2015/12/18: Awareness, Interaction, "Don't Look for It"

So I've been in a bit of a slump recently. But recently I've been trying to think of ways to change my mindset, and today I tried some new things...and they worked surprisingly well!

I remember I wrote an article on Facebook once upon a time about competitive activities (found at https://www.facebook.com/notes/ray-chou/my-thoughts-on-competitive-activities/10152925793451666) and I concluded that awareness was a key element of competitive activities; without awareness, one fails. Every problem that one can conceive of, at the end of the day, is traced back to awareness. Especially reading things like the Art of War and things of that nature...know yourself, but not your enemy, for every battle won you will suffer a loss. Know yourself and your enemy, a hundred battles, a hundred victories.

I found that particularly interesting because I somehow forgot about this concept in my Jiu-Jitsu. Sometimes, there will be people that do moves to me, and I will have no idea how they did it, but I am so caught up, so invested in the moment, that I don't even realize that such a thing occurred. That...or most people do moves that are very obvious. But today I tried focusing on sole awareness.

It was incredible how easy everything became all of a sudden. Because I was so aware of my opponent's weight distribution in my guard, it was so easy to mess with it (just add a little more to whatever they're doing at the time). It was also cool how I seemed to "sense" their moves before it happened.

I even overhead swept a guy because I sensed him about to commit his weight forward.

I also got to roll with Alex, the instructor that I'd say I'm closest with, since I interact with him the most. Watching him roll is quite interesting, and quite enlightening, but rolling with him was a truly eye-opening experience in itself. I went into it with the mindset that I would be as aware as possible, only paying attention to the motions of my opponents (will come back to), and it was so cool watching the subtle little motions he was doing to constantly keep me off balance. His motions were so subtle, but all done at the perfect time, and at one point I even got overhead swept myself haha. I learned a lot though. He really sharpened my defense in his closed guard; the hand-fighting was really fun, but I stayed calm, and just watched what he was doing to me, and didn't try particularly hard to do anything. (will come to back to as well) When I asked him for advice, he told me to keep doing what I was doing. So I guess focusing on awareness is effective.

Also, I think one thing that's been holding me back is that I was always focusing on what I was doing. What am I doing? I want to go for this overhead sweep/butterfly sweep/escape/whatever move that I want to do. However, that's not how it works. Jiu-Jitsu is a live interaction between two grown human beings, and it must be treated as such; it's a conversation, a dance, and there is no sense in me being able to impose my will on the opponent. I must listen to my opponent (think Bruce Lee! All of the maxims apply on the ground as well), and I must become one with him. Forget about whatever ambitions I have, I simply must become one with the moment, and trust my training. After all, that is what technique drilling is for. If you try to force something, it will never work... (See the Art of Dying)

Finally, I think it's the fact that I am going for moves that is making the moves not work. Alex said that to me today, and I find that it aligns so much with the other things that I believe in. What's so crazy though is that I didn't apply it in this particular way, which troubles me because once again, it's another blind spot that I couldn't see. Don't try to make the moves work, let the moves come to you. Literally, don't actually try to go for anything. Your body will do it itself. You must trust that your body can recognize the indicators, and your mind either must be in an empty state, or, if one is not advanced enough, one must be focused on almost solely the opponent. But that is so interesting; not trying to even go for a move, and just letting it happen. Surprise yourself. Later on, you'll create gameplans where you try to mess with your opponent's motions, but if the bodily reflex of moving when one's conscious/unconscious mind senses an opportunity must be ingrained to reflex level.

So, for the next month, I will be aware, use my awareness to respond to my opponent, and I won't actually try to go for anything.

2015/12/08: Percentages, Rate Calculation

I decided to take a break from Jiu-Jitsu today. I'm tired of always being disappointed in myself, so I thought today could be a good break to just play piano...[and not get punched in the face XD]. So of course, I did a lot of thinking. Like I always do.

I've decided I'm going to actually break down every motion, or at least the ones that are currently relevant to me, identify the lever systems in place, and figure out how I need to position my limbs and such so that I exert the maximum force possible. That will be my mission over the break that I get from Jiu-Jitsu, and I will post significant findings here.

Anyway, I've been thinking. And I realized something - the reason I'm so disappointed in myself is that I can't get my moves to work a majority of the time. But there's one -well...a few- problems with that.

1. I have not drilled the moves to muscle memory so they are not 100% in terms of execution
2. I am fighting against an opponent who is somewhat equal in skill
3. There are inherent percentages of the moves themselves based on the inherent advantages/disadvantages of the positions
4. Timing advantage, speed advantage, inherent physical traits [strength] advantage

So suppose I am doing an elbow escape that I have only 65% mastered. Elbow escapes are about 80% success, say. with the proper setup, and we will assume that I have the proper setup. Here, a success will be defined as no longer in the mount. [They might jump to knee on belly, but that forces movement] I will assume my opponent is equal in skill with me, but I only have 75% of his strength. I have a speed advantage of 110%, and a timing advantage of 110%. So let's do some calculations.

Expected Percentage = Execution% * (Your skill/( Their Skill + Your Skill)) * Inherent Advantage/Disadvantage * Inherent strengths

So for this elbow escape, Expected Percentage = 0.65*0.50*0.80*0.75*1.10*1.10 = 0.23595.

Holy shit. That number is way lower than I expected. So I should expect my elbow escapes to work about a fourth of the time [for now]. Any higher means I'm improving! Moral of the story? Stop being so disappointed in yourself. Right now, a 25% success rate means average, and later on, that number will go up, whether because your relative skill is increasing depending on your opponent, or otherwise.

Calm down.

Also, I'm waiting for my first stripe (mainly because I want access to the stripe 2 material on Gracie University), but I haven't gotten it yet for some reason, despite numerous other people who tested for their blue belt after me getting it. So I sense something is wrong. Was it due to my lackluster attendance in the first months of the year? The fact that I twistered a bunch of people? Or do rubber guard stuff/other super sporty/unorthodox stuff sometimes? I have no idea. I think I'm keeping it playful and I'm definitely putting survival first, but the scary part is that one's blindspots...are blind to oneself. So I'll just keep going and I hope I get my stripe soon haha. I want to learn those moves grrrrrrr

2015/12/08: Get Punched in the Face Day

Today was the weekly (sometimes biweekly) get punched in the face day. My favorite day of the week. Usually because that means I literally can't do anything and have to deal with the psychological pain of realizing that if this were real, I could have died. The other person was able to easily side mount me and just wail on me. Granted, the mounted triangle occurred when I was pretending to be the wrestler bad guy whilst passing the guard, but I felt incredibly powerless.

I survived. Don't get me wrong, I was getting punched, but I always had a cover up. But what troubled me the most was that I couldn't escape. I know that everyone currently has more skill than me, but I was too panicked/in a frenzy to figure out what I needed to do to escape. I felt stuck. Trapped. Nothing I was doing was working. How right I was doing everything, I'm not sure.

I need to calm down a bit.

2015/12/04: "He's Just Bigger Than Me," Feeling Powerless, Not Quite There Yet

So today was an interesting day. My recent focus has been on side mount escapes, which I guess is something I'll always be focusing on (that and survival). I'm getting bored of just survival, so recently I've decided to focus on escapes as well. I'm working on a giant flowchart that will comprise of an entire gameplan for escaping side control, and I will touch on that a little bit.

Anyway, recently I've noticed a trend in me recently; dismissing a failure of mine because someone weighed more or something. Of course it is an advantage for someone to be heavier than me. HOWEVER, I should be so good that it doesn't even make a difference. Stop trying to justify your own failures, accept you screwed up somewhere, and go fix it!

On the other hand, sometimes it feels like, especially from the guard position, that as the smaller man, I just can't do anything. (Or from the bottom position in general). This, however, is to be expected; the bottom position is typically inferior/weak, and I have few natural advantages that I must take advantage of completely. I need to get better, but sometimes it just feels like I can't do anything, because my moves aren't working, or someone is preventing them. If it's not working, I'm doing something wrong. If someone is preventing them...then I need to figure out how to get around that. There is always a weakness.

I'm trying to do all of these crazy moves with as little energy as possible - but I'm just not quite there yet. If I was a black belt rolling against a purple belt, then maybe I could do that. But no, I'm a measly blue belt. But hang in there. You'll get there eventually.

2015/11/20: Anger, Injury, Keeping my Ego in Check

So training has been going well recently. I've mostly been doing Jiu-Jitsu stuff at the academy, and training on my own in terms of Kung Fu and things of that nature.

So today, during class at the academy, I was rolling with one of the brown belts, and what ended up occurring was I just ended up having to defend myself (which is usually what happens, since my guard sucks), and then I held him off for like 4 minutes before he armbarred me. And it dislocated slightly. Ugh. The same arm too. I have to play piano :(

Anyway, I was training with Chris today as well. It went pretty well for the most part. We got a lot done; we drilled some tieups, some takedowns, some butterfly sweeps, and a ton of guard passes. Then we did some live passing, which was cool, and I got swept a lot.

It kind of frustrated me how much I was getting swept, simply because I just don't know all of them yet. How could I expect myself to not get swept despite knowing all of them? I got kind of angry, and I kept making him rewind so that I could see what was going on, and then having to adjust my gameplan accordingly.

I think my biggest mistakes in terms that I allowed him to keep his feet on me, and I allowed him strong angles. I think a large part of it is that I roll with people who don't do as many of the sportier sweeps, since the focus is more on street sparring than sport. But I think once we go through the sweeps chapter, I'll be a lot less frustrated. Also I got arm dragged a lot.

Today has shown me that there is a huge hole in my guard game though especially in terms of offense...and defense. Will work on that.

2015/11/05: Overhead, Other News, Problem Solving

Last night we did butterfly guard focus, and I spent a lot of time in butterfly guard. I tried to get people to commit their weight and lean onto me, and when I finally did...I just leaned back, and I felt ALL of their weight come off of the ground. I was supporting them...entirely. It was pretty cool. Then, all I had to do [aided by their forward momentum] was extend my legs and tip them over my head...and over they went, dragging me right to the mount. It was pretty cool. I did it twice. All you have to do is get them to lean...

I will focus on this when I work my escapes. Escapes I think will be the hardest part of my journey, since there are two kinds of escapes: you initiate, or they initiate. And no one good is going to initiate for you...unless they want to submit you I suppose.

In other news, I began my Kung Fu training again. And I must say, it's going well.

Anyway, at the end of the day, everything you're doing is just problem solving. I'm currently working on my my weak side butterfly sweep is well...weak. [Whizzer/Wrist control] I'm playing around with where to put my weight, where to put my butt, the angle I'm driving him at, the timing, the rocking, everything in order to get the move to work.

I think this is what separates me from most other people; I use science to try to make my moves work instead of my muscles. I think at the end of the day, I will come out on top because of that.

2015/10/28: The Slump, Roughness

It is very normal to hit slumps in terms of whatever it is that you are doing. Very normal. I just don't feel like I am getting better as of right now, which is perfectly normal considering that everyone else is getting better as well. Maybe though, it is just because we keep shifting our focuses, and that we are working on new elements of our game, and that I have not improved enough in that regard yet?

A HUGE part of the problem is that I absolutely downright refuse to use my physicality. I won't do it. I am somewhat strong, I am REALLY fast, I am pretty athletic, I can go for a very long time, and I am super flexible, and near hypermobile in some areas - but I REFUSE to use any of that. I want to use only my skill; if I really want to, as showcased at Judo Monday night, I can use my physicality to defeat someone of similar or lower (or maybe even a little higher) skill level, but I will not.

The problem is, it is really difficult to defeat someone who is stronger, more athletic, and using more than you are using pure skill. You must be significantly better than them - and I'm just not. At least I am significantly less tired than those guys are. I could roll for two hours straight. How many of the other dudes can? Well, I'm not really trying to compare myself, but...

I was making slight adjustments to Hector's gi chokes, but gi chokes piss me off sometimes...and I'm letting my ego get the better of me. I want to escape, I want to play guard and sweep the crap out of people, I want to reverse and submit, but I can't. I'm outweighed by at least 50 lbs, and the guy is way better than me. What chance do I have?

I know I'm supposed to be focusing on defense and survival, since that was my plan for the blue belt. I figured guard retention should pass as a part of it...but I think for now I should not fight tooth and nail to keep my guard, but rather try to use my skill (which I somewhat am), and if it gets passed, whatever. If anyone taps you, your survival skill is not good enough.

Speaking of getting tapped, there was this very rough guy, I think he's from a different school...I got kicked a couple times and maybe even have a black eye. Whatever. I think he only tapped me like once, which I'm okay with. I could handle him though.

Same with that other guy, who likes to go really hard...I passed him and almost tapped him a couple times, when he used to just poop on me. So I guess I'm getting better.

But I tapped 5 times tonight.

I hate getting tapped. It means I lost. I try to see it in a positive light, but at the end of the day, no matter how I see it, I messed up somewhere. I wasn't better than the other guy. I did something that I shouldn't have. And I really, really, really dislike that.

I can't be perfect, however. I have only been here for a little over a year, and everyone else has been here at least two. I always want to stand out somehow, and I can't accept the fact that I am just not different than other people, or at least more skilled in some way. I want to be special. I want attention. That is just how I am, I need my ego to be fluffed because my self esteem is incredibly low. I need it for my own mental health. Hell, I finished Combatives in four months (technically two and a half, I was ready to test when I went off to school), but still.

I learn the moves faster than most people. Usually I get it perfect first try. I take all of the advice everyone gives me (except the stay off the mat stuff LOL), but eh...

Get over it, and get back on the mat and work harder.

I think I need to film myself so I can see what I am doing.

2015/10/24: Pivot Points, Constructive Criticism

It's 2:17 in the morning and I need to get up at 8, so this one will be short and sweet.

So in general, when you want to move on the ground, you need a pivot point if you want to do it fast. Because your moment of inertia is much smaller when the center of gravity is placed directly on the pivot point, you always want to do that - but you must find a pivot point. So the general rule of thumb is:

Find the center of that movement/spin. Place whatever you're balancing on over that point. Then, place yourself over what you placed on that point.

Best example: The armbar spin. Everyone sucks at it. Well...most people suck at it.

You're spinning on their chest. So you're going to place your hands on his chest, then place yourself over your hands. That's it...

Also, apparently one of the guys I asked about what that one dude said to me about "using technique" a couple weeks ago talked to the other instructor about it, and they told me that unless the criticism wasn't useful, forget it.

...or that the dude was just mad that I did something good to him LOL. "Don't let nothing discourage you." Gotcha.

2015/10/20: Broken, On/Off

So due to some strange reason, my right ankle has been hurting as well. Nothing is broken or anything, just a lot of swelling, I think due to either my muscle imbalances, or my pigeontoedness, or my left leg being longer than my right, which makes me lean to my right...so that's both my ankles that have problems LOL. Sad.

Anyway, I had to walk around the whole day focusing on my posture. That was annoying.

I somehow survived rolling without an injury and my ankle feels good, so that's a good sign.

I feel like I've been a lot more careful, but maybe just a silly slip up here and there and I'm getting injured. I think it is unrealistic to expect to not get injured; I'm pushing my body really hard. I do think I need to do more Titanium Ankles every day, however, as I am letting the worn parts of my body get weak. Also, my neck feels a bit funny after getting stacked LOL.

Anyway, today Joseph had a pretty easy time passing my guard. Well, not the easiest of times, but he was able to do it somewhat efficiently, and he focused on pulling my legs back, and then pinning them down. Which got me thinking - my entire goal was to pin the hips and blast them when I past right?

Well, there needs to be a second part of it. The blasting is the "on," and with every on, there must inevitably be an off, one that we must fully take advantage of - which is backing your hips out as far away as possible. I was watching Alex this do this last Tuesday, but I did not really pay attention, as I needed to invest time learning the blasting part first.

So the idea is to back the hips out, and take a piece of them with it, using the force of my hips moving backward to stretch them out (people on their backs can only move so fast). Once I have them elongated, I have the mechanical advantage, and therefore I will use that limb to pin the next appendage, and therefore gain control over their hips and begin to pass.

This technique must be used in conjunction with the hip blasting. Remember - if they are on, you are off (if they try to push you away, pull them and take their legs!), and if they are off, you are on (if they hesitate a little bit or try to pull you, you BLAST them with your hips).

**Every move is either a booty pop or a pelvic thrust (or a hip swing/twist, but that's different).

**There are two ways out of a trap - either as far away from it as possible, or straight through it. (See above)

You must mix up the on/off to get to someone. That is the key to skill. Mixups and timing.

But I think almost every move (at least those that have to do with positional changes) can be described by the model I provided - either blast them with your hips, or get yours as far away from theirs as possible on the escape, and on the offensive...either blast them with your hips, or get yours as far away as possible. The rest is just finding out how to apply it and formalities.

2015/10/19: Flexibility (in all aspects)/Open Mind

I'm not going to lie, I used to dislike a lot of Martial Arts simply because of how much emphasis they placed on physicality and conditioning. I mean don't get me wrong, conditioning is critical to success in terms of the combative arts; the stronger your base, the stronger one will be. This is why Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was such a turn on for me; while the Gracies themselves did physically condition themselves, they favored perfect mechanics, knowing that they would defeat their opponent.

I also disliked a lot of Martial Arts because a lot of their practitioners shit on Kung Fu, which was my heritage, and I will forever wear the Kung Fu flag with all of my pride and being. But the fact remains - that there were some styles of Kung Fu that placed a ton of emphasis on conditioning LOL. So I guess, in order to not contradict myself, I'm going to have to stay away from those...or end up conditioning myself.

In striking, some level of conditioning is necessary. The striking surfaces must be strong enough. But I dislike devoting all of my time to conditioning; while this is really good for meatheads who don't want to think too much, I want to be a fighter of brains, not of brawn, because the former deteriorates much slower than the latter.

Based on what I've seen though I'd always thought that a lot of fighters (and this is somewhat true) simply believe that the better conditioned player will win. But I want my skill to be such that unless you are SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than me (or better than me), only then will you be able to defeat me. Yet as I study these other Martial Arts that I long held distaste for, I find more and more qualities that I enjoy. I think at the end, I am going to have to pick which elements align for me, and add those to my own personal style, adhering to physical truths of the world.

I used to dislike boxing because they left the centerline. Well then I'll just fight long range! I don't have to throw hooks, I can just throw straights all day, and then shovel hook (which does not leave the centerline, contrary to popular belief) as I get close. Oh yeah, the hook is only thrown when the purpose of the hands of the opponent are occupied, or you step off of your opponent's centerline. They're not retarded. Also, the things you learn about timing and rhythm are crucial; in fact, I'm going to sign up at Boxing Works sometime within the next year and start training Muay Thai/Boxing there, just to learn rhythm and timing, and I will use what they teach me, but power it with what I know from Kung Fu. I wonder how fast my jab is compared to that of other people's. LOL.

I used to dislike Muay Thai because...well, I don't know why. I guess because everyone else likes it? LOL, that's a stupid reason to dislike something. Also, the reliance on conditioning. But it is useful, and I think the best place to learn how to deal with something is the place that does it; if I train at a Muay Thai school, I'll learn how to deal with all of that stuff.

I used to dislike Tae Kwon Do because I wanted a group of people that I could shit on myself, just like how everyone else shits on Kung Fu, but I shouldn't do that. I should keep an open mind. I'm starting to realize that a lot of their moves are actually practical in terms of the distance game. Learning how to throw leg kicks would work for me; except I have different targets in mind >:D

I disliked Jiu-Jitsu because I didn't really know anything about it.

Well, there you go. I'm now planning on doing some study of all of the previously listed things. An open mind is cool, you really get good at things. One must be flexible.

Also I'm working on flexibility in my body, but it is slightly hard since I think there are still some remnants of tightness from back when I improperly stretched.

2015/10/18: A Day Off (Or Two), Street Fighter Footsies

Sometimes, it is a good thing to take a day off. On Friday, I was hanging out with GIRLS (oh my god no way), and I was at her house until like 2:00 in the morning, and it was 2:30 by the time I got home. To make the morning class, I would have had to have gotten up at 8:00, which meant 5.5 hours of sleep. I could have done it, but I would rather have gotten more sleep, since sleep is crucial to a healthy life.

The day off was nice. I did not gain any rolling experience, but I was able to stop by the gym and do some squats, and stretch. I am getting weak since I have not gone to the gym in a while; my routine was as follows:

• Warm up with the usual dynamic stretching routine (and realized how inflexible I was :( )
• Idiots were on the squat rack having a conversation
• 3 sets of 5 leg press + 7 calf press at 270, focusing on breath
• 2 sets of 5 leg press + 7 calf press at 360, focusing on breath
• 2 sets of 10 leg extensions at 45
• 3 sets of calf raises (sitting) at 90
• FINALLY THE SQUAT RACK OPENS
• The following are squats:
• 1x 5 of 45, warmup
• 1x 5 of 95, warmup
• 2x 5 of 135
• 2x 3 of 155
• 1x 3 of 185
• 1x 5 of 135
• 3 sets of calf raises (standing) at 120
• Isometric stretching + static stretching

I'm still decently strong; the 185 felt VERY doable, but I did not want to push it, though it was significantly harder than it was say like a month ago. My deadlifts still feel good though. But I couldn't deadlift because my elbow was hurting.

So then I went to my friend's house (still on Saturday, the 17th) and I foamrolled and stretched some more. Then we played Street Fighter, where I could start to apply my knowledge of timing and rhythm.

It was very interesting; I was playing Fei Long and trying to master his footsies game. I was doing okay, I guess. I was able to stop hit consistently and bait out a couple moves. I can't wait until my budget can sustain Boxing/Muay Thai classes so I can spar with people and get comfortable learning this stuff. I will become a master of footsies in Street Fighter, and then practice applying it on people in Boxing/Muay Thai.

2015/10/14: Every Curse is a Blessing, "Shoulder Drives to the Elbow"

I'm going to have to make this one pretty fast, because I still have some Numerical Methods homework to do, and an exam to study for. So yeah.

Anyway, today I rolled at the Gracie Academy, but because my elbow was hurting from Monday [see the two previous posts], I had to do it with just one arm. Of course I didn't submit anyone [though I did get pretty close on a few occasions], but since we were practicing guard passing, I figured I would pass some guards and defend some passes.

So after studying Alex last night, I had a couple things I wanted to try, which was that I would defend the guard passes by keeping their hips as far away from me as possible, and pass guards by blasting my hips into them and getting as close as possible, and the fact that I had only one arm made this so much easier.

It totally worked.

The fact that I had only one arm made me use my legs and my hips more. In fact, I passed primarily using my hips and shoulders; I barely used the functioning hand! The only thing I really did with it was post when I needed base, or use it to shrug a really annoying grip off of me or something. The rest I achieved through pressure and good footwork alone. It was awesome. I wonder how people felt having their guards passed one handed. So I see now that guards/guard passing is all in the hips.

When I played guard, though I got passed a couple times, I'm getting better. It's all about keeping my hips away, and keeping their hips away. Now all it is is the formality of grips, and how to fight for them. I got hook sweeps on a couple people [the only one handed sweep LOL], and my strategy to keep them away worked. In fact, it worked so well that some people tried so hard to pass I was actually able to invert and get a heel hook on them!

Also I tried some really funny escapes, which worked because I had to use my body a lot more than my arms and legs. Which was cool.

So I guess the moral of the story is that every curse is a blessing; by my arm being injured, that enabled me to watch Alex, which enabled me to roll focusing on my hips and their hips, which led to this HUGE epiphany that I had about rolling. And there's so much more for me to explore! I had felt stuck before, but now I feel like I have the answer. Kind of.

Another thing this led me to understand is "shoulder drives to the elbow," or as Jin calls it, "heavy elbow." I realized that the two were almost the same thing, but you move from your elbow, AS WELL AS from your wrist, and that way it activates more muscles and makes the body more coherent.

Imagine you're Kyle Maynard, who has no forearms, just a stub. That is how you should hit.

2015/10/14: All in the Hips, "The Contradiction"

So since my elbow was out of commission yesterday, I decided to show up to class anyway and take notes. Well, normally I show up to class anyway, but usually I just tie down whatever is hurting and don't use it. But I wanted to be safe, since elbows are pretty important haha.

I learned a lot by sitting on the sidelines and watching. In fact, probably more than if I rolled with someone, even though I'm not getting the practice in that I need, but still. It was quite informative, particularly watching my instructor Alex. Alex was barely moving, it looked so easy for him, and he was light and gentle and smooth...but his opponents were usually thrashing around, doing all of their movements very violently and explosively, but they all just seemed to get shut down, or none of them worked. It was pretty remarkable watching that; it was just like the Kung Fu legends that I'd heard about my entire life, and reassuring to know that they were real. Imagine what I could be if I trained as hard and as long as Alex did.

Anyway, one thing I noticed about Alex was how he maneuvered his hips. Alex did say "every move starts and ends with the hips," But watching it in action was even more incredible. When he was passing, he attacked with this hips very much, using its weight to smash the defenses of the other person. When he was defending, he kept his opponent's hips as far away from his as he could. Until he decided to sweep. It was amazing to watch.

Also, Alex said something along the lines of Jiu-Jitsu being a contradiction. "If you want to be heavy, you must first learn how to be light. If you want to learn how to submit, you must first learn how to defend, escape, control, and stuff like that. It all contradicts. If you want to learn to be fast, you go slow. Find the strength in the weaknesses, and the weaknesses in the strengths." Very in alignment with Yin-Yang philosophy. Interesting, I'll have to think about that.

2015/10/13: Injury/Recovery, Lack of Organization

Today is going to be less about what I discovered, because even though I discovered a lot, a lot of it is not very write-downable. I did learn that when guard passing, however, one must apply a lot of pressure and smash the person [in the right ways] with their weight. However, committing your weight makes you sweepable, so it is always a tradeoff.

Also, when I went with that guy that looked like Ross Fuji, I was trying the untangle escape, but he extended a little harder than I would've liked >_< and I tapped just a little bit too late. Oh well. At least I learned a lot about escape.

Right now I'm planning on rolling one handed for a couple days to protect my arm, but I'm scared it'll get hurt anyway. It feels really uncomfortable. They say it'll get better with time, but idk. Also I can't tell if I'm swollen or not but yeah.......so many questions. Going to talk to the doctor.

Also my solo practice is very disorganized; I need to find a solid training regime. But the problem is uncertainty; I have no motivation to practice something that I was not taught how to practice. I've figured stuff out, but I think I need a teacher at the end of the day.

2015/10/11: Bad Practices, Ankle Problems, Plans Forward From Here, the Variables

Setbacks and/or plateaus are inevitable. I did not have a very good weekend in terms of practices or what I wanted to do. Friday was okay, I got to roll with Jordan again and that was cool and everything. But a lot of it is just that I'm expecting to be able to escape these armbars, but that's not going to happen right away.

I have only been training for one year. One year. That is not a lot of time. I should be happy for the progress I have made! Well, technically, I have been training on and off for five years, but let's count the total training time.

• 2010: July to early November, 4 months
• 2012: Late June to Early September, 2.5 months
• 2013: June to early August, 2 months
• 2014: June until present

Wait...really? So if you take all of the training time I've ever put in, I've been training for 2 years and half of a month. That is actually not a lot of time. And I've only been in Jiu-Jitsu for one year and 4 months. What do I expect from myself? I know I get frustrated when I am not meeting my short term goals, but I guess I just have to get back to the mat and keep trying. Also, I need to not panic so much when people are trying to armbar me. But eventually, I'll get good at it. Eventually.

I'd say I'm pretty decent for where I'm at; I just need to learn the rest of the positions, then I think I'll have a lot more fun stringing it all together. Maybe once I finish one revolution of the Master Cycle, I'll feel a lot better.

In the meantime, I'll just need to deal with it.

Saturday's workout wasn't that great; I didn't work any of my boxing combos. I think I'm too sporadic when it comes to things that I practice; I'll practice very hard for a week or two on a couple things and then just not practice at all. Part of it is because I practice so many contradictory things at the same time that it's very hard to get all of it into my head. A huge part of it was I didn't make a specific list of things that I wanted to practice.

One thing I DID want to practice, however, was the roundhouse kick. Which really, really, really hurt my bad ankle. Which leads me to conclude...that I need to start doing titanium ankles again. My landings feel weak.

Also I kind of want to play basketball, but that is just so much effort.

Anyway, I've decided to continue Kung Fu training, but to test it out and learn to apply it to guys at a Muay Thai/Boxing school. My power mechanics will be based on Kung Fu, but I'll use the Muay Thai guys are training dummies to learn how to make it work. I think this is the best, because I will have sparred against something that I know works for sure. I like the idea of softness overcoming hardness.

The goal for me is to learn distance, rhythm, timing, targeting, defense, mindgames, and all of that stuff by sparring a lot with people, and then learn to play my slower, tankier game using that knowledge when I get older.

So I've decided to make a list of variables for the stance, and if I haven't already, I'm going to update the list. I'm going to experiment with these and be comfortable with everything.

1. Width: The wider, the more stable and able to resist force, but the less mobile you are, and the less you can deliver force. More defensive. A thinner stance is more mobile and able to deliver force, but not very stable. Offensive.
2. Height: Low stances are typically wider, and are more stable, at the cost of mobility once again. HOWEVER, you are takedown-safe, and have takedown potential. Higher stances are typically smaller, but better for striking, though at great risk of being taken down.
3. Angle: A bladed stance is a smaller target, but you make it easier for your opponent to take your back. Also, you sacrifice power in the front hand for tremendous strength in the rear hand (and the same goes for the leg), and you sacrifice side-to-side stability. Good for situations where there are no roundhouse kicks. Also a lot of leg drive. A square stance (a perfectly square stance) is really bad in terms of front and back stability, but is very good for sprawling against someone who is going to take you down. If you take a slightly square stance (square shoulder, bladed legs), both hands have equal power, but you must turn your front knee in to protect the groin. Bigger target. So square stance more takedown safe, bladed stance more strike safe. A balance is key.
4. Weight distribution (foot): Weight on toes is great for mobility, but lacks very much power (unless you THROW your weight, which is risky but extremely powerful. So you must know when to commit and therefore be prepared for what could happen. Weight on heels is great for power, so like when we are throwing a finishing blow or resisting a push. We must be able to seamlessly transition between both. I like to favor flat feet, but there are times for everything.
5. Match/Mirror: Being able to switch stances at a moment's notice to take advantage of their unfamiliarity.
6. Weight distribution (legs): Weight on forward foot is very dangerous, but has the most attack potential for the hands or the rear leg (drop step roundhouse) unless it is a carving attack with the front foot (which is illegal in most sport organizations). Weight back is safer, and favors the front leg in terms of attack and/or interception. Weight evenly distributed is a great compromise. (The karate dudes are into that)
7. Hand Positioning: Centerline, Philly Shell, Standard Guard, Peekaboo, Muay Thai guard, the list goes on...all have their advantages and disadvantages. I prefer to keep my hands in the middle though, or maybe so a half and half guard with a bladed stance. Will play around.

That's all I can think of for now. I will probably append this list as time goes on.

2015/10/07: Escaping Armbars, Progression from Young to Old

"So I'm currently on armbar defense focus, you think you could slap as many of those on me as you can?"

This was the premise of my roll. An innovative approach, I think this focus-by-focus approach of Jiu-Jitsu is the best method of development. Just as I have in other disciplines, I will usually focus on one thing until it is subconscious, and then move to the next. This seems to be working well for me. I'd say I'm pretty comfortable at the bottom of the side mount.

Anyway, in terms of escaping armbars, today was a success! I went after all four the things I described elsewhere (top leg, bottom leg, their base, pulling my elbow out) and I mixed it up, with hitchhiker as a last resort. Now I just need a lot of experience. There was a cool little armbar that Brett caught me with on the far side that I need to learn, and he also baratoplata'd me when I tried to escape his triangle (that I will need to learn as well). Greg still says I'm a little fidgety, so I'll try not to explode as much, and only when I need to. I also need to breathe better.

Anyway, my plan is to learn the concepts of fighting while I am young by using my superior agility and flexibility, and my insane speed (I think I will rely on speed to be the deciding factor in my striking, of course not sacrificing power as much as possible, and heavens forbid, my technique) to make things work until I understand how my opponents behave. Then, I will slowly weather it down, and begin relying on my superior timing, positioning, technique, and good rooting instead of crazy speed and mobility as I get older. I think that'll do it. But the ideas of range, accuracy, timing, rhythm, etc. don't change as I get old. Only how I master them do.

2015/10/05: Testing it Out, Speed, It Kicked, Hane Goshi, All the Same Thing

So, after a pretty demoralizing weekend (which was more of a downward spiral, luckily I had a fun time playing Munchkins with some drunk friends), I was right back to it at the Academy at noon. I got paired up with a black belt, which was AWESOME he taught me so much, and I learned a lot moving with him. I'll admit I could be less panicky at the bottom, but give me a break, I'm getting punched! I'm learning how to take a hit and make it hurt less, but next time I'll really try to work on shedding, even from the bottom. Oh, and escaping an armbar when they can punch you is really hard. (But if they're punching you, they can't finish the armbar...)

"Just keep on going." Said the black belt. "See you at 30."
And you will. Thanks for inspiring me.

I tried out some of the standup stuff I'd been practicing, and I surprised myself. The double jab is literally the greatest thing ever. Probably because no one knows how to defend it, but I'm kind of an ass and I go high-low, or I'll shoot my first jab at whatever, and the second at whatever they decide not to block. So it's kind of a guaranteed hit. The only real thing they can do is space better, but I was controlling the space so...

I was going with that one dude with the slicked hair (I think I made him upset :( ), and he was driving me back, and then I had this epiphany that he was eating up a lot of my space, and then I started sidestepping. And that's when it started going downhill for him, very much. All the footwork (well, not all of it, but a lot of it that I practiced) started just happening! I was changing leads, shifting, cutting angles and stuff, and I was getting hit after hit after hit on him. Of course, I did it light, but it was so cool! This guy threw a punch at me and I held the shield up and sidestepped (though it missed me completely) and then I turned and threw a left rear straight (by sidestepping I switched leads), and it was dope.

I also discovered that, even though I knew I trained my speed a lot, I never actually knew how fast I was. Holy crap, I am fast. I can move fast, I can shuffle fast, and my hand gets from my guard to his face...very, very fast. A couple times, I was able to throw the punch, have it get within a centimeter of his face, and pull it back, all before he could react. Holy crap. The wrist torque on the other side helps a lot, but that is some crazy speed. I will try not to abuse it though and train technique instead, because with age I will lose my speed.

The craziest thing that happened though was there was a moment where he just randomly decided to come at me, and, without permission or any command from my brain whatsoever, my foot instinctively sprung off the ground, proper technique and everything, and did a roundhouse. Now, if he hadn't changed levels and tried to shoot, it would've hit him in the ribs, which he probably would've blocked. But because he changed levels, it was going to hit him in the face. HARD. But good thing he blocked, and left a dent in my foot, but yeah....I now know what they meant in Longstreet, when he said, "...like I didn't kick...it kicked." I seek this feeling for all of my moves. Wow.

Anyway, at night, we went to judo, where we just went over all of the throws. I will admit I need to start connecting centers mentally (I am doing it very physically) before I try to throw him, but aside from that it went pretty well.

The sensei decided to teach me Hane Goshi, and I think I might have scared him with my intense concentration when I set about learning it, but after a couple tries, I was able to do it! He came right off of the ground! It's such an awesome throw! Now I just want him to teach me Uchi Mata lol.

I'm noticing more and more that all of these throws are the exact same thing, it's just that the hand positioning or the body positioning is slightly different. But in terms of principles, it's more or less...all the same thing.

2015/10/04: Setting Schedules, General Ramblings

So recently I have realized that I am doing a whole lot of nothing haha. I don't feel like I am really learning anything - I tell myself that I am going to learn some things, and then I don't because I'll have one of those "oh it's too much for this current moment of time" sort of a things.

So I've decided to set a schedule that I will follow, and I will begin by going whatever what I am going to do next Friday or next time I see Chris.

• Wrestling: I am going to go over the Double Leg, High C to Double Leg (American), Low Single, High Single Entrance.
• Greco: Pummel practice, review last week's stuff, and do 2-3 more takedowns
• Practice the GracieUniversity stuff, probably going to do Back Defense
• Striking: Muay Thai kick defense, footwork sparring, general bag work, other Kung Fu stuff I want to try.

That should be a good amount of stuff to practice there. On my own, however, I want to:

• Practice my Wing Chun and Tai Chi (Yang style, long) forms
• Practice my strikes (on both sides; jab, rear straight, hooks, uppercuts, overhands...?, hammers, straight kick, roundhouse kick, stomp, and their equivalents with elbows and knees)
• Practice my footwork (best with relation to my strikes)
• Shadowbox
• Study Baguazhang
• Work on my takedowns and clinch fighting
• Master energy
• Combinations

So for this week, I am going to practice Siu Nim Tau at least 2-5 times a day, and learn the first section of Chum Kiu...? I mean it's not 100% necessary that I learn Chum Kiu, but practicing Siu Nim Tau is important. Also, I'm going to learn the first section of the Yang style long form.

On days with more time, I will practice my footwork, and my strikes/combinations, doing everything 20 times each on both sides. (I will choose 20-30 combinations/strikes to practice)

Move from my center - always!

So now that that's out of the way, I'm going to talk about my afternoon training session yesterday, at Scott's house. It began with a lot of just playing around with my strikes, and trying to refine them. Then Scotty came upstairs and held the bag while I hit it. I noticed that when I hit things, my hands tend to drop. So I am going to work on that a lot more.

I was getting good power though, I was knocking him backwards on a lot of things, and I could really feel how my energy was impacting him. I just need to move from my center more and not get so fixated on hitting the object; it's okay to miss!

2015/10/03: Commitment, "Use Technique"

Saturday morning class. I have such a hard time getting up; I'm still recovering a bit from chronic fatigue. I'm half asleep during the technique phase (and apparently I grabbed the unwashed gi too on accident, wow that's embarrassing), but I still managed to pull through it.

Anyway, I roll with this brown belt guy, and I'm trying to get him to armbar me because I watched a bunch of videos on armbar escapes last night. So he finally does it towards the end of the round, and I use Keenan's grab your hamstring method, and it worked! He couldn't tap me, and I was then fighting to shove his leg under mine. But then the buzzer rang. Whatever.

Then, as customary when I roll with anyone who has 2 stripes or more on their blue belt or is a higher belt, I asked him for advice.

"Use technique," he said. "You're too wild."

............I lay there and didn't do anything and just defended. I barely moved. And I thought I was using technique, and it really felt like I did, but apparently not. So here is where the awkward part is, because I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or not.

1. Because I have better body use than most people, it may feel like I'm brute forcing a lot of things. Very possible.
2. Because I am a relatively new blue belt, and have only been sparring for 10 months, it probably feel like jello to him
3. !?!?!?!?!?
4. I actually am not using technique.

And I have no idea which one of the four it is...

Anyway, I rolled with some other much nicer people, one of which told me the following:
"When you do a move, either do 100% or don't do." He said with an accent.

Thanks man. I'm going to think about that and do that. I totally agree. No more half assey moves.

Also, there was another brown belt (a much nicer one), who worked with me on my armbar escapes, and here's what I learned:

• If they lock up on you, they are very tippable with the leg swing; go in the direction that is opposite of the arm they are hooking you with
• If they are uncrossed, you can use your safe elbow to wedge their south leg
• When you hitchhiker, really elevate your shoulder on the same side and shoot for 90 degrees
• Mixups!

2015/09/29: The Replacement Step, "Drop Kicking," Footwork

It's so interesting for me to see what everyone says about footwork, and how convinced they all are of how right they are. I think at the end of the day, I've realized that everyone's footwork is catered to what they want to do. The EnterShaolin guys and Bruce Lee want their lead leg to be able to be lifted to kick, and also they want to "hide" their weight so that it cannot be exploited, so they keep their weight back. The EnterShaolin guys advocate a 10/90 cat stance, while Bruce Lee favors a more traditional Wing Chun 30/70 or 35/65 stance.

Lyoto Machida favors a 50/50 stance because it is a compromise. Jack Dempsey favors 80/20 in the lead leg to use the drop step, but there is little resistance to pulls. However, that wasn't really something you had to worry about in boxing. So the forward weight is really good for aggressiveness, and the backward weight is really good for defensiveness. Weight on the heels is good for rooting and power, weight on the toes is great for mobility and evasion. Phu's idea of an Anchor leg and Weight leg is interesting in non-symmetric distributions, however in a horse stance, both legs are both things I guess.

Anyway, I've been thinking about a move called the replacement step. (JKD Rocker shuffle?) It is somewhat athletic in its execution, but not that much. Suppose I want to launch a kick with my forward leg, but all of my weight is in my front leg. I cannot lift that front leg unless I shift my weight elsewhere. So what I will do is use the bound spring principle to lift my front leg, be temporarily falling, and my back leg will land exactly where my front leg was, and since my center of gravity did not move, I should still be in the same place in balance, with my lead leg in the air. This can be used backwards to resist sudden pushes as well. The key is to not move the center of gravity, but only the legs until they are set. THEN you can do body shift or whatnot to attack/defend.

A "drop kick" is a maneuver I made up based on the falling step for punching, but with the legs. It is a VERY low line attack, usually for knees or below, (usually shins, insteps, ankles, toes). The idea is you load the front leg...and then you pick it up, just like you would for a punch, but you just drop all that weight into whatever it is you're attacking with your foot. Cutting shin slides seem good. I'm pretty flexible so I could do this to the side of their knees...

2015/09/28: A Lot of Pain, Rooting, Different Uses

Today was...a lot of pain. But also a lot of hard earned lessons. So, to start off, I went to the Academy and we did a lot of double underhook pass prevention, which was cool. I need to practice my left backroll apparently haha. Sparring was pretty fun, I can definitely tell I got a lot better because I have absolutely no problem manhandling people that are my weight. It's nice that I always spar against people heavier than me, because lighter people are not much of a challenge. Except Adrian that kid is squirmy LOL.

Sparred with Rashid, the dude who almost ripped my shoulder off. Learned some valuable lessons; need to find better ways to tie their arms up and rest. Though I took the hits okay.

Anyway, Judo was the interesting part. I pushed myself to do the class even though I was somewhat tired and my body was somewhat complaining. But I got through it. Got thrown a LOT haha, a couple times on my right side, which I wasn't used to.

So then during the throw-everyone-in-your-group-5-times drill, there was this short blue belt girl (who's kinda cute...LOL not gonna do anything though), and she had to throw me 5 times. And because she was so short, when she threw me, I wasn't very high off of the ground. Which meant not a lot of time to flip over...and WHAM. Landed right on my kidney. The part that fucking hurts haha. At least I'll get better at ukemi.

Then, during sparring, I got Uchi Mata'd in the balls. They actually had to do the resuscitation on me LOL. Also, same guy kneed me in the jaw, but I think that'll be okay. The side of my head slightly hurts, but I can think just fine so it's all good.

I held him (200+ lb black belt!) in Kesa Gatame and he couldn't get out! HE COULDN'T GET OUT! :O Also he had a hard time getting out of my Kami Shiho Gatame. He had to brute force it haha.

Anyway, so what I discovered sparring with Yuki Sensei was that so long as I rooted, he couldn't sweep either of my feet off of the ground. But what stability cost me was mobility. If I wanted to attack, I had to become either light, or dump all of my weight into one foot so that at least part of me was light. However, keeping all of my weight over my OWN base, and not trusting him with any of it was the best result. He's not really letting me anymore, so it was hard for me to get him, but I will steal his circling tactics. He circles away from the side (complete the circle) of my lead leg (or attacking leg), so it is really hard for me to make an attack. Angles, angles, angles!

Tip: When doing Ippon Seoi Nages, or any hip throw in general, turn your head in the direction of your throw. I'm guessing this is for spinal alignment reasons. Also, high collar grab and pull the slack out! You know why though.

So I guess it has become this game of knowing when to use what. Which makes a lot of sense. Be able to adapt your tools to the situation.

I lost my "move from your center" wristband today, so I'll have to work on that. The few times I did though, a TON of effortless power. I'll try being more loose.

2015/09/27: Baguazhang

I've been playing around with Baguazhang. I decided to learn Circle Walking and the first set, and so far it's been pretty interesting. The movements seem quite cool, I'm working on reading the classics. Moving from my center is going well. The hand movements are a bit confusing (as is with any form), but I am managing. The idea of evasion is so amazing...but so difficult.

2015/09/26: Ego, Internal Power, The "New" Strategy

I got up this morning to go to class at the Gracie Academy. It's been a while since I've done the Saturday class since I suck at getting up, but since I've been on a schedule that prioritizes getting up early because of school, it wasn't too terribly difficult.

So I'm doing great during the technique portion in the class...as usual...I have little to no difficulty learning the moves. My kinesthetic learning ability is pretty good, considering I spent years of my life working exclusively on that.

But then we get to the sparring...and we were doing this drill where one person gets a cross grip on someone, and then the goal is for the cross gripper to sweep the other guy or take his back. (Roleto vs Saulo comes to mind) The first round with Nick was pretty cool, I couldn't sweep him, I just went back to guard and then we played around for a bit until he passed, and then I defended for a very long time. He ended up catching me, but whatever.

Then I went with a two-stripe blue belt, but I couldn't do anything to him. Probably because my style is very reliant on the other person's energy, otherwise I just stay there and wait because I'm in a chill position. But he wouldn't let me do anything to him, he just lay there, and then really exerted himself later on. I don't know why, but I felt myself start to get angry. Whether it was because I wanted to spar, but didn't get to, because he kept wanting to do that little drill over and over again, or whether it was because I couldn't sweep him, I don't know. But I was legitimately starting to get a little upset, and I knew, in my head, that this was bad and that I had to let it go, and I kind of did, but meh...I guess not every round can be as insightful as I'd like it to be.

Then I went with this other guy who was oodles of fun, so I guess that makes up for it. But I wish I didn't have such a big ego. I wish I didn't hate losing so much. At least I learn a lot from it.

So I went to Scott's house, after reading about Jing yesterday, and tried a lot of it, mainly just Fa Jing for now. Or straight up explosive force, but I'm keeping it very light and very flowy since I don't want to hurt myself, and I'm keeping my body as loose as possible. It's pretty cool, I can really feel my qi, whether it's visualization or not, I can really see the change in power. I move from my center, the six harmonies align, and I launch the power out of me, leaving none of it in my body. I actually knocked the punching bag down from the ceiling when I was practicing body up...

So that's cool. I practiced all my boxing combos smooth and relaxed, like a Taiji form, and let my qi flow, which was cool. I felt way better after. Moving from my center. That's key! In fact, I got a wristband to remind myself to move from the center on a daily basis, all the time.

Anyway, the new strategy is to train both leads, and get equally good on both leads. That way, I can switch to Southpaw and not worry about it, and this will save me significant need to move, so I won't need to be as mobile.

2015/09/24: Chinese Boxing, Confusion (and lots of it)

I am a Taiwanese man. I mean technically we are the true China (since we brought all of the Cultural practices and relics with us when we fled, and the communists destroyed all of it), but since they want to be called China, then I guess we'll keep calling ourselves Taiwanese.

Regardless of that, my roots are still Chinese. My ancestors (most, some were aboriginies I think) crossed the Taiwan Strait from Fujian during the Qing Dynasty in the late 1600's/early 1700's. In fact, I come from a line of scholars who directly served the Emperor. (On my mother's side)

I love my rich heritage and its over 4,000 years of history. I love everything Asian. I am proud to be Asian, never once in my entire life have I ever wished that I was white. I love being Chinese. (As in Republic of China, not the People's Republic of China)

Yet in the eyes of the entire world, we are viewed as the sick men of Asia, in almost every respect. And in almost every respect, we are shunned, discriminated against, and called bullshitters and liars - particularly in the Martial Arts world.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a lot of it is bullshit, but I think it's more that 1)all of the masters died during the Boxer Rebellion and the Communist Revolution, 2)more people are getting better at fighting; the average skill level has improved significantly with Bruce Lee's movies in the 1970's that sparked the Kung Fu craze, 3)styles are starting to mix because of globalization, 4)the traditional idea that the Master should always hold something back, and finally 5), the lack of modernization.

These styles of Martial Arts have existed thousands of years, so I'm sure their methodologies must work. I want to learn something that is authentically Chinese and make it work. Now I know I've said a lot about not being a style, and I never really got to clarify on that. It might seem like I am contradicting myself, but there are inherent differences in Western and Eastern fighting, particularly in that of the methodologies. We all punch kick and grapple, but the ideas that govern it are slightly different, as well as the body mechanics. Westerners like to rely on muscle, whereas Easterners like to use as little muscle as possible.

I want a template, however, that is authentically Chinese, and I want to use it to grow myself and develop that individual style that I have always talked about. But just like how I am a Chinese/Taiwanese man, the style that manifests in me should end up being a Chinese/Taiwanese thing. And it probably will be, regardless of what I learn, but I want the reassurance lol. I want so badly to show people that we can fight too, that we are not the sick men of Asia.

There is a longstanding prejudice against the Chinese, subtle and unseen, that I have felt my entire life. It's still there. America didn't stop its racism. It just stopped talking about it. And I want to change that, in one small way or another.

Now, onto confusion. Remember when I said that I wanted a simple answer and simple theories that would just explain everything? Well, for some reason I searched for it again. And I just ended up more confused than I ever had been before.

Which is usually what happens.

2015/09/22: Perception, Wing Chun, "Surprised," Homework for the Week

Today I went for a walk with an old mentor of mine (in music, particularly Trumpet and Piano), Jesse. And as we walked, he was pointing out things that I either noticed or did not pay attention to, or did not notice at all. The entire time, he was carrying out a conversation with. So either one of two things was going on; either he was barely paying attention to the conversation and his mind was all over the place, or he just has such an acute passive awareness that he registers literally EVERYTHING.

I'm quite certain it was the second, since he was carrying out a conversation with me the whole time. Interesting. I am certain it was part of his art training, but I am starting to understand why samurai were so obsessed with art. And many other martial artists, for that matter.

Also, Nathan, a guy from my Judo Club, asked me if I wanted to train Wing Chun under one of the other guys in the Club, named Peter. I said sure, and made some adjustments in my schedule to check it out, and I am so glad that I did. I have not felt a Pak Sau with full body power like that in years. He had me do a lot of drills right leg forward, which I wasn't used to (WHICH IS GOOD, IMPROVEMENT! :D), but I was starting to get back into the groove. My sensitivity is all still there; I actually accidentally hit my training partner in the face a couple times because his hand left the centerline and I felt kind of bad lol. The sifu told me it was okay though. (He was a student of Hawkins for who knows how long)

But man, this guy is the real deal, I can tell just by the way he moves and the ideas he was throwing around. He is trying to teach us old man's Wing Chun, which is very contradictory to the use your structure and run them the hell over approach I learned, or my current boxing style, which is still quite economical, but uses SOME muscle (that I am trying to replace with internal power). The style of Wing Chun I am being taught however, uses almost exclusively the other guy's power, as well as dead weight. It's quite impressive.

After that I gunned it to the Gracie Academy, and thankfully I was only like 15 or so minutes late. We reviewed the guard stuff that we did yesterday, so that was all good. Sparring rounds were good too.

Then I rolled with Jordan, the instructor/black belt, for the first time, and that was such an awesome experience! Right off the bat he wipes some sweat off of his forehead and uses that as a disguise to try to shoot a cross-collar choke LOL. Luckily the sensitivity I developed from Wing Chun saved me and I got the frame in in time. In fact, he couldn't get a cross-collar choke on me! Obviously he wasn't trying as hard as he could, but he did shoot pretty fast - yet I defended just as fast.

He caught me in an armbar that he let me escape from, as well as a SICK triangle that he got off of an attempted guard pass (from a kind of Kuzure Yoko Shiho Gatame position) where he faked a rollaway and then came back and triangled me.

What was really surprising to both of us, however, was how comfortable I felt at the bottom of the mount. To me it's kind of like, "whatever, I know what you're going to do, and I know how to stop it, so let's see if I can do it." I don't freak out.

Jordan was surprised too, and was impressed with my defense. So we are making progress :D. Also,

"If you want to go for a submission, always go for a different one first." Truer words have never been spoken.

Though I won't really be going for many submissions in the next 6-10 years unless someone decides to haphazardly fall into one.

So my homework for the week:

• Jiu-Jitsu: Play Guard! We are now on guard chapter, be on both sides of it, there is plenty of defense to be learned on both sides.
• Judo: Fundamental movements, controlling their body. Forget the throw, I can't throw them if I can't control them. If they throw themselves, however, I'm all for that.
• Wing Chun: Work on my Southpaw stance, and the weight on the REAR leg. That's new for me since I rely on the trigger step a lot. And if their weight is in that leg, they can't kick!
• Boxing (not really boxing), work on my combos: Double jab, 1-2, Hook off jab, straight right to body off jab, jab uppercut, alternate hooks, uppercut hook, double uppers, 1-2-lead hook, 1-2-1, left jab-hook to right, triple jab, DOUBLE SHIFT, Fitzsimmons shift on both sides
• Footwork: Two styles; light and weighted (and practice in between stuff, as long as I have control) Practice forward, backward, circling, sidestepping, cutting, shifting, drop stepping, and whatever other footwork stuff you have on BOTH SIDES.
• Defense: Practice wedges, as well as all of your covers and guards

I think that's enough to keep me occupied for a while.

2015/09/21: Footwork, Shifting, Defense, Same Things

I've been studying a lot of footwork lately. Jeet Kune Do footwork, Boxing footwork, Kickboxing footwork, Muay Thai footwork, the footwork of countless styles, analyzing how they use the positioning of their feet to put them in the perfect place for what they want to do. By dissecting these strategies, I can develop footwork that would work for me.

I have made the decision to not only use the orthodox stance, but spend a lot of time working on my Southpaw stance. I must be able to easily go back and forth between both, and be able to shift between them to confuse my opponent, because I discovered that when I slipped to the left, instead of wasting time doing a pivot and then striking, if I shifted I could attack right away.

"Never cross your feet."

That is one of the first things told to any boxer. Yet, as I was practicing the Tai Chi 24-form 5 years ago, I couldn't help think to myself...why do I keep crossing my feet? Are these inherently different? Does Tai Chi not work? Because boxers claim that anyone who crosses their feet is really easy to off-balance, and it is not hard to see that that is scientifically sound.

HOWEVER...

Recently I've been studying boxing, and it turns out that most people these days forgot about a thing known as shifting, which is...you guessed it! Where you cross your feet and switch leads. Oh yeah, what does the Fitzsimmons Shift remind me of? Brush knee and twist step/brush knee and step forward! It's almost the same move! The footwork for Dempsey's Double Shift can be found in Parting the Horse's Mane. It's so crazy how people think what they are doing is very different...but they're actually doing just about the same thing.

But there's that part of me that loves Chinese culture and wants to do it anyway just because it's Chinese.

I've also been working on my defense a lot. Even though Dempsey says I need to not get a defense complex, I need to make sure that I am invincible before I attempt the shutdown strategies that he wants me to employ.

So...

1. Learn to cover. Front covers, side covers, low covers...helmet, DRACULA, X-block, Diagonal block (Philly Shell?), Peek-a-boo (not the gloved version, the naked version which is more of a double dracula), leg checks, etc. Going to explore Karate/Kung Fu blocks
2. Once we get that down, we're doing to move on to deflection. I seem to be very good at catching hands since I'm RIDICULOUSLY fast, but the day will come when I slow down and I must rely on pre-emption to do deflections, or just cover, charge in for a bridge, and then play Chi Sau.
3. If we see it coming, we can slip/bob+weave. Or just use footwork to evade.
4. And best of all, we throw a counterpunch to stop the move from even happening.

2015/09/19: More or Less the Same Thing

For some strange reasons, humans have this weird tendency to want to compartmentalize and organize everything into distinct categories. Look at races! And within those races we have countries...and then people are further divided by State/Province, City, Neighborhood... Everything is organized for the human being.

The most important thing to realize, however, is that at the end of the day, all of those "organized" things are more or less the same thing. A Boxer's jab, a Tai Chi lead straight, the Hung Gar lead, the Muay Thai lead, the Savate Fighter's lead, and just about every other lead you can think of...is simply the lead hand launching forward to hit the other person. The boxer's right cover, the Hung Gar "throw the powder" motion, the Muay Thai high block...all of that stuff is more or less the same motion, with slightly different details/methodologies, but they all do more or less the same thing.

Too often, however, we get so caught up in the names, too caught up in the names of the techniques, that we forget that most of these moves are the same thing, and, more importantly, that at the end of the day, there is a human being that must execute these moves. So instead of stressing about what style it came from, and which one is superior, why not just focus on what makes the move work? Why not focus on the mechanics so you can take it and adapt it to your own style? Not the style you study, but your style? That that is uniquely your own?

"I cannot teach you, only help you to explore yourself. Nothing more."
-Bruce Lee

Everyone wants someone that can tell them the ultimate answer that will solve all of their problems. Me more than anyone else. But what I am realizing more than anything is that, no matter how much knowledge I have, if I have no idea how to make it functionally work (with practice and personal tweaking), it's useless. "Styles," to me, are just training regiments that give you some basic tools and principles and attempt to instill the understanding of fighting, as a template, for you to go out and paint your own picture.

So you must do more or less the same thing that everyone else is doing, but you almost must do it in a way that is uniquely your own, and no one else's. Huh. Sounds weird dunnit?

2015/09/17: The Fundamental Motions (Or...some of them)

So in my attempt to abstract Martial Arts (lol, math joke), I discovered that there were some motions that I could apply to almost any technique to improve it. Though I still have a long ways to go at this, I can now analyze a move, identify the key parts and how it works physically, and then learn it super quickly. Usually, a lot of those key parts involves these motions, and I will share a few of them with you now. [Standing motions there are a lot on the ground]

1. THE FALLING STEP (As described by Jack Dempsey)

I see this taught from weight evenly distributed on both heels, but Dempsey wanted nearly all of your weight to be on the forward foot. What you are doing is placing your center of gravity almost entirely over your lead foot, so that lifting your lead foot (with no weight shift beforehand) will inevitably result in you falling, resulting in a really awkward forward lurch, only to have the foot you lifted catch yourself. This move does not telegraph (because gravity is constant) and you can generate explosive amounts of force. Then you pull your back foot up.

I use this move for nearly every strike/kick that I do, particularly if I want downward momentum. And I especially do this for a lot of takedowns (that require only downward momentum). In Judo, I primarily use it to generate momentum to twist someone sideways.

2. THE FULL BODY TWIST (Shoulder whirl, Spin the wheel/Draw the bow, etc)

A lot of people in the martial arts talk about how all of the power comes from the hips. Well I'm here to rain on your parade and say that it doesn't. Don't get me wrong, your hips do swing when you do the full body twist, but because people emphasize the hip swing, they often do it too much, and they spin too much, sending all of their energy off to the side as opposed to directly into your opponent.

Imagine your entire being focused at one point two inches below your navel. Then, spin that point. You could add in some hand motions, blah blah blah, but that is the essence of it. Jack Dempsey just says to very violently hurl your shoulders. It gets the same thing done. Though Dempsey's has a bit of a whipping motion to it.

3. WEIGHT SHIFT

A lot of people are surprisingly bad at this. Done explosively, this can generate a lot of power. Here's all you have to do. Put your weight on one leg. Make sure that you put so much weight on it that, without any shifting, you can lift your other leg. Then shift your weight to your other leg and do the same thing. Wow.

4. THE "BOUNCE"

This one is kind of hard. You rely on the elastic properties of your fasciae to accomplish this; by suddenly dropping all of your weight down, your fasciae stores energy, and, combined with the ground pushing you back and your muscles activating, you get a LOT of energy. This CANNOT be done slow.

5. WAVE MOTIONS

This...is really hard to describe, but basically whatever motion you get, you let it travel through your body and have it exit in some other way. This is great for shedding impacts, or for using some strong part of your body to do an action for a weak part.

Then you can combine these and you get all sorts of neat things like corkscrewing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MixZSs9FnhA

Read the description

2015/09/17: The Art of Dying, Judo, Footwork

The background on my laptop is a picture of Bruce Lee. And it has been that way ever since the day I purchased this laptop. I have never changed it.

Even though a lot of people talk about Bruce Lee this, Bruce Lee that, and how he started a lot of things, how he revolutionized a lot of things, what I love the most about Bruce Lee is the ideas that he left behind. Here is one of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGJPF1c2GHE

"Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win, but never to accept the way to lose - to accept defeat. To learn to die is to be liberated from it. So when tomorrow comes you must free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying!"
-Bruce Lee (in case you didn't want to watch the video)

I was talking to Chris about why he was tired, and we were talking about his diet, and he mentioned going really hard at Jiu-Jitsu practice. I thought of this quote, and all of a sudden, there was newfound significance to it. I had only thought about it in terms of actual life-and-death confrontation - if I accept defeat, that I will die, then to hell with it I'll take this guy down with me. And 90% of the time the other guy is not willing to pay the price to kill you and he will back off after realizing how much damage he is about to suffer.

But this applies during practice too. If I learn how to lose, how to accept, to "die" during practice, I will not waste all of my energy and power attempting to apply a bad technique that has no mechanical advantage (not that Chris does, but sometimes I find myself guilty of this, though not so much anymore). If I don't feel the mechanical advantage I have by having better technique, then to hell with it, I deserve to be submitted/choked out/armbarred/whatever have you! If that guy's technique is better than mine, assuming he is bigger, faster, stronger, then what chance do I have? No, I will let him tap me out, learn where my technique is flawed, and then continue, and beat him with technique! But I was so concerned about winning, this would be impossible. By accepting the loss, I am liberated from it - because first of all, I no longer see it as a loss, rather as a learning opportunity, and second, I am slightly more liberated from the next time someone attempts to do whatever move I just was tapped to - because there is one less mistake I will make!

Bruce Lee will appear in many of my posts, since I am of the belief that every single onscreen appearance of his that he left behind was in some way meant to be some sort of lesson to the Martial Arts practitioner. Look at Game of Death - notice how the highest level, which had Kareem Abdul Jabbar's character - didn't have a style! Kareem didn't have a style, the style of no style was the highest obstacle to overcome! (This was a central idea that Bruce seemed to advocate)

Judo practice was awesome today. I learned so much! I'll just list all of the specific things, and then I will go into the deeper concepts.

Today began with some combos:

OUCHI GARI to KOSOTO GARI

• You must really attempt the Ouchi Gari
• The defense for the Ouchi is that he must first untangle the leg from yours, and then he must place weight on it, as if he does not you will just Ouchi him again
• By pushing towards the same side shoulder as the leg you are sweeping, you attempt the cut his base out from under him and then drive his center of mass in that direction
• By forcing him to step back, his weight is now over the foot that you attempted the Ouchi on
• So his other leg must be light, hence allowing the Kosoto
• Instead of halting your forward motion and turning sideways, almost spiral/turn it over to travel in the direction of his other leg (the one that you just swept). Continuous motion!
• Since you have very little base after attempt the Ouchi, all of the momentum for the Kosoto must come from the original Ouchi momentum or the hopping momentum

OUCHI GARI to TAI OTOSHI

• By driving his weight backward, after he regains his base, he will undoubtedly attempt to drive back into you to stop your forward drive
• So help him out and pull him into you for the Tai Otoshi (thanks Sensei! :D)
• You must really lift him up

OUCHI GARI to MOROTE SEOI NAGE (though I'm doing Ippon instead)

• Ippon Seoi Nage is slightly slower, but Morote just doesn't work for my shoulder/elbow it's too weird lol
• Same principle as the Tai Otoshi

OUCHI GARI to UCHI MATA (I suck at Uchi Mata so not going to elaborate)

OSOTO GARI to SOME WEIRD SWEEP THAT WENT UNNAMED

• They resist your forward momentum somehow, usually because the leg you are attempting to sweep is still under them, or the other foot is planted behind them for base
• Cut the corner, use their forward momentum and spiral it into the same direction you were originally going, and use the non-osoto foot to cut their other foot
• This is so cool; my partner (sensei) showed me to use the spiraling motion, and this fits in with everything Phu Ngo talks about, which I totally agree with since it's helped so much (will elaborate in later posts)
• Moving the body as a coherent unit at the hips and mental+physical connection to the uke is key
• Bodyweight in motion is important

OSOTO GARI to HARAI GOSHI

• I have a hard time with Harai Goshi, but sensei made it really easy. That guy is such a baller.
• So you attempt the Osoto with your back foot not right next to theirs, but a little farther back, but it's not working for some reason; they are resisting forward
• So you turn sideways to them, hop your back foot right between their's and Harai Goshi
• Key is full body contact, and to enter with an upright posture, the more contact, the better
• Throw them as a part of you
• Hand up high for max leverage
• Point your toes!
• Use the momentum of the entry and spiral it into the throw (this is haaaaaaaaaaaard)

Cool, so got that out of the way. On a different note, the partner that I was working with, he was incredible; everything he was doing just made me feel so off balance all the time. His kuzushi is remarkable. I want to do that to people. He told me the key was wrist motion, and push/pull in the right directions.

So I went into randori thinking I'd work on the following things:

• Movement using the "fundamental motions" as I so call them (I have a theory)
• Attacking along the stance's weak line
• Taking the fall so I get better at ukemi

That was it. Everything else I worked on kind of subconsciously, without real conscious effort.

So my first randori round was with the guy that I talked to when I expressed interest in joining the club, and also the same guy who showed me the ropes of judo (whose name coincidentally was also Ray; funny story, I learned the throws on my own through YouTube, and the first time I demonstrated it to him, he said it was near perfect! LOL. But I still need the sparring experience, the little details, and the kinks to truly make it work) I just tried to move him around, and it worked! I even lifted him completely off of the ground a few times! Not that that was enough to throw him (well...it was a couple times, but you can tell he was letting me, his defense was really solid), but still, I could move him around! Except he took advantage of it a few times so I'd have to work that out. We had a super leg sweep duel, and it was really funny; he caught me with some lightning fast Ouchis and De-Ashi-Harais and send me tunneling down to the floor. He even tied up my arms and threw me with Tsurikomi Goshi.

The next round was with one of the green belts, he was pretty cool. I just tried to move him, and I could! A lot! But he took advantage of my momentum a couple times, and I was not committed enough. So he threw me. A lot. At least my ukemi is getting better LOL.

Then I went with the guy that Ray said might have been a fake black belt, or bought his black belt or whatever. I had some fun though. I threw him a couple times and successfully defended all of his throws XD. Not that that means anything to me, in fact, I'm kind of sad because I didn't get to practice my ukemi, and I didn't get to steal whatever move he did to me. (The same cannot be said for my other two sparring partners LOL) But man, the fundamental motions sent this guy stumbling all over the mat, and I (in a not-so-pretty fashion) found a way to stop his legs from catching up to him a couple times.

Then we did newaza, which I won't really go into since I don't care much for pinning.

So, what did we learn today?

• That little wrist pop that you do to really hurt someone with a fook sau? That's the same motion you use to take all of the slack out of your grip and transfer your energy directly into the other guy. (THANKS SENSEI! :D Man with barely any strength he was twisting me up and stuff it was cool)
• It's all about controlling that upper square, and that is done through grip placement (collar grip not so high on the collar, since you want to be able to push their shoulder...or if you go high, pull them down!)
• Drop stepping is hard when someone is attacked to you; you must do collective drop stepping (which is risky, but really, really effective haha)
• The weight must be off of the leg you intend to sweep...and after you lift it up, you drive them in a downward arc towards whatever direction you wish for them to fall. Or...you must trap their leg in midair that is about to receive their weight. I know this already, but never hurts to reiterate.
• To successfully do a midair footsweep...you must know that that leg is about to move before it actually moves. Because everything else was too slow...or I could lift them up, sweep the foot, and after make contact, drop everything? Will experiment with Chris tomorrow.
• Moving from the hips is so good it's almost unfair
• Spin wheel/draw bow is a TON of power
• Spirals, spirals, spirals!
• Try circular motion instead of rectangular motion. Sensei Ray got me a couple times by getting me to circle to my left, and then doing an Ouchi because he knew I was going to post that foot...or else I'd fall!
• Enter throws where you intent to bend down nearly perfectly upright so that you have room to spring

There is a lesson for you to learn every day. Every single day. For me...there's usually like 50,000 LOL.

2015/09/16: Footwork, Awareness, Riding the Storm

I don't think I've ever talked about this, but I have a somewhat-plan for my Jiu-Jitsu journey. The plan was that I would focus most of my efforts on defending for the entirety of blue belt, then focus most of my effort on escapes for the entirety of purple belt, spend brown belt on reversals/control, and spend black belt on submissions. This will guarantee that I will be safe while I'm experimenting with whatever it is that I'm doing.

Developing my game so asymmetrically has actually been very interesting; though control feels a bit natural to me, I tend to lose my position when I do something stupid, but laying my body weight honestly is not that hard LOL. Anyway...

So today I let a brown belt knee-on-belly me, and he was one of the go-hard-or-go-home dudes; he was all over the place, moving really quickly, barely giving me a moment to blink. But I think he only caught me like twice. Because while he was doing all of his fancy knee-on-belly spins, I had my elbows pinched tight to my body, knowing that so long as he did not separate my elbows from my body, he could not submit me. (Unless he did a collar choke, but he can't collar choke me when his hands are posted for base so he could do his fancy spin moves) So I just waited, and waited, recovered half guard a couple times but I have no idea what to do from there so I eventually lost it...

But that was a victory for me. Being submitted less and less is good. He showed me his cool armlock where he used his knee to subtly wedge my elbow away from my body, but I was so focused on the storm going on above my head that I did not notice. Asking people how you got caught is one of the most important things you can do in my opinion.

Also I went with the other brown belt, Greg, and that was fun; I need to find a way to not get my hand trapped under me after the run from one side mount through North-South to side mount on the other side though. And I need to not try to roll them off when they go for Ezekiels. Aside from that, I survived, which was what I wanted.

All of it is just awareness. If you are aware of the possible dangers (which comes from learning the moves and what is necessary), then you know what you are in danger of and what you are not. So long as you recognize what the key elements are, no matter how crazy the picture looks, so long as the key elements aren't there, you are safe. A gangbanger can flail his arms wildly at you, but so long as you are out of range and keep it that way, you are 100% safe.

On a different note, I've been studying standup lately, and it seems to me like it is just war of footwork. Will elaborate more later.

2015/09/15: No Secrets, A Lesson in Humility, General Ramblings

I was hanging out in the hallways of the Academy waiting for class to start, and I was talking to my buddy Shak, who was telling me about his broken rib and how he got it. Apparently he was at his Kyokushin school, and they were either sparring or having a tournament or something, but some world class competitor kicked him in the ribs and broke it. I was troubleshooting with him; I told him he should tuck his elbow tight, and he told me he was afraid of the high roundhouse. I told him about watching the subtle weight shift, and about watching the knee position to tell what kind of kick it was going to be. He told me it was too fast, but that he knew about such methods.

Huh. I guess there are no secrets in this world eh?

I used to have this weird notion, for whatever reason, that if I picked up some strange resource, and it gave me some weird information that worked, that I was the only person in the world that knew it. Well, not the only one in the world, but one of the few people that did. Maybe most of the people I talk to are knowledgeable, but then again, I neglect to realize that most people are also doing their homework, and looking at extra resources in order to get a leg up. Many other people may very well have the knowledge that I have. Boy, was that a lesson in humility.

Don't get it twisted, I know a LOT, but I don't know it all. I guess there is no substitute for experience...the true "secret" is just experience, experience, experience.

So a bit on sport fighting. So it's always been my belief that sport fighting is a lot of chess matchy feel each other out sort of stuff, whereas real confrontations are more sort of blitzkrieg all-out attacks that usually don't end very well. I've decided that I want to train for both, because movement is movement is movement, and the more movement I learn, the more I can adapt. Plus, what if that one day I encounter a situation that I was too dumb to talk myself out of, he's a sport fighter? He would know better than to engage in a full-on assault, I'll need a bit more. So my resolution is to learn street THEN sport, just like the way I'm taught at the Gracie Academy. There is one catch however.

I must continue training as though everyone will outweigh me, be faster, stronger, and have more endurance.

There is no possible way I could force the end of a sport fight, since people actually care about defense and do not needlessly overextend.

How, then, do I survive? (That is the goal, and it always will be)

Well, if they are not assaulting me, then there is absolutely nothing stopping me from running away. So I will probably just do that.

But let's be real...sport fighting is really fun ^^. So without further ado...

I cannot passively just sit there and defend, for that will allow them to play their game, and place me in traps that I do not wish to be in. But since I am physically in a pickle...

• Because they are stronger, I must apply force in a manner which does not contest their strength, or where I have a mechanical advantage to match their strength.
• Because they are faster, I must use significantly less motion to accomplish more, and I must act first.
• Because they have more endurance, I must use significantly less energy to accomplish the same if not more than them.

There is no possible way for me to best someone if their skill is identical to mine, therefore I must find ways to better them.

Well first, I must learn to be invincible. Which means that I must first learn the defense to everything, or create one. After I develop an intuitive pattern to defense (blocking), we progress to deflection. I learn to how to steer attacks away from me. Then, I progress to evasion, before finally preemption.

Because I do not have superior physical attributes, I must learn to deal with strikers without ever lifting my foot past the waistline. So they will be going for head kicks but I will not. That will be interesting...

I must develop a strategy that involves putting pressure on my opponent without needlessly opening myself. Since moving in first is a recipe for disaster against someone, I must invite their strike and take advantage of it, or create positions where only certain motions are feasible, and use that to take advantage of them. (Attack by Drawing)

I will ponder this more later, but for now I shall study the sport fighting systems a bit and see what they have to offer. Then I will make it work for me based on what I have studied.

A brief note about technique: I have previously stated that I believe principles to be superior, and I do, but in the sport fighting world, you need to have studied specific techniques due to the optimal nature of said moves. Since everyone is doing what is optimal, you too must be doing what is optimal. HOWEVER, you must be able to make adjustments, which is where principle comes in. So I guess think of technique as sort of a template for you to explore, not adhere to the letter. Though I don't think anyone does that. I still believe the whole goal of objective - example of method - principles - figure it out for yourself is better. It's just that with sport fighting you have to be a little more specific based on the rules and common behaviors.

2015/09/14: Some Lessons in Jiu-Jitsu and Judo (and...Boxing?), and an Introduction

Hello world! My name is Raymond Oliver Chou, and I have decided to, instead of keeping a private journal with all of my martial arts/self defense (the two are very different things, but I study them both), to create one and share it with the world, in hopes that some wandering soul out there will find watch my progress, find something interesting, and hopefully learn a thing or two. I will also have internal dialogues with myself with my theories at the time, but since I am still relatively a beginner, some of it will be inaccurate. Do not take what I say as gospel truth! I am still growing!

So a bit of background; I have always loved the martial arts, but it was not until very recently that I decided to learn self defense, mainly because there are some people I know that need it, but are not willing to invest money and/or time into it, so I have to do it for them and teach them in what limited time I have. I have been involved in some schoolyard scuffles since the age of 7, but that died down around high school, where there was only one serious altercation, and only one altercation after high school. Where I got knocked out.

I currently am a blue belt studying Jiu-Jitsu at the Gracie Headquarters in Torrance, California, and I am also a white belt (started like two months ago, but missed the last month due to intense fatigue and breathing issues) in Judo, with the Gardena Judo Club. I also have some experience learning some things from random people I've met, and I have read and practiced material from countless books, and am looking to apply it to my current training. The "styles" that I have studied informally (mainly by watching, reading, analyzing, talking to people who did, etc.) are Wing Chun, Boxing, Tai Chi, Hung Gar, Baguazhang, Shuai Jiao, Muay Thai, Pentjak Silat, Savate, Wrestling (if you count that), and numerous other ones that I can't name off the top of my head right now.

Now, I do not really believe in "style;" I believe that movement is movement, and that there are certain objectives that a body must achieve, and that is it. How you do that is unique to each individual, though there are certain templates that are useful, and certain rules and guidelines to adhere by, but at the end of the day, we cannot say that a certain movement belongs to a style. So I look at styles more like mentalities and training regiments than a way for a certain individual to fight. Instead of learning a style to be the style, I train it to see what it has to offer me, how it can develop my own "style," and use the free-sparring opportunities which are oh-so-priceless.

So I went to Jiu-Jitsu in the morning, and we did mainly North-South attacks as part of the Side Mount review focus we are on right now. Not going to go into that, that part is written down in my private journal.

I will, however, talk about the sparring, since many a lesson can be learned from that. The first person I went with was Chris. For some reason, whenever punches are introduced, the notion of "relaxation" immediately goes out the window for me. Normally, when at the bottom of the side mount, I'm 100% relaxed, patient, waiting for an opportunity to do an escape, and if that escape becomes too much effort, then I go back to safe hands. When there was punches, however, I was freaking out, and expending a lot more energy than I normally would have. So I guess I need to learn to recognize when I'm not getting the crap punched out of me and when I am haha. Guess that's what get-punched-in-the-face day is for.

I've been playing around with the idea of centerline control, always owning it, but I think today I took it a little too far, and I took some shots in the face. I am consistently owning the center; I was not hit with a single straight today. I was only hit by hooks, and uppercuts, and knees, and roundhouse kicks, and... ><. I still need to develop that part of the game, but a victory...the straight punch I now dominate! :D 

On a different note, I am also a bit scared to actually hit my training buddies because I have no idea how hard I actually hit, and I don't want to accidentally knock someone out by using proper body mechanics. I keep pulling punches and I know it's a terrible habit, but I don't want to hurt anyone...so this is why solo training is important...? Lol...? (1) On the heavy bag, I can usually make that thing hit the wall, so I'm not too sure. I tag people for fun though, but I don't let my weight drop.

So back to sparring; then I went with Mike, that was a fun roll. Got some takedowns. 'Twas nice. I'm actually working on how my takedown game is going; the gist of my takedown game can be summed up in one sentence: move his center/center of gravity/dan tien/one point/whatever you want to call it past his feet and keep it there. This is a lot harder than it sounds though, and right now I'm developing each tool I'd need to use to get there. I am of the opinion that so long as I do a little bit of this each time, in a couple years I'll be able to improvise takedowns and make them work on average people. Maybe the top top people I'd need to play the technique game, but hopefully I can get the principles based approach to work on them too. (2)

Then I went with Mike. Boy was that a fun roll, but I need to be less hyper on the bottom. Congrats to him on his stripe btw. In the beginning I did the centerline wedge [very Wing Chun-esque] and smashed through his defenses, got the collar-elbow tie that I wanted, and immediately Osoto-gari'd him. That was fun. I also tried a Sumi Gaeshi on him, but because I didn't want to hurt his head, I didn't do it very violently, so he spun out of it. Maybe next time I need to really extend that leg, even if I am going slow on it. If I point my toe and extend my leg as far as I can (and maybe closer to his knee than his upper thigh), maybe he won't be able to slip out.

Then I went with the other Mike, and here's where all of the lessons are learned. So this is the bodybuilder brown belt guy who outweighed me by a lot and probably has experience in other striking arts. I went in there with the mindset to survive. I am surprisingly more comfortable with punches to the head now.

First lesson: BITE DOWN ON YOUR MOUTHPIECE! I ate a very light right hook that kind of injured my jaw (it's clicking right now) all because it was hanging loose. Come on, Ray.

Second: Wonderful, you controlled the centerline during that engagement. Now start watching his hubs! Wasn't that the second tenet that you were supposed to adhere to? Well, let's be less hard on myself. My focus was on the centerline. And I think I have that down by now, my hands rarely left except to cover something that was about to get hit, and even then I kept them relatively in the center. I guess now I can work on pre-empting.

Third: Control the tempo! You were doing a great job of circling, but because he outskilled you and was more fit/strong, you played timidly. You let him fill up the beats. You must fill up the beats with your moves! You hit pretty hard too, man. Come on. (See previous issues about that)

Fourth: He's probably just as scared of getting hit by you as you are of getting hit by him.

Fifth: You really need to work on your sport footwork. Your footwork is mainly street fight now, and while that's great for surviving large bursts of energy, you need to adjust to the weight-on-the-toes, more lively style of fighting for now. Until you are comfortable in the sea, then we will slowly start to work back to the heels and root.

Good things: Excellent grounding when you did use it, and good drop steps. Still playing around with the full-body motions, probably should have went for that more. (Will talk about this in another post)

Bad things: Too hyper, not watching what I should have been watching. And that early sprawl though LOL.

Fixes: Going to focus on watching the opponent's hubs for a while before I return to my own motions.

Then, at night, I went to the Judo Club, where I watched an in-house tournament, which was pretty funny. Then the training began.

So a few fixes on my throws:

Osoto Gari: Drop step more. Also, forearm flush to the opponent's chest. (Take out the slack!) You are doing a good job of completing the circle with the pivot around the transverse plane, but make sure you spin him along the frontal plane as well. That's the only big fix really. Also more weight drop on the actual throw.

O Goshi: Let go of the lapel grip when you go in for the throw LOL. Try to use your bodyweight backwards to initiate the motion as well, and use bound-spring to get the upward momentum? Will play around with that and see how it goes.

Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi: The key is in how fast you set your own body weight into motion. Which means...drop step! (Even though that's probably not how they want you to do it lol, but I will experiment) Also, turn the square! (3)

Tai Otoshi: MAJOR MAJOR fixes. Turn the square, and get the little pop at the end! Lift them straight up, make them down an arc over you, and then throw them down.

Harai Goshi: Yeah, I know we worked on a lot of throws today. But I had a lot of questions so...yeah. The key is your hip in their stomach. I will think about why. Perfect perpendicular angle. Load their weight onto your body, do the "karaoke step," and then sweep their outer thigh and throw. I will play around with what full body motion I need to set the bodyweight of a heavier opponent into motion.

Also, I randori'd with that older guy, but it was REALLY hard to get his bodyweight into motion. I successfully defended every throw he tried to do to me, and even reversed him on an Ouchi Gari attempt (LOL you should have seen his face it was hilarious), but by constantly being afraid, I did not get to try anything, and I did not get to try my full body motions to move him. So I need to not be so afraid of being thrown and accept that it will happen, and go play! Experiment! Also, I tried the same motions on Mike (the bodybuilder) but it didn't work because my grips sucked. I was able to set my bodyweight into motion 100% though.

That's it for now, but I will discuss more next time. ^^

(1) During my solo training, when I practice my strikes/deflections, I imagine my nightmare opponent, bigger, faster, stronger, superior physically to me in every way, trying to beat the crap out of me with 100% intent, and I respond with 100% intent. This, in my opinion, is the "missing part" of most people's kata or heavy bag sparring; this is why the skills don't transfer, in my opinion, because they don't think of the bag as an actual person. Well I'm sure there's someone that does, but from what I see of karate kata or Chinese Kung Fu forms, I don't see anyone doing it as though they were trying to survive a deadly encounter. In Lam Sai Wing's detailed breakdown of the Hung Gar forms, he clearly states that you must really imagine certain things, and I think that mental preparation is paramount. What good is practicing a motion if the most important part, i.e. the opponent, is missing? Shadowboxing is key. **The most difficult part, however, is to not know what your imaginary opponent is about to do, which can get really tricky...

(2) I am of the belief that most styles teach you 50,000 techniques so that you can pick up the general ideas behind them...but what if you don't...? Why not learn the principles straight up and see technique as examples to ultimately develop the intuition? This way you can cater a technique to any circumstance, or make one up. However, I am nowhere near that good yet.

(3) It is safe to imagine the opponent as 100% a being that is in their center of gravity...except with dudes, for some reason, that point seems to be higher. The judo grips, however, seem to have such insane leverage that I can, using my full body power (incorporate spin wheel/draw bow! :D) twist and turn the "square" (shoulder-shoulder-hip-hip, that square) in whatever direction the throw dictates! This is why my Tai Otoshi sucked before - I wasn't steering his center using my grips! Though this does not diverge from my objective of "move his center past his feet," this gives me a great tool to do it! How about, for Judo practice, "use your grips to steer his center past his feet?" Because hand on leg attacks are not allowed, I guess this is a good opportunity to focus on this specific part of the takedown game.