself. It was discovered that he snapped because his wife had planned to leave him.

What's wrong with the world today?

I started this post on a positive note and now it's ending on a sad one.

For those who are unfamiliar (taken from my Academy's website):

Brazilian jiu jitsu is a grappling-based martial art whose central theme is the skill of controlling a resisting opponent in ways that force him to submit. Due to the fact that control is generally easier on the ground than in a standing position, much of the technique of Brazilian jiu jitsu is centered round the skill of taking an opponent down to the ground and wrestling for dominant control positions from where the opponent can be rendered harmless. To control and overcome greater size, strength and aggression with lesser size and strength is the keynote of the sport. This is done by utilizing superior leverage, grip and position upon your opponent. Students of the sport gain a deep understanding of the workings and limits of the human body. This knowledge can be used to subdue and control an opponent with whatever level of severity the student chooses. The path to this knowledge is physically and mentally demanding. Students benefit from greatly increased physical fitness, problem-solving ability, self-knowledge of their body and mind and the many social benefits of working within a large group of like-minded fellow students as you learn and have fun together.

Long Island

Serra Jiu Jitsu - Run by Matt and Nick Serra (Huntington and East Meadow)

Redboy BJJ - I hear about them alot.(Port Jefferson)

Soca Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy - Run by Alexandre "Soca" Freitas (Bellmore)

Scarola BJJ - Run Joe Scarola. Used to roll with Matt Serra but split from him. His school is now a Gracie Barra affiliate. (New Hyde Park)

D'Arce BJJ - Also run by a Renzo black belt. (Bay Shore)

Queens

Magno Gama BJJ - Magno is an instructor at my school (RGA) and now teaches in Astoria, Queens on certain days. The link I posted is to his Myspace. I don't think his website is up yet because his school is pretty new. He is an EXCELLENT teacher.

Staten Island

Codella Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Run by a Renzo Gracie black belt.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn BJJ - This place is highly recommended for Brooklyn.

Lotus Club Brooklyn - Run by brown belts. Sounds like a legit place.

Manhattan

JiuJitsuInc (I think this was formerly known as Studio X) - Run by a Kenny Florian Black Belt.

Alliance NYC - Run by Fabio Clemente. Top notch school. It seems they consistently do well in competitions.

Renzo Gracie Academy - My academy. Great facilities. Good instruction. Lots of class times offered for flexibility. Downside is that it's a big academy, so it's a bit impersonal at times and also tuition is a bitch. This is probably true of all Manhattan schools though.

By no means is this a comprehensive list of schools in the NYC area. It's just what I was able to think of off the top of my head.