Yup it’s that time of year again folks. Most people are starting to think about their resolutions for the new year. Some are going to quit smoking again, others are going to lose weight again, but lets think of something different…Jiu Jitsu! So lets hear it. What are your Jiu Jitsu resolutions? When thinking of one, make sure to be specific enough so that you can track your progress. I personally am going to work on sweeping from the bottom and gaining the mount. I feel that I need to work on my subs from mount and I am a guard guy, so I need to sweep the person to get on top. The more I put myself in the mount position the more I am forced to make sub attempts from there. On a side note make sure to subscribe to my blogs RSS feed. You can do this by clicking the link that says subscribe to this feed towards the top left of the page. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays!

I have been listening to The Fightworks Podcast for several months now. I have mentioned this in the past on this blog and I highly recommend the podcast to any Jiu Jitsu practitioner. This past episode interviewed Rener Gracie. He was talking about the path his school has taken in regards to teaching pure Gracie Jiu Jitsu. He had some great points when talking about their philosophy. They believe teaching self defense comes first, gold medals and competitions come later. They come under fire sometimes because of their lack of representation in the competition circuit. I have asked myself the question of what is “pure Gracie Jiu Jitsu” compared to the style I train? Rener answered this question by stating if you have the mind set, “if I do not allow myself to lose I will eventually win.” Helio was the master of defense, he could fight for hours before submitting his opponents. This is what Rener was talking about with pure Gracie Jiu Jitsu, no time limits, no rules. Their Jiu Jitsu is based around this and not time limits of competition. I can’t help, but say this all sounds great on the surface, but I feel like I’m being sold something. Rener is very passionate about Jiu Jitsu and that certainly comes through, but it sounded like he was selling a used car to someone. I think sometimes the Gracie’s take a lot of flak for the way some of them have sold Jiu Jitsu to America. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this. I recommend listening to the interview before weighing in. So how do you feel about either training “pure Gracie Jiu Jitsu” or training just plain Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

Hey everyone. Here is a setup that I have been having some success with recently. I would love to hear some feed back and peoples thoughts. Remember I’m just a noob blue belt so take it for what it’s worth. I look forward to hearing from everyone! Enjoy.

Jiu jitsu is the gentle art right? I mean you snap peoples arms in half and choke them unconscious until they wet themselves. That has to be gentle! Lets face it Jiu Jitsu can be  brutal when it needs to be, but lately I have been focusing on the gentle aspect in certain positions. This way of thinking has transferred over from mount to knee on belly for me. I’m a light guy so my mount has never been crushing. At first I would always get bucked off and people would escape. I couldn’t figure out how to be heavy enough to pin someone down. I started seeing other small guys have success with the mount because they knew when to stay tight and when to loosen up. After studying this for some time I started to apply as much weight and contact as I could to someone until they started their escape, then I would loosen up and sort of float until they settled back down. I think this works because it plays off the same principal of most things in Jiu Jitsu you need to connect your hips to their hips. By staying loose and floating, I’m disconnecting my hips from theirs at the moment they need that connection. Once they complete their escape attempt I connect again. This has transferred over well to my knee on belly.  With knee on belly I normally grip their collar under their head and my other hand grips their pant leg. This way I can pull up and apply pressure to them when I need to, but also at the same time when they start an escape I can use these hands to post on the mat. When I post on the mat I can float because my weight isn’t 100% on my knee which is connected to their hips. It’s a new concept of small person Jiu Jitsu that I’m starting to play with and I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on it.

Ok so the Skirmish was this past Sunday, and the past few nights I have been working hard on the highlight video. There is a ton more footage because we had a few more people compete and several people filming, so I was pretty pumped about that. To sum up how we did in one word…slaughter comes to mind. We brought a lot of hungry wolves to the Maine Skirmish and we feasted. Over all we had around 8 trophies, 1 title belt, and an assortment of other medals. It was a true display of some classic Jiu-Jitsu. Before this competition I set a personal goal not for medals, but to take a step closer to being able to compete without nerves. In that respect I think I did well. We got there really early and I felt I could have fallen asleep in the bleachers I was so relaxed. When it came time to step on the mat, I did have a bit of butterflies in my stomach, but no where near the Freestyle Grappling Open kind. I had a total of 3 matches. My first I won by armbar 1 min 30 seconds into the match. The second I also won by armbar, this time 1 min 3 seconds into the match, virtually the same move and set up. My final match things didn’t go my way. I pulled guard and felt I could sub my opponent the same as I did to the 2 before him, but he got my right arm pinned behind my back in a very awkward position. I tried to defend his pass with one hand because the other was held behind me, but I couldn’t. He passed into side and then kept cranking the arm behind my back and I ended up having to tap before I busted something. It’s a hard match to describe, but the videos will be up on youtube soon. I encourage you all to subscribe to my Youtube channel for those videos and the unveiling of the Skirmish HL video as well!

Today is going to be a day of rest. A calm before the storm so to speak. This seems to be what I do the day before a competition…nothing. As I mentioned before I’m not super pumped for this competition, but it should be good growth for me in terms of experience. We have a significant number of people competing this time which is awesome. I love watching other people compete and catch the bug. You can always see peoples game jump several levels after they compete. I think it refocuses some people, and helps them fill in holes they may not have noticed otherwise. One great thing is I don’t have to cut any weight for this one so I’m hoping I feel stronger this time. Bri isn’t competing this time because of the lack of girls so she is going to get as much footage and pics as she can. I’ll make sure to post them all again. Stay tuned.

FGO 2009 Second Match

Recently I came across an amazing podcast about Bjj. It has over 600k listeners so I think I’m a little late finding it, but it’s well worth the hour spent listening to it every Sunday. They cover all types of news related to Bjj and often have in depth interviews with Jiu-Jitsu stars and legends (this week it’s Silvio Braga) . Jiu jitsu is way more then just an activity that I do 3 times a week. It really is a way of life, and the more time spent doing it, the more it spills over into other aspects of the day to day. So check it out, I highly recommend it and its free! The FightWorks Podcast

I just wanted to let everyone know that soon this blog will be moved to www.jitsujourney.com. I purchased my own domain and have been putting in more effort getting it set up then blogging lately. Soon I will be back in full swing with a sweet new look. The Foundry will be representing again in a few weeks a the Maine Skirmish. We are all pumped. It’s a smaller tourney, but I’m looking forward to competing again. Just like people run to improve their cardio, I want to compete more to improve my nerves. I want to be able to step out there and roll just like it’s a normal session in class. Then I think I will do so much better. The only way to practice for that is to actually compete, and that’s what this tournament will be for me. I’ve been working on a new sweep I saw Abmar Barbosa do at the FGO this year as well. Seems to be coming together nicely with my game.

Let me start off first by saying Team Foundry had a great showing at the FGO this year. We took 5 competitors and walked away with 6 medals total. Out of around 27 teams that registered we took 7th overall. Not bad at all. We had some steep competition let me tell ya, no one had any easy fights. My first match I went up against a monster from team LINK. The nerves of it being my first match of the day really sapped my energy quickly and I found myself gassed and working to keep him from passing. He defeated me and went on to win thedivision. I guess that makes me feel better. My second match was against the guy who took first place last year. I had no nerves at all for this match because I was still really bummed that I lost and could no longer take 1st. I stepped out on the mat with an I don’t give a shit mentality. I ended up pulling guard after trying a take down. Worked a de la riva sweep that left me on top for the win. Now I found myself going against the guy who took second last year. This match was to decide 3rd place. He pulled guard on me and I came down really oddon my knee almost hyper extending it. It was enough to take my mind off for a split second and by the time we both were on the ground he had a triangle locked up. So I took 4th place. I really wish I had placed, but that’s how it goes. I think next year I will set a goal for myself to just medal in the FGO and then work from there. In other news soon my blog will be moving to www.jitsujourney.com. Yup thats right I purchased my own domain. Videos of my matches can be found here.

This Saturday night we all decided to do a little test run to check our weight. We didn’t eat or drink much of anything after 5pm. The next day we woke up and went down to the gym and weighed in. I was relieved when I hit the scales weighing 154.5 HELL YEAH! Finally. Now I just need to work on eating right this week and getting my energy back. No Shawn that doesn’t mean bud lite limes. The other thing that I wanted to talk about was things I do to mentally get ready for a match. We do a lot of running and extra workout stuff of course to make sure the cardio and strength is on par. The most important thing I do is visualize, and no matter what I am concentrating on at the time, it always ends with my hand raised. I hate running, but one thing I found that passes the time quicker is music. I’m sure everyone runs to their fav jams, so this isn’t out of the norm, but I do something a little different I think. I like to run to trance or progressive techno. I started doing this because I hated finding a song that matched my mood while running. Lets just say I couldn’t find a tune that said “I friggen hate running, and I’d rather been drinkin’ beeeeeeer!” So the techno I listen to has no words just a driving beat that starts slow and builds and ramps up, just like my run. Now where my visualization kicks in is every time a new layer is added to the beat I add in another step in a sequence of moves. By breaking down the different steps to a move and assigning them to a beat, I am essentially drilling technique in my head. This goes hand in hand with my game plan because the early songs will start with everything from stepping on the mat and shaking hands, to later on finishing the match and raising my hand. Then of course Jacare runs out and hoists me on his shoulders and all the Brazilians start chanting a special chant just for me. What? You don’t think of that?