Strange strange.....

Last night, I did not even sleep. I had ZERO hours of sleep due to the waking my lazy ass up at 1:45 pm on Thanksgiving day then downing 40 oz of coffee with my pumpkin pies at about 4:00 pm. Retarded idea as I could not sleep at all. Then I went to the morning BJJ training and I felt great actually. It was easy training, light technique and rolling. Only for about an hour and a half. Ran home and ate a huge acai bowl with a grilled cheese sandwich only to down some more accursed coffee. Went back to the gym again expecting a 2nd session at 4:30 and another at 6:30 pm. But instead, it ended up with a warm up and free rolling lasting from 5:00pm all the way till about 8:00pm. I felt like I was on it today! So strange since I had zero sleep at all the night before. THis phenomenon has happened once when I was in the mainland and didn't sleep then said fuck it the next morning and showed up for the most brutal conditioning and BJJ sessions I have ever endured. I learned quite a bit and probably had a lot of mat time added to my experience but I also was able to get down Braulio Estima's patented Inverted Triangle setup which works like a charm when pulled off properly. Well, I will go catch up on sleep now 

Productivity: TIme Well Spent

Well, if there were a worldwide competition for slacking off, I would be in the rankings. For the past 2 days, I have done no studying even though finals are coming up in 3 weeks. Instead, I show up to my morning Physiology class, wing my presentation on Grave's Disease, then nearly fall asleep during the teacher's lecture. Then, off to BJJ class I went.

THe normal brown belt who teaches the class was out with a rib injury so he brought in his friend who is a black belt from Gracie Humaita association. THis instructor is on good terms with my  head BJJ instructor so he ended up teaching class. We went over good warm up drills but the technique stuck well with me. It consisted of:

Arm bar from guard>guys pulls arm out>omoplata to inside arm (without closing feet)>underhook their near leg with your near arm & grab own collar, (alternative-grab omoplata'd arm with same hand if possible. THis is hard if they have short arms/gi sleeve), secure their arm with free hand>kick the heel/ankles to the ground to buck them forward, then redirect horizontally to bring them over you and on their back>hold and secure trapped arm and pull up to straighten as this stops them from sitting up>keep turning to face him and secure mounted triangle/fall to triangle/triangle armbar. 

After, we free rolled and I thought I held my own decently against a pro MMA fighter who was also a blue belt. Afterwards, I was lucky enough to roll with the guest black belt instructor. He brought his level down to mine I felt and let me work. I was in danger, escaped only to find myself in another bad position but was able to mount offense in the form of a half-guard V-Bar (my instructor's terminology!). THis was my best form of offense and he brushed it off as if he were swatting a fly. A very productive rolling session as I consider rolling with black belts awesome as they can feel so much going on and vary so many things. This black belt gave me constructive advice on what was good and bad, as if he were evaluating me and then letting me know all my flaws. Sadly, I had to leave to work but I came back that might for another BJJ training session. Trying to pull as much 2-a-day practices as I can for now. I just want to improve my BJJ, is that so much to ask?

I notice with black belts, they can lower and bring up their levels to roll with anyone they are going with. From blue to brown up to more skilled blacks, they can lower themselves and still give you a battle without completely annihilating you (if they want to). I hope to achieve this level of proficiency one day.

The night time session was awesome, going over a bicep spicer variation of open to guard to sweeps and taking the back. THe rolling session was more intense with a bigger class and more blue belts who were new to the school. ANyways, I was so spent and after going home to have a HUGE dinner of quinoa, kale, and 1/4 a turkey, I knocked out to go to bed. LEading till today....

Waking up at 9:30 when my Exercise Physiology class started at 9am! I felt like I needed the extra sleep to recover from the training. I slept in, ate breakfast headed to school but since skipping for first class for the day, I am now sitting in a coffee shop munching on an white chocolate macadamia nut cookie (clean ingredients of course!) and sipping on a huge amount of coffee, watching Robson Moura's cross guard instructional. Is it wrong to feel like I am actually making productive use of time right now? Well, after my 1pm class and work (which I totally enjoy), back to the gym for more BJJ training tonight!

BJJ training days

With the increased number of classes by my instructor, I can get more classes in, yay! But the schedule goes a little late so I get home later at night so, nay! Ended school very early today at 8:00am so I am now muncing down on pasta at home then going to take a nap followed to prepare for a consecutive schedule of BJJ>work>BJJ for the next 9 hours. Hopefully I don't drop from exhaustion. good day yall!

random stuff

OMG I am supposed to be studying for my exam in 1 week and it is and exam where 1 week study time=procrastinating. I intended to study all day but instead I lifted weights earlier then made a gigantic pot of the most awesome chicken noodle soup with an organic free-range chicken that was on sale ($1.99 per lb!!) and now that I have filled my belly up I am still not studying but checking out the most awesome song on youtube that was featured on the season 2 finale of NBC's Chuck. This song hypes me up for some reason, especially during weight training and BJJ rolling sessions.....kinda slow....

and here is the chicken noodle soup that took almost 2 hours to brew up

new training schedule..new partners?

So as the new month starts, my instructor is changing the schedule and price fees to a very very affordable rate. Brazilian Jiujitsu as we can agree can be little hurtin' on the wallet at about $100+ a month. For $70 a month he is offering his expert instruction on the art and hopefully, it attracts more people to come and train BJJ and away from the MMA craze where people just want to learn "UFC."

Here comes the part that got me thinking. I am lucky enough as a lowly blue belt to have had the opportunity to have close supervision, instruction, and access to purple, brown, and some black belts since I first tied on my white belt on a super baggy judo gi since I wasn't sure if I would stick with it. There have been other white belts who came and went in the academy and some were ok while most roll like they are battling you in the finals of the Mundials for the gold medal but generally had much close access to higher belts who serve as great training partners and provide helpful advice. This gets me as I am thinking what kind of people will be walking through the door once this new promotion starts. Inevitably, there will be spazzing whitebelts who try to take your head off and I must try to keep alert from getting injured and I understand as I was also a bit of a spaz when I first started. The great thing is those who stick around start to learn more and develop beautifully into good and productive partners who help you learn and advance your skills progressively quicker than if you had a very small pool of training partners. That's the beauty of the art as whereas everyone in life has their own personality, we all have our own unique style that has something that makes it slightly different than so and so over here and there. 

To top this off, the one film I am most looking forward to being released: