It's been awhile since my last post, not because I've been resting and doing nothing, but because I've been pretty busy, both with Jiu-Jitsu and work. I have some travels, experiences, and of course some research to tell you all about; if you're on my Facebook page then you've seen the pics and some of the stories but there's a lot I haven't shown or told! Since my last post I returned home just in time test for my orange belt in Japanese Goshin Ju-Jutsu, I revisited James "300" Foster's for a weekend super seminar, had some time to reflect on the Mini-Odyssey, competed in a tournament which involved my first no gi competition, and just recently took off to Tokyo, Japan to train with some amazing people for a week then came back in time to watch my teammates test for their belts and attend Keith Owen's special Halloween seminar we had. Wow, I've been busy! I'm still reeling from the Tokyo experience and the whole thing has brought up more ideas and things to look into before the Odyssey starts next year! With all these experiences and stories to cover you can bet there's going to be a few posts made, this all would be way too big for one single post!
The Home Front
Before we dive into some of these awesome stories let me first let you know where I am on a personal level. I'm still training as much as I can, having fun with all my awesome Jiu-Jitsu family, getting in all the knowledge I can. As for work I'm no longer along side on solid ground, I'm now back to working on ships (I'm a member of the Canadian Forces Navy, in case you didn't know) and with that I can expect to be sailing in the near future. Sailing, while I don't mind it and like getting out there, doing some good and seeing the world, I do mind being away from consistent training and unable to regularly work on this project. So as a warning, coming up in the new year you may hear less from me, but I will try and keep you all posted on my martial arts travels and training experiences. Some times it's hard to get time to sit down and write up full blog posts like this so if you like reading my stuff and following my experiences, join my Facebook group Panda's Odyssey: My Journey Across the World with Martial Arts I like to drop pics and bits of stories on my travels I that group before anywhere else.
Opening My Eyes
All this recent traveling and the experiences I've had along the way has really added fuel to this adventure, to my quest to prepare for my The Odyssey, to travel the world training and learning all the martial arts I can. But now it's more than that, there's an aspect I've overlooked, and I really can't believe I never thought of this; now it's also about going out there and seeing the world, experiencing the different cultures and meeting all the cool people out there! I knew I'd meet cool like-minded people and knew that that alone would be an amazing experience, making friends as I travel. But what I didn't account for was the fun I'd have and awe I'd be in seeing and experiencing different cultures. Seeing how different people in different cities in different countries get along on their everyday life. I've always been a bit of a people watcher, it's actually what I like most about going out to clubs and bars, watching all the different human interactions. So it's strange that I never once thought about enjoying being in new cities so much, sure I thought about seeing the sites and views the places have to offer, but never thought about the people outside the gyms whose paths I'd be crossing everyday. If this seems strange to you, my post about Tokyo will shed some light, but I don't want to give too much away, the point I'm trying to make now is that there's much more than a cool building to see or new place to train at that the destination has to offer.
The Belt Test
During the Mini-Odyssey I was spending free time studying for my orange belt test for the traditional Japanese Ju-Jutsu I also train in. As I wrote in the Mini-Odyssey Week One my private lesson with Kyoshi Seamark helped tremendously (thank you again for that Sir!) and I felt quit confident for the test. I actually made it back in town just in time for an open mat session and went straight from the airport to the club to run through the test with the other teammates testing. After a successful training everything felt great, despite being jetlagged and the ears still being swollen and hurt (I suffered a double ear infection while in Idaho, BTW). The very next day was the real test and I'm happy to say we all rocked it! I had a little awkwardness during the test mostly because since I was away traveling for the last 3 weeks I hadn't set up an uki. As such I used my friend Mike Bramwell, who also went for his yellow belt that day, as my uki. The problem was that Mike didn't know the orange belt curriculum so there was more resistance to the techniques, not intentional of course, then I was used to. All that is minor though, just another part of learning and adapting, and we all did great!
 |
| My teammates and myself showing off our new belts in Goshin Ju-Jutsu. |
I was going to add a section in the this about the contemplation of what I learned or things that came up to research more during the Mini-Odysssey but since I just came back from a week of training in another land I have that new information learnt to add as well. So I'll save it all for a separate post as I set my goals for the next year of planning, though I have my travels and experiences to fill you all in on first!
Competition!
So I jumped in to a competition again, both gi and no gi this time, it was actually my first no gi comp and there was a lot learned that day! So the local competition, Be First Championships, hosts round robin competitions in a variety of combat sports, it's a lot of fun to get out to and watch as well as compete with you teammates against other clubs. This competition was almost exactly one year from my first comp, where I earned silver after being amaricana'd in the lone match for my division. If I still had that video of me from that competition I'd love to watch it and compare it to footage from this comp. It would be great to see the vast difference between my all nerves and adrenaline, not thinking straight first competition and any match from the last competition, where I felt very much more in control of my actions. In this competition I pulled up with a silver medal, just like a year before, only in this instance I feel like I really earned it, won it actually. That's just it, I never feel bad for receiving a medal, even if I lose, because anyone who steps on the mats to compete deserves recognition. Any medal I've ever been given I earned, but to finally be in the position where I attained a medal from straight up winning against my opponent, that's a medal won, not just earned but won! My first competition I lost a match after 2 minutes of grappling and earned silver, a year later I competed and I won one match and lost another to win silver, there's a big difference in the feeling between those two competitions. I'm proud of both but still there's a different feeling, maybe more proud? During the last competition I also went on to have 8 no gi matches against some giant grappling sharks. I was by far the inexperienced one in this group and was happy just to hold on and get draws against some of the opponents. In end I'm happy with how I pulled up, having learned a lot and gained insights on where to target my training for the next time. Another first for this competition was coaching my teammates. I was the senior belt there as it was a bad week for a lot for the club members so most of my warm up time was spent coaching the other teammates. I don't know how much it helped, I mostly tried to give tem some pointers and keep them calm between matches, they all get great, with everyone pulling up with at least one medal in their divisions.
 |
| A few shots from the competition |
That's it for this post, still lots to talk about and share! keep watch, I'm looking to get caught up this week so expect a couple posts in quick succession!
No comments:
Post a Comment