Rolling Pic

About time for a picture? I like this one because it looks like I'm contemplating the world on the other side of the glass. I am in fact using all of my strength to keep my opponent in this thing that looks like a choke. It didn't ultimately pan out.

3 Reasons I love BJJ

As I was driving home from open mat today, this question crossed my mind; "why Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?" There are so many types of martial arts that date back centuries and are firmly established in the American psyche. BJJ is essentially the new kid on the block. Of course, it's rooted in Jiu Jitsu, which has been around for a while as far as I know...but that's not the point.

The point is, when I finally had the health, time, and money to pursue a martial art, why was there no alternative in my mind? I'm not positive, but I think if there had been no BJJ gym accessible, I simply would not have trained in anything.

All of the following reasons are 100% subjective. Because other martial arts lack some of these elements does not mean I think they're pointless...but simply that I do not find them as appealing.

So, here are my top 3 reasons for loving BJJ:

1) Because it is so raw. You may (or may not) wear a gi and a mouthguard (and a cup if you're smart, dudes), but other than that there is no padding, protection, shin guards, gloves, helmets...nothing. I LOVE THAT. When, at any other point in our day to day lives are we so unprotected? The risk of injury is never far away and anyone in the sport will admit that it will eventually leave marks that will never fully heal. The beautiful thing about that is that I never feel more alive than when I'm that close to perceived danger.

2) It allow me to be aggressive. Many martial arts are solely defense-based. People ask me this all the time, "so are you doing this for exercise or self-defense?" My answer, "neither." I do it for many reasons but one of the main ones is that I am allowed to show aggression and it is perfectly acceptable. Human beings are meant to be able to fight if need be, and I think the more our society crushes that instinct the lesser we become. This goes for women too. Parents, allow your little ones to express this instinct in a controlled environment, it is an essential part of our humanity.

3) It is so darn practical. There are no 'forms' or pretty rituals. If some creep jumps me in an alley, I am not going to say, "hey can you hold on for a sec? I've got this great sequence to show you." If I can't hightail my way out of there, I'm at the very least going to attempt some defense and, if possible, a good triangle or kimura. Newbies: check out this Kimura from the guard position. To me, punching and kicking just don't seem like they would be all that useful. Remember though, subjective.

So there are my top three, though I could go on and on. And on.

If you've managed to get this far, leave a comment about why you love BJJ!

Thanks everyone,

AS :)

Roller's High

This is of course an illusion to the famous 'runner's high' that we've all heard about. Turns out that runner's high is due in large part to a dose of the stress hormone cortisol as a result of putting your body through so much stress...but I'll leave that for another writer to take care of :)

In this case, I'm talking about the feeling I get after pushing through the "I'm tired let's blow this joint" phase that inevitably hits me after the initial hour of class. On Monday and Wednesday nights we have Foundations class that lasts for about an hour. It's a warm up and then basic drills. It shouldn't be tiring but it is. Then there's Training, a higher caliber time of more intense drilling that culminates in a lot of rolling.

Inevitably after the first hour of class I have a little internal discussion with myself that goes something like this:

Wuss Abigail: "Hey, I made it to class and didn't do too bad. I'm pretty tired though, been cleaning all day. Why don't we just go home and get some rest?"

Drill Instructor Abigail: "Are you kidding? We've paid for a month of classes and we're going to make it worth it! You know if we can stay for the next 5 minutes that we'll get our second wind."

Wuss Abigail: "Yeah but we have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow. Isn't sleep more important than rolling around getting sweaty and beat up?"

Drill Instructor Abigail: "Well yeah, but not nearly as much fun."

I admit that Wuss Abigail has won a few times, but I'm starting to get in so much better shape that the "I'm tired" excuse doesn't actually work as well any more and I've been having much shorter conversations with myself recently.  

The ending of this nice little story is that every time I do in fact stay and (literally) sweat it out, I always end up meeting someone cool, learning something new, getting a new injury to show off, or pulling off some neat move that will keep me grinning for the next 24 hours.

It has NEVER been not worth staying. And in case double negatives freak you out, let me say it another way; it has ALWAYS been worth staying for the Training class, without exception.

As someone in class told me a couple of weeks ago, "It doesn't matter what's going on in my life; money, work, stress...it all goes away when I'm in this room. I leave everything outside when I walk through those doors."

Pretty neat, eh?

Thanks for reading everyone :)

AS

Who knew?

I'm having so much fun with this blogging...thing. A quick shout out to those reading in countries I could barely pinpoint on a map :) (I'm talking to you, Latvia).

Pageviews by Countries United States 641 Canada 32 United Kingdom 20 Germany 6 Latvia 6 Russia 6 France 4 Indonesia 3 Australia 2 Belgium 2

Chugga Chugga

That's my impression of a choo choo train, which is what I feel like right about now!

The season of everything being new and unfamiliar is over and I feel like I've entered a new phase. I'm seeing dots (which is an improvement), but I can't connect them all to form a picture quite yet. Every once in a while I manage to connect one or two, but then am stopped by a gulf so wide I wonder if I'll ever be able to connect them all!

That's where the train comes in. I know just enough now to know how much is left to learn. The landscape can be totally overwhelming, but I have to just 'stay on track' and trust that eventually I'll be able to get to the next stop. In my mind, that means a breakthrough. Breakthroughs are great because they give you just enough fuel to make it to the next stop.

Okay, enough with the word pictures.

Thanks everyone!

AS

Raw

I have begun my fouth month as a BJJ student. The longer I study this beautiful martial art the more I see interesting parallels between it and a good relationship. In this case I'm thinking of my husband, but it could be anyone that you are close with.

For instance, in order to be successful at all in BJJ you have to be willing to be completely vulnerable. Every time I walk onto the mat I expect to end up hurt and beaten. That is not negative thinking, that is just plain ol' realism. Of course, these beatings are occasionally followed by brief moments of joy when I magically (or accidentally) perform an armbar or kimora; but these moments are few and far between. I have essentially developed an expectation of failure, and yet for some reason I and many others continue to give everything we've got on the mat and experience that failure over and over again. Is that all that different from being vulnerable to your friends, family, or spouse? I submit to you (pun intended) that it is impossible to love anyone without becoming vulnerable to them. Yet we do so anyway, because the rewards of a healthy and vibrant relationship are TOTALLY WORTH IT. And this is true of BJJ as well. The rewards of allowing myself to become vulnerable on the mat are worth every bruise, scrape, headache, backache, neckache, and sleepless night. Rewards that include a sense of pride unmatched by anything else I have accomplished,  a sense of strength that goes beyond the physical and permiates into the deepest parts of my soul and spirit, and a sense of belonging that I have experienced in no other avenue.

Another parallel you might draw between BJJ and a good relationship is that it exposes both the strongest and the weakest parts of your personality. Even starting this venture highlights one of my strengths, and that is that I refuse to be intimidated by something unkown or seemingly dangerous...and/or stupid. Walking into a gym full of buff dudes who looked like they could crush me with their little finger was hard, but I did it, and I keep doing it. On the other side of that optomistic coin, it has also shown me in sharper detail a definite weakness that I have struggled with my entire life, and that is an unwillingness to FINISH things. When I get tired from rolling I tend to just, stop. I've never had to push myself really hard to finish anything. Even growing up, having not been involved with any team sports or any thing like that, I didn't learn how to be accountable to other people. If I am only accountable to myself it is easy to justify any decision. Like, "I'm going to leave 10 minutes early tonight so I can have time to wind down and get a good night's sleep". Well, yes, that is very reasonable. However, it requires leaving class 10 minutes early and it's a convenient little way of avoiding the pain of pushing to the end. Obviously I have identified this particular weakness and am currently working on some strategies to strengthen that area.

And like any good relationship, the better you get, the further you realize you have to go. There is no 'end'. There is always, always, always going to be someone better than me in this sport. Always. But that's no reason to quit!

Let's keep on keepin' on, folks!

Thanks for reading,

AS:)

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 

The Reason Why

So last week at class we learned how to reposition your opponent's arm to a more advantageous angle in order to...basically make them freak out and loosen their grip on you. The cool thing? When we were rolling (for real, not practice) I actually got into a position similar to what we were practicing and something clicked in my brain. I thought, "wait, this feels familiar!" and I immediately did the exact move that we had practiced! It wasn't a choke or submission but the feeling of actually accomplishing something you learn in practice in a live rolling session was absolutely thrilling! It made me realize that I am really learning something and that my brain is picking up on stuff even when I feel like a rookie slug learning how to make goo.

So fast-forward to this week and I have upped my membership to KCBJJ  http://www.kcbjj.com/ to unlimited, which means I can go to as many classes as I want to during the week. So I'm psyched! Tonight I just stayed for foundations class, and tomorrow I'll go back for training. Then I'm thinking I'll pop in on Saturday morning to practice the stuff I learned during the week. I haven't taken advantage of the open mat yet but I feel that I have just enough of a base now that I can really make use out of it.

Also, a huge kudos to the amazing stuff KCBJJ has accomplished in the past month. Check out the main page on the lower left-hand corner!

A shout out to Jason Bircher is also in order. I didn't realized when I started at KCBJJ that studying under a black belt is kind of a big freaking deal and the more I've been there the more awesome stuff I've heard about Jason from the guys who train with him. THANK YOU for making me feel extremely welcome and letting me know that I can do this. I trust him when he says that he would tell me if I was wasting my time. I'm looking forward to a lot more lernin'!

Thanks for reading folks.

AS :)

Fourth class coming up!

Well I have almost completed a MONTH of classes. That sounds a lot more impressive than just four classes, right?

Let's see...I do in fact feel differently now than when I began. Day 1 was characterized by extreme excitement and a good dose of nervous energy. Getting through foundations class for an hour and the training class for another hour and a half was pulled off based purely on those two emotive states. I rolled a couple of times in the training section of the class but only because Jason (the instructor) had me spar (I just can't get that karate out of my language) with him.

Day 2 was actually harder because I KNEW what I was getting into and I am much more prone to fearing the known than the unknown. I made it through and actually rolled quite a bit, leaving me absolutely exhausted. That was the day I learned what, "I'm going to wipe the floor with you" really means.

Day 3, last week in other words, was a mixture. I was still a little nervous but by then was getting a handle on the attitude of some of the guys in the class. I'm not going to name names...mostly because I can't remember them, but some of the guys are extremely patient and will let me go as slowly as I need to get the technique perfect. I'm afraid I take serious advantage of them!

So tonight completes my first month of training and I am PUMPED. Not only do I know what's coming, but I am also excited about it! I don't know about you, but I HATE exercising, and the conditioning that we have to do before each class is my least favorite part. But I'm kind of getting a handle on it and it's not so intense any more. I really, really, really, need to condition outside of class. Working on it! Actually, I'm working on the attitude that goes along with regular conditioning. (Stupid exercise. Why did it have to be invented in the first place?)

So today for lunch I had a protein shake and half of a baked sweet potato with butter and salt and a couple sprinkles of brown sugar. Also made myself an extra 12oz of coffee to make sure my energy level is good after having a pretty intense couple of days of work. I've purposely scheduled Wednesday afternoons to volunteer at the front office of my church so I don't have to go directly from work to class, and I get to spend three hours on my butt which feels like a luxury after cleaning what feels like 15 toilets and sweeping 3lbs of dog hair off of hardwood floors.

Later I'll have to write about my little ritual before class but that is for another time.

Tonight, if I get there early enough to have a couple minutes with the instructor, I'm going to ask him to help me develop a couple of goals to work towards. I can't do anything for long without a goal in mind! Need something to work towards, even if it's a reach.

That's it for now. Adios my friends, and thanks for reading!

P.S. If you did in fact make it to the end of this post, I highly appreciate it. The blogs that I have enough attention for are usually funny and mine are definitely not funny. I mean, come to think of it, I might think less of you who actually made it through this entire, boring post. Seriously...

Lesson Learned -- EAT

The one tough thing I heard about before getting into BJJ was that normally the classes are late-ish at night and that it's difficult to 1) sleep well so soon after a hard training and 2) figure out what to feed yourself before and after.

Some of ya'll who know me know that I try to eat a 'primal' or 'paleo' diet and have been for the past year and a half. The difference in my energy level and mental clarity have been astounding and I'll never (permanently) return to a "SAD" -- Standard American Diet. I'm nowhere near perfect but even being 70%-90% paleo has helped me tremendously.

Given the fact that the primal diet tends to be lowish-carb, there is a bit of a learning curve when beginning a super-intensive sport like BJJ. The one man who has helped me understand this balancing act better than any other is Robb Wolf. I would highly recommend his website, www.robbwolf.com. He also has one of the best podcasts EVER called "The Paleo Solution". Here is a link to an article posted in the past few days about a paleo athlete: http://robbwolf.com/2011/09/08/paleo-athletes-uncovered-olympic-hopeful-ursula-grobler/

I sure hope I get this next part right! His basic philosophy is that being paleo is 'carb-neutral' and that you should simply feed your body the amount of carbs it needs to sustain the type of activity you are performing. If you are a fully converted fat-burner, your body will burn fat as it's primary fuel source and you can add the amount of carbs in that will support your higher output activities. The difference here from mainstream diets is that usually that number of carbs is still far lower than most people live on right now. The number is very different for different people and activities. He recommends that, if you are going to eat a higher-carb meal to help recover from an intensive training session, do so in a window pretty soon after training. That helps your body partition them correctly to build muscle instead of what they usually do, which is spike your insulin levels, which in turn store fat.

The flip side of that is that if you train intensely and do NOT eat afterwards to recover, your body will use up it's glycogen stores (that's sugar stored in the liver) and then start using the protein from your muscles to rebuild. Not good!

Anyway, I hope I got that science at least partially right! I've only listened to about a hundred of his podcasts and I'm just going on memory here...

So you're probably asking WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS FREAKING POST?

Okay, wrapping it up here. Last night I got home from my 2 1/2 hour class and didn't know what to eat. It was 9:30, I was dead-tired, and to top it off I had to get up at 5AM this morning for my business networking group. I was already wound-up from class (yes you can be tired and wound-up at the same time) and knew that if I ate I would be laying in bed trying to get to sleep forever. I had made bacon and eggs for breakfast around 7AM, ate a baked sweet potato with lots'o lovely butter for lunch around 1PM, then eaten a quick handful of almonds and dried cranberries for a snack about 6PM, 30 minutes before class started. So, not a lot of food. And I was hungry. AND I didn't want to eat. So...I didn't. I drank a bit of 'So Delicious' Coconut Milk to calm my stomach and then went to bed.

Fast forward to this morning and I am WIPED OUT. Note to self: I must find something to eat when I get home that will satisfy my hunger, help me recover, AND not keep me up for half the night because my body is going nuts trying to digest it. I'm thinking a small piece of chicken or a little beef is something that wouldn't mess me up too bad but we don't always have something like that just prepared and ready to be heated up.

So there ya go. Just a thought, albeit a very, very long one.

If you have insomnia tonight, just come back and read this and I'm sure you'll be cured.

Thanks for reading everybody!!

AS:)

Fighting (of a certain kind) is Healthy!

Some of us probably know this instinctively, but if you're the kind of person who wants proof, here it is! Not only is fighting FREAKING FUN, but it also seems to play a role in your health. Mark Sisson again rockin' it out with marksdailyapple.com.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fighting-healthy/

Basic Armbar

This is a variation on the move I learned in my first class, it's called the armbar. In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the end-goal of any fight is to submit your opponent by putting them into a position they cannot get out of. In this case, you position them such that with a little tilt of the pelvis and pressure from your arms you could easily break their elbow.

The demo in this video is slightly different from the way we learned it but it's still the basic idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um4rd7CYN7Y

Armbar Submission

Female weight lifting? EWWW! ........ not.

Score one again for Mark Sisson who provided this link today on his weekend compilation at marksdailyapple.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQkz4Vfm2Yo&feature=share

There is a common misconception that lifting heavy weights will make women bulky. SO NOT TRUE. These chicks are rocking the weights, even up to 330lbs, and they look amazing!

Also, check out the girl around minute 3:40 rocking her Vibrams. Sweeeet.

Video, I think.

This is an experiment, but this link might take you to the video. You may have to copy and paste the link into your browser. Another way is to highlight the link, right click, then click the option that says 'take me to...'.


https://picasaweb.google.com/105558444651820709081/ExportedVideos?authkey=Gv1sRgCKXJ_4_C1-6GrwE


P.S. Ignore the hair. That's what happens when you have boy-short hair and you put it in a hair band. :) After all, this is all about overcoming vulnerability, right?

Exercise, Schmexercise

Okay, I admit it. I hate exercising with a passion. Always have. The most annoying thing about it is that I don't see the POINT. I guess you could say, I hate exercising just for the sake of exercising.

I tell people this and I get very odd looks and inevitably hear these two things. "Oh, but it's so good for you! And it makes you FEEL so good!" No, exercise does not make me feel good. Actually it makes me very hungry and very sore and very tired. And then after I (eventually) get into the habit of exercising I begin asking myself, when is the last time I had to do a pull-up in real life? Is this making my life better or easier? Hm. Not really.

So here's what I'm getting to. When I have a real, tangible reason to exercise, it's not work any more! Today I went on a walk/jog/conditioning run because that's what we do in class to warm up. We run forwards and backwards and sideways and with knees up and ankles up. So when I was running today, all I was thinking about was, "this will make class easier".

I rubbed parts of my feet raw in class so have to tape them up in order to wear my beloved Vibrams.

Then I hopped onto youtube and looked for some sport-specific conditioning that I can do in my living room without a partner and stumbled across this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iydZKc_mnn8 

It took me an hour more or less to figure out how to do them and get through a few reps but I am anticipating it getting faster in the future.

I took a short video of me attempting one of the exercises but for some reason the site won't accept the format that it's in :(. Well maybe I'll figure it out at some point. 

Thanks for reading folks :)

Timely post

A very timely post from my all-time favorite blogger, Mark Sisson at Marksdailyapple.com. Way to go Mark! I know you posted it just for me....

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fighting-healthy/