Some Very Nice BJJ

Squashed Stacked Choked........

2007 Pan Pacs

Where do I start? It was a long day but a good day.... Headed up with Big Rick (aka The Champ) and my eldest boy Grant looking forward to a great day. Checked out the draw and found out there was only me and another bloke in my division. White Belt Senior 2, over 79kg. 5 blokes in Ricks division White Belt Senior 2 Fat F#@%ks!

Met up with Jeroen, Jason, Dave, Tony, Niles, Klaus, Chris and Big Tom and got settled. Niles was first up winning by submission with a very nice Ezekial choke from mount. Jason was up next in no gi and got stalled out to lose on points. Rick, Tom and Chris followed with Rick and Chris both winning their divisions and Tom not having his best day... You looked flat buddy!!! Klaus lost his roll by a single sweep (10 lessons my arse!!!) and I finally got to roll and ended up sweeping and mounting from guard to win on points. I could here Jeroen coaching from the side and it helped me to settle and consolidate my position once I pulled guard. The Chadstone boys did well and I managed to capture quite a few rolls on video.

Looking forward to No Gi training now and staying injury free for at least the next week or so!!! See you on the mat!

Jason showing us an ankle lock on Dave

No Gi Grappling

Funny Captions Please.......

Things like:

ICE THE PYTHON ICE THE PYTHON.....

OOOOOOYYEEAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOOOOYYYEEAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

F#@.*K THAT STINKS

Just sand.....

When new students arrive at a dojo it is customary for the Instructor to give them one of his pep talks on the meaning of life in general. One of these talks went as follows:

The new students sat on the mat eagerly awaiting the arrival of their Instructor. The Instructor walked in and wordlessly picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks about 2 inches in diameter. He then asked the new students if the jar was full?

They agreed that it was.

The Instructor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the new students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.

The new students laughed. The Instructor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course the sand filled up everything else. “Now” said the Instructor, “I want you to recognise that this is your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff.”

“If you put the sand in the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the leaking taps. Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter. Set your priorities."

"The rest is just sand.”

Making the best of a bad situation!

Had to miss the last 2 training sessions now because of my dodgy knees!!! Not happy Jan! Still rather than wallow in self pity and beat myself up over it, I went and filmed the boys training on Tuesday night. Not only did I get support from you all it was really good actually watching what Jeroen was teaching from a different perspective, ie the sidelines. The added bonus of recording it was that I can watch it again and again and hopefully reinforce the techniques in my mind. This way when I get back on the mat I won't be to far behind the 8 ball. Not surprisingly the blokes who have been at it longer looked really polished and by watching everyone, I got a much better appreciation of the subtleties involved in the basic moves. Dave as an example did a really nice simple sweep on Klaus from his guard with great knee position and Chris passes Andrew's guard keeping his weight on him throughout. Andrew's sound effect towards the end really shows what the right amount of weight applied can do...... See you on the mat!