Movember!

Movemember is here! Lets raise male health awareness throughout the U.K and the R.O.W.   Tom Barlow has started a mo-team for the academy and a few of us have signed up. Its for a good cause,as most of us are men, and the rest of us are women. It doesn't take rocket science to work out that at some point in our life, either ourselves or someone we know will be affected by something in this spectrum,but as Men we do a multitude of things to put it off. How many times have we felt ill,and I mean really ill,have we not gone to the docs to get it checked out? So get over that and see the doc, try to get down for a Man MOT yearly and get screened. Also be aware of family medical history and keep an eye on this too.
On a lighter note, I will be attending a seminar on the 12th of Movember with none other than the ADCC Champ himself, Braulio Estima! I am psyched to be attending this and cant wait to learn from him! Hopefully get some pics with the man himself too.

Peace off MoBro's and Mo'sistaz!

Side Control stuff and Cold

After getting my first blue tag, I had to take a week off as I had an outbreak of friggin' herpes! I am prone to damn cold sores (thanks mum!) and tend to get them when I am a bit run down. I had a pretty physical week at work that week and training sapped me completely, so naturally one sprouted up. I came back after my week off itching to get back to it. We were working Side control attacks, namely Americana, Straight arm bar and Kimura. I was pretty keen to get to grips with these as they were a new form of attack play for my game.( I dont really have any kind of game I use the term lightly!!) I had done the Kimura in my intro lesson, but it was from closed guard, so this was new for me. The Americana was something I had seen done in the UFC and a few other MMA match ups, but it was a bit of a hit n miss affair as not many of them were pulled off. The Straight arm bar was new to me also and after going thought all three of them we moved on to a nice little flow drill. The drill started off with us in and Americana, starting to escape by twisting the arm, catching the Straight arm bar, twisting through again into the Kimura. Then finish the drill by going in reverse through the afor mentioned locks. I thought this was a pretty good drill and I like to think my flow got pretty good for a noob! Working these locks showed me how much more mobility is needed in the shoulders and I made a conscious decision to work a bit more on my flexibility.
Next session at the academy we worked from Side again, this time timing and feeling for the opponents arm going under and  countering by either blocking the hips and transition into arm lock and then Kimura. This was a pretty good move and we drilled it a few times and it became quite familiar. It was just getting into my head where to go when different arms moved. We added to this drill at the Kimura section when the opponent tries to defend by grabbing the inside of the thigh. What we did was pull the arm away from leg to free the grip and   roll out for an Arm bar. After a few practice runs I got this down ok but managed to poke myself in the eye pretty bad. Haha. My eye is a tad sore still and its been four days!
Tom finished the session with something he had dreamed up relating to mentality. He called it the 135lbs theory. Basically He had us do press ups for two minutes and if we took a break we had to remain in the raised position. This was pretty hard going, there was lots of huffing and puffing and sweating and dripping and after what seemed like an hour Tom explained his theory. Tom said, "Most people can bench 135lbs, but everybody has a limit to how many times they can press it. Same thing in Bjj, to try to pass guard,it gets stuffed, so you either think try try again and persevere or get all defeatist and slacken off."  I had a little think about this on the way home from class and its a pretty good way of looking at it. Although Tom should change the name to 135lbs Optimist!
I got home exhausted and soaked, ate and bathed and off to bed only to wake up with a stinking cold! grrrrrr So not much else going on in the way of Jits this week as I'm trying to spare my training pardners my illness!
I'd like to say to my buddy Gaz to go see some witch doctor or something to get rid of his bad luck. First hes put his back out so couldnt train a while, then his thumb and now some tendon problems with his foot WTF!!

Laterz!

On the belt

So last night Tom Barlow held a seminar at the club reviewing the past months teachings. It was all about Side control, keeping it, defending it, transitions to the other side. As usual Tom taught these techniques very well and repeated them as many times as people asked. After a rather sweaty two hours the seminar finished with tags being handed out. It is my understanding that no two tag systems are the same, ha ha, and Tom's confused me at first but now its pretty clear. Lets look at the White belt to Blue belt. So with Toms system we usually get a red tag on our belts at the end of a month after being tested during class. And when you get to four red tags you get a blue tag. This goes on until you have four red and four blue and by this time you should be generally ready for Blue belt testing. Sometimes a tag is issued without being tested as happened last night with one of our lads that had competed at the Hereford open just passed. Adam claimed bronze there. This is testament to their growing skill. I read in JJS mag this month that some teachers even put in an extra belt to ease the transition from White to Blue, like a green or striped belt. me personally would rather wait for the belt, but each to their own. Some people are motivated by different things. So a few red tags were handed out, there I was waiting for a red tag. my name was called, up I went only to be told I was getting a Blue! Huge smile plastered on my face, I went and got my tag knowing for certain that my hard work is paying off!

Just before the class started one of the lads that had gone to the ADCC to watch Tom compete,  handed me one of the Mighty Barlow t-shirts. For those that haven't seen it, it was designed by none other than Meerkatsu and made by BJJ lifestyle brand Scramble. The front is dominated by a mighty mouse-esque picture, Kabuki Mouse , due to Tom's small stature and emblazoned with The Mighty Barlow. On the reverse is a Team No Love logo and lettering with Scramble underneath. I was told that TNL comprises of Tom Barlow and Kenny Baker another local and talented grappler. Im not sure if I actually want to wear this as i know in years to come it might be of some worth to a grappling fan. Especially as I know Tom will be going from strength to strength with his grappling and I really do see him winning a medal at any major competition in the future.

The Cauliflower Chronicles and other bedtime stories...

About a week or so ago, I saw a review of the Cauliflower Chronicles by Marshall D Carper, think it might have been in JJS magazine. I liked the sound of someone giving up their lifestyle to whole-heartedly throw themselves into BJJ. I did enjoy the book but think I was expecting something completely different to what I got, but the book was a damn good read and it was finished cover to cover in about 9 hours.(What can I say, lots of spare time that day!)   In a nut shell, Marshall trains some BJJ but is moving on to college. He chooses to leave all his "friends" and girlfriend to study in Hilo, Hawaii hoping to train with legendary MMA and BJJ fighter B.J Penn. Without giving too much away about the story line ect, things in Hawaii go well, he learns and grows as a fighter and a person and a well deserved happy ending. I would recommend and BJJ enthusiast to have a read. Although I think I was expecting something of a seminal work, letting me in on the insights of BJJ and the secret to becoming a phenom. The book gave me only a little of this, of which I'll share with you. The secret is this: PRACTICE. Simples.

This month we started working Side control in class. Maintaining side, hip control, escaping side. This is fairly new to myself and I am pretty certain this could be a strong position for my game. As this is the first week that is pretty much all we have covered in the couple of sessions I have been to. I'm sure coaches Tom and Scott will have more for us to develop later in the month.

My coach Tom Barlow, who has been invited to the ADCC has just been sponsored by Scramble. Tom is the second fighter to be sponsored by Scramble from our club, the other being Hannah Gorman. I would like to wish Tom all the best at the ADCC and I am sure he will do very well.

My rolling buddy Chris, asked if I was going to compete anytime soon. I gave it a moments thought and said maybe in December, if I thought I had a decent grasp of basic BJJ. That and maybe a tad lighter!

Good luck to the guys from Gracie Barra Plymouth competing this weekend, Phil, Adam and Daniel. Protect ya neck guys and bring home the gold!

Saw a post by fellow blogger Meg Smitley (Megjitsu) about washing a Gi without washing. Sounds a bit Bruce Lee to me, but after reading it found it to be a pretty good article, apparently doing this helps keep the colour in coloured gi's. I will be having a go at this and will post how it goes, as I have two black and a blue Gi's already looking a touch faded. Heres the link: http://www.megjitsu.com/how-to-wash-bjj-gi-without-water/

Keep on Rollin'

VooDoo

My name is Mark and I am a BJJ Gi addict....

When I got my first Gi, I couldn't wait to get home and have a try of it! Like a child in a sweet shop I rushed home and changed, ripping the plastic covering off and jumping in. My first thoughts on it were it felt OK, a bit on the heavy side, but I accepted that it would need to be like this due to the stress put upon it. The trousers felt fine too. After my first session I thought it would be best to wash it before the next class, because the last thing I wanted, being the newbie was to turn up with a smelly Gi. So I had to have a look on line for some info on washing. I found what I was after, washed the Gi, ironed it and folded it ready in my gym bag for the next day. I did this for a week before realizing I couldn't go on like this. Luckily it wasn't raining as it usually is in my part of the U.K so my Gi dried pretty fast, what would happen when it was autumn or winter and the heavens were open? I decided it was time to get a couple of new Gi's. I did some surfing, had a butchers on Ebay (which was a bit flat, I even saw jiu jitsu spelled juditsu!) and eventually found a couple of decent sites. My preferred site is WWW.grapplestore.co.uk . They advertised a good spectrum of Gis and belts and a very reasonable pricing range too. If you were loaded then you can obviously pick and choose what you want/need. Some people though, might find themselves on a budget. The cheapest Gi being sold here is £49.99. Ideally priced for someone on a budget although I am not sure on the quality of the Gi offered for this but beggars cant always be choosers. Sometimes I think spending a little extra will save in the long term. So I loaded my cart with a Valor white belt, a Blitz Lutador BJJ Gi and on advice from someone from Gracie Barra Plymouth a rather fancy Keiko Raca Ultra Light. It took roughly a week for the package to arrive and once again with great glee I rummaged into the bag and pulled both Gi's out, tried both on, went to class that evening and tested one out. But it was too late...the next week I was looking for the next Gi like some kind of addict. A training partner form the club mentioned Tatami having a sale on, the Nova basic was being sold for a song! Here was my chance to have well known brand and not break the bank, and like the addict I now was, I forked over the cash...

Like the title says, "My name is Mark and I am a BJJ gi addict...."

The road is long....

So while sitting around after losing a job I decided to start BJJ. This was something I had wanted to do for a long time and was pretty serious about. The problem was I always came up with an excuse or something to put it off.... Until now.
I trawled Google for some local schools, looking at some websites and registering my interest with some,it wasn't too long before I had a phone call from Sam Tippet at Master St.James Black Belt Academy Plymouth. We had a brief chat about what I wanted and what was on offer, they were doing a 30 day free trial with gi and belt thrown in ( with returnable deposit of £50 should you not like your 30 days ) and a 1 on 1 lesson, we soon had a date hashed out and there I was kinda dazed and unsure of what was before me.
The day came and in I went. I was met at the front desk by Tom Barlow the academy BJJ instructor, who pointed Sam out to me as he was just about to start a class. I filled in some paperwork (yawn) with Sam and went and changed ready for the 1 on 1.
First was a basic fitness test. This comprised of push ups for 2 minutes, sit ups for 2 minutes and finished with burpees with a jump for 2 minutes. Now,since leaving the Army I hadn't done too much in the way for fitness but I must say the results were not too shabby for a fat civvy! Then Sam and I covered a couple basics like open guard,closed guard,side control. Sam showed me a couple of nice moves, kimura,kimura sweep and threw in a gogoplata. I had seen this stuff done by athletes on UFC ect and knew straight away I was hooked.
We finished the session, filled in the rest of the paperwork and Sam asked when I'd like to start. I paid my deposit and was in that same evening. The rest they say is history....