After my last tournament I went right back to class the following night. When you fall off you have to jump right back on that horse right?
I went to the no-gi class but wore a long sleeved compression shirt since I had a little mat burn on my elbow from a couple of weeks earlier.
I can’t say for sure that it was from this class, but the following morning I noticed my elbow was really red and swollen around where I had the mat burn. It was nearly two weeks old and since I cut it, I always wore a bandage and sleeves (or a gi) so I wasn’t expecting it to get infected.
Worried, I called up my doctor and was able to see him that morning. Turns out it was staph and he put me on some antibiotics. About three days later, it was only getting worse so he gave me a new prescription for a different type of antibiotics and marked on my arm so I could easily tell if the infection was spreading. At this point, halfway up my forearm, to about halfway up my upper arm was red, swollen, and in extreme pain. It was worse than my shoulder surgery I had about a year earlier.
My doctor gave me a 48 hour window to monitor the progress. If it didn’t get any better I was instructed to check into the hospital for iv antibiotics since it was likely a MRSA strain of staph that is extremely resistant to antibiotics. After 48 hours the progress was minimal, so I gave it another day. I’m glad I waited because the following morning it was MUCH better. It took about a week for it to fully subside, but it’s 100% now.
The worst thing was staying out of the gym for a month. I could have gone back sooner, but with the holidays I was getting a little lazy. I plan on returning soon. Oh, and I’ll be wearing my new rash guard, since those Nike/Under Armour compression shirts don’t seem to block out bacteria like a real rash guard. Looking at them side-to-side, you can really tell the difference in the material.
I was both surprised and honored Thursday night when my teacher told me he was promoting me to two stripes.
It may not be that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it feels nice to be rewarded after all this hard work over the past four months.
The ceremony today was nice. We had around 100 students show up and all of the instructors were there. The best thing was that our teachers’ professor was there all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil to give them another stripe on there black belts.
He gave a speech in Portuguese that was obviously translated into English for us. One thing he said really stuck with me. He told us that if we felt like we deserved a higher rank, then to keep working hard and prove it to them for re next belt promotion. If we felt like we didn’t deserve the rank (I fall into this category) then the instructor obviously sees something in us and wants us to work up to the level we think we should be at. Needless to say, I’m going to continue to work as hard as possible and be the best I can be.
I don’t know if there is really an actual tournament season for jiu jitsu but with the two that I am competing in within one week sure makes it feel that way.
As if I wasn’t tired and beat up enough from Sunday’s tournament, I did two classes on Monday night and another one last night (Tuesday). About halfway through last night’s class I began to get really sore. I was useless when we began rolling.
One of the good things about my gym is that we have multiple instructors. They all teach different things and I learn new techniques all the time. In the first class on Monday we drilled some great counters when getting swept. They are very useful and I wish I had learned them sooner. I used to prefer to learn new submissions when I train but now I am realizing that positioning, sweeps, counters, and defense are key.
I was planning on doing my lifting routine this morning and no-gi class tonight but my body is wrecked and needs to recover. Hopefully I can make it to the gym tonight and lift then do a gi class tomorrow. It’ll be my last one before Sunday’s tournament.
If you are in the Orange County area you should definitely come to No Limits for the tournamnt. I should have a camera for this one so I can film some more low-lights (a.k.a. my instructional series on what NOT to do).
I did a lot better yesterday than my last tournament. Granted, I went 0-4, but I actually performed to the best of my abilities and earned some points.
When I arrived at Big John’s he and the girl working the registration desk talked me into also competing in the absolute division. I’d still go against white belts, but there was no weight classes. I reluctantly agreed since it was free but I was pretty nervous about it.
I started with my weight class. The first guy was my weight (155) and I jumped into guard. I have terrible take downs right now so that was the best I could do. I went for a triangle and he escaped and passed to side control. I got into half, but he got back out and took mount. I swept him and got back into his guard then he pulled a triangle when I was trying to pass and I had to tap.
I’ve had some good training over the past month or so despite taking a week off because of the flu. Wednesday night I rolled with my black belt instructor for the first time. He toyed with me for a couple of minutes while I tried to pass his guard. He pulled a sweep I’ve never seen before and ended up in mount. It only took a couple of seconds before he cross-collar choked me. It was a lot of fun though.
I’m currently sitting at Big John McCarthy’s gym waiting for a tournament to start. I decided to come at the last minute and drove up by myself this morning. I’ll be sure to post my result later. It’s a gi competition today and I am far less experienced with a gi but as I said before, what do I have to lose?
We are having a tournament at our gym next weekend so I hope this is some good prep to let me know what I need to work on this week.
I’d been on a cut diet over the past couple weeks ever since I knew I would be competing in this tournament and managed to get to 148lbs (from 155lbs) for the featherweight class. Only problem is that the second day of the tournament required weighing in with your gi AND being 2lbs lighter for the same class. My gi weights 3lbs so that means I had 4lbs to cut.
I ran across this video on YouTube that shows how to get out when your opponent has sidemount. This was one of the most frustrating things for me during my first several weeks of training. After watching this video I was finally able to escape sidemount when rolling. It was a good feeling! Sure enough though, our instructor went over it the very next class. Wish I had known this sooner!
I have seen this question asked several times on internet forums and while many of the answers were good, I thought I’d recount my first couple of classes and let people whoa re interested in trying a class know what to expect.
First of all, I should say that every class is different. Every school and instructor is different, of course, but even with the same instructor, each class can be quite different from the next. Read the rest of this entry »
