Last weekend 2 of my white belts went against each other at a tournament. It was a round robin format and they both still had 3 matches to go. I told them I didn’t want them to roll against one another and get to tired so I gave them a choice.
They could . . .
A. Just give the nod to the senor ranking belt.
Or
B. Have the match finished with a pro wrestling move.
They chose the second option. The only issue was that boston crabs aren’t legal in white belt divisions. Bullshit.
I love this quote for so many reasons. I know it’s used a lot, but that’s for good reason. In essence this quote, to me, encourages you to be a doer and to disregard the negativity of others. This is especially important in competition. For instance in BJJ I know plenty of Black Belts that don’t compete anymore. They give their reasons but often times the real reason is that they’re too worried about things like their image, what people will think if they lose, what people might say, etc. I think this quote is perfect for combating those sorts of thoughts. If you take to heart the words listed above you will go into the competition knowing that there will always be people on the sidelines ready to give their critiques or to pass judgment. But it doesn’t matter, because you’re out there. You are putting it on the line. Part of the thrill of competition is just being in the thick of everything. I know I’ve personally had numerous situations where people were salivating over the thought of me losing. Ready to berate me for my shortcomings. But if I chose to avoid competition because I was worried about losing and damaging my image . . . well I’d probably never compete. I’ve competed a lot over the years. I’ve won more than I’ve lost, but I’ve lost plenty. In the end though the losses don’t stand out as negative experiences. They became learning experiences. I don’t remember a single negative criticisms that’s been directed towards me. Lastly, even in a loss my friends and students (the people who really matter) respect me for stepping up to the field of competition.
So if you are planning on competing in your chosen sport. Pay no attention to the keyboard warriors lurking on Facebook ready to cut you down should you fall short. Give no energy towards the insecure individuals who look to pick apart small errors of your victories. Their focus on you and your endeavors are just a sign that their mind is in the wrong place. You continue being the doer and let them enjoy their view from the sidelines.
Look at this picture from 2005 and you’ll see me as a young 20 year old blue belt during a no gi training session. You’ll notice that I’m wearing a singlet with a pair of gray shorts over it. This of course is to keep my man parts out of anyone’s face during practice, although during tournaments I would wear the singlet by itself.
Back before the days of unicorn print rash guards and more BJJ clothing companies than you could ever hope to remember. Options on no gi attire were really limited. A few companies like Hunter, Badboy and Vitmains and Minerals made some gear. It was typically vale tudo shorts and rash guards. Board shorts weren’t really popular quite yet. Oh there was Sprawl too. But I didn’t like the fit of their old shorts.
There really isn’t a reason to post this picture, just sharing a funny photo.
Here is a demonstration of a technique during one of my classes at Derby City BJJ in Louisville, KY
I still can’t train but I was able to help coach the guys. Since I have a little time on my hands, I decided to make a little video of the training from yesterdays classes. If you ever find yourself in Louisville, KY and want to train. Feel free to stop by. We love visitors and we refuse to charge mat fees.
A video of me talking about my experience with my meniscus surgery and how I am recovering.
In my laid up post-surgery state I’ve been watching lots of matches. If you are planning on being a competitor, watching matches is one of the best things you can do. You really get to see what is the most effective and what isn’t. It’s also a great place to start when you’re looking for ideas of what to add to your game. On a side note, I love watching a guy who has the newest DVD out doing all sorts of wacky stuff, only to go back to a rather basic game during the tournament.
The World Pro just happened and I got this idea to break down the moves used during the matches and make a “World Pro Week” at my gym. Each day I will teach a series of techniques used in the tournament. Just something fun to mix it up a bit. After watching the matches and taking notes I’ve got plenty of good stuff to show my students when I get back on the mats to teach. But after watching the event something else stood out to me more than the techniques they were using. What stood out to me was the effect the time limit had on the matches. If you didn’t know, the World Pro’s matches were all 6 minutes. That’s it! I loved it! Almost all the matches were exciting and action packed. I really think that making the matches shorter is something that is better for the more casual fan of BJJ. Hell I’m not a casual fan and I enjoyed it! The downside to a 6 minute match is that the rate of submissions will go down because opponents can typically keep up a solid pace for 6 minutes and unless they just get caught, they will probably have the energy to defend themselves. The positive end is that a shorter time limit doesn’t allow for that boring feeling out process in the beginning of a longer match that’s essentially only used to conserve energy so you don’t gas out later. Really, a 6 minute match among high level competitors doesn’t allow for a conservative game at all.
I bring this up because the recent Metamoris event had 20 minute rounds that were submission only with no points or judges and the matches (most of them) were fairly boring. Again, this is of course my opinion. But during the last Metamoris event I watched competitors who were normally aggressive, play a slow conservative game and just didn’t go after it like they normally would. It just seems to me that the competitors weren’t pressed with a sense of urgency that a shorter time limit and points provide. I’m not saying that shorter matches with points are always necessary but I think it is part of the equation. You then get into the argument of purity vs sport and that whole mess. Fun fact; wrestling and boxing both used to do unlimited time limits/rounds. I believe if you are trying to market a BJJ event to the masses and make it something that is digestible to both the BJJ community and the public alike, shorter exciting matches with a winner and loser definitely look a lot more appealing than longer more conservative matches with no one awarded the victory.
If you haven’t watched the World Pro event, get on Youtube and check it out! If you have watched it and have an opinion about the matches, I’d love to hear it.
As always,
Thanks for reading!
Chewy
Today was my surgery day. I tore my meniscus cartilage on my birthday this year which was March 13th. Strangely enough just 2 months prior to that I broke my nose. Broken nose on 1/13/2014 and meniscus tear on 3/13/2014. Kind of weird. . .
Anyways, surgery went well! I’m ready to recover and get back on the mats in full swing! Hopefully I can compete in June or July.
This is a butterfly guard sweep against an opponent who is focusing their grips on both knees. Instead of using a under hook or over hook to sweep, I use a sort of steering wheel tie up. In my experience, the sweep works well because most people feel comfortable when they have the grips and I don’t have a strong under hook or over hook. There is some timing involved with it, so it will require some reps before you start using it during rolling.
Cooking with Chewy
So my blog about going to the grocery got a bit of attention and one of my students asked if I would post something about how to cook. His dilemma he says is that he can’t cook. The grocery article stressed that eating healthy foods can be easy and this post will be about how you can cook food fairly simply.
Please bear with me as my cooking abilities are more akin to The Swedish Chef than a gourmet chef.
First we need the food!
-1lbs grass fed beef (fat % is your choice)
-1 ½ cup of dry quinoa (I’m using a mixture of red and white in the photo)
-1lbs bag of chopped bell peppers (you can opt for freshly chopped. I buy the frozen at times for convenience. If you do buy frozen vegetables, be sure there are no preservatives or flavors added.)
-10 baby mushrooms
-Misc. Coconut oil, yellow curry powder, pink salt
*Not shown.
* 1lbs of brussells sprouts and broccoli florets.
*4 cloves of freshly chopped garlic.
I typically start by getting the water for my vegetables (kettle) and quinoa(pan) ready. If you’ve never cooked quinoa before, no worries, it’s really simple. It’s two parts water and one part quinoa. For example, since I was cooking 1 ½ cups of dry quinoa. I brought 3 cups of water to boil. So when you’re cooking, double the amount of water you use in relation to the quinoa.
After the water is on the stove I move over to a large pan for the beef or whichever meat I decide to use. I like starting with a spoonful of coconut oil and throwing the fresh garlic on the pan. After a couple of minutes I will throw the meat onto the pan. Since I was using beef, once on the pan I began to chop it up with the spatula and added the yellow curry powder.
Once the water is at a boil I’ll throw the quinoa in, cover the pan and lower the heat. Once this is done it typically takes around 12 minutes before the quinoa has absorbed the water.
Once the beef is browning and getting closed to finished I will add the frozen peppers and mushrooms. I don’t want them to be super cooked because I will be reheating these meals. I find that cooking vegetables and peppers less makes them taste better when I reheat the meals.
It doesn’t take a long time and then the peppers will soften and the final product looks like this. . .
By now the quinoa should be ready and will look something like this. Move around the quinoa to ensure there isn’t much water left. If there is a little bit, its ok, just sit the hot pan to the side and it will absorb any remaining water. If there is a lot, then continue to cook. Otherwise you probably added too much and need to drain some out of the pan.
With the vegetables, again, I don’t want to cook them too much as they tend to get soggy upon reheating. So I will place them in another pan on the stove and pour the boiling water from the kettle on top of them. I leave them in the water for around 2 minutes and then drain the water and put them into a bowl before I pack them up for the week. This cooks them but keeps them from being mushy when heating.
After this is done you’re ready to put all the food into containers for the week. You can use for tupperware and I’ve even seen people use little zip lock bags to hold and then pour the food onto a plate or bowl before heating. That’s really up to you. This process took less than an hour and I also have chicken and other vegetables that I didn’t show in this blog that were cooked in the same time frame. So in an hour I have enough food to provide lunches for the rest of the week. Plus it wasn’t difficult, so even if your culinary skills are subpar you can still cook well enough to provide yourself with healthy options during the week.
Again I hope this blog helps you eat healthier which in turn will help you train harder. Good luck!
As always,
Thanks for reading!
Chewy