My many faces

Yesterday 2/21/12 marked a marked a year since I've been training post-surgery. I wanted to post just to mark this moment down just so I never forget it. I made a vow to myself not to look for taps and just work position for a year. I wanted to make sure my technique was perfect. Now that has been done so I can start harder training begin my road to my World Championship.

I'm taking a break from writing for a month with 3 books in progress I'm feeling burnt out and on top of that it's tournament time. There's no way I can focus on my black belt debut and write good compelling books. I'll be back in the literary world on April 25th. I will have a new book out by the end of the year.

One thing I've always been is a coach's athlete. Even back in my track and field days, whatever my coach said I did. When I first came to Maguilla's back in November 2008 as a white belt I rolled super aggressively. This is the way I was trained by my first coach Lloyd Irvin who I was with from August 2005 until February 2006. Who always teaches get off first or you will lose because speed kills. So after my year and 8 month long hiatus I immediately fell back into the speed kills mindset. In April 2009, Maguilla and I had a conversation he said to me something I'll never forget. He said "Every round with you is like the 1st round of ADCC, slow down it's a journey not a sprint." This was way of making sure I didn't hurt myself or someone else. A month after this I got my blue belt. During this time, I would give taps to anyone who obtained and held a dominate position. A year after I got my blue belt I received my purple belt(May 2010) I was ready to t

"Find your animality." One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies of all time, Mortal Kombat, Night Wolf said that to Liu Kang when he was helping prepare to fight Shao Kahn. Now what does this have to do with us as bjj guys and gals? Well, everything after all we are animals. When I say train like an animal I don't mean do an hour long conditioning circuit and then go to technique class and spar on full blast for 2 hours after class is over. What I mean is to literally train like an animal. When you spar pick a wild animal and spar like that animal would if it knew BJJ. Some greats have been compared to animals. Jacare literally means Alligator(although it speaks of a particular type of alligator) in Portuguese. Eduardo Telles says on his DVD that he's kind of lazy guy so that's part of the reason he fights from turtle guard. Next time you go roll pick an animal and mimic the way it moves you can be slow and tight like a Boa or fast like a cheetah.