Honeymoon?

I love Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. No, scratch that. I am in love with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. In fact, I am passionately in love with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Like any new lover, I find it hard to stop talking about it, thinking about it, and wanting to learn all there is to know about it.

I find myself apologizing to my very patient husband for enthusiastically showing off every bruise and every raw patch of skin on my feet. Yesterday, when someone casually asked me about it I told them, "oh please don't ask, I will not shut up". And then proceeded to lovingly describe the history of BJJ and when, how, and why I became interested.

When someone asked me how my Judo was coming along, I smiled and said, "I wouldn't know, I don't train in Judo," and felt as if they had accused me of cheating.

I started this blog because I want everyone to know HOW MUCH I LOVE BJJ. It is my equivalent of shouting it off a rooftop.

When will the honeymoon be over? Never, I hope. For like any good lover, I just hope that it gets better and better. And better.

What do you love? What are you passionate about? What makes you feel like you would do ANYthing to accomplish a goal? What gets you up in the morning? Please leave a comment, I want to know.

Thanks for reading, folks!

AS:)

PROGRESS! -- and my first video :)

So in the last week and a half I've gotten my first two submissions. One armbar and one kimora. One on a guy who's been training on and off for a couple of years, and the kimora on a dude even newer than me! It shouldn't count but he's actually pretty good so I'm counting it.

Last night I got the first video of myself. Besides the fact that my hair looks shorter than it feels and my rear-end looks bigger in those capris than I thought...it's not a bad video ;)

Let me set it up. My rolling pahd-nah there (partner for those of you who did not grow up in the midwest or south) is in the guard position. His goal is to control me with his legs and try to position himself to perform a submission. My ENTIRE goal at this point, especially as a complete newbie, is to just get past his legs. It's called 'passing'. Stay with me folks, I know this stuff is complicated.

If I can get past his legs into side control, meaning that I control him from the side (I told you this stuff is complicated!), I will be in a better position submit him. The video actually runs out before an even cooler part where I got him in a decent choke. ANYway.

So here ya go. Copy and paste the link into your browser and it should go to my google page where you can play the video. It's 1-minute long and most of the action takes place near the end.

https://picasaweb.google.com/105558444651820709081/BJJ?authkey=Gv1sRgCLT09JCws9rghAE

THANK you for reading, folks!

AS :)

When There's Nothing Left

Tonight was a turning point. You see, I've always been awesome at starting things. I gain energy, inspiration, and excitement when something is new and different. Then when the newness wears off I get bored and cranky and I'm looking for the next challenge.

Tonight at class I hit a breaking point. I had nothing left. I had burned through my fuel and there weren't even fumes left to run on. I was forcefully pushed out of my comfort zone, and it hurt, in more ways than one.

For some reason though, at the moment when I always give up, something welled up out of my guts and came out as something like defiance and an absolute refusal to stop or rest or give in. Something that said "Learn. Fight. Win. And sooner than you think, you won't be the newest, the weakest, the least skilled. You will be strong, you will be skilled, and you will finally, win."

So from being sprawled out on the mat emotionally and physically, I pulled myself together and finished. When there was nothing left to finish with, I finished something. It was messy, a little embarrassing, and I definitely didn't win. But no matter, because I finished.

First Miss, Boo.

I 'had' to skip class last night for the first time...just felt really yucky. Some kind of disagreeable food substance was not treating me well. I wish I could be a bit more macho about it and 'work through the pain' but the last thing I want to do is push so hard that it becomes a chore and not the most fun thing EVER.

Looking even more forward to Saturday open mat. I went last week to open mat for the first time and it was amazing. It was as if everything I had (sort of) learned up to this point had a chance to congele. Also learned and practiced how to pass a guard. THANK YOU to the brown belt instructor who proactively approached me and offered a lesson. Remind me to catch your name again this week.

Passing a guard involves scootching back as far as possible while keeping your center of gravity super low. Then jumping to a wide stance, bringing a knee under to the middle of your opponent's legs, then dropping quickly to (hopefully) break their grip. I'm on the smaller side compared to most of my practice buds so I'm lucky if I actually break the guard but I can usually get it to loosen. Then with the other leg you smush them down as much as possible and work yourself into a side-guard position. From there of course I have no idea what to do. Maybe some more congealing needs to happen to bring my offensive game up to par :)

Thanks for reading, all.

Shout-Out to Travis Conley

One of the regulars at KCBJJ is Travis Conley, who just competed in the FILA World Championships in Serbia. The following post is about his entire experience there. It's long but very worth reading. It kept my attention the whole time!

Way to go Travis,

http://www.undergroundgymllc.com/node/201