Deborah's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu & Arnis-Eskrima Training

Last week was interesting. I rolled Tuesday morning.  Rather I showed up Tuesday morning, wearing a gi, and proceeded to do something that may have possibly resembled something like BJJ; I cannot be sure as I felt like a rag doll for the entire class.  Good times.  I shook my head, threw my sucker in the ground for a few minutes, and moved on.  The occasional crappy class is to be expected, like a fruitcake at Christmas. I spent the better part of Wednesday afternoon contemplating my timing and re-energizing my focus on the art of the offense. Then...Wednesday night.  I had an excellent roll!  We worked on two chokes that begin with your opponent in your guard.  I was feeling great, moving through each technique slowly and methodically, paying careful attention to the placement of my elbow and shoulder around my opponent's arm.   We started out rounds about 45 minutes in, and I felt simply magical.  My timing was quick, accurate, and ...

AHhhhhhhh, the sweet feeling of definition.....yesss...! The last few weeks have been testing my patience.  I started training for the Pan Ams in January.   Full speed ahead.  Take no prisoners.  Sometime about the end of January, beginning of February, I learned that my job would be starting a promotion process for a lucrative position I have been working toward for several years.  The written exam was to be held at the end of February, and the interviews were tentatively scheduled for, guess what, April 8-10. I put BJJ on hold for two weeks while I hit the books each night, each weekend, and pretty much every waking moment to study for written test.  Passing this test was required to obtain an interview in April.  So I read and read and read and read some more until my eyes bled paper and ink.  Nearly drove myself batty from not getting my usual dose of vigorous, rip roaring movement.   After the completion of the written test I felt goo...

The groin strain is still hanging around in the form of a tiny, snippy twinge.  Gggggrrrrrr....  Not quite enough to keep me off the mat, but just enough to make it's snarky presence known, like an insolent child. I went to the doctor on Wednesday, not necessarily to get "diagnosed," but rather to get a note for work to be on low-key, low movement office duty for a few days.  (My job involves a lot of work in the field).  Doc gave me a scrip for Ibuprofen and told me no BJJ for two weeks, (yeah RIGHT).  So I modified his instructions to one week off.  I went to class Tuesday morning, Wednesday night, then I went to Bikram Yoga last night.  Odd thing happened this week....... So, I went to class this week committed to keeping it light so as not to aggravate the problem child.  I rolled without using an ounce of strength, only pure technique.......which suddenly began to feel.....like.... finesse, like I was gliding smoothly from one position to...

Well, I am still laid up and grouchy with this groin injury.  My husband asked me if I was going to blog today and I answered, "No, I don't have anything to write about."  He suggested I write about injuries and how they are a part of the training process.  So, in an effort to turn that frown upside down and make lemonade out of lemons, I am going to talk about injuries; how they occur and how to heal. In my experience, injuries occur as a result when one or more of the following factors are present: event during training that causes the injury, over training, and stress.  There are also a myriad of supporting players that may cause injury, your warm-up process (not enough), poor diet, and overall lifestyle.  (More on those on another day). 1. Event during training that causes the injury: This is pretty basic.  You are on a training run, you accidentally step on an uneven surface, you twist an ankle, and voila'! Ankle sprain. 2. Over training:  T...

I am sitting in bed with a groin strain.  Let me tell you, this is painful and annoying and it's pissing me off.

I will write a short post tonight, as it's getting late and I need to go sleepies. So today, we worked on this killer move from open guard, I will try to describe it as clearly as possible. I start out with my opponent in my guard.    I grab both sleeves.  She stands up in an attempt to break my guard.  I place my right foot on my opponent's left hip, then scoot my butt onto my opponent's right foot.  I wrap my left hand around my opponent's right ankle.  I slide my left leg around the back of her right leg, then place my left foot on top of her left leg, pull the right ankle, and kick her left leg away with my right foot.  I keep a good hold on her sleeve to control the arm.  The move (when done correctly) places me in side control.    I know this sounds utterly unclear, but the move is quite simple and extremely effective.  We also learned the counter to this move, and as always in BJJ, a counter to counter of the counter...

I have not posted (nor trained) in several days due to the fact I needed to focus on an exam for work, which is required for me to make lateral movement into new divisions.  Thankfully the exam is done because I am waaayyyy over the task of reading department procedures six hours a day. So today, I went to BJJ and had a wonderful class.  You know the triangle?  That I have been working on?  I threw it on today, not once, but twice. TWICE!  In a row! On the same opponent!  He knew it was coming and I still wrapped it up!  He was a blue belt about my size, so my next goal is to lay my triangle on my own belt class and higher. Today we worked on two techniques, one arm lock from the standing position, and the triangle from the guard (slightly different from the method I have been using).  The arm lock begins with my right hand holding my opponent's left collar, and my left hand hand holding the right upper sleeve.  I place my right foot on m...