I’m in Virginia, nearish the coast. Lately, my attendance to BJJ has been spotty due to reasons. First, Mr. Jiu Jiu and I had been sharing a car. Often he goes to the gym at 6:00 am, which means that for me to have the car, I need to leave at 5:30 am. Second, we made a trip to New Jersey Rhode Island to meet my future in-laws, and we drove back in our second car!!! How awesome is that!! Third, weather.
Yesterday I was excited to finally make it to the noon class. Then I noticed the people there were all in rash guards and shorts. “Is today nogi?” “Yep!”
Thankfully, I was prepared. Every day I train in the gi, I am merely a pants-and-gi-top removal away from being ready for nogi. It’s a huge benefit of always wearing spats! There were only 4 total in class, which was awesome news for me, for the class went on as normal! One of our purples showed up and partnered with me, and fun times were had by all!
Cool story: Mike (on the left) and I met in Korea!
It was a great training. (Thanks, Mike!!)
Today, Mr. Jiu Jiu and I woke up to this:
Thankfully Mr. Jiu Jiu got a snow day from work today!
SNOWPACALYPSE 2015!!! No way I’m driving in that. Classes were cancelled. Much white, so cold, very wow. It means, however, that I transform into CAPTAIN LAZYPANTS. My cat does, as well:
Don’t bug me – I have important lazing about to do.
BJJ related: I have been working hard to get “caught up” with the other blue belts at Jiu Jitsu Institute. After each class I have attended, I have been reviewing the beginner curriculum. It’s very weird not knowing all the terminology – I’m really getting a vocabulary lesson! Honestly, I didn’t know what the words “technical mount” or “run the pipe” meant, but I knew how to do them. It’s really nice having curriculum to follow, but it’s definitely different than what I’m used to.
Jiu Jiu’s Question: What inclement weather affects you or your jiu jitsu (or your sport of choice!)? Are you a baby when it comes to a tiny bit of rain/snow? Are you like The Postman, and neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will keep you from BJJ?
You were in New Jersey, so naturally you went to Princeton BJJ and trained with Art Keintz and Emily Kwok, right? Because awesome!
Considering your background in education, I am very interested to know what you think about the curriculum. Please do elaborate.
Aaaaand I’m a dork. We went to Rhode Island, not New Jersey. We were there one single day, so only family stuff happened, no BJJ. 🙂
Yes, the curriculum discussion will happen in another post.
I’d be very curious to hear what you feel like you were behind in. You said you were working on getting caught up. To me as a new person to BJJ I’m very curious about moments like this because they seem to point to very fundamental issues in a persons game. I felt like I was doing pretty well defending myself against my fellow noob whitebelts in our intro class that lasted 8 weeks. Then I had a partner gas out, and a kindly blue belt with some stripes joined me for the positional sparring. They took my back and clock was set to a kindly 2 minutes. I got choked out in ways I didn’t even comprehend, but I certainly gained a respect for the power of knowledge. I learned (and did not learn) more in those 2 minutes than I have ever learned (and not learned).
The main thing I feel like BJJ hasn’t addressed properly: Kuzushi like opportunities; especially when defending.
Hi Paul! At this gym, they also focus on some self defense aspects that my old schools did not, so I know nothing about the sefl defense portion, nor do I know anything about leg/foot lock defenses. There are some gaps based on things simply not taught.
I have some of the same problems in my jiu jitsu as in my Russian. I have some decent knowledge, but big gaps based on my experience. There may also be other reasons – internal motivation/physical limitations in the past/etc. I’m definitely not discounting that. Some may even be attitude – happy to show up, and satisfied with what I’m doing, so not pushing myself to get better. Some might be language based – I didn’t speak a lot of Korean, but I was at a Korean jiu jitsu gym.
What happens now is the same thing that happens to me consistently: I pause and move slowly. I end up on the bottom and can’t jiu jitsu my way out. I react rather than act. I have no clear game plan for what to do. I don’t move my hips effectively. I often lack aggression/speed, and end up with more a coffee-shop style roll.
Overall I try not to focus on the negative, but I definitely see that I am behind other blue belts. And that’s okay. I’m not in an English speaking gym, I can easily discuss issues with other students/instructors, there is a clear curriculum – so expectations are clear.
This is an off-topic comment. I finally started practicing BJJ after reading a lot about BJJ and fighting my fears. I visited this blog many times (I added it to my news reader) and it helped me get the encouragement I needed to make the first step. One week after I moved to a new city I decided to start practicing in a place I found online. I walked to the garage-gym, talked to the instructor and started right away. Luckily, the class I’m attending is beginner oriented, but not exclusively for us. People wasn’t bad at all (as I feared), and many are friendly and willing to help.
It’s very hot and humid here, I end the training sessions completely wet in sweat and exhausted and happy with me. I’m just starting, BJJ feels difficult, complex and elusive, but right now I’m enjoying my first month. So happy am I that I wanted to share with you, to thank you for your stories and inspiring posts. Big hug, JiuJiu!
Diego, congratulations for starting something that you loved and not letting those fears win! I have found the Internet to be such a great resource (if you find the right sites!). I really hope you keep going back to jiu jitsu, and I hope you keep visiting those sites that have been supportive and helpful for you!
Snow kill me! Cold in general, winter and I don’t match. Usually I do less Bjj in the mornings in winter. My solution is to find a tropical place, move there and practice BJJ often.
Weather will not usually keep me from training. I live close enough to my gym that I can handle driving through most weather for the short distance. I did miss a few days with the recent Snowpocalypse. When we got 14 inches of snow overnight in a city that normally gets less than that in a year, unnecessary driving is not really safe.
I now live only 10 minutes from my gym. I can count how many times I have to turn on one hand. I imagine that driving in regular snow will be easier with more practice, and being so close rather than 45 minutes away makes that less of an excuse.