The FB BJJ / MA Thread

grungebob

I’m toying with the Nottingham open this year in November. 

There’s been hints about me also being purple ready this Christmas so I feel like it’s my last chance to compete as a blue. 

grungebob

Right I bit the bullet. Nottingham all booked. Just the small case now of losing 6lb in 7 weeks as I forgot you weigh in in your Gi and the Gi’s 4lb!!

Fuengi

grungebob said:

Right I bit the bullet. Nottingham all booked. Just the small case now of losing 6lb in 7 weeks as I forgot you weigh in in your Gi and the Gi’s 4lb!!

What weight division are you? 

grungebob

Fuengi said:

grungebob said:

Right I bit the bullet. Nottingham all booked. Just the small case now of losing 6lb in 7 weeks as I forgot you weigh in in your Gi and the Gi’s 4lb!!

What weight division are you? 

-82kg

Fuengi

grungebob said:

Fuengi said:

grungebob said:

Right I bit the bullet. Nottingham all booked. Just the small case now of losing 6lb in 7 weeks as I forgot you weigh in in your Gi and the Gi’s 4lb!!

What weight division are you? 

-82kg

That's where I am. I'm generally around 78kg without the Gi so I don't need to worry about weight cutting. 

Checking the registrations for my tournament, there is nobody else anywhere near my age at blue belt so looks like I'll be chucked in with the Master 1 group. Should be interesting. 

Best of luck with the training! 

grungebob

Fuengi said:

grungebob said:

Fuengi said:

grungebob said:

Right I bit the bullet. Nottingham all booked. Just the small case now of losing 6lb in 7 weeks as I forgot you weigh in in your Gi and the Gi’s 4lb!!

What weight division are you? 

-82kg

That's where I am. I'm generally around 78kg without the Gi so I don't need to worry about weight cutting. 

Checking the registrations for my tournament, there is nobody else anywhere near my age at blue belt so looks like I'll be chucked in with the Master 1 group. Should be interesting. 

Best of luck with the training! 

Cheers, you too. 

Fuengi

Competed at Bournemouth this morning, it was great despite not going my way. 

I was moved down three age groups from Master 5 / Blue / Middle to Master 2 and got matched up with a guy who trains six times a week Go and No Gi and is 15 years younger than me (getting the excuses in early ) 

I managed to take him down but he passed and racked up a quick 9-0 lead, I had to work really hard to get out of an armbar at one point. By the halfway point I started to establish my game, nearly hit an armbar myself from guard, swept him to side control and finished in mount with an Ezekiel which was close but not quite sunk in enough for him to tap to.

It finished 12-9 to him, but he was completely done at the end. I could have gone another five minutes easily. Had I had the wherewithal to think straight, a quick mount to knee-on-belly and back in the last 20 seconds would have won the match, but I was too focused on trying to finish the choke to think about it. 

I got Bronze, which I actually felt I had earned and another good experience. The rest of the team took a couple of golds, decent effort all around. 

Must do more comps and look to train at other gyms more often now. 

grungebob

Well done mate on stepping up. Having never competed before I can appreciate it must be hard to have that external focus to figure in points on top of a submission. 

I’m still miserably trying to make weight for November. 3 lbs lost and another 4.5 to go

Fuengi

grungebob said:

Well done mate on stepping up. Having never competed before I can appreciate it must be hard to have that external focus to figure in points on top of a submission. 

I’m still miserably trying to make weight for November. 3 lbs lost and another 4.5 to go

I weighed in 3kg under the limit. I didn't feel like it made any significant difference really.

grungebob

I’m 2kg over but 6-7kg under the next so I think that would have a bigger effect on me as I’m a short arse too 

AK99

Fwiw - I always found that even though the conventional wisdom is that the heavier player always has an advantage, I fight better when I'm lighter. I suppose that's down to the extra weight being blubber rather than useful muscle mass, which also means it slows you down 

Fuengi said:

Competed at Bournemouth this morning, it was great despite not going my way. 

I was moved down three age groups from Master 5 / Blue / Middle to Master 2 and got matched up with a guy who trains six times a week Go and No Gi and is 15 years younger than me (getting the excuses in early ) 

I managed to take him down but he passed and racked up a quick 9-0 lead, I had to work really hard to get out of an armbar at one point. By the halfway point I started to establish my game, nearly hit an armbar myself from guard, swept him to side control and finished in mount with an Ezekiel which was close but not quite sunk in enough for him to tap to.

It finished 12-9 to him, but he was completely done at the end. I could have gone another five minutes easily. Had I had the wherewithal to think straight, a quick mount to knee-on-belly and back in the last 20 seconds would have won the match, but I was too focused on trying to finish the choke to think about it. 

I got Bronze, which I actually felt I had earned and another good experience. The rest of the team took a couple of golds, decent effort all around. 

Must do more comps and look to train at other gyms more often now. 

Excellent - great performance Fuengi. Sounds like you have some high quality players in your home club too, which is a credit to the club and the coach(es). Ever onward..

FarleyUK

Went along to a new club last night (Taijitsu).

Today, I can honestly hardly move.

It was the best / worst workout I've had a very, very long time.

Fuengi

FarleyUK said:

Went along to a new club last night (Taijitsu).

Today, I can honestly hardly move.

It was the best / worst workout I've had a very, very long time.

Why was it so tough? What was different? 

FarleyUK

Fuengi said:

FarleyUK said:

Went along to a new club last night (Taijitsu).

Today, I can honestly hardly move.

It was the best / worst workout I've had a very, very long time.

Why was it so tough? What was different? 

A lot more intense than my old club - for starters, part of the warmup was about 80 sit-ups. Then we spent a huge amount of time working on ground work, which in traditional Japanese JJ, I'd never really done much of. And I'm sure you can all relate to how knackering that can be

Then we did some standing free sparring, then grappling on our knees etc.

Was good fun, but I have to slide out of bed in the morning.

Fuengi

FarleyUK said:

Fuengi said:

FarleyUK said:

Went along to a new club last night (Taijitsu).

Today, I can honestly hardly move.

It was the best / worst workout I've had a very, very long time.

Why was it so tough? What was different? 

A lot more intense than my old club - for starters, part of the warmup was about 80 sit-ups. Then we spent a huge amount of time working on ground work, which in traditional Japanese JJ, I'd never really done much of. And I'm sure you can all relate to how knackering that can be

Then we did some standing free sparring, then grappling on our knees etc.

Was good fun, but I have to slide out of bed in the morning.

When I started, our coach used to do a lot more cardio drills and a harder warm up including 30 squats. We don't do that any more, I guess we have achieved fitness by rolling.

We did a great takedown drill last week where you had to try to touch your opponants knee three times before they touched yours over five munutes. Whoever lost each time had to do a burpee. That certainly got a few of us out of breath, it was more like a boxing fitness test than BJJ.

Just goes to show how different activities work different elements of your fitness.    

grungebob

Well the first comp didn’t go to plan lol. 

Lost both my matches to submissions.  

I have no excuses well good ones at least lol. 

Weighed in 2.2kg under the limit and have felt pretty rough the past 6 weeks cutting. 

Just had no energy, couldn’t get my breath and I wasn’t prepared for the instant 100mph pace. 

Ho hum 

Fuengi

grungebob said:

Well the first comp didn’t go to plan lol. 

Lost both my matches to submissions.  

I have no excuses well good ones at least lol. 

Weighed in 2.2kg under the limit and have felt pretty rough the past 6 weeks cutting. 

Just had no energy, couldn’t get my breath and I wasn’t prepared for the instant 100mph pace. 

Ho hum 

Good on you for doing it. I consoled myself by reasoning that of the tiny percentage of people who train BJJ, a minority compete so you're already in the top few percent to even get on the mats.

The pace is really intense, isn't it? 

grungebob

Fuengi said:

grungebob said:

Well the first comp didn’t go to plan lol. 

Lost both my matches to submissions.  

I have no excuses well good ones at least lol. 

Weighed in 2.2kg under the limit and have felt pretty rough the past 6 weeks cutting. 

Just had no energy, couldn’t get my breath and I wasn’t prepared for the instant 100mph pace. 

Ho hum 

Good on you for doing it. I consoled myself by reasoning that of the tiny percentage of people who train BJJ, a minority compete so you're already in the top few percent to even get on the mats.

The pace is really intense, isn't it? 

The pace is mental! And thanks for the words. 

I’ll do it again one day but only if I don’t cut weight it’s really done me in. 

grungebob

Well in a very surreal turn of events I was promoted to purple belt tonight. 

I don’t feel worthy but it was nice of all the other purples to tell me I belong. 

That’s made my year that has. 

stimpsonslostson

grungebob said:

Well in a very surreal turn of events I was promoted to purple belt tonight. 

I don’t feel worthy but it was nice of all the other purples to tell me I belong. 

That’s made my year that has. 

Congratulations! 
I think imposter syndrome is normal after any promotion, but your coach & training partners obviously believe in you.