Thoughts on Motivation for 2010

My coach keep mentioning that I need to start developing my game for competition and start taking a less defensive approach when rolling. Based on that comment this post is a brainstorm of sorts on how to develop a competitive game when you don't have the option of sparing with suitable competitors, for me this would be someone a)female and b) anyone weighing less than 65kg of which the academy is certainly lacking.

Not having a suitable sparing partner is not the end of the world but it is important to consider the advantages and disadvantages and how your game could be lacking because of it. I'm sure most girls training bjj have had their concerns on such matters met with the old "training with the guys is better for you, it will make you stronger then when your fighting with girls you'll kick their ass!" For me fighting with guys who are often bigger or stronger means I have to really ensure my technique is perfect because i do not possess the strength to compensate for small mistakes. I feel its important to point out that in all my fights my opponents have never been lacking in strength, i feel most girls training bjj have that one covered, so don't think you will be able to destroy other girls when you get the chance to fight in competitions. The most important lesson you can learn is to perfect technique and "neutralise the aggression" * of your bigger stronger opponents when training as this is something that you can use to your advantage when competing.

So what are some of the things I have been doing to get me out of my usual routine and think more in terms of how I would roll to develop my competition game rather than just survive the 5 minutes and be happy that some 85kg guy was unable to completely crush me.

Roll with different people - this may seem fairly obvious but I've gotten to the point where i know who I like to spar with. I how to defend the moves they like to use, tell when they are getting tired and generally know I can survive 5 minutes without any real threat of injury. After the 5 minutes are up I'm happy I managed to defend against their attacks, escape or reverse positions and maybe control them in my guard but is this a performance I would be happy with in competition - hells no - In competition I want to be continuously attacking and controlling my opponent not just simply surviving. I am forcing myself to ask someone completely different to roll with each class because it means during that roll I'm out of my comfort zone and in a different mind set. **

Work your brain not just your body - I train a lot, some days if I'm tired and stiff or just in a bad mood its easy to just make it through training without really thinking too much. After the warm up, conditioning, and drills its easy to grab the same old training buddies and just flow not really thinking too much about your performance when sparring. I have been trying to avoid this and make sure that its not just my body working but also my mind. I try and think strategically about my opponents the same way I would in a fight, I love bjj for its tactical side you have to be able to think and make connections between moves constantly.

These are the two main things that have been helping me to think more positivly about developing my game for competition. Some more general tips would be to get your friend to score points when you are sparing to see where you are losing or potentially giving up points and just to remind you of the rules when compeating. Attending as many semiars or open mat sessions as possible(there are more and more womans open mat sessions being hosted, unfortunatly there are none in the UAE or Bahrain)can really help give you the chance to roll with different people closer to your size and see how you do in a non competative environment. Its a good feeling to finally see how much more fluid your game can be against an evenly matched competator, it might not be easy but you will definatley feel the 20kg differance when your executing a nice sweep.


* quote by Hellio Gracie
** (this being said there are still a select few guys I avoid rolling with at all costs, the ones that crank submissions, crush me with their knee on belly and shoulder to the face, or even worse just lye on top of me for the duration of the roll, I know bjj is not a sport for the faint hearted but these people will always have the mind set of taking every roll as an opportunity to crush and destroy their opponent by any means seeing each tap as a personal victory and I don't feel I learn anything by sparing with them.

stripe and seminars

Well last night was the last night of our 2 week semiar with alex monsalv, I managed to make it to most of the classes and really enjoyed his style of bjj. Feel like my game is getting better now that I've stopped sitting down on my ass and pulling gaurd so much which was a slight problem before, I think the reason I started doing it so much is 1) I suck at standing and passing open guard and 2) guard seemed like the safer option with most of the bigger or more technical guys. BUT thats not how my game is in competition so its good to at least be more agressive and try passing their gaurd.

We had 3 belt upgrades from white to blue, one was ali who just turned 16 so could switch his green belt to blue rolling with him still frustrates the hell out of me becasue he's fast and uses positions the other guys just physically can't (i think he secretly trains yoga). Muneer and Jeff also got thier blue belt so congratulations I think that makes around 10 of us now? Reza also gave stripes out I was a bit surprised but also happy to get one as it feels like i just graded to blue not that long ago.

In other news lost my passport so probably won't be coming back to the UK before january as the uk embasy is having problems at the minute soo kinda bumed about that but at least it means I can plan my trip properly and maybe do the europeans or some other comps when i'm over.

Heres a couple of bjj quotes I found that I like

A real jiu-jitsu fighter does not go around beating people down. Our defense is made to neutralize aggression. "
-Helio Gracie

"The secret to this sport is while you are the nail hang in there, let them hit you. Untill the day that you become the hammer and then you smash them back." - Renzo Gracie

Pictures

Feeling too sick to write anything remotely intelligent or entertaining, was getting into a really good training routine till alex infected me with flu haha ahh well at least we get to spend some time together even if it is wrapped up in blankets watching californication and burn notice :)

Till I recover Here's some pics from training

sunshine and shwarma's

Not been to training much the last few weeks, not sure why, really lacking motivation as I just don't feel like I have a good training partner here so I've just gotten in to the habit of playing defensively and not doing a much else plus there are no competitions until the Europeans and that's if I manage to go mehh so things are a bit doom and gloom at the minute. Trying to check out if there are many females training in the UAE found that there was a purple belt called Ghalia Baggily teaching in dubai buuut shes not there any more, dropped her a message on fb asking if there were many other girls training there becasue I can't find any useful info on google!!! Had my birthday but it just made me feel homesick which is stupid seeing as this is technically home.

I'm still really enjoying capoeira it would be nice to do some stand up again too but maybe I'll just buy a punching bag for now as I don't think my body cant take any other more classes at the minute. I've been taking loads of vitamins for my joints, my fingers hurt like hell at the minute and look ooogly too (too much playing guard). Its helped a bit its a mix of glucosamine sulphate, msm and fish-oil so hopefully after a month they will take effect.

Recent academy news Alex Monsalve from Alliance is coming out for 2 weeks on the 15th november which means there will be 3 black belts teaching :)

I've been earning some money by doing circuit training, personal training and diet/nutrition plans which has been keeping me busy. See example diet for male athlete 76kg training 10h a week aim lose 2kg body fat maintain lean body mass

2300-2700kcal
Carbohydrate: 318g (1272 kcal) 55% total daily intake
Protein: 145g (580kcal) 25% total daily intake
Fat = 50g (423kcal) 20% total daily intake

80g (400kcal)surplus carbs for sports drink/recovery bars if needed on heavy training day


Breakfast (2h before training)
50g porridge oats
300ml skimmed milk
1 carton 150g low fat yogurt
100g berries


Midmorning snack 4 oat cakes
120g cottage cheese

Lunch (2-4 hours before training or 3 hours after last meal)
Low GL for slow release of energy during long training session
175g grilled white fish
1 large sweet potato 300g
1 portion of carrots 85g
1 portion of broccoli 85g


Post training High GI snack (if training in evening for quick absorption of glucose and replenishment of glycogen stores)
2 alpine bar
200ml chocolate milk
1 medium apple

Dinner 2-4 hours after training or 3 hours after last meal/snack

Brown rice 85g uncooked weight

120g grilled chicken

1 large portion 85g vegetables


Exercise wise I'm liking partner exercises as they work well and are also fun, most of them would fit in really well with bjj or any martial arts training as you can get a good conditioning work out in without the need for too much equipment.
Here's some video's I found on Youtube :)

Training lots

Well I have been back for a month now and training is going well. Haven't updated in a while which is rubbish seeing as all I have been doing in training due to lack of job! Anyways as we have a couple new teachers over from Brazil class times have changed to 2 hours at night from 7-9 and 1 hour in the morning from 10-11. My schedule has been looking somethings like this.

sunday: BJJ 10-11, Nogi 7-9
monday: Capoeira 6-7 BJJ 7-9
tuesday BJJ 10-11, 7-9
Wednesday: capoeria 6-7 BJJ 7-9
thursday: BJJ 10-11, 7-9
friday: off
saturday: capoeria 6-7 BJJ 7-9

Saying that I missed yesterday completely as I was tired and decided to take the guys out on the boat in the afternoon, so I crashed out early and slept through no gi training. My new Brazilian friends have labelled it with great amusement "vagabond style" As i still have no job and have just been training and showing them round Bahrain.

In other news I started doing capoeira, as we have a new teacher called Luciano who pretty much just defies gravity. I have been so focused on bjj that I thought it would be good to mix things up and try capoeria while I have the chance. The first class is a blur and I didn't really have a clue what was going on, my brain is defiantly more wired for fighting on the ground! We started by doing a warm up which included jumping over and ducking under some kind of stick and lots of stretching then he taught the basic stance or ginga position and worked on attack and defence from there. By the second class I was starting to pick up on some of the names and actually realise what was going on a bit more, this class we worked on handstands and headstands, headstands i can do but handstands still need a bit of work! I found it a bit more easy to get the rhythm when we were sparing at the end. I'm really enjoying the class so far I like the music played on the berimbau which is like a huge bow, the class gives me a completely different energy than bjj, for now I'm doing 3 classes a week but I'll see how it goes after a month I might start doing more.

Lilac Vulkan gi

I'm happy that my birthday and christmas are coming up - if anyone is wondering what to get me I really like this gi!- Tried on the new vulkan light weight and the fit is great and are really good quality. If anyone is looking for one you can get them from budovideos website (link under womans training gear) they deliver super fast, I was impressed when my friend ordered one and it found its way to Bahrain in a matter of days! Oh and I just read Georgette (see my blog roll) has ordered one and is going to review it so I'll be looking forward to reading that!

Throws and Takedowns

As this part of my game is lacking quite a bit I decided to get my ass into gear and start working on the standup part of my game. There are loads of different techniques and approaches to take the match to the floor in BJJ. Very broadly speaking there are 2 options, one is to pull a form of guard and therefore commence the fight from this position to work on sweeps or submissions. The second is working to get a takedown or throw and ending up in a dominant position usually in side control or mount. In all of my fights I have used some kind of takedown or throw, or someone has pulled guard on me.

I guess so far I have been lucky as to be honest I never had a particular throw or takedown in mind I usually ended up countering my opponents move when I felt them off balanced. So I browsed online for a good DVD to get me inspired and ordered "Brazilian jiu jitsu - techniques and tactics volume one throws and takedowns"

The dvd is presented by master Marcus vinicius di lucia, and is very well organised. It begins with a number of judo throws divided into legs hip and arm throws. Once you watch the dvd a few times and start to remember all the traditional judo names for things you can then watch the section on combination and counter throws which starts to get your brain ticking a bit more on not just how to attack with only one option but know how to respond to your opponents response and use this to your advantage. The last section is on takedowns which I have never really enjoyed probably because they often involve alot of explosive strength and changing levels to shoot in which I don't mind in no-gi but tend to steer clear of in bjj as I'm usually with heavier people and have more luck with throws. However we have been drilling lots of takedowns at rezas so maybe I will start to get the hang of them a bit more.

I would defiantly recommend this DVD for white and blue belts, it helps you to feel a bit more confident regarding your standup which is often where people seem to have the biggest problems. It also includes a bonus section with some good stretches and a quick cardio workout. So far I have managed to successfully switch between the leg throws O soto gari and o uchi gari

Here's a clip of the dvd from Youtube