I’m laughing more when I roll. Getting swept to my back or tapping to a choke has never been more fun. I think I’m on to something. Grappling has always been fun. But for most of my BJJ journey I’ve had this sense of trying to ‘work towards something’ and focusing on ‘what’s next’ and when will I just ‘get it.’ Lately though, my fixation on promotion and grading has drifted away. I purposely missed the last two promotions and gradings. I just didn’t care. I mean it’s great to see people improve, and the folks that got stripes and new belts I made sure to congratulate them when I saw them next. But for me, stripes have lost their pull on me.
I know a purple belt that never signs in. I’m in awe of his aloofness and his dedication to not recording his attendance. I wish I had that in me.
The slog from blue belt to purple belt is a beautiful frustration of hits and misses and injuries and inadequacies. The visual reward manifests in white tape. To show yourself and others of your dedication. But does it represent actual skill? I bet it would be hard for instructors to keep track of all the students progress without the stripes. And I can see how, say, your first stripe is an indication that ‘hey you’re on the right track!’ And that the fourth stripe can be seen as ‘hey you’re almost there!’
For me I’m not chasing stripes anymore. I’ll be honoured and thankful when I do get my next stripes, because I respect my head instructors decision and trust his judgement if he decides to give me one.
My relationship with grappling is getting deeper (also jiu jitsu is not that deep). I don’t mean in a woo woo I’m a ninja sort of way (but yeah we are ninjas). I mean that my love for grappling is expanding to include not just my progress, in the form of stripes, but also to include the subtle ways we grip and toss and trip each other. The physical movements more than the visual upgrade. I am rediscovering the joys of training. Play curiosity presence over promotion. It is a relief not to put pressure on yourself to get a piece of tape. I highly recommend it.
Competing as a hobbyist is exhilarating. Doing your regular life routine but also preparing for a fight can be challenging but it’s worth it.
Here’s my training regime for my upcoming comp in October (month and a half away)…
Fitness Gym:
All upper body lifting. Chest press, bicep curls, back rows, and shoulder presses. I must look the part and when I walk onto the mat I will strike fear into hearts of my opponents. 2 days a week should be good. My cardio is not the greatest so I’m not really looking to improve that much in that area. Too much work.
Get those 10,000 steps in before bed.
BJJ Gym Frequency:
Open mat every Saturday. Roll all ten rounds. Pick white belts as my partners so I can build confidence from smashing them. No gi once or twice a week. Also go to fundamentals class once or twice a week with my wife because we always have a fun time goofing around.
BJJ Skills to Work On:
Gripping in gi and no gi. I get the grip fight in gi but my No gi gripping is shite. If my grip game is solid I can get to a good position and work to submit from there. Pretty confident with that part. Also a heavy focus on underhooks and open guard for No gi.
Nutrition:
I eat pretty well. Cook almost every night. Steak, pork, or ground beef with veggies and rice. But when I’m at work, that’s when I eat like crap. Gotta stay away from the fries and Tim Bits. Need to lose 2-3 pounds, is definitely doable.
Mindset:
I felt way more confident and comfortable at my last competition in January, when I didn’t care about the outcome of the match. It took pressure off me and my expectations were realistic and I had more fun. Also, a trick I do is not looking at the brackets and my opponents before hand, so I don’t look at their profiles on SmoothComp and then psych myself out. I have my wife tell me when my match is coming up. And only try to see my opponent right before I get on the mat.
What are some ways that YOU like to prepare for a BJJ competition?
As we were drilling a cool sweep in class recently, I think I heard my head instructor say to a couple of white belts, that sweeping is the fastest way to the mount. It got me thinking, maybe I’m doing this bjj thing wrong (wrong for my age and body type).
I’ll be 39 this year. I’m in decent shape, don’t drink or smoke. And can recover fairly well. But I can’t keep up or out wrestle the younger people at my jiu jitsu gym. Ain’t gonna happen. No matter how much I try and finish a single or double leg takedown. Even a failed attempt at a single leg takedown, and I’m exhausted.
Time for a new approach.
The Lazy Man’s Guide to Grappling
“If you’re going to get beat anyway then realize that this is an opportunity to take it easy”
You know how they say, destroy your ego, well in the case of getting beat in a bjj round, if you’re going to lose a position or get submitted, take the L. Your ego won’t be hurt. Your ego will be so strong it doesn’t even care if your guard gets passed because you’ve survived and didn’t get hurt.
“A grappling school is a learning environment and if you grapple long enough you will be able to hand out more whippings than there will be grapplers to accept them.”
Our time will come, my fellow older blue belt. But that time won’t come if we get injured. And we’ll get injured if we keep rolling like an 18 year old college wrestler.
“Once you have them clamped down then you can begin to rest and start thinking about what you want for dinner after practice. Depending upon experience they will be moving a little or a lot in order to break free, but it will be a lot less than you because you have established position. For them, not only have they not established a favorable position, they are operating from a deficit.”
Position before submission. Don’t rush. Establish control before attacking. I constantly need to remind myself of those. If you go slow you can go fast (that sounds like some old school martial arts wisdom, it’s not mine I definitely heard it somewhere though).
“To throw my grappling buddies off when I am on top, I sometimes act as if I am going after a choke or I will pull their gi out of their belt and pretend I am working on a new type of submission. In reality I am just buying time, as most people will try to defend by trying to remove my hand or keep me from tugging on their gi. I often have no idea what I am doing but I gain precious rest while pretending I possess awesome skills”
There isn’t much time to rest and take it easy while grappling, so why not make time? I also often don’t really know what I want to do from any given position, either on top or bottom. “Fake it ‘til to make it” is a good strategy for the aspiring lazy grappler.
“As a lazy grappler I don’t have the energy or motivation to spend two minutes trying to get you down. I need you down yesterday […]
My mission is to, as quickly as possible, do one of the following: overwrap both of my opponent’s arms (one will suffice too), apply a bear hug or get a Greco Roman grip. Once I lock up an opponent I like to apply an inside or outside leg trip
Bear hug and trip. That sounds low effort and low risk. I like the sound of that!
If you want to last long, save energy, and stay cool calm and collected, while rolling jiu jitsu, I highly recommend becoming a lazy grappler.
I’ve noticed some weird bjj training phenomena that has made my bjj game get better. Becoming a lazy grappler is one of them.
Don’t take it too seriously, have fun, and don’t get injured. Don’t use too much energy, low-effort techniques are your friends, and move slow to prevent yourself from getting hurt.
Now doesn’t that sound like a good plan for BJJ longevity!
A few weeks ago, I got third place out of three competitors at a Grappling Industries round robin tournament in Toronto, Canada. There was supposed to be seven of us, but the other dropped out, didn’t show up, or got injured earlier in the day.
The two other competitors and myself, each won one match and lost one match. But I think the medals were determined by how each of us won and lost. I think. I didn’t look into it.
I was happy with how my matches went. I didn’t get injured so that’s a win in and of itself. My main goal was to win one match, and I achieved it. Anything that happened after was okay with me. I one my first match by refs decision and I lost my second match by guillotine. The video of my matches is below if you want to see me get submitted (the match I lost was only 25 seconds haha).
With all its nuttiness and organized chaos, it’s my favorite competition to go to. You get a good bang for your buck – $90 for at least 4 matches and up to 8 matches, good deal.
Okay, that’s enough chatter. Below is a video of my two matches. First the loss, then the win.
I love finding gems and free stuff on the internet. Especially if they help me with real life.
After finding free BJJ instructionals online (hint: go to Bilibili(dot)com, which is a video sharing site from China, and search for “jiu jitsu”, you’re welcome), I came across this beauty: Wrestling for Jiu Jitsu: Complete 40-Part Series (Full BJJ Instructional).
I downloaded it from a video-ripping site and was super pumped! But then while searching for the instructors name, found out that this wreslting for BJJ instrictional is actually already FREE on YOUTUBE.
I started taking some notes, and I’ll share them with your today.
Notes from Wrestling for Jiu Jitsu Instructional by Dom Anderson
You want to have your…
Head up
Neck stiff
Back Straight
Legs bent
Arms down by your feet or Arms on your opponent
Head up and Neck Stiff
The body goes where the head goes. If you keep your head up and neck stiff, even if your opponent does tie up with you, it wont really effect your movement.
Back straight and Legs bent
A lot of people like to go for shots. If your opponent goes for a shot they won’t be able to finish if your legs and posture are low. For your stance, keep your legs in a squared-up posture, or one leg slightly forward, the leg forward is the leg you’ll shoot with.
Arms down by your feet or Arms on your opponent
Keep your arms down by your knees as close as possible. Don’t put your arms above you or your elbows in and close to your chest.
Where do I put my hands?
In your stance, whichever leg you have slightly forward, reach across to your opponent with the opposite hand and put it on their shoulder. Right leg forward, left hand on their same side shoulder. They call this a “cross grip.” If your right leg is forward and you put your right hand on their shoulder, you open yourself up to being taken down and other attacks. So remember: whichever leg you lead with, do a cross grip with the other hand and place it on their shoulder.
Your hand that isn’t on their shoulder, you can put it behind their head and tie up, or go for same side under-hook.
Cross grip with Collar Tie up
YES
NO
If you do a cross grip tie up and go ear-to-ear, you give your opponent an equal opportunity to control you. If you stay head-to-head with your opponent, you can follow them wherever they go.
Instead of going ear-to-ear, stand firm with head-on-head, like this…
The sequence goes…
Cross grip
Grab the back of their head
Go head-to-head
That’s all the notes I have at the moment. But I’ll be sure to share more of them when I go through the rest of the video. It was too good not to share right away!
If you have any other tips for Stand-up or Hand fighting for BJJ, let us know.
PS: I recently wrote a post called “Lex VS GSP and Why Reaching-in is a Bad Idea” and I shared GSP’s idea of getting closer to your opponent using your feet and not reaching in, like this…
But the video by Dom Anderson uses a different approach with wrestling. Both seem like a good idea to try and learn and figure out which works. Unless I completely misunderstood GSP and I’m totally wrong, it could happen, I’m a blue belt and I’m still trying to parse through all this new info. It’s like I’m relearning all my old wrestling again for the first time.
I realized something today at open mat: the more tired I am and exhausted I am the less I roll with technique. I roll sloppy and end up getting submitted.
That’s what happened today at open mat. But let’s back it up a bit.
I’m definitely getting better at holding positions. For example, staying on top or keeping my pressure on while pinning and not getting swept as much. Another example is I got in Mount on a higher striped blue belt and I don’t think I’ve ever got mount on him, so that’s a win for me.
I also did some good takedowns during some nogi rolls today, but got caught in some guillotines on the way but kept wrestling and got the takedown. Keep the pressure on I guess.
I also have been focusing on guard passing instead of guard pulling, this is what I did when I first started my bjj journey. Good to be back at it. Now that I think about it, almost everyone I rolled with today, started in guard while I started standing so at least I know I’ll get lots of practice with passing.
Now remember what I was saying at the beginning, when I roll tired I roll sloppy, well my last roll of the day was like that. After some bad hand fighting by me, my partner got a good rear naked choke on me and I tapped. I was glad to be honest because I was exhausted. But this is good for me. This is good training for me because I got a competition coming up at the end of September and the more rolls I do the better I get and the better prepared I’ll be for that competition. That’s the plan anyway.
Click on image to go to the post as Twitter doesn’t allow other sites to embed tweets anymore.
Lex asked GSP if he had any advice to give him about his technique. GSP had some valuable insight that I thought would aslo be good for me too.
Here is a transcript I took of GSP giving Lex some advice.
LEX: “Any advice?”
GSP: “Well, it’s actually pretty good. Standing position I think sometime you reach a little bit too much…”
GSP: “So if you reach out to me, (Lex reaches out) it’s easy for me to take a good position…”
GSP: “…or, reach out to me (Lex reaches out again), I can probably climb back on you.
GSP: “So what I would suggest is don’t reach and get closer with your feet before you seek contact with me. So don’t go here (GSP is leaning in and puts his hands on Lex’s shoulders)
GSP: “Go closer.”
They then both start doing close up hand fighting and grapple for a few minutes. Then GSP catches Lex with a head and arm choke (aka arm triangle).
I replayed back the sequence a few times because I thought it was a good critique and technique. While I was in the kitchen, I tried it on my wife because I found it so fascinating of a concept. Don’t reach. I remember hearing that back in the day for wrestling, not to reach while taking a shot for a single or double leg. But the ‘not reaching’ concept for stand-up hand fighting makes sense.
It also reminds me of how Greco Roman wrestlers approach each other when grappling stand-up. Their arms and elbows are tucked in,
Olympic Men’s Greco Roman 85kg Gold Medal – August, 2016
I’ll be sure to give this a try at the next No Gi class I attend and see if it works.
In the basement of a small yoga studio, there were six people ready to fight each other. There were mats taped on the wall and different coloured mats on the floor all patched together to create a feeling of a (literal) underground martial arts tournament.
My wife came with me. She was a great coach, manager, and cheerleader.
I won one match my walk-over (which means my opponent didn’t show up so it’s basically a participation win) and lost four matches by submission; an arm bar, a rear naked choke, a straight ankle lock, and a D’Arce choke.
Put your hand up if you want to see some pictures of me getting submitted?
Wow that’s a lot of hands. OK the people have spoken, here you go:
Arm bar with a beautiful triangle just in case. A deep rear naked choke. Throat still hurts.He got me with an ankle lock and 22 seconds. My fastest loss yet.I didn’t even see this D’Arce choke coming. He said he was a white belt but I think he’s full of shit.
It’s cool to see people, sharing photos of their wins, having their hands raised, and having the medals around their neck, standing in the middle of the podium.
But more people should show pictures of themselves getting submitted. It shows a side of BJJ that people need to see. The struggle. The growth. The journey. Not to mention it’s also kind of funny.
So what did I learn from this submission only tournament?
I learned I need better cardio. I felt better after the second and third and fourth match. But the first one as soon as I touched the guy I knew it was gonna be a tough match. He felt stronger and I felt gassed really soon into the match.
I learned I need to work on standing hand-fighting and pummeling. I was out matched when it came to hand-fighting and trying to get under hooks or over hooks. My head got pushed around a lot.
I learned I need to just make a move. I was hesitant on trying to do a takedown, although I had many opportunities to do a double leg and finish a single leg, but for some reason I gave up too soon. Perhaps my fear of injury had something to do with it. Basically, I need to learn to attack more often and just go for it.
Overall it was a good experience. Looking to do another comp in October in my city. Better start training now.
First 4 minute round is Submission Only, second 4 minute round is for Points. If the competitors are still on tie, move to OT round. If there is still a tie after OT, then fighters will move onto modified EBI overtime
Competitors are not rewarded for farming points
Pulling guard results in a penalty point (unless going straight into a submission)
This is wild. Also no medals and no podium. This feels like an underground tournament to me, sort of like those old Jean Claude Van Damme films where he goes to a secret tournament and kicks butt, and I can’t wait to train and show ‘em what I got.
Thank goodness they have a 160lbs weight division because I didn’t want to drop to 155 or go up to compete at 170.
What is my training regime gonna look like?
Basically train on the mats as much as I can, be safe with it, do some strength training at the fitness gym, and get some time on the treadmill.
I did six hours of jiujitsu last week. I think I can take a few days off. And start going to no-gi and competiton classes next week. I have to be safe and smart with my training. I only know one leg lock: the straight ankle lock. So I can practice entries and finishes for that. And not to mention defending leg locks, which I have no clue how to do other than ‘don’t give them your leg’ but that’s a good start.
I also can’t wait for my new rash guard to show up:
It should arrive just in time for my sub only massacre coming up in June.
Wish me luck 💪
Here’s some AI text-to-image art, using the prompt: “City lights downtown bjj leg locks”
Ever since I competed in that eight match extravaganza (it was actually seven, but I’ll get into that later), I’ve been wanting to write about it but for some reason, I haven’t had the urge to write it. Wanting to write about it and not being able to find the words, sucks. Since re-purposing this blog into a JiuJitsu only blog, it has turned into one massive project of figuring out why I do jiujitsu in the first place. Let’s try and figure that out together.
“I’ll be fine. It’s just the fear of the unknown that stands in my way.”
I read that quote on a poster in the office at work. It’s a great quote to help someone reframe their in-action to do something hard. And most things in life that we could be afraid of, our worrying about it, is usually worse than the outcome. This is a fact of life that I have to constantly remind myself of.
Perhaps, for me, competing in jiujitsu, or even showing up to my BJJ Academy and training each week, is one giant test. I’m testing myself, but for what? Are aliens going to come down and invade earth but the only way we can stop them is through jiujitsu? Probably not (but one can dream). So why do I need to test myself with jiujitsu?
There were lots of other things I could’ve been doing on a Saturday morning, like sleeping in, reading a book, hanging out with my wife, eating, or really any activity that doesn’t involve me fighting a bunch of 20 something year olds. But for some reason I thought it was a good idea to sign up to a round robin tournament and do four matches in the gi and four matches in no gi.
And you know what, it was a good idea. I ended up winning my very first match in Brazilian jiujitsu by points, 6 to 4. The feeling, of having your hand raised, looking at the score, and having your family and friends share that moment with you, is a wonderful feeling and I hope one day you can experience that. My wife was there with me the whole day, supporting me, and worrying about me, she’s family and she’s a friend. It was great to share it with her.
My wife also made a good observation, my opponents had coaches to tell them what to do. I had no coach and had to figure out what to do on the fly by myself. However my wife was a great manger and yelled encouraging words as I fought. She was a great cheerleader and driver. She is a great person to have in my corner, in bjj and in life. She made another astute observation, I’m more mobile than most 37 year olds. Most 37 years olds aren’t competing and fighting against 20 something year olds in bjj. That’s true. That made me feel good about myself. Sometimes I forget how much I have improved and how much work I do. We need to step back sometimes and be proud of what we’ve done.
So how did the other seven matches go? Arm bar, triangle, refs decision, ankle lock, D’Arce choke, and rear naked choke. Those are the techniques that I submitted to. And I won another match by, what’s called, a walk-over. A walk-over means that the person forfeited for some reason (they didn’t show up on time), however I did fight that guy later in no gi, he got me in a D’Arce choke, which was just as nasty as the others. Side note: my left elbow still hurts from an arm bar, going on over two weeks now.
Would I do this again? Nope. I’m not as spry as I used to be. I would have to dedicate all my free time to training in the fitness gym and bjj gym, which I sort of do now but it’s not a strict schedule. I was out paced, out weighed, and older than my opponents by 10, sometimes 15 more years. Not sure I have it in me to compete at that level. I’ll stick to Mater 1 division (30 year old +) and try to make weight for 155 instead of 170.
I’m what they call a hobbyist, someone who does bjj for a hobby. But I wanted to test myself and see what it was like to do eight matches. Now I know what my skill level is at for competitions, my record is currently is 2-8. 2 wins (one by points, one by walk-over) and 8 losses (by points and subs).
Doing hard things tests you. If you survive (spoiler alert, you will) then you’re almost guaranteed to come out of the struggle a better version of yourself. This eight match extravaganza was one of the hardest things I’ve done phsycially. I’m glad I did it. Now it’s time to continue recovering, keep showing up to practice, and make sure I’m ready for my next competition, whenever that may be.
There and Back 