After one year of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) training, I got 4 blue stripes on my white belt. The next step in the progession of BJJ is your blue belt, which is the next biggest step heading towards black belt.
The syllabus requires 6 months of training and minimum of 60 classes before you can get your blue belt, and even then you may not get it. The only way you get it is if they deem you worthy enough to get it, having seen you train over time.
So come July of 2009, 6 months of having 4 blue stripes I didn't get my blue belt, my brother did though, but he's a BJJ machine. I knew I wouldn't be getting it anyway as I was busy with uni, and having night classes also meant not being able to attend training, so I missed a lot of classes.
Come September of 2009, I was semi-confident that I would get my blue belt, but alas, it was still not my time, which made sense as I didn't really impress when I entered in a BJJ competition and lost in the first round via submission.
Come December 8th of 2009, I still wasn't sure. I had taken a month off prior due to university assignments and the flu so I couldn't go to classes to train. I returned in time for grading practice, two weeks ago. All four stripers had to do the same thing they did back when they had get their four stripes, that is show 50 techniques in 10 minutes. I was comfortable with all the techniques and the only problem was remembering them in an order that flowed well enough. Today, while waiting in line at Centrelink to hand in forms I took out my mobile cellular telephone and mapped out how I was going to do the techniques and in what order.
Come grading night I was feeling pretty confident in my ability. The instructors were also looking to really test us as well, making us grade the 3rd stripers moving onto 4th stripe. This was pretty daunting trying to count how many moves a person is doing and trying to make sure it reached 50, and if it didn't knowing which move they missed out. Fortunately it was alright, and the guy only missed out on one move, at least it should've been only that one move...
Then it was my turn, I had a minor mind-blank part way but finished in what was probably less than 8 minutes with a couple of minutes to sit around and watch the others finish.
After everyone showed off their technique in order to grade to the next level it was time for wrestling. We did 5 rounds, and as there were 5 of us who were on our 4th stripe, this meant the 2 instructors would wrestle all 5 of us, I suppose to really test us out.
The first instructor I wrestled was a brown belt, and the brother of Elvis Sinosic (who will be fighting in UFC 110 come February), he choked me out twice and both from side control position, a position I am very weak at, so I gotta work on that. The second instructor I wrestled was black belt Anthony Perosh (who hopefully will be fighting in UFC 110 come February). Knowing he would work for a forearm choke (think forearm crushing your neck, choking you), I worked to defend it, but could only resist the inevitable for so long before getting tapped out. We start again and I try to jump on top, only to get sweeped back onto the ground, what ensued afterwards was a 90+ kg man crushing a 64kg man with various body parts for a few minutes. He got me in knee ride (knee on belly, it hurts), I tried to counter, pushing his knee (which you shouldn't do but it was too painful not to), he countered this by putting his other knee on my belly, thus two knees on me, meaning all of his body weight on me. I scooted back to relieve pressure, he climbed higher with his knees onto my chest, then head, followed by shin to head, shoulder to head, back and forth, until 5 minutes of wrestling time ran out. Not something I want to go through again, thats for sure.
After wrestling we lined up for presentations and the instructors had 3 blue belts, meaning 2 of us wouldn't be getting our blue belts. The first two names were announced and neither of them were my name, so I was starting to feel anxious and worried, fortunately the third name was mine, and I finally achieved my BJJ goal of the year of getting my blue belt, at the last grading of the year no less.
The only problem now is everyone will think I'm good. So I had better start training to be good and show that I'm worthy of this belt.
So two years of training, with a few months taken off here and there and I am now a blue belt. Another 2-3 years and I'll get my purple belt. But for now, I'm fine being blue, it is my favourite colour after all...
Showing posts with label Hybrid Martial Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hybrid Martial Arts. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
My Second BJJ Competition
On Sunday the 2nd of August 2009 I entered my second BJJ competition.
I would've entered more during the year but wasn't able to due to various things such as no free Sundays. But finally I've got a free Sunday and used it to enter this competition to see how I've improved (or not) over the last year since my last competition.
One thing that changed was my weight, I could no longer enter in the under 61kg division and had to step up to the 61 to 67kg division, a tough division. So I was happy I gained weight, now I just need to gain weight so I'm in the top of the division (ie. 67kg) and have that slight weight advantage.
All I knew about my matchup was the name of the person I would be wrestling in the first round. There were 16 people in my round, so to come first I'd have to beat 4 people, a very tiring feat, considering that after my first and only round in my first competition I was so tired I couldn't hold a bottle properly, though that could also be attributed to not warming up beforehand.
This time I did warm up.
We were ushered into the marshalling area where we were to wait for our name to be called out. We were also told we were not allowed to wear a shirt or rashguard underneath our gi's or a cup, so I had to rush to the bathroom to remove my cup, putting myself in more than enough danger.
I was a bit nervous too, I think it was because of the whole unknown thing, not knowing who it was I was wrestling or when I would be, so I found it hard to put my mouthguard in my mouth, almost gagging each time I go to put it in. Eventually I got it in my mouth so I just kept it in there, and waited until I was called up.
So I was called up and 30 seconds later, came back out as I lost to a rear naked choke, which feels a lot worse than it sounds. I was quite disappointed as in the weeks prior during training while wrestling I would often give up my back to my opponents and then proceed to escape. Unfortunately in competition, people tend to go all out and give it all when they wrestle, and when someone's arms are around your neck choking you out with all their might, unless you counter it, or feel like passing out, you gotta tap. The thing I didn't like most is that I knew how to defend against the choke, but never did it, I only knew from watching the UFC, but now I know for sure how to defend it.
The next competition is on November 8, the Sunday after all my assessments are done so I'll be pretty stressless. I plan to enter and get pass the first round this time.
There's also another competition in September at Sydney Uni which I might enter for the heck of it, to get competition experience. Either way, my BJJ record is now 1-1, can't let it go below 50%!
The camera man saved me from a visual embarrassment, even though I would've liked to see his grip around my head....
I would've entered more during the year but wasn't able to due to various things such as no free Sundays. But finally I've got a free Sunday and used it to enter this competition to see how I've improved (or not) over the last year since my last competition.
One thing that changed was my weight, I could no longer enter in the under 61kg division and had to step up to the 61 to 67kg division, a tough division. So I was happy I gained weight, now I just need to gain weight so I'm in the top of the division (ie. 67kg) and have that slight weight advantage.
All I knew about my matchup was the name of the person I would be wrestling in the first round. There were 16 people in my round, so to come first I'd have to beat 4 people, a very tiring feat, considering that after my first and only round in my first competition I was so tired I couldn't hold a bottle properly, though that could also be attributed to not warming up beforehand.
This time I did warm up.
We were ushered into the marshalling area where we were to wait for our name to be called out. We were also told we were not allowed to wear a shirt or rashguard underneath our gi's or a cup, so I had to rush to the bathroom to remove my cup, putting myself in more than enough danger.
I was a bit nervous too, I think it was because of the whole unknown thing, not knowing who it was I was wrestling or when I would be, so I found it hard to put my mouthguard in my mouth, almost gagging each time I go to put it in. Eventually I got it in my mouth so I just kept it in there, and waited until I was called up.
So I was called up and 30 seconds later, came back out as I lost to a rear naked choke, which feels a lot worse than it sounds. I was quite disappointed as in the weeks prior during training while wrestling I would often give up my back to my opponents and then proceed to escape. Unfortunately in competition, people tend to go all out and give it all when they wrestle, and when someone's arms are around your neck choking you out with all their might, unless you counter it, or feel like passing out, you gotta tap. The thing I didn't like most is that I knew how to defend against the choke, but never did it, I only knew from watching the UFC, but now I know for sure how to defend it.
The next competition is on November 8, the Sunday after all my assessments are done so I'll be pretty stressless. I plan to enter and get pass the first round this time.
There's also another competition in September at Sydney Uni which I might enter for the heck of it, to get competition experience. Either way, my BJJ record is now 1-1, can't let it go below 50%!
The camera man saved me from a visual embarrassment, even though I would've liked to see his grip around my head....
Saturday, May 2, 2009
My Rib Hurts
Doing BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) is a dangerous sport, like any other contact sport you can get hurt and/or injured. While at training, we had a guy who broke his arm while wrestling, and amazingly he didn't scream in pain like I would and had to go to the hospital, needless to say I don't think he came back.
I've seen people get choked out to the point of blacking out, which is pretty funny seeing a person go limp, and then recover later not knowing what had happened. I once nearly blacked out, but managed to tap out, leading to the other guy letting go of my head and all the oxygen and blood rushed back to my brain and for a moment I didn't know where I was but regained my composure only to tap out again moments later.
I've seen guys get hurt in their downstairs area, which, as painful as it is, is also amusing. I once accidentally landed right onto a friend I was wrestling and I've never seen a person leap so high from his back in pain before, it reminded me of pro wrestling and how they take bumps, but to see it happen in person was hilarious even though he was in extreme pain. That's why I wear a cup, to avoid these things.
Anyways, last week on Thursday I was wrestling a friend who is better and heavier than me, and while wrestling he wound up on top in mount, which is one of the best positions for him to be in, and worst positions for me to be in. He transferred to what is called "Rodeo Mount" where his legs would extend out so he's fully sitting on you, like a cowboy sits on a bull, trying to control him. I knew I was going to lose pretty soon, but I tried to escape anyway and decided to buck him and try to roll him over, all I succeeded in doing was bucking him up into the air for a second, and like a persistent cowboy came back down on my chest and essentially sat on my ribs, particularly my left side of my ribs. So I was in major pain, following the round I didn't wrestle anymore, went home and iced my chest down.
Come Tuesday my rib is still bothering me, it's sticking out more on my left side (where it hurts) than on my right side, so that's not normal. So I go to see the doctor, but due to the mass amount of other people waiting, I end up going to Wednesday.
The doctor checks out my rib and prescribes an X-Ray for me, which I went to take after seeing the doctor. Getting an X-Ray was interesting, I was expecting to lie down on a bed while a machine X-Ray's me but instead I had to stand up against a wall thing and breathe in, breathe out and even stop breathing for the lady to X-ray me. Having a female do it was slightly awkward for a bit, being a bit self conscious of being topless while some lady takes pictures of your bones, that's going way deep...
Come Friday I pick up my X-Rays and then see the doctor so he can look at them. Fearing a fractured rib, he told me that I was okay, and that it was just tissue damage, or something like that, but having said that he told me "X-ray's may not pick up everything", so I had to keep an eye on it and in two weeks if it's still hurting come back for another X-ray.
Right now my rib hurts, but hopefully it'll heal itself like Wolverine (go go current blockbuster movie reference) very soon. Let's see how I go in two weeks time...now where's that ice pack.
I've seen people get choked out to the point of blacking out, which is pretty funny seeing a person go limp, and then recover later not knowing what had happened. I once nearly blacked out, but managed to tap out, leading to the other guy letting go of my head and all the oxygen and blood rushed back to my brain and for a moment I didn't know where I was but regained my composure only to tap out again moments later.
I've seen guys get hurt in their downstairs area, which, as painful as it is, is also amusing. I once accidentally landed right onto a friend I was wrestling and I've never seen a person leap so high from his back in pain before, it reminded me of pro wrestling and how they take bumps, but to see it happen in person was hilarious even though he was in extreme pain. That's why I wear a cup, to avoid these things.
Anyways, last week on Thursday I was wrestling a friend who is better and heavier than me, and while wrestling he wound up on top in mount, which is one of the best positions for him to be in, and worst positions for me to be in. He transferred to what is called "Rodeo Mount" where his legs would extend out so he's fully sitting on you, like a cowboy sits on a bull, trying to control him. I knew I was going to lose pretty soon, but I tried to escape anyway and decided to buck him and try to roll him over, all I succeeded in doing was bucking him up into the air for a second, and like a persistent cowboy came back down on my chest and essentially sat on my ribs, particularly my left side of my ribs. So I was in major pain, following the round I didn't wrestle anymore, went home and iced my chest down.
Come Tuesday my rib is still bothering me, it's sticking out more on my left side (where it hurts) than on my right side, so that's not normal. So I go to see the doctor, but due to the mass amount of other people waiting, I end up going to Wednesday.
The doctor checks out my rib and prescribes an X-Ray for me, which I went to take after seeing the doctor. Getting an X-Ray was interesting, I was expecting to lie down on a bed while a machine X-Ray's me but instead I had to stand up against a wall thing and breathe in, breathe out and even stop breathing for the lady to X-ray me. Having a female do it was slightly awkward for a bit, being a bit self conscious of being topless while some lady takes pictures of your bones, that's going way deep...
Come Friday I pick up my X-Rays and then see the doctor so he can look at them. Fearing a fractured rib, he told me that I was okay, and that it was just tissue damage, or something like that, but having said that he told me "X-ray's may not pick up everything", so I had to keep an eye on it and in two weeks if it's still hurting come back for another X-ray.
Right now my rib hurts, but hopefully it'll heal itself like Wolverine (go go current blockbuster movie reference) very soon. Let's see how I go in two weeks time...now where's that ice pack.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
My Fight With Andrew Ha
As requested by Dewey Griffin
On the 12th of September, over a month ago now, I engaged in a friendly fight with my friend Andrew Ha, to those who don't know him, he's 2-3 years younger than me, weighs something around 20 kgs heavier than me, and is built like a tank. To those that know me, I'm skinny, lightweight and built like a twig. So agreeing to a fight like this probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but in the spirit of fun I decided to take the fight, knowing I'd lose eventually, it was just a matter of when and how.
Being so long ago I don't remember the fight from start to finish in immense detail but I'll point out what I remember in a hindsight kind of way. Just incase you didn't know, I lost. (OMGOSH SPOILER)
In hindsight I should've warmed up a bit before fighting, if only to get my body ready for a beating, but I didn't, but I don't think Andrew did much either.
Our fight had the rules of no headshots, no elbows and to go 100% because thats what Andrew wanted, and we wore MMA gloves, which are smaller than boxing gloves, and thus would hurt a bit more. We started off standing, trading shots with Andrew getting the better of me, despite my long arms, I'm still hesisitant to close the distance to get my shots in, something that will come to me more so if I keep sparring, which I rarely do these days.
At some point I get taken down, so I pull guard, wrapping my legs around Andrew, to keep him from raining down punches on me, but he still managed to do so, and in the heat of the moment punched me in the face. In hindsight, I should've wore my mouthguard, but silly me I believed in the no headshot rule, but didn't forsee accidental shots occuring. So we paused for a minute so my face could heal a bit, and I could regain composure before starting in the same position again. Prior to Andrew's punching of my face he was trying to break my legs by standing up, so I knew that he would go for it again when we started back in the same position. I used this to my advantage and swept him by pulling his legs causing him to fall on his bottom, and I tried to get on top to gain a better position, however we scrambled and he got back up and we were standing again.
Once again standing, Andrew got the better of me, pulling off a good combo, getting me in the shoulder and body with his very hard shots. Each time he came at me with a flurry of punches I'd end up retreating, bumping up against his fence at his home. Eventually this bumping up against the fence worked against me even more so, slipping and thus lowering my body one of Andrew's punches got me in the face again. Not feeling too good at all, copping two headshots I felt like stopping, as my head was spinning a bit, and my mouth was quite sore. But I kept persisting, seemingly wanting to lose properly. After my break we punched on again, trying some kicks at some point but to no avail, I eventually get taken down again, but fail to pull guard, finding myself in side control, and eventually mounted by Andrew. I instantly try to bridge and roll him over, but that didn't work, then kept holding him down, so he couldn't punch me anymore, but being much stronger than me I could only hold him for so long before he broke my grip and started punching again. I then held him down again, by this time I was very tired and wanted to give up, so I decided to hold on until he broke my grip and started punching me to then say "I give up". In hindsight I should've tried to bridge and roll him over or attempt an elbow escape on more time but I was too tired, and all the odds seem to go against me. I realised throughout the whole fight I wasn't going 100% like Andrew wanted, I'm never a person to punch someone 100% without a good reason to, so while Andrew's punches to me were painful thuds, my punches to him would've felt quite light I imagine, thats just how I fight I suppose.
After giving up I realised my lip was bleeding, so that wasn't great, but wasn't anything I hadn't experienced before. I had a minor bump under my eye, that was quite unnoticeable unless you stared at me, and bruises on my body from the body shots courtesy of Andrew Ha. That brings my unnofficial fight record to 1-1, and it looks like it'll stay that way for a long while.
A few months of solid kickboxing training should help my form and confidence in attacking, rather than trying to counter punch. They say you always learn after a loss, and if anything I've confirmed what I've pretty much known before but suprised myself in a few ways.
On the 12th of September, over a month ago now, I engaged in a friendly fight with my friend Andrew Ha, to those who don't know him, he's 2-3 years younger than me, weighs something around 20 kgs heavier than me, and is built like a tank. To those that know me, I'm skinny, lightweight and built like a twig. So agreeing to a fight like this probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but in the spirit of fun I decided to take the fight, knowing I'd lose eventually, it was just a matter of when and how.
Being so long ago I don't remember the fight from start to finish in immense detail but I'll point out what I remember in a hindsight kind of way. Just incase you didn't know, I lost. (OMGOSH SPOILER)
In hindsight I should've warmed up a bit before fighting, if only to get my body ready for a beating, but I didn't, but I don't think Andrew did much either.
Our fight had the rules of no headshots, no elbows and to go 100% because thats what Andrew wanted, and we wore MMA gloves, which are smaller than boxing gloves, and thus would hurt a bit more. We started off standing, trading shots with Andrew getting the better of me, despite my long arms, I'm still hesisitant to close the distance to get my shots in, something that will come to me more so if I keep sparring, which I rarely do these days.
At some point I get taken down, so I pull guard, wrapping my legs around Andrew, to keep him from raining down punches on me, but he still managed to do so, and in the heat of the moment punched me in the face. In hindsight, I should've wore my mouthguard, but silly me I believed in the no headshot rule, but didn't forsee accidental shots occuring. So we paused for a minute so my face could heal a bit, and I could regain composure before starting in the same position again. Prior to Andrew's punching of my face he was trying to break my legs by standing up, so I knew that he would go for it again when we started back in the same position. I used this to my advantage and swept him by pulling his legs causing him to fall on his bottom, and I tried to get on top to gain a better position, however we scrambled and he got back up and we were standing again.
Once again standing, Andrew got the better of me, pulling off a good combo, getting me in the shoulder and body with his very hard shots. Each time he came at me with a flurry of punches I'd end up retreating, bumping up against his fence at his home. Eventually this bumping up against the fence worked against me even more so, slipping and thus lowering my body one of Andrew's punches got me in the face again. Not feeling too good at all, copping two headshots I felt like stopping, as my head was spinning a bit, and my mouth was quite sore. But I kept persisting, seemingly wanting to lose properly. After my break we punched on again, trying some kicks at some point but to no avail, I eventually get taken down again, but fail to pull guard, finding myself in side control, and eventually mounted by Andrew. I instantly try to bridge and roll him over, but that didn't work, then kept holding him down, so he couldn't punch me anymore, but being much stronger than me I could only hold him for so long before he broke my grip and started punching again. I then held him down again, by this time I was very tired and wanted to give up, so I decided to hold on until he broke my grip and started punching me to then say "I give up". In hindsight I should've tried to bridge and roll him over or attempt an elbow escape on more time but I was too tired, and all the odds seem to go against me. I realised throughout the whole fight I wasn't going 100% like Andrew wanted, I'm never a person to punch someone 100% without a good reason to, so while Andrew's punches to me were painful thuds, my punches to him would've felt quite light I imagine, thats just how I fight I suppose.
After giving up I realised my lip was bleeding, so that wasn't great, but wasn't anything I hadn't experienced before. I had a minor bump under my eye, that was quite unnoticeable unless you stared at me, and bruises on my body from the body shots courtesy of Andrew Ha. That brings my unnofficial fight record to 1-1, and it looks like it'll stay that way for a long while.
A few months of solid kickboxing training should help my form and confidence in attacking, rather than trying to counter punch. They say you always learn after a loss, and if anything I've confirmed what I've pretty much known before but suprised myself in a few ways.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
My First BJJ Competition
Today was my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition that I have participated in so far, and it was quite an experience indeed. I was originally going to enter a competition a month earlier but fell sick during the week and didn't feel physically ready to compete, that and I didn't really have $50 to pay for the competition. Then along came this competition, run by our trainers and they really encouraged us to compete so I figured this would be the best time to start my BJJ competition career.
I decided to enter in the under 61kg adults division, which was the lowest weight division possible, and I knew I was pretty light from all my Wii Fit sessions so I knew I would be able to make weight just fine. However, it wasn't until the last week that I re-weighed myself and found I was over the 61kg weight limit by a few kilograms, leaving me worried. Fortunately there was a 3kg allowance because of my Gi that I wear, so I could weigh up to 64kg. So I tried to eat a little less before the Sunday, and that didn't really help that I had a birthday party to go to last night, I didn't expect a lot of food but there was tonnes of food, and good food to boot but I didn't eat much. Anyways, all that worrying was for naught because I weighed in at 62kg this morning, and my Gi weights 1.6kg, so I was fine.
We (my brother and I) got to the venue all the way in Five Dock, to Five Dock Leisure Centre, which I had never heard of before, and I'm sure neither you have, but all you need to know is that it's far away and my sense of misdirection kicked in and we got lost for a little bit.
OH! We also got to find out who we are wrestling against the night before online and how many people are in our divisions. And my division consisted of two people, David Ung, and some guy named Jerome from some club called Boxing Works. So basically, if I beat this guy, I win gold and can claim victory over my weight division! Or just victory over this one guy, but I digress...
We got to the venue, signed in and watched our friends fight in the kids/teen division, of which two of our club members were in. They both won handily and came first for their respective divisions, raising the bar in the process. After the kids got out of the way it was time for the adults to roll. I thought my match would've been first but nope, it was going to be later, after the more bigger divisions wrestled their matches.
So I watched other matches, like my brothers, in the 61-67kg division, he ended up losing to a cuff choke, and in the end lost to the guy that came first in the division. Other club members won and lost as well but since you don't know them I won't talk about them for your sake. Eventually it was soon time for my match and I didn't know whether to be nervous or excited or both or neither but in the end I didn't feel either, I was just lost and somewhat ready.
My brother recorded the match, and was more into watching the match than recording the match so excuse his cinematography, we should've brought a tripod but oh well, at least I got my first match on camera. For those who don't know anything about BJJ (which I think is most of you hybridites) I'm willing to record a commentary over the video so you have an idea of whats going on, and there's a few things I'd like to point out but can't be bothered to do in text form because it'd be weird, but I'll only do it if I get a substantial amount of interest from you, and a good microphone I suppose.
But for now, watch, enjoy, and try to understand whats going on.
Triangle choke finish!!
Just incase you didn't know, I won the match and hence became number one in my division, continuing the Gold Standard for SPMA (our club). I was so lost in the fight that I forgot to put my mouth guard on, and ended up leaving in my Gi, and it fell out when I won and stood up, which suprised both my brother "what the hell!?" and I. After the match I was so tired, and basically collapsed, my legs were dead from the triangle choke and my arms were gone from all the pulling and controlling my opponent, even now my forearms are still dead tired, if I stretch or put pressure on them it just burns! You can see how tired and lost I am in the video, but happy to have won, and in a convincing fashion no less!
I was so tired I couldn't open the cap to my bottle at times, it was hilariously bad. But at the same time was a lesson in conditioning, I've got to work on my conditioning so that next time there are more than one person to fight I won't be so darn tired if I make it past the first round. I've also got to work on my arm and leg strength too, so they don't tire out so fast. I also suffered a little injury too, at some point during the match my foot got cut, presumably by his toe nail or something. Which is another injury to add to the list of my injuries (yay).
The cut without the blood
At somepoint our club members found the time to get together and take a group picture, which was cool, and was my first group picture as well, and helped make me feel more like part of the club, so going to competitions like these are great for building friendships!
Some of the group!
After a bunch of waiting through the other White belt matches, then blue belt matches, purple and brown belt matches it was time for the awarding of the trophies! Since my division was first I got to receive my trophy first, and it felt pretty great hearing my name after the words "First Place", I also got a pair of shorts too, that I can use for training, they likely cost over $50 so that pretty much paid for my $50 entry fee I'd say. Then I had to sit through all the other trophy winners, which took a while. But I got to talk to my opponent more, he had only been training for 5-6 months apparently, and I suppose like all people who have lost he requested a rematch, to which I replied with a hearty "Ha Ha".
As things wound down and people were leaving I got a picture with my club instructor and MMA fighter Anthony Perosh, I wanted one with our other head instructor Elvis Sinosic but he was busy talking and I was in a rush to get home and eat something, and that something turned out to be McDonalds in the form of a double quarter pounder burger.
So my BJJ career is off to a good start, with one win and no losses, and an earning of a pair of shorts, I'm on my way to becoming a champion! Can't wait for the next competition to burst my ego. (Don't worry, I don't think too highly of my win)
So awesome I don't need to look at the camera
I decided to enter in the under 61kg adults division, which was the lowest weight division possible, and I knew I was pretty light from all my Wii Fit sessions so I knew I would be able to make weight just fine. However, it wasn't until the last week that I re-weighed myself and found I was over the 61kg weight limit by a few kilograms, leaving me worried. Fortunately there was a 3kg allowance because of my Gi that I wear, so I could weigh up to 64kg. So I tried to eat a little less before the Sunday, and that didn't really help that I had a birthday party to go to last night, I didn't expect a lot of food but there was tonnes of food, and good food to boot but I didn't eat much. Anyways, all that worrying was for naught because I weighed in at 62kg this morning, and my Gi weights 1.6kg, so I was fine.
We (my brother and I) got to the venue all the way in Five Dock, to Five Dock Leisure Centre, which I had never heard of before, and I'm sure neither you have, but all you need to know is that it's far away and my sense of misdirection kicked in and we got lost for a little bit.
OH! We also got to find out who we are wrestling against the night before online and how many people are in our divisions. And my division consisted of two people, David Ung, and some guy named Jerome from some club called Boxing Works. So basically, if I beat this guy, I win gold and can claim victory over my weight division! Or just victory over this one guy, but I digress...
We got to the venue, signed in and watched our friends fight in the kids/teen division, of which two of our club members were in. They both won handily and came first for their respective divisions, raising the bar in the process. After the kids got out of the way it was time for the adults to roll. I thought my match would've been first but nope, it was going to be later, after the more bigger divisions wrestled their matches.
So I watched other matches, like my brothers, in the 61-67kg division, he ended up losing to a cuff choke, and in the end lost to the guy that came first in the division. Other club members won and lost as well but since you don't know them I won't talk about them for your sake. Eventually it was soon time for my match and I didn't know whether to be nervous or excited or both or neither but in the end I didn't feel either, I was just lost and somewhat ready.
My brother recorded the match, and was more into watching the match than recording the match so excuse his cinematography, we should've brought a tripod but oh well, at least I got my first match on camera. For those who don't know anything about BJJ (which I think is most of you hybridites) I'm willing to record a commentary over the video so you have an idea of whats going on, and there's a few things I'd like to point out but can't be bothered to do in text form because it'd be weird, but I'll only do it if I get a substantial amount of interest from you, and a good microphone I suppose.
But for now, watch, enjoy, and try to understand whats going on.
Triangle choke finish!!
Just incase you didn't know, I won the match and hence became number one in my division, continuing the Gold Standard for SPMA (our club). I was so lost in the fight that I forgot to put my mouth guard on, and ended up leaving in my Gi, and it fell out when I won and stood up, which suprised both my brother "what the hell!?" and I. After the match I was so tired, and basically collapsed, my legs were dead from the triangle choke and my arms were gone from all the pulling and controlling my opponent, even now my forearms are still dead tired, if I stretch or put pressure on them it just burns! You can see how tired and lost I am in the video, but happy to have won, and in a convincing fashion no less!
I was so tired I couldn't open the cap to my bottle at times, it was hilariously bad. But at the same time was a lesson in conditioning, I've got to work on my conditioning so that next time there are more than one person to fight I won't be so darn tired if I make it past the first round. I've also got to work on my arm and leg strength too, so they don't tire out so fast. I also suffered a little injury too, at some point during the match my foot got cut, presumably by his toe nail or something. Which is another injury to add to the list of my injuries (yay).
The cut without the blood
At somepoint our club members found the time to get together and take a group picture, which was cool, and was my first group picture as well, and helped make me feel more like part of the club, so going to competitions like these are great for building friendships!
Some of the group!
After a bunch of waiting through the other White belt matches, then blue belt matches, purple and brown belt matches it was time for the awarding of the trophies! Since my division was first I got to receive my trophy first, and it felt pretty great hearing my name after the words "First Place", I also got a pair of shorts too, that I can use for training, they likely cost over $50 so that pretty much paid for my $50 entry fee I'd say. Then I had to sit through all the other trophy winners, which took a while. But I got to talk to my opponent more, he had only been training for 5-6 months apparently, and I suppose like all people who have lost he requested a rematch, to which I replied with a hearty "Ha Ha".
As things wound down and people were leaving I got a picture with my club instructor and MMA fighter Anthony Perosh, I wanted one with our other head instructor Elvis Sinosic but he was busy talking and I was in a rush to get home and eat something, and that something turned out to be McDonalds in the form of a double quarter pounder burger.
So my BJJ career is off to a good start, with one win and no losses, and an earning of a pair of shorts, I'm on my way to becoming a champion! Can't wait for the next competition to burst my ego. (Don't worry, I don't think too highly of my win)
So awesome I don't need to look at the camera
Thursday, September 11, 2008
My Injuries (So Far)
Over the last nine months now that I've been doing my Hybrid Martial Arts I've had my fair share of bumps and bruises as one would. And this blog is a list of the injuries I've had so far, with many more to come I would assume.
I remember after my first few weeks of training I discovered bruises on my arms while taking a shower, this would then become the start of a long string of injuries to all different parts of my body. Bruises soon disappear and no one ever sees my arms anyway, so I wasn't too worried about my bruises.
I've had cuts on my feet, and the ways I got them were quite weird, though I only remember one, which was from someone else while wrestling with them. Apparently, they somehow, using their toenail, assumingly on their big toe, dug it into my foot and cut it. Which I didn't feel at the time, until I looked at my foot and saw blood. But cuts heal pretty fast and didn't require major medical attention. I've also had a cut on my hand, which I've now forgotten how I got, except that I know it was from training.
My other toe injury was similar to my toe tombstone blog back in March, where my toenail bent backwards, except this time it was only the top part, so I was easily pushed back down and is currently healing itself. Must remember to keep my toenails cut short.
Other cuts included my elbows, the first time due to elbow training where we practiced elbow shots on a pad, to the point where it started to bleed, showing both my seriousness in training, and silliness at not knowing when to slow down. Those healed up eventually, but soon enough, getting thrown onto the ground during training, landing on my elbows and scraping them lead to scraped elbows, eventually leading to scabbed elbows. Those heal okay over time too.
Then there are cuts that matter, because they're seeable and generally don't look very pleasing. The only seeable cuts I've received were to my face, the lips to be exact. The first time it was cut was when I was wrestling a rather aggressive person, who I've continued to wrestle, despite my not wanting to wrestle him at times. At some point I was on my back, and he was on top, he came down with an elbow to do a move and must've mistimed or something and instead came down with the elbow to my face, specifically my mouth. He looked up and said "You're bleeding!!", I touched my lips and saw a lot of blood, and got up to clean it out with water. Its quite amazing how much blood can be in your lip, my instructor took a look at it and said "It was alright", but then he would've seen much worse himself, I hadn't. But basically I had a piece of my lip skin hanging out, which stung when water was applied. That took a while to heal up.
Other occasions with a busted lip were of less drama, either me bumping into someone with my face, or them bumping into my face causing the lip to bleed. I've since started wearing a mouth guard to give my mouth a bit more protection and to protect my lips a lot more. Don't want to hurt my lips!
The other type of injury I've had are ones that no one can see, and only I can feel, those being that of pain. I've had both my arms stretched out a lot due to arm bars, possibly leaving my elbows to deteriorate slowly but surely, but most people are good with arm bars and won't crank my arm to the point of breakage. Though one time at training someone had their arm broken, resulting in a visit to the hospital.
I was once thrown onto my head, which hurt, a lot, and probably rattled my brain. So I try to be very cautious with takedowns and the like now. I've also hurt my pinky toe, due to a takedown where the guy was trying to take me down and I tried to stop it and post with my left foot, but it kinda got stuck and my pinky toe got stretched backwards, which hurt, a lot.
One submission we do a lot in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are chokes, usually finding someway to constrict a person's breathing and causing them to submit. These are probably my favourite kind of submissions, but not favourite to receive and often after training, I would wake up the next morning with a sore neck due to the chokes I've received.
Last, but not the least is my most recent injury. One that I wanted to avoid since getting into this martial art, and that is cauliflower ear, which if you get a lot of, results in a pretty ugly looking ear, all puffed up and whatnot. The way you get this is if you suffer blows to your ears, or pressure put upon them, which can happen a lot during wrestling. I had always been careful, or at least tried to be careful and protect my ears as best as possible but at somepoint I developed a little 'lump' in my left ear, but it was very small and I thought it was nothing of concern, except that when I put pressure onto it, it would hurt. So sleeping on my left side was often difficult because of the lump. However, this got worse last night, after training, while I was at bible study I reached up to feel my left ear and felt what was a pretty substantial lump, at some point during wrestling I must've put a lot of pressure on my ear and the lump grew big. This lump, is basically a blood clot, so it was filled with blood, I didn't want it to hang around anymore or else it would've settled and I would've had a slightly fatter ear than my right ear, something I didn't want.
Today I went to see the doctor to get the blood drained out, which the doctor did, but only found there to be a little bit of blood inside, according to the doctor it'll take 10 days to heal, so I'll try to limit my physical activity over the next 10 or so days. Which is quite difficult, with a (un)friendly bout with Andrew Ha tomorrow and my third stripe grading on Monday for BJJ, followed by Thai Kickboxing grading on the Tuesday, and a BJJ competition that I want to enter at the end of the month, I'm going to have to protect my ears very well. I'm not a vain person, but I'd like to keep my facial area generally intact, not for my sake, but for yours, since you guys have to look at me from time to time.
I remember after my first few weeks of training I discovered bruises on my arms while taking a shower, this would then become the start of a long string of injuries to all different parts of my body. Bruises soon disappear and no one ever sees my arms anyway, so I wasn't too worried about my bruises.
I've had cuts on my feet, and the ways I got them were quite weird, though I only remember one, which was from someone else while wrestling with them. Apparently, they somehow, using their toenail, assumingly on their big toe, dug it into my foot and cut it. Which I didn't feel at the time, until I looked at my foot and saw blood. But cuts heal pretty fast and didn't require major medical attention. I've also had a cut on my hand, which I've now forgotten how I got, except that I know it was from training.
My other toe injury was similar to my toe tombstone blog back in March, where my toenail bent backwards, except this time it was only the top part, so I was easily pushed back down and is currently healing itself. Must remember to keep my toenails cut short.
Other cuts included my elbows, the first time due to elbow training where we practiced elbow shots on a pad, to the point where it started to bleed, showing both my seriousness in training, and silliness at not knowing when to slow down. Those healed up eventually, but soon enough, getting thrown onto the ground during training, landing on my elbows and scraping them lead to scraped elbows, eventually leading to scabbed elbows. Those heal okay over time too.
Then there are cuts that matter, because they're seeable and generally don't look very pleasing. The only seeable cuts I've received were to my face, the lips to be exact. The first time it was cut was when I was wrestling a rather aggressive person, who I've continued to wrestle, despite my not wanting to wrestle him at times. At some point I was on my back, and he was on top, he came down with an elbow to do a move and must've mistimed or something and instead came down with the elbow to my face, specifically my mouth. He looked up and said "You're bleeding!!", I touched my lips and saw a lot of blood, and got up to clean it out with water. Its quite amazing how much blood can be in your lip, my instructor took a look at it and said "It was alright", but then he would've seen much worse himself, I hadn't. But basically I had a piece of my lip skin hanging out, which stung when water was applied. That took a while to heal up.
Other occasions with a busted lip were of less drama, either me bumping into someone with my face, or them bumping into my face causing the lip to bleed. I've since started wearing a mouth guard to give my mouth a bit more protection and to protect my lips a lot more. Don't want to hurt my lips!
The other type of injury I've had are ones that no one can see, and only I can feel, those being that of pain. I've had both my arms stretched out a lot due to arm bars, possibly leaving my elbows to deteriorate slowly but surely, but most people are good with arm bars and won't crank my arm to the point of breakage. Though one time at training someone had their arm broken, resulting in a visit to the hospital.
I was once thrown onto my head, which hurt, a lot, and probably rattled my brain. So I try to be very cautious with takedowns and the like now. I've also hurt my pinky toe, due to a takedown where the guy was trying to take me down and I tried to stop it and post with my left foot, but it kinda got stuck and my pinky toe got stretched backwards, which hurt, a lot.
One submission we do a lot in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are chokes, usually finding someway to constrict a person's breathing and causing them to submit. These are probably my favourite kind of submissions, but not favourite to receive and often after training, I would wake up the next morning with a sore neck due to the chokes I've received.
Last, but not the least is my most recent injury. One that I wanted to avoid since getting into this martial art, and that is cauliflower ear, which if you get a lot of, results in a pretty ugly looking ear, all puffed up and whatnot. The way you get this is if you suffer blows to your ears, or pressure put upon them, which can happen a lot during wrestling. I had always been careful, or at least tried to be careful and protect my ears as best as possible but at somepoint I developed a little 'lump' in my left ear, but it was very small and I thought it was nothing of concern, except that when I put pressure onto it, it would hurt. So sleeping on my left side was often difficult because of the lump. However, this got worse last night, after training, while I was at bible study I reached up to feel my left ear and felt what was a pretty substantial lump, at some point during wrestling I must've put a lot of pressure on my ear and the lump grew big. This lump, is basically a blood clot, so it was filled with blood, I didn't want it to hang around anymore or else it would've settled and I would've had a slightly fatter ear than my right ear, something I didn't want.
Today I went to see the doctor to get the blood drained out, which the doctor did, but only found there to be a little bit of blood inside, according to the doctor it'll take 10 days to heal, so I'll try to limit my physical activity over the next 10 or so days. Which is quite difficult, with a (un)friendly bout with Andrew Ha tomorrow and my third stripe grading on Monday for BJJ, followed by Thai Kickboxing grading on the Tuesday, and a BJJ competition that I want to enter at the end of the month, I'm going to have to protect my ears very well. I'm not a vain person, but I'd like to keep my facial area generally intact, not for my sake, but for yours, since you guys have to look at me from time to time.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
My Fight With Dewey Griffin
My goodness it's been a while, a long while! There's so much to blog about and I've got so much time to do it, but too lazy to do so. But here we go, hopefully I'll be able to throw up everything my mind can remember from the last month or so. Lets roll out to get the lol out!
August 14th, Simon Ha's funeral service, which I shan't dwell on for too long, except that it was sad, but I'm very glad he accepted Christ as his Lord and Saviour in the end. After the funeral we went back to the Ha's house for what I like to call the after-funeral party, just because it was so laid back, with food and drink and socialising it just felt like a mini party. Anyway, in the previous few weeks there were talks of me fighting Dewey Griffin, who has been wanting to fight me for a while and what better time to fight than after a funeral. I accepted his challenge and we both took our shoes and socks off, got our fancy shirts off so they wouldn't get dirtied (I had a singlet type thing on underneath), got my gloves on and got ready. With a crowd of well dressed people I didn't want to look bad, but didn't know how things were going to work. I knew Dewey had flexibility of gymnastic proportions and could kick faster than I could punch, but I just didn't know how hard we were going to go...until he kicked me in the leg.
From then on it was basically me trying to punch him, but not in the head because of the no head shot rule, which I found hard because I was taller than him, and needed to reach lower to punch him, leaving me open to get kicked, which I got a lot of. Also, having not sparred in over a month I wasn't doing very good in the standup exchange, so if anything Dewey looked a lot better fighting me when we were trading kicks and punches.
After he axe-kicked me in the chest, which didn't hurt, but provided a nice thud to make the crowd go "oooh", I decided to try take the fight to where I would dominate, that is, the ground. So we took each other down, and ever so slippery like a snake Dewey managed to get on top, and mounted me and began raining down punches on my head, though lightly, the referee Adam stopped the fight as there were to be no headshots. I remembered at this time how tired I was, and how much I wanted to rest, the adrenaline must've got to me, but there was no rest to be had. With the intent to keep the fight on the ground I took off my gloves, no longer needing them, and so did Dewey, despite my telling him he didn't need to, but he didn't hear me. We locked up again and I found myself on my back, but this time I had Dewey in my guard, and in my legs were wrapped around him, protecting me from his attacks, this was where I worked best and due to his inexperience with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) I locked a Triangle hold on him, which was basically my legs wrapped around his head and one of his arms, choking him slowly, however it didn't seem to be on tight enough so I tried to go for an arm bar instead, but soon found that wasn't working (I haven't yet gotten an arm bar on anyone in training), I then attempted to transition to an Omoplata, which is a shoulder lock but having never really pulled the move off before Dewey squirmed out and we started again. Eventually we locked up and I caught Dewey in a Guillotine, which sounds like what it does, my arm was wrapped around Dewey's head with my forearm in his neck, my legs were wrapped around him and then I slowly began to tighten and pull, cutting off his head so to say, forcing the submission, and rendering us both extremely tired. I got up and found a cut on my arm, most likely from rolling onto the concrete, which was nothing really. My other elbow suffered a grazing, which was a bit more painful, especially when you apply water to it, you know the feeling.
So I won in the end, in what was a fun fight. And now I face my next challenge, that being Andrew Ha, where I feel I have a losing chance, if only because he has the strength advantage. It's such a shame I never got to wrestle with Simon Ha though, because that was something I really wanted to do at some point, but I guess that'll have to wait until we get to heaven. In the mean time, his brothers will do.
August 14th, Simon Ha's funeral service, which I shan't dwell on for too long, except that it was sad, but I'm very glad he accepted Christ as his Lord and Saviour in the end. After the funeral we went back to the Ha's house for what I like to call the after-funeral party, just because it was so laid back, with food and drink and socialising it just felt like a mini party. Anyway, in the previous few weeks there were talks of me fighting Dewey Griffin, who has been wanting to fight me for a while and what better time to fight than after a funeral. I accepted his challenge and we both took our shoes and socks off, got our fancy shirts off so they wouldn't get dirtied (I had a singlet type thing on underneath), got my gloves on and got ready. With a crowd of well dressed people I didn't want to look bad, but didn't know how things were going to work. I knew Dewey had flexibility of gymnastic proportions and could kick faster than I could punch, but I just didn't know how hard we were going to go...until he kicked me in the leg.
From then on it was basically me trying to punch him, but not in the head because of the no head shot rule, which I found hard because I was taller than him, and needed to reach lower to punch him, leaving me open to get kicked, which I got a lot of. Also, having not sparred in over a month I wasn't doing very good in the standup exchange, so if anything Dewey looked a lot better fighting me when we were trading kicks and punches.
After he axe-kicked me in the chest, which didn't hurt, but provided a nice thud to make the crowd go "oooh", I decided to try take the fight to where I would dominate, that is, the ground. So we took each other down, and ever so slippery like a snake Dewey managed to get on top, and mounted me and began raining down punches on my head, though lightly, the referee Adam stopped the fight as there were to be no headshots. I remembered at this time how tired I was, and how much I wanted to rest, the adrenaline must've got to me, but there was no rest to be had. With the intent to keep the fight on the ground I took off my gloves, no longer needing them, and so did Dewey, despite my telling him he didn't need to, but he didn't hear me. We locked up again and I found myself on my back, but this time I had Dewey in my guard, and in my legs were wrapped around him, protecting me from his attacks, this was where I worked best and due to his inexperience with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) I locked a Triangle hold on him, which was basically my legs wrapped around his head and one of his arms, choking him slowly, however it didn't seem to be on tight enough so I tried to go for an arm bar instead, but soon found that wasn't working (I haven't yet gotten an arm bar on anyone in training), I then attempted to transition to an Omoplata, which is a shoulder lock but having never really pulled the move off before Dewey squirmed out and we started again. Eventually we locked up and I caught Dewey in a Guillotine, which sounds like what it does, my arm was wrapped around Dewey's head with my forearm in his neck, my legs were wrapped around him and then I slowly began to tighten and pull, cutting off his head so to say, forcing the submission, and rendering us both extremely tired. I got up and found a cut on my arm, most likely from rolling onto the concrete, which was nothing really. My other elbow suffered a grazing, which was a bit more painful, especially when you apply water to it, you know the feeling.
So I won in the end, in what was a fun fight. And now I face my next challenge, that being Andrew Ha, where I feel I have a losing chance, if only because he has the strength advantage. It's such a shame I never got to wrestle with Simon Ha though, because that was something I really wanted to do at some point, but I guess that'll have to wait until we get to heaven. In the mean time, his brothers will do.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
My Second Blue Stripe
In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, grading works differently compared to other martial arts, where you start at white belt, grade to yellow, then red, then blue, then pink, then brown, then rainbow, then black, then grey, back to white, then...you get the point. We just have 5 colours to remember, starting with white, then blue, then purple, brown and lastly black. The easiest way to remember this order is to just remember from white to blue, and then imagine what blue would look like when bruised (it becomes purple), then imagine what purple looks like dirty (it gets brown), and lastly, black naturally comes after brown (how it comes naturally don't ask, its just how the world of colours work).
At SPMA (Sinonic Perosh Martial Arts), we have grading every 3 months, in March, June, September and December. So having just started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in January, I have now been through two gradings, one in March, and one, most recently in June. The way our gradings work are, throughout the course of our training, we learn moves, or techniques, whichever description floats your boat, and in the grading we have to show our instructors that we know our techniques.
Below is a picture that shows how it all works.
Six years to go!
So to earn your first blue stripe, you have to show five techniques, which was quite easy, though, at the time, what wasn't easy for me was getting to class on time. During that time, I was undergoing training for my job at Datacom, and everything was fine, because I thought we were getting off training early, because it was our last day. Unfortunately, we didn't finish early, and when you drive back from North Ryde, through 5:30pm traffic, you know you're going to be late, and I was, which I was not happy with, because I didn't want to miss out on grading. Fortunately there was a make-up grading, the following Friday, which I went to, but was also late to because it was at their Concord gym, and I got lost on the way there. So being late, twice, made for a very unhappy instructor who you knew could beat the snot out of you, instead he made me do burpies, which is basically an exercise where you're in a standing position, then drop to the ground in a push up position, do a push up, then jump back up into your standing position before going down again for another burpie. Suffice to say, I had to do around 300 of these, and most people after the first 50 are already dead, but I had to keep doing them, because I was late. In truth, I did around 200+, I skipped out on a few. So with that in mind, I didn't want to be late for my next grading.
And I wasn't, I got there on time, which, as a joke, the instructors found suprising. And this time, instead of five techniques, we had fifteen new techniques to show, fortunately, they were called out for us one by one to do, and fortunately again, I was able to partner up with my brother to do them, which made things easier. And twenty techniques later, I had earnt my second blue stripe which, as I earn more, will get absorbed into my white belt, turning it into a blue belt!
Next grading is in September and we have to show 35 techniques (20+15 new) in under 10 minutes all off the top of our head, and with the semester off, I should have a lot more time to practice and get better, in time for the competitions coming up too. I wonder how I'll stack up compared to others in a real competitive environment. First round loss coming soon?
At SPMA (Sinonic Perosh Martial Arts), we have grading every 3 months, in March, June, September and December. So having just started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in January, I have now been through two gradings, one in March, and one, most recently in June. The way our gradings work are, throughout the course of our training, we learn moves, or techniques, whichever description floats your boat, and in the grading we have to show our instructors that we know our techniques.
Below is a picture that shows how it all works.
Six years to go!
So to earn your first blue stripe, you have to show five techniques, which was quite easy, though, at the time, what wasn't easy for me was getting to class on time. During that time, I was undergoing training for my job at Datacom, and everything was fine, because I thought we were getting off training early, because it was our last day. Unfortunately, we didn't finish early, and when you drive back from North Ryde, through 5:30pm traffic, you know you're going to be late, and I was, which I was not happy with, because I didn't want to miss out on grading. Fortunately there was a make-up grading, the following Friday, which I went to, but was also late to because it was at their Concord gym, and I got lost on the way there. So being late, twice, made for a very unhappy instructor who you knew could beat the snot out of you, instead he made me do burpies, which is basically an exercise where you're in a standing position, then drop to the ground in a push up position, do a push up, then jump back up into your standing position before going down again for another burpie. Suffice to say, I had to do around 300 of these, and most people after the first 50 are already dead, but I had to keep doing them, because I was late. In truth, I did around 200+, I skipped out on a few. So with that in mind, I didn't want to be late for my next grading.
And I wasn't, I got there on time, which, as a joke, the instructors found suprising. And this time, instead of five techniques, we had fifteen new techniques to show, fortunately, they were called out for us one by one to do, and fortunately again, I was able to partner up with my brother to do them, which made things easier. And twenty techniques later, I had earnt my second blue stripe which, as I earn more, will get absorbed into my white belt, turning it into a blue belt!
Next grading is in September and we have to show 35 techniques (20+15 new) in under 10 minutes all off the top of our head, and with the semester off, I should have a lot more time to practice and get better, in time for the competitions coming up too. I wonder how I'll stack up compared to others in a real competitive environment. First round loss coming soon?
Saturday, April 19, 2008
My Hybrid Martial Arts
This year I embarked on a new venture, taking a step into new territory that I had not experienced being as supposedly nerdy/geeky (is there a difference?) as I am. Hmm....just looked up nerd and geek on dictionary.com and yeah, not so pleasant so I shan't be calling myself that anymore. Let's start over...
This year I embarked on a new venture, being the Hybrid Hunter that I am I am always looking to expand my skills, traits and perks so that I am not a one-dimensional character but a hybrid-dimensional character and for those of you perceptive readers this entry is label Hybrid Habits, partly because of my infatuation with alliteration and mostly because this category will hopefully document my hybrid skills, traits and perks, in an objective yet slightly subjective manner (it is my blog after all) so lets finally begin after this long-winded introduction.
For as long as I can remember I've always been interested in the whole art of fighting scene, I suppose these were born out of the numerous martial arts movies I would watch with my family as a child, watching Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Jacky Chan and all those other Chinese actors duke it out in such a fast and fluid fashion I was enamored by them. I remember my Dad talking to me about doing some sort of martial arts, but for some reason I never pursued it, in hindsight, I probably should've. I guess that was the eastern influence upon me, my western influence most probably came from my favourite superhero, that being the Batman. The opening sequence to the Batman Animated Series still gets me hyped, seeing him take on two robbers and winning (naturally) I wanted to be like Batman, but didn't want to go through the tragedy of losing my parents. But this isn't a Batman blog (that'll come later). Then came wrestling, introduced to me by my high school friend, and I don't know why but I liked it a lot, and became fanatical about it, watching it, reading up on it and everything except for the obvious one, doing it. But I'd often dream about doing it, but of course, it was only a dream. After wrestling was the harder stuff, first known to me as Ultimate Fighting Championship, a sport where people of varying fighting styles fight to see who is superior, the way to lose was to either get knocked out, tap out to a submission or have the towel thrown in. To me, it was amazing, better than boxing, and I was hooked. I soon found out the sport was called Mixed Martial Arts, which summed it up, fighters were of mixed martial arts, at least they had to learn to be, to win. But what it all boils down to is that I'm a guy, and guys like the whole violence thing, agree/disagree?
So here we are, present day, influences a plenty from all different places and what did this all lead to? My starting of martial arts, two styles in fact, to keep with my hybrid nature, it wouldn't have made sense to just learn one. I'm learning it at Sinosic Perosh Martial Arts (SPMA) in Liverpool, with the two main instructors being Elvis Sinosic and Anthony Perosh, both accomplished fighters who have fought in the UFC. The first style that I'm learning is called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which is the Brazilian adaptation of the Japanese art of Jiu Jitsu, thus becoming Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (notice the hybridness?). It mainly involves wrestling, maintaining control of your opponent and finding a way to submit them, by head/arm/leg locks or chokes. It's very uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of these submissions but rewarding (on the inside) when you pull off a move and tap a person out. It's also a sport made so that even if you are weak, you can still win, which in my case is good.
The second style is Thai Kickboxing, or Muay Thai, which is quite self explanatory in its name, 'Kickboxing', which combines boxing and kicking (more hybridness!). The best known popular example would be from the movies Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong, which sounds like a soup you'd get from a Thai restaurant. Put those two styles together and you get Mixed Martial Arts, punching, kicking, taking them down and getting a good position before more punching!
Four months I've been doing this now, and I intend to stick with it for a long while yet, hopefully enter a few BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) competitions towards the end of the year and see how I go. Any questions feel free to comment or ask in person/online, but otherwise look for more entries to do with my new found sport, which I'll call Hybrid Martial Arts...
This year I embarked on a new venture, being the Hybrid Hunter that I am I am always looking to expand my skills, traits and perks so that I am not a one-dimensional character but a hybrid-dimensional character and for those of you perceptive readers this entry is label Hybrid Habits, partly because of my infatuation with alliteration and mostly because this category will hopefully document my hybrid skills, traits and perks, in an objective yet slightly subjective manner (it is my blog after all) so lets finally begin after this long-winded introduction.
For as long as I can remember I've always been interested in the whole art of fighting scene, I suppose these were born out of the numerous martial arts movies I would watch with my family as a child, watching Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Jacky Chan and all those other Chinese actors duke it out in such a fast and fluid fashion I was enamored by them. I remember my Dad talking to me about doing some sort of martial arts, but for some reason I never pursued it, in hindsight, I probably should've. I guess that was the eastern influence upon me, my western influence most probably came from my favourite superhero, that being the Batman. The opening sequence to the Batman Animated Series still gets me hyped, seeing him take on two robbers and winning (naturally) I wanted to be like Batman, but didn't want to go through the tragedy of losing my parents. But this isn't a Batman blog (that'll come later). Then came wrestling, introduced to me by my high school friend, and I don't know why but I liked it a lot, and became fanatical about it, watching it, reading up on it and everything except for the obvious one, doing it. But I'd often dream about doing it, but of course, it was only a dream. After wrestling was the harder stuff, first known to me as Ultimate Fighting Championship, a sport where people of varying fighting styles fight to see who is superior, the way to lose was to either get knocked out, tap out to a submission or have the towel thrown in. To me, it was amazing, better than boxing, and I was hooked. I soon found out the sport was called Mixed Martial Arts, which summed it up, fighters were of mixed martial arts, at least they had to learn to be, to win. But what it all boils down to is that I'm a guy, and guys like the whole violence thing, agree/disagree?
So here we are, present day, influences a plenty from all different places and what did this all lead to? My starting of martial arts, two styles in fact, to keep with my hybrid nature, it wouldn't have made sense to just learn one. I'm learning it at Sinosic Perosh Martial Arts (SPMA) in Liverpool, with the two main instructors being Elvis Sinosic and Anthony Perosh, both accomplished fighters who have fought in the UFC. The first style that I'm learning is called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which is the Brazilian adaptation of the Japanese art of Jiu Jitsu, thus becoming Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (notice the hybridness?). It mainly involves wrestling, maintaining control of your opponent and finding a way to submit them, by head/arm/leg locks or chokes. It's very uncomfortable to be on the receiving end of these submissions but rewarding (on the inside) when you pull off a move and tap a person out. It's also a sport made so that even if you are weak, you can still win, which in my case is good.
The second style is Thai Kickboxing, or Muay Thai, which is quite self explanatory in its name, 'Kickboxing', which combines boxing and kicking (more hybridness!). The best known popular example would be from the movies Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong, which sounds like a soup you'd get from a Thai restaurant. Put those two styles together and you get Mixed Martial Arts, punching, kicking, taking them down and getting a good position before more punching!
Four months I've been doing this now, and I intend to stick with it for a long while yet, hopefully enter a few BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) competitions towards the end of the year and see how I go. Any questions feel free to comment or ask in person/online, but otherwise look for more entries to do with my new found sport, which I'll call Hybrid Martial Arts...
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