Bait......

I get asked on a daily basis by friends and family (usually in response to my grunts and groans from a recently "tweaked" body part) why I do it? BJJ that is. If it is causing my body so much angst, why do I put myself through it. At my age as well!!!! Bloody hell I'm only 41, hardly ready for retirement..... Still, I do often wonder how if i am going to be a twisted wreck in 10 years time and whether or not I should be doing a softer contact sport like, karate or kung fu, etc??

I was watching a Demian MAIA dvd last night on "Escaping Side Control" and was amazed at how simple his theory was and why I hadn't thought of it!!! Probably because he's a World Champion, etc training all his life while i have a meagre, all be it well trained, 7 months under my belt!!! Anyway watching the dvd was like baiting a hook. Being how I am still at the stage where I get stuck in side control and find it hard to escape, or end up turning the wrong way, etc, MAIA'S simple therories on arm position, etc make perfect sense to me and I can't wait to try them out. It's like, right, these blokes won't know what's coming, I'll be escaping like a pro next time.... So this challenge of learning and being able to actually perform a technique so that it works is one of the things that I love about BJJ. Except of course when I try a "secret" move on Jason and end up tapping, or making a strange noise.... Still, I nearly passed his guard the other day!!!

Jeroen being as open minded a coach as he is makes it easy to say, "I saw this on youtube, etc what do you reckon?" and then he points out the pitfalls or finer points of whatever the technique is....

The other thing that keeps me coming back is, I almost got Dave in a triangle the other day! And then he stacked and crushed me but I was close goddamnit!!!!

Defence Against Guillotine......

I know I'll be giving this a go in the very near future!!!!!

Nothing wrong with a little attitude!!!!!!

Scarey Mo Fo's.........

Karate Ya Gotta Love It!!!!!

A Work In Progress....

Rolled at Chadstone today and picked up a few things that I'll incorporate into my game. At the moment and for a while now, I've been to flat on my back!!! When my guard is passed I'm ending up either turning the wrong way or staying on my back and getting squashed. I had a good roll with Richard and saw that he anticipates which side I'm looking at passing on and turns in to that side before I move. I rolled into turtle a couple of times, as Jeroen suggested, when I knew they were passing and this worked well for me. Also dropping the bottom hand down to block them turning in when I managed to pass also made it much easier to get around. Getting into half guard I'm finding myself facing the wrong way. I try to turn back in and either lose the leg in my half guard or end up flat on my back. Big Steve pointed out that I need to hip out more and I realised that I wasn't sticking my arse out at the same time.... All in all a great session and really good to see Big Tom back on the mat!!!!

Demian Maia Science Of Jiu-Jitsu Defending The Guard Pass

UFC 79......