Event Recap: US Grappling Raleigh

On April 18th our team came in numbers to a local tournament. I’ve always favored US Grappling, and whenever I have the choice between their tournaments or another brand I’ll give them my money. The vibe is always laid back, friendly and professional. Everything normally runs smoothly and today was no exception. I made the decision the night before to not cut weight so that my team mate and I would be in separate divisions and since I was planning on also doing absolute divisions It wouldn’t matter to much in the grand scheme of things.

What was so special about this tournament was that it was THE first tournament for many of our white belts. Even my battle buddy Alex, who has competed a few times was doing No gi for the first time. I’ll be honest I’ve competed so often at this point in my life that I don’t really get nervous so it was interesting to have a reminder of when that wasn’t the case. Way back when I was a young judoka who had sweaty palms and was starring out at the matts in terror waiting for his name to be called.

As always our coach Sean Spangler competed along side us and as usual he won his no gi and No gi absolute divisions. My favorite thing about watching him compete is seeing the moves that I’ve been taught being landed during a tournament. It gives you this sense of confidence and purpose. If he can land them on other black belts than it should be easy to land them on other white belts!

Our Girls did great with Stacie getting a Gold and Silver in her first tournament, and Tracy getting double silver! It was hard to Keep track of everyones match but everyone from the team did very well and it was a great experience competing with such a large group.

Only about half my matches were caught on video but heres two of them.

Injuries are a part of our sport and so It didn’t come as a surprise when while competing with an existing back injury resulted in the injury getting worse and a having to go to urgent care. As much as I preach about longevity and keep it playful I really need to take my own advice more often. Overall despite the complications on my part and my failure to execute in my gi match I’m happy with this tournament and I can’t wait for the next one.

Event Recap: Aspyre Self Defense Seminar

Yesterday I had the pleasure and honor of leading at self defense seminar for a Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transexual (LGBT) leadership camp. I’ve been doing these since being attacked way back in highschool. We had done these for seminars for Aspyre in the past and this was their biggest turn out that we had attended. We managed to get a squad of four to teach. The Groups training was:  Tracey: BJJ  Vern: Judo, BJJ   Alex: Wing Chun, Judo, BJJ   Me: Judo, BJJ

Since there were so many kids we decided that we were going to break them off into two groups and cycle them through two stations, one for striking one for grappling. Our over all plan for time management was do do a 30 minute introduction and talk about distance, situational awareness, and de escalation. After that we would do 1 hour of the stations so each group got 30 minutes at a station. We’d finish it off with 30 floater minutes of Question and answer to cover any specific situations or moves we didn’t cover and during that time we’d covert talking with school administration and police before and after an incident.
 
The plan ended up shifting to more of 45 minutes for group and we just ran a bit over the time slot for the Question and answer and the talking to administration. In the future I’ll probably try to rush a bit more with the introduction and tinker with the situational awareness talk a bit more.

For the Grappling section We covered guillotine, sprawl, technical stands, throws, and break falls. For the striking we covered distance control, the clinch, knees and covering up. After the stations were complete we sat down in a circle and had a talk about dealing with school administration and the police. It was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to do it again. We’ve been doing these for almost 5 years now and each one grows more and more.

HIIT Me Baby One More Time! …All About High Intensity Interval Training

When I first made the switch over to BJJ from judo and was trying to lose weight my army buddy Tim got me into HITT. At first I didn’t know what it was but if you ask most martial arts partitioners they’ll recommend it for grappling. You need to increase explosiveness and recovery and that s just what HIIT helps you accomplish.

The Good fight Recap: Gold, Friends, and Fun.

Anyone who follows my other social media knows that my goal for the new years was to finally win a gold medal in a BJJ tournament. Last year my goal was to just to win a match by submission, getting a medal wasn’t even on my radar. After my switch to Zenith BJJ the wins started happening and from when I switched in Mid october to the day before yesterday I managed to win 5 under Zenith. Despite winning all these medals in a short period of time none were gold. So my goal for this year was to win a gold medal. My assumption was that it would take hard training all summer during my college break to reach my goal. It looks like I was wrong!

Yesterday I went down to compete in another BJJ tournament on a whim. I was feeling confident and one of my team members was also competing and I figured he could use company. So I drove down with a close friend and we made our way to the venue. I weighed in at 183 and we waited for the matches to start up. The tournament was submission only and I was doing Gi and No Gi. They were hosting the gi matches first which is something I’ve never seen done before.

Soon enough I got called up for my match and it was show time. My first match went well with some grip fighting until my opponent pulled guard. I caught a knee slide pass and the he retained guard. I passed to half guard and we basically rolled around for a bit with me passing and him retaining again for a while until I ended up taking his back and going for an armbar for the win.

The armbar

And so we were off to the finals! The match was a 12 minute 30 second match and was pretty intense. I can honestly say that it was some of my best rolling to date. Heres the video:

I got thrown by a hip throw/harai pretty early on but I manage to get back to guard quickly. I then start attacking for a gogoplata. I go for a omoplata and end up going for a triangle after he stops the omoplata I don’t get the triangle all the way but I manage to use it to sweep and end up in side control. I pass to full mount then go for an ezekiel choke. I go for a mounted triangle next but have to bail and end back in side control. I start trying to get his gi out for a baseball choke, he shrimps then I recover side control.I end up in north south then back in side control then mount. I go for another ezekiel and get swept and end up in guard. We fight grips and chill there for a while before I end up getting a hip bump sweep to mount. I go for an armbar from mount but I can’t get it so I just roll back to mount and end up falling back to guard. I end up with me on the ground and him standing up. I mange to stand back up and then he goes for a takedown and I sprawl and rotate to his back and go for a RNC and then after loosing it schoot to mount and go for another ezekiel and get swept again. I go for a cross choke he blocks it and he goes for a ezekiel.  I go for an omoplata and end up in side control I end up in my mount and then get swept once again. I eventually end up getting a triangle sweeping to a mounted triangle and finishing with key lock.

I get my gold medal and then run off to switch into my No Gi gear! Soon my first match is up. I fail on a sasae and end up in guard and a nice hip bump sweep. I end up getting a back take off a scramble and winning by RNC

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Finally I have my final match in no gi against the guy I had my first Gi match against.  Lost of good back and forth before he manages to catch me in an armbar from mount. I ended up with as shiny silver medal for my no gi and the knowlege that I need to work on my cardio and armbar defense!

It was a great tournament and I enjoyed being with my friends and watching them compete. I’m happy that I managed to get my first gold and its only served to light a fire under my ass to get that next step and really start training even harder.

The Ronin Diaries: ProJistu Recap

It all started a few months ago with a message from a friend telling me he was going to challenge a celebrity to a BJJ match. I didn’t think anything would come of it when he first sent the message, but now here I was driving to Fayetteville at 7am in the morning to help set up the boxing ring for the event in the national guard armory. The event had snowballed into a rather large card to raise money for PTSD research with people coming from all over the area and even a competitor coming from Florida! I arrived to the location at around 8am and walked in and started helping unload the boxing ring. The metal poles were freezing and made me wish I had gloves. As we assembled the ring competitors and their coaches started trickling in one by one. Progress was slow and steady and with a little bit of team work and elbow-grease we soon had it assembled!

Brad the brains behind the logistics posing with the boxing ring

The floor is important

Starting to look like a boxing ring!

Almost there!

Everyone met up for the rules meeting and weigh ins and it dawned on me that I didn’t pick a walk out song! So I quickly locked in wrecking ball by Miely cyrus. People ran off after weigh ins to get food and me and my buddy Alex messed around and did some judo throws to feel how the ring felt. We even got some pretty good slo motion video! https://instagram.com/p/zGAOlYPHUW/?modal=true We had a warm up room with matts to warm up in and so I chilled there till it was time to compete.  Everyone came out into the ring for a photo op with some ROTC kids while a speech was given.

My match was the second on the card and the first didn’t last very long . Soon enough it was time for my match and I walked out to the ring.

My opponent soon followed suit and I had a wow I’m small moment before the doubt and hypotheticals in my mind got chased out by the ringing of the bell. We locked up and I tried to keep it standing for a while but I got bull rushed to the ropes I went for a hiptoss or haraigoshi but there wasn’t enough space to finish the throw. My adversary countered and spun me down to the ground. I kept trying to recover to outside half gaurd but my head wasn’t hidden enough and he managed to turn the cross face in to threatening the darce. We scrambled some more and eventually I ended up losing to a guillotine
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Every single match ended in submission that day except for the main event Tim Harrell vs Ami James. Their match went the distance and was full of action and submission attempts the flashy moment where Ami James went for a step over into a hell hook was probably what earned him the judges favor.

Ami gave a speech and my friend tim one of his gis in a very ornate wooden box. The event was a huge success and raised over $3,000 for PTSD research and gave a fun friendly atmosphere for competition.  I hung out and talked to everyone after the fact then stayed late to help put the ring away before heading out to apple bees to eat with friends and calling it and end to an amazing day. It was an honor to compete and raise money for a great cause but I’m going to hold of on competing against blue belts for a while considering I’m now 0-2 in grappling superfights. Bonus pictures!

Not every person gets to be champ.

Got to talk to Ami James after the match!

The Ronin Diaries: Elite Warriors Challenge 5

On january 31st I had my first every caged grappling match in Virginia. I got to be on the main card against a sambo practitioner who was very skilled! A close friend and I drove up from North Carolina friday afternoon to get to the venue nice and early before weigh ins. We checked in and checked out our awesome room and marveled at its glory and comfort

We relaxed and waited until it was time to head down to the conference center to register and weigh in. I soon found out that I’m not the most intimidating adversary and neither myself or my opponent were able to keep up much of a straight face. I distinctly remember being thrown for a loop when he shook my hand and bowed. Since not many people I’ve encountered  in my short expedition in amateur MMA have been very respectful.

http://instagram.com/p/yf1R-iPHRY/?modal=true

After my weigh in I got to take a cool picture next to the cage.

http://instagram.com/p/yf0PAlPHfZ/?modal=true

I had heard that EWC had a 30ft cage, but I didn’t quite understand the magnitude of its size until I was next to it. The thing  was freaking huge. I looked at it and tried to imagine how many wars and battles had happened behind its fence. My friend and I got dinner then called it a night. Woke up nice and early, ate breakfast and chilled on my laptop and talking with a friend about a life problem while we waited for the fighters rule meeting. Did that,got checked  by the doctor then we hung out and waited for the matches to start. Soon enough  I walked out to Beggars Guild and stepped into the cage. My opponent was waiting on the opposite side perched wearing a spiderman rashgaurd. “WE WERE ALLOWED TO WEAR RASHGAURDS!!??” I thought myself. It was to late. So we were introduced and then we stepped into the center to get one last talk from the referee before we began.

Above this text is the match. I went for some judo throws but my opponent had great defense and so enough we ended up against the cage. The combination of inexperience against it and my rivals considerable skill made the ensuing takedown forgone conclusion. I knew I was going down at some point and once he managed to get arm control I just mentally prepared  for what was next. He landed in a dominate position and I tried my best to scramble and recover to my halfgaurd. Once we got there I recovered to full gaurd and started working or a submission. He had great posture and was able to stuff any aggression on my part. I had a nagging  paranoia in my head that the longer we stayed in the gaurd the more bored the crowd  would find the match and I started to get pretty paranoid. I went for a sweep and he just went with it and went for my leg immediately! While I do have a brown belt in judo, that combined with my white belt in bjj totals up to zero experience with leg locks and the such. Where as I assume as a sambo guy he was happy as a pig in mud. I tried my best to keep my foot planted,  he adjusted so I kinda rolled over onto him at which point he just grabbled a toe hold on my opposite foot. I “kicked” out of it by extending my leg as far as I could. A scramble ensued and I ended up in side control. Instead of settleing I went for mount to quickly and ended up getting trapped. He goes for a leg lock thingy I get out buy dumb luck and then we end up in 50/50 with my having his leg kinda. We end backup in my halfgaurd and  I try to reach over to get the other leg and get deephalf or a crouch ripper. He counters with arm control and gets a leverchoke/armtraingle to with the match. His beastly performance and  great grappling earned him Submission of the night!  After the loss his corner and coach came to congratulate me and gave encouraging words. They were all great guys and I’ll probably drive back up to do a sambo seminar with them.

The Elite Warrior Challenge venue was well run and I have nothing but good things to say about them. I’m hoping to get some striking training under my belt and have my amateur MMA debut under that banner. It was a good experience and I even though I lost I feel pretty good about my performance as a white belt in BJJ and I have a good feeling about my next tournament.

Weigh ins

The aftermath

The set up

Man of steel day 1

Started up the new kettle bell routine! I grabbed my 25lb kettlebell, turned up the music and went to work! todays day was only 15 minets of kettle bells with 100 jumping jacks for a warm up. Inbetween sets I jogged in place for 30 seconds.

Jumping jacks: 100
Kettle bell sumo squat: 3 sets 35 seconds
One arm suitcase squat: 3 sets of 2×40 seconds (one each side)
One arm Kettlebell Row: 2×30 seconds
One arm Kettelbell shoulder press: 2x 40 seconds
Kettle bell Curl: 40 seconds
Kettle bell skull crushers: 60 seconds
Weighted sit ups: 1 minute

It wasn’t much but It kicked my ass since I’m still beat to shit between the tournament and the 4 hours of hard rolling yesterday. I”m hoping that I can up my workout as I progress and really start to push myself, but since I’m new to kettlebells I want to take it easy. I’ll probably do some more pushups and jumping jacks after practice if I’m feeling up for it.

Tournament Update! One step closer to the goal

I got 2nd place in No gi!

Team Zenith ended up with 7 medals out of 5 competitors 3 silver 4 gold

I got 2nd in Gi

Booty Scoot Jiu Jitsu: It’s not Fighting, and it’s Not Entertaining

Great post about sports BJJ from Seven Breaths. I’d love everyones thoughts on it.

Seven Breaths

The BJJ world has been buzzing over the double disqualification of Keenan Cornelius and Paulo Miyao after their snooze-fest of a match at the 2013 Abu Dhabi World Pro Jiu Jitsu tournament. Watch the match, but only if you can endure the boredom. The only person in this video who does anything interesting is the referee who issues three warnings and ultimately disqualifies both competitors, to the obvious relief of the crowd.

Get in my Guard, bro!

I believe this is a defining moment for Jiu Jitsu. It is now impossible to ignore the fact that the disruptive reboot of Kodokan Judo that changed everything in 1993 has mutated into the static, uninspiring combat sport it is now. It is a combat sport whose top competitors have sat on the mat, scooted toward each other, and assumed the “50/50” position – an arrangement better known in the LGBT world as “scissoring” –…

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What it feels like to Step on the Matts

I hear my name called by the table to let me know that I’m up next. I stand  on the edge and watch as the competitors bow and begin seeking grips. I have this raw energy pulsing through my body. It begins as a a nauseous feeling in my stomach before it radiates outwards in roaring waves of calm. Waves energy that makes my hair stand on end and quells the jitters in my boy with a sense of purpose. I find my quiet place before the thunderous crash of ippon snaps me back to reality soon followed by the echos of the reff and the electronic scoreboard. I stare out onto the open matts as I kick of my sandals and try my best to wipe out the sweat off my feat as I make my way to the center. All the waves of calm have receded back to that all to familiar pit in my stomach I try to force it away. My inner thoughts gets disrupted by the Ref “HAJIME!!” and just like that the nerves are gone and I proceed cautiously forward looking for victory.