Only 3 weeks away from the start of my vacation I'm dubbing 'The Mini-Odyssey' but before I get into that I have some other news to first:
If you don't already know, I now have a Twitter and Instagram account, look up @pandasodyssey and follow me there! Up until now I had been avoiding adding any more social media accounts, being perfectly happy with Facebook. Since I've added these accounts making friends in the jiu-jitsu communities has been so easy! Now if only I could get more people to read my blog..haha.
About the blog, I have had a recent problem with my map app where it decided to completely dump all my listings while updating. The whole reason for having the map app was to log all the places I've trained at while on my travels, I can't have an app that is unreliable and dumps all the entries all the time. Anyone who has any suggestions for a better map app (up until now I've been using POWr) please send them this way. Also, I've noticed my blog is lacking pictures, I just recently uploaded a few pictures of my journey training in BJJ on the social media sites, I'll be adding them here once I settle on, or figure out, a way to present them that I like, open to suggestions.
Finally, the Mini-Odyssey. So in 3 weeks I'll be on a 3 week vacation and will be traveling to visit and train with some friends. First week will be with our brothers at Tidal BJJ in the Sunshine Coast of Gibson's BC, then off to Seattle, or Kent rather, Washington to train with one of the biggest black belts, James "300" Foster for a week. Finally I'll have a week in Meridian, Idaho with our head instructor, black belt Keith Owen. All of the guys are amazing people I look forward to seeing and training together. If you're around the area and want to train together, by all means let me know and let's set something up! you can message me for dates and details.
The Tidal guys are family and it's always great times whenever we get to visit one another. I've yet to have the pleasure to be on their mats and train with them for a whole week so this is really going to be a treat. I view them like your favourite cousins you always like visiting and partying with, we'll laugh and cry and get into shenanigans with resulting pictures that will most likely have our Coach (the parent figure) shaking his head. Or we'll just have fun rolling together and training and trading techniques, either way it'll be a lot of fun. As well, the master of Black Magic lives there, Kyoshi Michael Seamark. His Kokodo jujutsu is amazing. People turn to Judo to strengthen their throws and takedowns, or Mauy Thai to strengthen their striking, if you want to master spinal manipulation and wrist locks, you turn to Kokodo. As a big fan of all forms of self defense I find this art as a great addition to practical defence, I look forward to attending some classes, although my wrists will probably hate me for it.
Prof. James Foster is a good friend of our club who has made a bunch of visits, he's always been a stand up person and with the past, and current, projects he has going on he's shown time and time again that his heart is even more giant sized than he is. He is also a top notch instructor and I look forward to learning from him over the week I'll have visiting there. I also haven't met any of his students or has the pleasure of training at his club so there's that to look forward to as well. I like going to new clubs and meeting new people, there's always the nervousness of going to a new place with people to you don't know, just like a competition but without the adrenaline and stress of preforming (after all we're all just there to learn and get better, right?).
Prof. Keith Owen is always a great person to talk to, about anything, (especially Sasquatches and the zombie apocalypse) I always feel like I've learned something big every time he's visited. Sometimes is a tweak to a technique, sometimes it's a tidbit of theory that changes how you view something and it becomes more clear. He's like a sage, an advisor, a wizard. Merlin to your King Arthur, and I don't mean that teen drama TV show, I mean the 1981 Excalibur, chrome metal skull cap, red eyed, fire shooting from his staff and spewing the dragon's breath badass Merlin. I look forward to training at his place and meeting other members of The Crash.
All and all, this is going to be one hell of a trip. I have already booked all flights, buses and hotels, researched all transit routes and prices of ferries, taxis and local transit and have managed to keep well under my budget. While on this trip I see it as a great opportunity to practice my packing skills and see how well I can get everything into one bag. Being in the military, living out of a bag isn't new to me so I don't foresee any problems, and with some tricks and tips I've found online it should be really easy. I'll document what I brought and how and the results. The biggest problem I see is not having ultra-light weight gi's, so space may be tighter than I'd like for clothing.
On the topic of testing things out for the Odyssey, I've heard of GPS or mapping apps for phones that work without using data, which would be very valuable. I'll be looking into it and trying them out on this trip. I'll post my results with what I find, until then I got some work to do.
Sunday, 5 July 2015
Monday, 15 June 2015
New Goals!
Hello all!
After this last competition I'm on a break from competing for a while with new goals to keep me busy in the mean time. Before I get into the focus let's recap what's been going up to this point.
Research: I did a lot of reading (and lots of information finding, still tons of reading to do) and have pretty much covered all areas and questions I had about planning out this awesome trip so now it's down to just waiting until the time gets closer. It's amazing how easily everything can be found online, I'll still post any articles I find helpful on here so if you've been liking them keep watch. Other than that my focus for research is going more onto finding people and places willing to help me out, take me in, train me up/beat me down on this trip. Soon I'll start checking areas out city by city and sending out a 'Hi, here's my story' line and see what comes up. I have almost a year and half to get to know people and make connections, might as well use it. If you are or know anyone interested, sites/forums to use, people to try contacting, etc. send me a line!
Training: I've been training a lot, or as much as I usually do, but not just on my BJJ. I've been focusing on Japanese style lately, getting back into it, since I took a break from it with the all the competitions. There's actually two styles I've been training, the Goshin style I've been doing for a while now, which is more the traditional self defence standing techniques and also Kokodo, which is basically Jedi wristlocks. I'm a fan of both, they compliment my Jiu-Jitsu, both self defence and sport very well and keep me intrigued and motivated. As far as training goals go it's just about getting a better game, progressing and learning. Belts come with time.
Competitions: This past weekend I competed in the CBJJF BC Provincials. I was feeling very good for it, having trained hard and really put together a good game plan for it, or so I thought. I'd like to be able to say it all went as planned and I brought home a gold medal, but that's not the case. I fought hard against two big guys and did my best, which is in the end all anyone could ask for. I admit it hurts losing. But competing is still fun and in my opinion much needed in order to truly evolve your Jiu-Jitsu. I don't like losing but the fun I have at the competitions meeting people and making friends, watching my teammates compete and progress is worth all the adrenalin, anxiety and post competition soreness. This time I felt really down about losing, and I'm still not happy with my performance, but with it I now have new focuses for training and future competitions. I will say this, my team is one bunch of awesome people, they really picked me up with some very kind words.
New Goals!
Traveling: Coming up I'll be going on a three week traveling tour, hitting up our teammates on the mainland before heading down to good friend Prof. James "300" Foster's place in Kent, Washington and my black belt, Prof. Keith Owen's place to meet the rest of the Rhino Crash family in Meridian, Idaho. I'm really looking to this trip! Both Prof. Foster and Prof. Owen are great guys with tons of knowledge to learn from, I always look forward to them visiting us here, I can only imagine how good their clubs are, where people train under them every day. I'll be writing everything I can down so I don't miss anything. I'll be in Prof. Foster's area first week of August and in Prof. Owen's area the second week, if anyone can help or knows someone who can help out with a place to crash or something nearby and cheap to help cut costs that'd be great. Just shoot me a line, thanks!
Training/Competing: As mentioned before I've picked up training Japanese style again while not competing. Not only does it help my Jiu-Jitsu by incorporating different moves but also by seeing different views on the same or similar move. Seeing similar concepts repeat itself through different arts intrigues me, I love finding the connections, if not in the moves, the mindset. I pan on taking a more relaxing stance on my training right now, just taking it all in while I rest from competing. As for competing, I probably wont be in a competition until October, and hope to be in a lower weight class by that point, the guys at my weight right now are just too big, I'm basically at their shoulders. Diet and exercise is key, nothing crazy, just living clean and healthy.
After losing the competition I was feeling down and asked myself "What good is a warrior if his technique is gone, his skills are beaten, his body is broken, all he has is heart?"
I thought for a long time, this is what I came up with. "A warrior only needs heart, with it he can train his technique, hone his skills and push himself and make his body work. Without heart all technique, skills and athleticism is wasted." At times I feel like the only thing I have left is heart. But it's all I need.
After this last competition I'm on a break from competing for a while with new goals to keep me busy in the mean time. Before I get into the focus let's recap what's been going up to this point.
Research: I did a lot of reading (and lots of information finding, still tons of reading to do) and have pretty much covered all areas and questions I had about planning out this awesome trip so now it's down to just waiting until the time gets closer. It's amazing how easily everything can be found online, I'll still post any articles I find helpful on here so if you've been liking them keep watch. Other than that my focus for research is going more onto finding people and places willing to help me out, take me in, train me up/beat me down on this trip. Soon I'll start checking areas out city by city and sending out a 'Hi, here's my story' line and see what comes up. I have almost a year and half to get to know people and make connections, might as well use it. If you are or know anyone interested, sites/forums to use, people to try contacting, etc. send me a line!
Training: I've been training a lot, or as much as I usually do, but not just on my BJJ. I've been focusing on Japanese style lately, getting back into it, since I took a break from it with the all the competitions. There's actually two styles I've been training, the Goshin style I've been doing for a while now, which is more the traditional self defence standing techniques and also Kokodo, which is basically Jedi wristlocks. I'm a fan of both, they compliment my Jiu-Jitsu, both self defence and sport very well and keep me intrigued and motivated. As far as training goals go it's just about getting a better game, progressing and learning. Belts come with time.
Competitions: This past weekend I competed in the CBJJF BC Provincials. I was feeling very good for it, having trained hard and really put together a good game plan for it, or so I thought. I'd like to be able to say it all went as planned and I brought home a gold medal, but that's not the case. I fought hard against two big guys and did my best, which is in the end all anyone could ask for. I admit it hurts losing. But competing is still fun and in my opinion much needed in order to truly evolve your Jiu-Jitsu. I don't like losing but the fun I have at the competitions meeting people and making friends, watching my teammates compete and progress is worth all the adrenalin, anxiety and post competition soreness. This time I felt really down about losing, and I'm still not happy with my performance, but with it I now have new focuses for training and future competitions. I will say this, my team is one bunch of awesome people, they really picked me up with some very kind words.
New Goals!
Traveling: Coming up I'll be going on a three week traveling tour, hitting up our teammates on the mainland before heading down to good friend Prof. James "300" Foster's place in Kent, Washington and my black belt, Prof. Keith Owen's place to meet the rest of the Rhino Crash family in Meridian, Idaho. I'm really looking to this trip! Both Prof. Foster and Prof. Owen are great guys with tons of knowledge to learn from, I always look forward to them visiting us here, I can only imagine how good their clubs are, where people train under them every day. I'll be writing everything I can down so I don't miss anything. I'll be in Prof. Foster's area first week of August and in Prof. Owen's area the second week, if anyone can help or knows someone who can help out with a place to crash or something nearby and cheap to help cut costs that'd be great. Just shoot me a line, thanks!
Training/Competing: As mentioned before I've picked up training Japanese style again while not competing. Not only does it help my Jiu-Jitsu by incorporating different moves but also by seeing different views on the same or similar move. Seeing similar concepts repeat itself through different arts intrigues me, I love finding the connections, if not in the moves, the mindset. I pan on taking a more relaxing stance on my training right now, just taking it all in while I rest from competing. As for competing, I probably wont be in a competition until October, and hope to be in a lower weight class by that point, the guys at my weight right now are just too big, I'm basically at their shoulders. Diet and exercise is key, nothing crazy, just living clean and healthy.
After losing the competition I was feeling down and asked myself "What good is a warrior if his technique is gone, his skills are beaten, his body is broken, all he has is heart?"
I thought for a long time, this is what I came up with. "A warrior only needs heart, with it he can train his technique, hone his skills and push himself and make his body work. Without heart all technique, skills and athleticism is wasted." At times I feel like the only thing I have left is heart. But it's all I need.
Monday, 18 May 2015
Update On The Research!
I went through all my research sections tonight and started answering all the questions I had for each one, and even tried to think of any more before moving on to the next. I've been able to narrow it down to 4 questions I still have. Here they are:
1. Airlines, I've looked around and realized one important thing, outside of Canada I don't know anything about different airlines. If anyone has any information about best airline for cheap flights for Europe, Asia, pretty much anywhere outside of North America, that would be very helpful. Or buses or trains if it's better to get around that way in some parts as I've heard it is.
2. Travel gear. Any helpful tips on simplifying essentials, like what to bring, what not to worry about,
and the best ways to pack them or types to pick up (like light weight travel sleeping bag, towel etc.) would be greatly appreciated.
3. Cell phones. It seems now a days roaming is becoming more common and I'm sure I'll be able to make up some sort of plan with my provider, but if there's a particular company that specializes in travel plans or if grabbing a pre-paid from place to place is better then switching phones may be in order.
4. Money (of course). one thing I'd like to get a bit of information on is where I should look for getting currency exchanged while traveling Europe and Asia. Sometimes banks, or at least the right bank, aren't always available and I want to stay clear of using machines or paying with credit cards too much. I'm planning on having a thorough sit down with my bank before this trip but any tips are greatly appreciated.
Oh, one last thing. Send me your favourite places to go train when out and about! There's a long time before beginning this odyssey but it's never too soon to start making friends in new places!
1. Airlines, I've looked around and realized one important thing, outside of Canada I don't know anything about different airlines. If anyone has any information about best airline for cheap flights for Europe, Asia, pretty much anywhere outside of North America, that would be very helpful. Or buses or trains if it's better to get around that way in some parts as I've heard it is.
2. Travel gear. Any helpful tips on simplifying essentials, like what to bring, what not to worry about,
and the best ways to pack them or types to pick up (like light weight travel sleeping bag, towel etc.) would be greatly appreciated.
3. Cell phones. It seems now a days roaming is becoming more common and I'm sure I'll be able to make up some sort of plan with my provider, but if there's a particular company that specializes in travel plans or if grabbing a pre-paid from place to place is better then switching phones may be in order.
4. Money (of course). one thing I'd like to get a bit of information on is where I should look for getting currency exchanged while traveling Europe and Asia. Sometimes banks, or at least the right bank, aren't always available and I want to stay clear of using machines or paying with credit cards too much. I'm planning on having a thorough sit down with my bank before this trip but any tips are greatly appreciated.
Oh, one last thing. Send me your favourite places to go train when out and about! There's a long time before beginning this odyssey but it's never too soon to start making friends in new places!
Sunday, 3 May 2015
Why I Love Jiu Jitsu
First and foremost, as I've said before, I love most all martial arts and I'm a big fan of self defense over sport, but that being said I find competitions help keep the edge on your skills an fine tune your game.
This weekend I had a submissions only competition that was out of town. I like submission only over point as I believe in finishing a match by making them tap, or them making you tap, rather than by being able to hold your opponent in more different ways than they can hold you. I still find both are fun and will continue to do both as they come ut I always go for the finish. Anyways, I decided that since it was out of town I would travel there the day before and grab a hotel room so that I didn't have to rush to get there and rush back home on the same day. In the past I've done all the traveling on the competition day and felt burnt out by all the running about, it was a nice switch to be able to take my time to get to the competition for once.
So there's the setting for this story on why I love Jiu Jitsu. Now the several awesome, and not so awesome, things that happen to come to this already made conclusion. First, once I announced my plans to travel over and compete a friend who trained at my club for a while contacted me offering a find a place to crash and forego hotel costs, it didn't work out but the offer still stands as awesome. I'm always grateful for any offer of help from anyone, no mater how small, helping each other is just good living. The Mayweather VS Pacquiao fight was on last night and this friend knew I was in town on my own and invited me out to their gathering to watch the fights and meet a bunch of new people. Another awesome offer, this time it worked out and was a fun experience.
Now it's game day. I make my way to the stadium for the competition and meet up with another teammate who is competing. We meet up, get settled in and wait for our divisions to start. I wish at this point I could say that we cleaned house and went home with a bunch of medals but alas it was not our day, the not so awesome experience, but that's ok because it was still a fun and eye opening experience, and best of all I made a new friend. I've always found it funny how friendly everyone else is to one another when we're not on the mats even at competitions.
Originally my division had 3 people in it but it ended up just me and 1 other guy, again (being in a 200+ lb division it's been quite common only having one competitor on game day, where are all the big guys?!) Me and the other guy square off, I'm a big enough man to admit it, he's got the perfect game to shut me down. I later found out he had a very strong judo background and his grip game was superior. In the past all my opponents had been more grappler types and I had worked my stand game for that, pummelling, arm drags and working a tight game for under hooks. His grip game shut any of that down and he maneuvered me and swept my leg out with ease. Dam! I was half pissed on not being more of a problem for him and half being in awe of his game. He got me with an Americana. He helps me up and I say to him "judo game?" and ha laughs and confirms it. Up to this point I had only been guessing but as soon as the match started with his more upright posture and strong arming technique and unbreakable grip it was quickly apparent what his background. Of course you can say, well he was wearing a orange belt, but I know lots of academies that have picked up using other belts to make the slow progression between white and blue or blue and purple, and I don't tend to put much care on their belts anyways, the mats tell all.
The match is over and he and I start talking, admiring each others grips and enjoying the quick but crucial grip game we had, I watched it over a dozen times since today because it really was fun. This is the by the way the next awesome thing that happened, bonding. Not just with teammates but with other competitors. Him and I talked for probably 20 minutes about our competition and training experiences, complimenting each other on there skills, and in true Canadian fashion, apologising to each other for any pain we may have caused the other. I made a new friend to look forward to seeing again in future competitions. I had a fun time with teammates, met made new friends, gained a bunch of experience and learnt where to work on my game. In the end I didn't lose anything, I won a lot.
This is what I love about Jiu Jitsu, the friendly community that exists with the sport. I look forward to making more friends in competition.
This weekend I had a submissions only competition that was out of town. I like submission only over point as I believe in finishing a match by making them tap, or them making you tap, rather than by being able to hold your opponent in more different ways than they can hold you. I still find both are fun and will continue to do both as they come ut I always go for the finish. Anyways, I decided that since it was out of town I would travel there the day before and grab a hotel room so that I didn't have to rush to get there and rush back home on the same day. In the past I've done all the traveling on the competition day and felt burnt out by all the running about, it was a nice switch to be able to take my time to get to the competition for once.
So there's the setting for this story on why I love Jiu Jitsu. Now the several awesome, and not so awesome, things that happen to come to this already made conclusion. First, once I announced my plans to travel over and compete a friend who trained at my club for a while contacted me offering a find a place to crash and forego hotel costs, it didn't work out but the offer still stands as awesome. I'm always grateful for any offer of help from anyone, no mater how small, helping each other is just good living. The Mayweather VS Pacquiao fight was on last night and this friend knew I was in town on my own and invited me out to their gathering to watch the fights and meet a bunch of new people. Another awesome offer, this time it worked out and was a fun experience.
Now it's game day. I make my way to the stadium for the competition and meet up with another teammate who is competing. We meet up, get settled in and wait for our divisions to start. I wish at this point I could say that we cleaned house and went home with a bunch of medals but alas it was not our day, the not so awesome experience, but that's ok because it was still a fun and eye opening experience, and best of all I made a new friend. I've always found it funny how friendly everyone else is to one another when we're not on the mats even at competitions.
Originally my division had 3 people in it but it ended up just me and 1 other guy, again (being in a 200+ lb division it's been quite common only having one competitor on game day, where are all the big guys?!) Me and the other guy square off, I'm a big enough man to admit it, he's got the perfect game to shut me down. I later found out he had a very strong judo background and his grip game was superior. In the past all my opponents had been more grappler types and I had worked my stand game for that, pummelling, arm drags and working a tight game for under hooks. His grip game shut any of that down and he maneuvered me and swept my leg out with ease. Dam! I was half pissed on not being more of a problem for him and half being in awe of his game. He got me with an Americana. He helps me up and I say to him "judo game?" and ha laughs and confirms it. Up to this point I had only been guessing but as soon as the match started with his more upright posture and strong arming technique and unbreakable grip it was quickly apparent what his background. Of course you can say, well he was wearing a orange belt, but I know lots of academies that have picked up using other belts to make the slow progression between white and blue or blue and purple, and I don't tend to put much care on their belts anyways, the mats tell all.
The match is over and he and I start talking, admiring each others grips and enjoying the quick but crucial grip game we had, I watched it over a dozen times since today because it really was fun. This is the by the way the next awesome thing that happened, bonding. Not just with teammates but with other competitors. Him and I talked for probably 20 minutes about our competition and training experiences, complimenting each other on there skills, and in true Canadian fashion, apologising to each other for any pain we may have caused the other. I made a new friend to look forward to seeing again in future competitions. I had a fun time with teammates, met made new friends, gained a bunch of experience and learnt where to work on my game. In the end I didn't lose anything, I won a lot.
This is what I love about Jiu Jitsu, the friendly community that exists with the sport. I look forward to making more friends in competition.
Monday, 6 April 2015
A Little About Me...
Hello everyone,
I'm taking a break from the usual study post and writing a bit about myself to give you some more insight to me and my place in life right now. There are several, many even, people I know who have blogs on their training and they're always a good read to really see things through their eyes and get a different perspective. Good friends of mine, one a long time training partner and the other my coach, recently made blog entries that made me think and those, along with reading Christian Graugart's book about training and traveling 'The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Globetrotter' (Great book, great person, awesome network he's set up. Check out the site http://www.bjjglobetrotters.com ) really got me to thinking about where I am right now. I've noticed I've changed on how I deal with things and how I view training, competing, and just living.
Let me start by telling you that I am in the military, the Navy. Being in the military is what gave me the ability to travel and train, travel the world, beating the bad guys and bringing a gi for some R&R. It's also been the reason I've had to switch schools in the past and take long breaks from training. My friend posted about his 'Jiu-Jitsu mind at sea' (check out that and other posts here: http://bramwelljj.blogspot.ca/ ) and it reminded me a long time belief that as great as our job is serving our country the work stresses and some of the more, shall we say, 'narrow minded' people we work with creates a never ending source of negativity in your life. It's something that needs to be dealt with and constantly checked, otherwise it eats you up and takes over your life. Reminding me of this brought me to the realization that changes in my life have greatly changed how I handle negativity in my life and my overall view of life in general. I attribute my better outlook to three things. 1. I stopped drinking. People can drink all they want, I'm not against drinking I just found it wasn't helping me so I quit. 2. I made the effort to get out and train more. I am privileged to be apart of club that has so many great people, just being around them and training with them makes my day better. Surround yourself with awesome people and you will do awesome things, right? 3. Buddhism. I am in no way religious, and I'm neither for nor against people or who are. I watched a documentary, 'Meditate and Destroy' about Noah Levine, a reformed addict punk who found peace in Buddha's teachings and has made a way of spreading those teachings without any religious connotations in a plain, modern day language. His correlations he made simplifying both the essence of the punk movement and Buddha's own movement really spoke to me and after reading his book, 'Against The Stream' (check out his site if any of this speaks to you http://www.dharmapunx.com ) I've found I've been making headway with dealing with stress and negativity in my life. Learning letting go is key.
So with jiu jitsu so much a part of my life, making it better, what are my goals? Without goals you get stagnant and the determination starts to wear off, then you show up less and that awesome source of positivity in your life becomes less and less. Goals are important, they keep you grounded, and focused, what were mine? Well at first my goal was just to get out more, train all I can. Then it was to work on my blue belt in BJJ and my yellow belt in traditional (Japanese) jiu jitsu. Now it's just to compete and work on a game plan, start putting together chains and working on difficult positions. The goals have become more advanced and no longer are they about hours in or the next belt or stripe. This is something that just gradually happened without even noticing until this week. It was sparked by my coach's blog post, he always has some really good insights to the many other facets of training other than usual hours and reps people think and talk about. This week he wrote about goals, the different goals of students and how those play a game in the goals of the teachers. (always a great read: http://vorpalblade.ca/ ) Reading that I thought 'what are my goals now? I had some for the last year and half and I've attained them one after another, so what am I focusing on now?' So I thought about it, I've recently made the decision to make this year one of testing the competition waters and seeing where I end up with it, and more importantly, where my jiu jitsu ends up with it. In the words of the great Rocky Balboa "I don't care about winning, I just wanna go the distance, no one ever went the distance with Creed before.." at least, that's how I view it now, more on that later. So I sat down and thought out my goals for this year. I have a lot on planning and preparing for this journey and I planned out a lot about hitting different competitions, but where were my goals for my jiu jitsu? Certainly its not just showing up and putting time in is it? And that's when I realized it, I don't care about time in anymore, I'm in no rush for the next belt test or next stripe on my belt. I'm focusing on the things I find lacking from my performance in the latest competition. I have been for some time now.
That brings me to competition. Over the last six months I've been in 3 different competitions so far and my view on them has changed, or evolved, after each one. The first tournament I did was right before my blue belt test. Myself and a few other testers were thinking it'd be a great time to try a tournament and get the feel for one, and maybe some gold, before becoming a blue belt and being the small fish in a big pond again. I had one person to fight and I was determined to give it my all and shoot for gold. I had a game plan and everything. Then the match started and my plan slowly walked off the mats. I started up on points and ended 2 minutes later tapping out to an Americana. I lost and I felt horrible, as did my arm. It was a lot to get over. Then a few months later I'm in my second tournament as a blue belt, with no thoughts of medaling and just wanting to see how the blue belt division was. I had three other guys to go up against and I was just hoping to last the rounds out and not get tapped this time. Then the tournament started, I felt like shit. I was stressed about showing up to get my ass kicked, I just wanted to get it over with and even vowed to never do another competition again. As my division started I found out it was just me and one other guy again, the others were no shows. I thought, 'give it my all and see where this goes' It was an even match, back and forth and after 2 minutes it was stopped with my opponent up by one point. The referee had stopped the match due to my opponent having a bloody nose to get cleaned up. Time went by, then finally the match was called. I won due to forfeit. A lot of good points came from that match, my ability to keep my composure and focus on a game plan during the match, really just handling the adrenaline, was the biggest. But it still wasn't a tap, a 'real' win. And that's just it, I was gunning for a win, deep down inside I wanted to get a tap or win by points, just for once. After that tournament I took the good with the bad and decided that competitions are fun and help my game a lot. So in for another competition it was. This was a different format, a round robin submission only tournament with brackets merged so everyone gets a bunch of rolls. Six beasts in my division and I think only one person was smaller than me. This was the biggest test yet. I walked into it just looking to see where I would end up. Hoping to smash more than be smashed. But everything was different, there was no stress leading up to the tournament day, I felt great and relaxed even on the day. This was about to be my biggest physical and technical test to date and I felt fine. First match I got choked him out. My first competition tap. It felt great. Then I got ran through and tapped to one really aggressive MMA guy who ended up winning gold, still I felt ok. Then I fought against someone 120+ lbs over me, I was in a limitless bracket, it was ended in a draw but I felt like I ran over by a dump truck, repeatedly. In the end I pulled up 1 point behind from 3rd place, but that was ok. I stood my own against a bigger opponent that only the 1st place guy could handle, I got my first, and second, competition taps, and man did I ever learn a lot about myself. After the competition I relaxed for a week and contemplated. I started reading Christian Graugart's book. In the start he describes being in a tournament and losing and still being happy because he's exactly where he wants to be in life, in the end who wins the match isn't important. That's when everything fell into place. I felt good about the tournament because I gave it my all and came away knowing exactly what to work on to further my jiu jitsu. And that's all the competitions are for, furthering my jiu jitsu.
Jiu itsu makes me happy. It keeps me goal oriented, keeps a source of positivity in life, helps me better handle stress and meet all kinds of awesome people. This is why I cant wait to get out and meet all those people like me around the world. Traveling, training, learning, just being a better person.
I'm taking a break from the usual study post and writing a bit about myself to give you some more insight to me and my place in life right now. There are several, many even, people I know who have blogs on their training and they're always a good read to really see things through their eyes and get a different perspective. Good friends of mine, one a long time training partner and the other my coach, recently made blog entries that made me think and those, along with reading Christian Graugart's book about training and traveling 'The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Globetrotter' (Great book, great person, awesome network he's set up. Check out the site http://www.bjjglobetrotters.com ) really got me to thinking about where I am right now. I've noticed I've changed on how I deal with things and how I view training, competing, and just living.
Let me start by telling you that I am in the military, the Navy. Being in the military is what gave me the ability to travel and train, travel the world, beating the bad guys and bringing a gi for some R&R. It's also been the reason I've had to switch schools in the past and take long breaks from training. My friend posted about his 'Jiu-Jitsu mind at sea' (check out that and other posts here: http://bramwelljj.blogspot.ca/ ) and it reminded me a long time belief that as great as our job is serving our country the work stresses and some of the more, shall we say, 'narrow minded' people we work with creates a never ending source of negativity in your life. It's something that needs to be dealt with and constantly checked, otherwise it eats you up and takes over your life. Reminding me of this brought me to the realization that changes in my life have greatly changed how I handle negativity in my life and my overall view of life in general. I attribute my better outlook to three things. 1. I stopped drinking. People can drink all they want, I'm not against drinking I just found it wasn't helping me so I quit. 2. I made the effort to get out and train more. I am privileged to be apart of club that has so many great people, just being around them and training with them makes my day better. Surround yourself with awesome people and you will do awesome things, right? 3. Buddhism. I am in no way religious, and I'm neither for nor against people or who are. I watched a documentary, 'Meditate and Destroy' about Noah Levine, a reformed addict punk who found peace in Buddha's teachings and has made a way of spreading those teachings without any religious connotations in a plain, modern day language. His correlations he made simplifying both the essence of the punk movement and Buddha's own movement really spoke to me and after reading his book, 'Against The Stream' (check out his site if any of this speaks to you http://www.dharmapunx.com ) I've found I've been making headway with dealing with stress and negativity in my life. Learning letting go is key.
So with jiu jitsu so much a part of my life, making it better, what are my goals? Without goals you get stagnant and the determination starts to wear off, then you show up less and that awesome source of positivity in your life becomes less and less. Goals are important, they keep you grounded, and focused, what were mine? Well at first my goal was just to get out more, train all I can. Then it was to work on my blue belt in BJJ and my yellow belt in traditional (Japanese) jiu jitsu. Now it's just to compete and work on a game plan, start putting together chains and working on difficult positions. The goals have become more advanced and no longer are they about hours in or the next belt or stripe. This is something that just gradually happened without even noticing until this week. It was sparked by my coach's blog post, he always has some really good insights to the many other facets of training other than usual hours and reps people think and talk about. This week he wrote about goals, the different goals of students and how those play a game in the goals of the teachers. (always a great read: http://vorpalblade.ca/ ) Reading that I thought 'what are my goals now? I had some for the last year and half and I've attained them one after another, so what am I focusing on now?' So I thought about it, I've recently made the decision to make this year one of testing the competition waters and seeing where I end up with it, and more importantly, where my jiu jitsu ends up with it. In the words of the great Rocky Balboa "I don't care about winning, I just wanna go the distance, no one ever went the distance with Creed before.." at least, that's how I view it now, more on that later. So I sat down and thought out my goals for this year. I have a lot on planning and preparing for this journey and I planned out a lot about hitting different competitions, but where were my goals for my jiu jitsu? Certainly its not just showing up and putting time in is it? And that's when I realized it, I don't care about time in anymore, I'm in no rush for the next belt test or next stripe on my belt. I'm focusing on the things I find lacking from my performance in the latest competition. I have been for some time now.
That brings me to competition. Over the last six months I've been in 3 different competitions so far and my view on them has changed, or evolved, after each one. The first tournament I did was right before my blue belt test. Myself and a few other testers were thinking it'd be a great time to try a tournament and get the feel for one, and maybe some gold, before becoming a blue belt and being the small fish in a big pond again. I had one person to fight and I was determined to give it my all and shoot for gold. I had a game plan and everything. Then the match started and my plan slowly walked off the mats. I started up on points and ended 2 minutes later tapping out to an Americana. I lost and I felt horrible, as did my arm. It was a lot to get over. Then a few months later I'm in my second tournament as a blue belt, with no thoughts of medaling and just wanting to see how the blue belt division was. I had three other guys to go up against and I was just hoping to last the rounds out and not get tapped this time. Then the tournament started, I felt like shit. I was stressed about showing up to get my ass kicked, I just wanted to get it over with and even vowed to never do another competition again. As my division started I found out it was just me and one other guy again, the others were no shows. I thought, 'give it my all and see where this goes' It was an even match, back and forth and after 2 minutes it was stopped with my opponent up by one point. The referee had stopped the match due to my opponent having a bloody nose to get cleaned up. Time went by, then finally the match was called. I won due to forfeit. A lot of good points came from that match, my ability to keep my composure and focus on a game plan during the match, really just handling the adrenaline, was the biggest. But it still wasn't a tap, a 'real' win. And that's just it, I was gunning for a win, deep down inside I wanted to get a tap or win by points, just for once. After that tournament I took the good with the bad and decided that competitions are fun and help my game a lot. So in for another competition it was. This was a different format, a round robin submission only tournament with brackets merged so everyone gets a bunch of rolls. Six beasts in my division and I think only one person was smaller than me. This was the biggest test yet. I walked into it just looking to see where I would end up. Hoping to smash more than be smashed. But everything was different, there was no stress leading up to the tournament day, I felt great and relaxed even on the day. This was about to be my biggest physical and technical test to date and I felt fine. First match I got choked him out. My first competition tap. It felt great. Then I got ran through and tapped to one really aggressive MMA guy who ended up winning gold, still I felt ok. Then I fought against someone 120+ lbs over me, I was in a limitless bracket, it was ended in a draw but I felt like I ran over by a dump truck, repeatedly. In the end I pulled up 1 point behind from 3rd place, but that was ok. I stood my own against a bigger opponent that only the 1st place guy could handle, I got my first, and second, competition taps, and man did I ever learn a lot about myself. After the competition I relaxed for a week and contemplated. I started reading Christian Graugart's book. In the start he describes being in a tournament and losing and still being happy because he's exactly where he wants to be in life, in the end who wins the match isn't important. That's when everything fell into place. I felt good about the tournament because I gave it my all and came away knowing exactly what to work on to further my jiu jitsu. And that's all the competitions are for, furthering my jiu jitsu.
Jiu itsu makes me happy. It keeps me goal oriented, keeps a source of positivity in life, helps me better handle stress and meet all kinds of awesome people. This is why I cant wait to get out and meet all those people like me around the world. Traveling, training, learning, just being a better person.
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