Friday Night Fights! Plus some Engrish.

BJJ Class, Friday 28 March
Had a great class… dragged myself there after work with my buddy Sam. At first it was only the two of us and about 400 shooto people training. Our coach was finishing off a combini bento (cheap-ass convenience store dinner) when we got there which wasn’t a good sign, but it [...]

OJJ March 23

My body hurts. My fingers are red raw. My face is still glowing like a beetroot.
All signs of a good training session! I had a fantastic time last night at the 32nd OJJ. OJJ is a kind of social club at our dojo which originally started as a club for middle-aged men (or parents) [...]

BJJ 22 March

I went back to jiu jitsu after missing loads again due to stupid health reasons. I was the only one there! Those wise Japanese are all in bed snoozing. But I’m getting the drop on them with some private training with a black belt!
We worked on loads of stuff and I got to pick his [...]

BJJ - Monday 10th

Dragged myself to BJJ last night.

Not many people came but it was an excellent class. There was me, a purple belt (and all-Japan master and senior blue belt up to 72kg champion!), and this monster of a blue belt, who is also about a ten-million dan judo black belt (and throws the shit out of [...]

Lazy Sunday BJJ March 2

Had a nice Sunday morning session. Coach is still in Tokyo so Ide-san, the judo and OJJ don, took the class. We went over lots of basics, which is always good, and some not so basic De La Riva stuff.
Basics:
Being in closed guard: Bad! If I’m dragged down to the floor from standing, always jam [...]

Back in the Saddle

Went back to training last night after about 3 weeks of back to back illnesses. No weights, no exercise, no jiu jitsu. Not that I lift anything other than my own flabby arse and a couple of rubber dumbells.
I was interested to go back and check my level, to see how crappy I had got. [...]

Recognising I’ll never be a world champion

It’s difficult, but it’s true.
Only a very, very small percentage of people will ever be truly, truly great. You and I are most probably not in that percentage.
I’ve recently been thinking a lot about my position in the jiu jitsu world. About how utterly, completely and terribly, abysmally, anonymously low it is.
I see videos of [...]