What does it mean to win in the gym?

I post on a lot of BJJ forums. In other news, the sky is blue. I know. This is not news. Every week or two, there is another new post from a grappler, talking about "winning" in the gym. The post is usually one of a few different types. First, the grappler is brand new and wants to know when *he's going to start winning rounds. Normally, he means he wants to know when he's going to start submitting other grapplers. The second type is from the grappler who's been training for a few months (usually 4-6) and has "caught" an upper belt. He doesn't know that the upper belt is working on something new or is letting him work, etc. and foolishly brags about it on an internet forum. Then, there's the "I should have my X belt" or "how long will it take me to get my X belt" folks.

So, after seeing all of these threads (and at least a hundred variations of each one), I thought I'd talk about what I think it means to 'win' in your academy. First, winning is reserved for places where cash, medals, trophies, belts, or even swords are on the line. Hands are raised, referees are involved, etc. When you're training with your team, you're both winning. You're both getting better at jiu jitsu (ideally). That's sort of the point here. You actually can lose in your academy. Read on to find out how.

Ways to lose in the academy:
1) Only play your A game (which means you never develop any other game)
2) Only train with people that you are better than
3) Hang out in safe positions (hello, half guard of desperation!)
4) Take no risks

Are you seeing a trend here? The best way to lose is to never put yourself in a position to LEARN. You're paying good money for those ass kickings. Take them with a smile. Learn from them. Stopping someone from passing your guard by holding them in your half guard (I am so, so, SO guilty of this - so much that I'm pretty sure I'm the reason for a new rule in our academy) doesn't mean you 'won'. No one won. You had a boring round where no one got better at jiu jitsu. If you're stalling in half guard bottom, give up the pass and figure out how your opponent got there so you can stop him next time.

If there's, say, a 130 lb brown belt woman (hi, Marissa!) in your academy that armbars you 82 times in 5 minutes, don't avoid rolling with her. Learn to keep your arms safe. "Win" by making her switch to a triangle to tap you next time. (This is how I "win" when I train with Marissa, anyway - it's the little things in life.)

Set attainable goals for yourself that constitute a win for the day. Hit the sweep you've been working on against someone 1 belt above you. WIN! Work out the details of a new guard pass or the bow & arrow choke. WIN! Successfully defend an armbar against Marissa. DOUBLE WIN! (Trust me.)

If the only way you think you can win is by tapping someone out, you're going to spend a long time and a lot of frustrated hours losing. The academy is your home. Your teammates are like your big, dysfunctional family. Learn with them. Learn from them. If someone keeps doing something to you that you just can't puzzle out, ask them how to defend it. If they show you the defense, you BOTH win. Know why? Now you both have to get better at jiu jitsu. It's awesome that way.

*I'm saying he/his for ease of typing. Women want to win just much as men, though.

2010 BJJ Stats

I trained 126 times in 2010. I also had to take most of February, all of March, and some of April off for surgery.

This doesn't count days where I trained in back to back classes (or back to back to back), or am then pm classes. This also doesn't count competing, since I didn't do it a single time. I'll be improving that in 2011.

Still, my numbers are up from 2009 by a good bit, so I'm happy. Here's to raising them even more in 2011.

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Open letter to gi manufacturers

If you make a gi for women, we will appreciate it. If you take a woman's build into account, we will be even more likely buy your gi. It is not necessary to cover the gi with Pepto Bismol pink accents (or, Doogie Howser forbid, make a solid pink gi) to entice us. Really, standard white/blue/black gis are fine. Honest. Just make them fit us and we'll be happy. Honestly, I don't even care if you want to keep making the pink ones for the women that like them, but could you please, PLEASE give those of us that don't want to be dressed like a Care Bear some decent options?


Sincerely,
Grumpy Bear

Finally!

After nearly 5 years of training BJJ, I have my first black eye. I don't think it's going to be a terribly impressive black eye, but it's all mine.

In other news, I had four women in class again tonight, and I feel like I'm getting the timing of the class down a little better. Tonight, we had a brand new woman, so that slowed things down a little bit and I didn't show the submission I was planning to show. Ah, well...next week. I'd much rather make sure that they feel good about what I did show, instead of rushing them through the things on my lesson plan. I also feel like they're getting the things that I show them, which is cool. I wish I had more time to watch them sparring in the regular classes to see if they're remembering things and trying them on larger opponents. I'll have to remember to do that soon.

Now that I'm done icing my eye (with a bag of lima beans), it's bed time.

One month down

The first four women's classes are in the books. Well, technically, they're in my handy little Sasquatch notebook. True story. The classes are going well, and Rachel gets a gold star for perfect attendance (or she would if I had any gold stars). Last night, there were 4 women in class, which is a new record. I was really excited to have 4 women last night because I showed my favorite armbar from s-mount. I'm figuring out the timing of things, and keeping another idea or two for each class in the back of my head in case I need filler. More often, I end up needing to skip something in order to make sure we have time for positional sparring. I've noticed that some women tend to bail at the end of regular classes without sparring, so I want to make sure that they're getting a little bit of that in this class.

Speaking of sparring, I'm back in that achy saddle. I sparred for the first time last Wednesday (5/19), and then again Monday and Tuesday nights. I'm taking tonight off so that I will be semi-fresh for tomorrow night, and then heading off to Orlando to look at a venue on Friday.

In other news, Brian should be able to officially destroy his crutches in a few more hours. I'm keeping my fingers crossed - the sooner he's off of the crutches, the sooner he can walk around and get things off of the top shelves for me.

2010 so far

My faithful readers (all 3 of you) probably remember that I was hoping for 2010 to be a better BJJ year than 2009. So far, it's been a little rough, but I think things are finally getting back on track. After finding out about the gallstones in February, I couldn't train until April 1. I managed to train 10 times in April, even though I'm not really able to spar yet. Just 12 more days, and the stupid anti-sparring device gets removed, so I can get back on the mats for real, though.

In other BJJ news, I taught my first class last week. I know, I'm a blue belt. Blue belts shouldn't teach. I have believed this since I started training, and I'm sure I've said it on more than one occasion, too. At any rate, I'm officially a hypocrite, but I've come to grips with it. Klint and I talked about a women's class a few months ago, and I tried really hard to get him to convince Marie to teach it, but she doesn't really have the time to do it. Klint asked me if I would teach it, and I told him there was no way I should be teaching anyone. Then, I spent 2 months off the mats, and I started thinking about teaching again. I've always thought I didn't really have any interest in teaching BJJ. I thought I just wanted to be a grappler, not a teacher. Then, I realized that teaching will actually help my grappling. I will improve my own technique by paying attention to the details, and so on. So, there you have it. About halfway through April, I asked Klint if he was still interested in having a women's class some day (thinking that some day would be 6 or 8 months down the road). Klint, being the quick mover that he is, decided we would start in May. Crap. I had 2 weeks to come up with a plan (and students). So, I sent a panic-stricken email to women I know that teach (or have taught) women's BJJ classes (Addie, Alaina, and Jen), and got some advice. Then, I put together some lesson plans for the first 9 weeks (May and June), and sent them to Val for review. I'm pretty sure that without the support of those 4, I would have spent the entire first class making people shrimp or something. Anyway, now that I've made it through one class, I'm feeling much better about the whole thing. We had two women the first night, and I showed 2 mount escapes and a few ways to maintain mount that I like. Then, I asked both women that came for feedback, and they said nice things. I'm hoping Klint also talked to both of them, so he can give me some feedback, too.

In non-BJJ news, I'll be picking up Cheryl's puppy tonight and keeping her at Casa Linzy for the next few weeks, while Cheryl is off lying on a beach and NOT thinking about MRSA test samples. Puppies are fun and all, but I'd much rather be on the vacation.

Things that I wish I learned before I was old

1) Lentils are delicious. In soup, in salad, as a side dish - so far, it doesn't matter how you serve them. They're just good.

Hmm. That's all I have so far, other than wishing I had heard of BJJ (and started it) when I was 15 or so, and still full of piss and vinegar. Now, I'm more filled with pissing and moaning about the aches and pains caused by jiu jitsu. So not the same thing.