Quotable Quotes

Jiu-Jitsu is a lifetime puzzle. Take your time, and try to find the corner pieces first!

Inspiration

From his new book...it may suprise you to find out who said this. Find out at the end.

At Careca's academy, my first real jiu-jitsu memory was that I was not one of the talented students. Careca confirmed this to me, and oddly enough, I beamed with pride. How strange to be happy about a lack of natural skill? For me, this elation stemmed from my strong performances, both in class and at my first few tournaments. When I had to work three times as hard as my classmates to learn something, I knew I was not the wunderkind. When I saw new students excel where I struggled, I understood that my time in jiu-jitsu would be all about determination. Nowhere was this more obvious than when examining my relationship with Chuck, one of my closest friends at Careca's. Ge was si flexible and fast (and flexibility is a talent), but he did not train like me. He didn't need to. What took me days of training to learn took him only minutes. However, as time went on, he drifted into drug use and focused less on training and more on his own talent. He knew that he could always "just pick things up." As a result of our two diverging attitudes, I started to win even more championships, while his performance plateaued. The reason is simple, I slept, trained, ate well, focused, resisted partying, and excelled. Talent can help so much in the beginning, but you cannot reach the top without hard work.


You always hear, "This guy is so talented..." but then some average guy beats him. I know this because I was that average guy, and I worked hard to beat talent.


This was written by Andre Galvao, who is one of the top BJJ competitors in the world.

The missing Arnolds tapes!

I finally got a hold of my last two gi matches at the Arnolds in March.

Semifinals.

I'm the one with hair, a Carlson Gracie patch, and a blue belt.

Strategy: This guy was a white belt competing in the blue belt division. He did however THRASH his first (blue belt) opponent, winning easily by points. He looked strong and I thought he may have had a judo base. He had a strong European accent (Polish or Albanian maybe??) and was definitely a gamer. He stared at me a few times with this "I'm going to kill you and eat you" look.

Notes: I start off at 0:13 going for this new sacrifice throw I have been working on. I hit it pretty good, but for some reason don't put my second hook in the scramble that we landed in. I missed an armbar/triangle too as I fell to guard.

At 1:00 I get my favorite deep half guard sweep, then follow up with a guard pass.

At 3:56 after pulling half guard, I get a pretty good homer simpson sweep from DHG, and pass guard shortly after.



Finals.

I'm the one with white gi.

Strategy: This guy was big and strong. I saw him pull guard in his 3 previous matches. My goal was to keep him from pulling guard, and try to secure good grips for a takedown. If a takedown wasn't available after a minute or so I was planning on jumping guard.

Notes: I thought I was getting the best of the grip fighting for the takedown attempts and was working underhooks and 2 on 1's. He was strong though, and I didn't feel like I could disrupt his base very easily to get a good shot. This caused me to pull guard at about 0:55.

I open up my guard and work an inverted armlock as a setup to try and catch him in a triangle/armbar. He's wise to it and postures up pretty well. This falls right into my "plan b" trap as he walks right into the loop choke. I get the tap for the win.

Help a sister out

Please click on the video to go to the youtube page and give this 5 stars. My teammate Abby is trying to win a contest so she can get some future tournaments paid for.

Arnolds

I'm getting ready for the Arnold Classic. It's one of the biggest grappling tournaments in the country, held in Columbus, OH. Last year there were 1500 competitors. I've been training hard, and in retrospect have probably been over-training. I'm going to take it easy from here on out.

We leave friday and make the 5 hour trip to Columbus. We should have about 20 people total from our team and our college program at GVSU. I am entering the blue belt executive (30-39) gi division, and the advanced (>18 months) no-gi division at 180-200 lbs. I weighed 195 after a tough practice last night, so weight shouldn't be an issue for once.

My goals for this tournament are to have as much fun as possible, and use good jiu jitsu. I want to avoid stupid beginner mistakes, but be willing to open up and attack when appropriate. One of the most fun parts of a big tournament, is watching my teammates compete. Seeing them excel makes me more happy then any wins I can gather. I will be taking my trusty video camera, so videos will be taken. I think videos are a great tool to analyze your game.

I'm excited and can't wait!

quotable quotes

"You're beating them mentally, you're beating them
physically, beating physiologically because you rest and eat right, and
spiritually because you pray to the lord Jesus Christ. You got five, or
six, or seven dimensions in that. You put it on a level that your
opponent cannot understand. He quits, not because he wants to, but
because he has to. He has no choice."

-Tom Brands

Super Mario Glover

Reis vs. Ryangles

I had a great no-gi class tonight and learned some new twists on some old moves. After class I found this match with two of my favorite grapplers. Simply outstanding guard passing and defending, with great transitions throughout.