Jiu Jitsu Training Log

[Insightful27]

The purpose of this journal is to keep track of my training and insights over time. Feel free to reach out to connect if you also do BJJ.

[Insightful27]

Training Log #1: 

1. When doing an over-under pass you need to use your bottom hand to grab their leg and use that to keep it in place as you step over. DO NOT just gabel grip the far side leg and hold on for dear life. This is something that I really want to add to my game as I think that I could get to it a lot by trying to knee slide and hoping they put up a high knee shield. \

2. We are not allowed to do dangerous throws, but when you are going for a throw both of your feet should be facing the same direction as your partner.

[Thought Art]

Who are you training with? Have you competed? What are your goals? What styles are you into?

Love to follow along. Not sure if you want peeps dropping in on your thread though 

 

—- about me

Nice man, I trained for a couple of years.  I’ve competed as a white belt, won a tournament or two. I am technically still a white belt, but was offered a blue belt by my training away from home Gym. So take that as you will. 
 

I enjoyed a very powerful and controlling bottom game. Though, once I trained outside the city I developed a very strong top game as well. I was very into lapel guard, spider guard, and tornado guard for my bottom game. Then, a very grounded, smothering, crushing top game. I was strong at armbars, triangles, and chicken arm submission. 

Books I think would do well:

Peter Ralton’s books: Zen Body Being and Art of Mastery. 

 

Edited March 13 by Thought Art

[Insightful27]

Today we learned more half-guard and I had some really productive sparring. Key takeaways:

-When in half-guard keep your bottom hip on the floor (like when you are sleeping) that way if they pass the knee shield they don't pass your guard totally. 

-When you do an over-under pass make sure to keep your head up and use good posture that way you cause them more pain and they will give you the pass faster

-When you shoot your leg and arm through from bottom half guard, if they get a wizzar, you can roll them. If the post with their arm then you can jump up and take their back. Also, if they get a wizzar, you can throw your leg as high up on their back as possible and shoot your leg through for a triangle

-When doing triangles, you can leg go of their arm and use the free arm to hold their head as you cut the angle.

Not really something that I learned but today in sparring I was able to do a duck under and take the back, do a toraondo pass, do an over under pass, and sumbit with a zipper choke from the back all in the same roll. It is really cool that I am retaining the things I am learning and that I can use them in a real roll.

[Insightful27]

@Thought Art Nice man! Cool to find someone else who is into Jiu-Jitsu on here. I just finished reading Zen Body Being for the 2nd time. Have you read any of Ralston's books about effortless power? 

[Thought Art]

@Insightful27 He touches on it in his book on Mastery. But, I definitely used effortless power to win.I was very relaxed most of the time which made it hard to manipulate me.

[Insightful27]

@Thought Art what do you think of some of his videos on YouTube? I really like Ralston but in some of those videos it looks like Akido bullshit

[Thought Art]

@Insightful27 I don’t really understand Aikido or “Push hands” they do in Tai Chi. 
 

I respect the words of Peter, but Aikido I know very little about what it is or what they are doing when they do it. 
 

I am not convinced every “martial art” is design for actual fighting but idk.

[MuadDib]

Signed up for my first jiu jitsu class next week. I've been BJJ curious for years, but last week I got tipped over the edge by almost getting into a street fight while at work. I did about 100-250 hours of Judo, Karate, Taikwando, Muay thai as a kid (ages 6-14) so I've always had a seed of martial arts in my subconscious that's ready to blossom now.

Step 1, takedown:
 

Step 2, options:

LETS GOOOOOO!!! 10-15 years to Black belt.

... hope you don't mind us clogging up your journal, lol.

 

[Thought Art]

Love this move, won a tournament with it

[MuadDib]

Look out for spazing dunning kruger white belts. Very dangerous opponents.
 

 

[Insightful27]

On 3/23/2024 at 9:30 PM, MuadDib said:

hope you don't mind us clogging up your journal, lol.

No I love it man! It's great to share this journey with you guys! Let me know what you think about your first Jiu Jitsu classes and get ready to get smashed lol.

[MuadDib]

I've been mulling over the confluence of martial arts, consciousness work, and meditation, along with insights into self and mind, and listening to musings from Russel Brand and Sam Harris on their journeys with Jiu-Jitsu in particular. Interestingly, martial arts might have emerged from meditation, where monks developing ailments from sitting for extended periods began incorporating movements into their meditations, as Ralston describes in the opening pages of "The Book of Not Knowing."
Or perhaps meditative states were discovered and brought back to cushions in everyday life in the altered states of consciousness that fighting for one's life induces.

I remember watching a video on using clubs as a form of moving meditation to increase strength by Mark Wildman. He speaks of sitting in meditation in times past as being a healthy thing for average people who were much more active on a daily basis than we are today. We don't need more sit down meditation, we're all in office chairs working hard on getting to the bottom of our tik tock reels. 
 

Needless to say, a whole dimension of self-discovery and self-actualization can occur in these treacherous waters. Alfred Lord Tennyson's Ulysses is gently wafting beneath the surface of my conscious thought as I write this.
 

There is nothing like a good strangling to help you grasp concepts such as 'surviving a self' and Leo's explanations of self-deception with more depth and clarity than you ever could in any sober state of mind.

There are lots of things that can armbar the scientific method. God can armbar atheism while tickling its armpit.
 

A running theme I've picked up on is the issue of pacing for beginners. According to John Danaher, you should basically spend your first 6-8 months learning to be a good bottom bitch. I read Josh Wiazkins's book "The Art of Learning", and he talks about depth, as opposed to breadth of knowledge of techniques, as being most important. If you know how to do a few things exceptionally well, you will win more fights than someone who knows how to do a lot of things terribly.

I just see red stars bro.

 

Edited March 30 by MuadDib

[Insightful27]

Training Notes 4/3/24

-When you take someone's back make sure to roll to the side and not straight back because this will make is easier for them to get away

-When you get to a mounted triangle you can pull up on the head just like in a normal triangle to finish it

-If someone is in turtle and you can't get your hooks in you can grab their ankle and take them to technical mount

-From side control, if someone is framing really well against you, you can fall forward so that they can not bench you off them and isolate their far side arm and go for an Americana or if they straighten their arm you can pull up and sit on their head squeezing your knees to hold them still. Now, you can either hit a kimora or fall back into an arm bar.

-When you fall back into an arm bar, keep them as close to you as possible so that your body is touching them the whole time. If you give them space they can pull their arm back in and get their elbow to the mat and escape.

[MuadDib]

Gracie online university - combative course

There are lots of centres where the movements in the course are covered. It's aimed at beginners who want to speed up progression to being effective at live sparring. (speeds up the initial learning curve)

[Insightful27]

@MuadDib I just had the time to go through your entire post and I loved it. Keep up the long detailed posts! I wonder where you could buy a club like that...

https://a.co/d/eET9uOy

Not too bad

[Insightful27]

I am re-reading Ralston's book on body awareness. He talks about how he got into martial arts work in order to get better at his consciousness studies, not the other way around. I thought that was super interesting and that is why I am doing it. I love the idea of showing up to the Dojo day after day to understand consciousness and self better.

[Thought Art]

@Insightful27 People were asking me what I thought about his Aikido

Turns out Aikido is focused on non-violence. I think mon-violence could be the best martial art. Obviously, there are times when we must fight. So we Aikido 

[Insightful27]

@Thought Art I don't have a problem with Aikido, what I am skeptical about is the training partner moving across room when he barely touches him, it's ridiculous. 

It makes me sad because I have a lot of respect for him and he has a lot of good things to say in his book on body awareness, things like this tend to discredit him in my mind. Perhaps I am being dense and something is going over my head, but I don't know how you get around being skeptical after seeing something like this (there are many more videos online).

[Thought Art]

@Insightful27 Dunno 🤷‍♂️