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.                                                 

New Month, New Study Topic

First thing's first, I've decided to change the URL to this blog, I think the new address is quite suiting, I hope you like it:

http://pandasodyssey.blogspot.ca

save it, remember it, spread it around.

and now, on with the research...

Money, money, money.

This journey, or odyssey, won't be possible without cutting costs. Now, a lot of this trip will rely on the like minded, good natured people of the jiu jitsu family lending me somewhere to crash, a spare bed, a couch, a corner on the floor even, anything. But I'm not planning this solely on the hope of good natured people. I'll need to look into hostels, cheap forms of transit and cheaper ways to eat. If there's a discount out there or a tip you have that could help me in my travels, let me know.
First thing I'm looking into this month: dealing with currency. Do any of you bring different currencies when you travel or do you just hit up a bank when you get there? given the extent of this journey, dealing with different forms of money, making sure not to get ripped off, will be a concern. Obviously, I'll have to watch out service charges and be careful with my credit cards and bank cards as well, tips for that are also welcome.
Let's start the research! Maybe I'll finally learn to be smart with me money, haha!
   

Time For Research

Hello everyone!
It's been awhile since my last update, a lot has gone on in the last month. I competed at first competition as a blue belt, earned my yellow belt in Goshin Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, and attended a seminar where I met and made new friends, some of which reminded me how small the world really is. Now it's time to get back to planning this awesome journey! I've decided to pick one of the topics and focus on that for a month or so before moving to the next. First up, health and safety.
My biggest fear is getting ring worm or staph while traveling, having never contracted either so far (knock on wood) I'd like to keep that track record going and not have to deal with it for the first time while out on the road. I've read a lot of great reviews about different 'gi' or 'defence' soaps and sprays helping protect from infection but I don't know if they'll always be available while traveling and quite honestly I'll be on a tight budget and those things tend to a little pricey. One aspect I could really use tips and help in is finding how to make sure cuts or scratches from training are contained or covered to not get infected. would just having sports tape be ok? is that even readily available and cheap? This area really makes me feel like I'm totally lost, its not something I've really thought about before having always been good about showering and cleaning my gis.
Also, knowing the best way for a traveling person to make sure they're protected like having travel insurance, the proper shots etc. would also be beneficial. Given that I'll be moving around a lot for an extended time I imagine that I'll have to update my insurance as I move from country to country? As for shots I guess that's something I'll have to talk to a doctor about, like if I get what ever I need all before leaving or if I'll have keep updated as I move. With my work we make sure to get all the necessary shots before traveling.
Any tips on what to be careful of while traveling, like drinking water etc. or be prepared for dealing with different services in certain countries would also be appreciated. Just being ready to stay safe not be sick or know what to do if worse case comes up while traveling is the goal. Now time to get researching!       

So Much Awesome!

Hello everyone!
Just an update on planning my journey so far. It's been a month since I started acting on this dream and getting together a plan of attack and I must say that the outpouring support and help has been overwhelming! It's quickly gone from 'could I actually do this?' and 'how can I set this up?' to 'this looks very much possible!'
With the help from friends and family I've been given some great advice as well as found great connections online. Really talking to my training partners has been paying off. Everyone is supportive and anyone who has traveled or lived abroad sharing their information has helped, after all, if we share a love for martial arts we probably have more in common as well, like wanting to travel and train. Perhaps they hit up a place while vacationing, or traveling for work, as the saying goes 'Have gi, will travel!' I know for a fact I'm not the only one looking up places to train at any chance I get while going to a new place. Or perhaps they have lived over in Europe or other parts of the world and know of training areas, or just know how to cut costs living and getting around there, any and all information is valuable. You can always learn from someone else's experiences. It's also through them that I've found the helpful sites online and gained some valuable tips so far.
Facebook is a great source for starting and finding groups with similar interests and connecting with people from all over the world. So is Reddit, reading all the posts, and leaving some, about other people's experiences has helped, of course now I'm a Reddit junky looking up all sorts of tips for my game, but that's another story all together. One thing I have found through connecting with everyone online is a website, and their Facebook group, that is pretty much all about what I want to do, The BJJ Globetrotters http://www.bjjglobetrotters.com/ if anyone is reading this and also thinking of the doing the same thing this group is an invaluable asset! I am  a member of their Facebook group and every day people are posting looking for, and getting help finding places to go train at, travel to, or where to stay. Amazing! The very network of global connections to travel and train between that I thought would take forever to find and make it already established! Of course it's not my network and until I start traveling and meeting people, making friends on the way I really wont have my network established, and it'll always be growing but this is an amazing start off point.
So there you have it, one month in and 23 more to go and it's already gone from an 'is this even possible?' to 'when can I start this?!' feeling. Awesome.

Phase 1: Research

A journey this big is going to require a lot of research to make sure it succeeds. I have given myself a lot of time to prepare but the biggest factor for this will be help from friends and family and any like minded people out there. I think the beauty of this whole idea is the network that it could create, not just from the people I meet while out there but also the friends I have now and the people this blog attracts. With your help I can make sure there's nothing I missed in planning and gain knowledge from those who have actually traveled to those places. That is why I have made a list of areas to research, a table of contents for planning this journey if you will. I will update and fill it in as we go and finally when the date comes to start this journey, hopefully I'll have all the information I'll need and be fully prepared. I know there will be an element of going with the flow and winging it from time to time once I'm out there but I believe the least of that the better, for starting off anyways. So here is my list, broken down and organized the best I could. There is a list of pages on the right for each of these sections for everyone to leave their advice and tips.

Research Table of Contents:

 Staying: - hostels vs hotels
                - friends and family
Any tips and suggestions for staying cheap are welcome, and of course couch surfing when possible is much appreciated.

Eating: - eating in vs eating out
              - shopping at markets or stores
The difference between eating out and buying from markets to make your own meals will greatly affect my budget, the farther a dollar can go for feeding me, while still staying healthy, the better. tips on this would really help.

Transit: - buses and trains vs flying
               - buses vs cabs
               - packing light, only taking essentials vs bringing everything you need
Finding cheap ways to travel both around the city I'm at and going city to city or country to country is key in this journey, also not having too much to carry around with me would be nice, I know there's all sort of ways out there to consolidate and condense what you need to bring and how. All tips and suggestions are welcome.

Contacts: - internet cafes and wifi
                  - phones - pre-paid vs monthly plan
                  - contact list - electronic and paper copy
It'll be important to keep in touch with everyone online back home as well as the ability to contact and make plans ahead of time, how to do so the cheapest will be key.

Health and Safety: - shots and insurance
                                 - emergency services
                                 - where NOT to go
                                 - ID to bring - passport/ other
I must always think of being safe while on this journey, making sure I have the proper shots and traveling insurance isn't enough, also knowing places and things to stay clear of and best ways to get a hold of emergency services if needed is a must.

Money: - carrying currency vs using credit/debit cards
              - carrying different currencies - Euro/US/CDN etc
              - discounts - backpackers card, special rates, etc.
              - reservations and pre-paid items
Saving money and cutting costs while on this journey is the big point on this list. Whether it's saving spending by carrying a different currency, using a particular bank or just using plastic instead, or finding places with discounts. I've heard of a global backpackers card that makes it cheap to stay at hostels across Europe, or a special transit card that make it cheap to take the trains when traveling across the continent.  Things like those will be key to stretching the budget and making this all possible. Please, any information, links, leads etc. are greatly appreciated.

Places To Go: - sites, landmarks, museums etc.
                         - countries and cities
                         - clubs - BJJ and other.
Finally, places to go, anyone who had a great experience who heard of a great place to check out, let me know. I already am forming a list of places to go as far as cities and sites, the list of clubs to look up is very sparse but that's really more a phase two thing, contacting and making connections to meet down the road.