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The one where I train less BJJ but learn to Swing…

8 February 2010, 4:48 pm

Not THAT kind of swing… sheesh. This blog is strictly PG, for Pete’s sake. I mean East Coast Swing. For Christmas, I signed my wife and I up for dance lessons. I have always wanted to do this, but have never taken the plunge because of my chronic back pain. For years, even at times when I would characterize my back pain as being “mild,” standing was bad. Standing up for long periods of time, walking, running, that sort of thing would make my back ache. So, now that my back is feeling really good, I figured it was time to give it a shot.

It’s terrific. I am really enjoying have regular time to spend with my wife. That’s been great. I’m also have a lot of fun with the dancing itself, and it turns out that I don’t completely suck at it. We’ve been learning lots of moves, and I think that East Coast Swing was the perfect dance for us to start with, although my wife drug me to a Cha Cha seminar and that was pretty fun, too.

I know that some other BJJ addicts out there also dance. I’d be interested in any tips or tricks you have for me. I’m a total dance noob.

On the BJJ front, though, I’ve been training sporadically over the last month or so. It started with ringworm. Yuck. I had it on my arm, took a couple weeks off to defungalize, then went back to training and ended up getting it again, this time on my throat. Double YUCK!

I’m not sure where I got it or from whom, but I definitely don’t want to do unto others as had been done unto me… if that makes sense. I stayed away from the school until I could be damned sure it wasn’t going to come back. Add to this a spouse who’s travelling quite a bit for work, a volatile toddler with strong opinions about things, a 12 year old daughter who wants to bake cakes, cookies, breads or and a son who’s in the midst of daily wrestling practices and it’s been a challenge to get to class more than once or twice per week. I’m really hoping to change that after we get back from DisneyWorld in a few weeks.

Still, on that front, I have been working on recovering guard from turtle, and have also been working on some deep half guard stuff that Coach introduced into class. I’ve been having some success getting to the deep half guard position and overall am liking it for reversal/sweeps. I’ll need to take a look at the Jeff Glover instructionals to pick up some more tips and techniques.

That said, anybody out there like deep half guard? Let me know if you’ve run into any details that helped you with it (or to counter it).

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Non-BJJ: Awkward Family Photos

2 February 2010, 10:17 am

I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

What makes these so funny to me are the comments from the people IN the photos. We have all been there… but it makes it no less hilarious.

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Claustrophobia and Grappling

31 January 2010, 9:47 am

A few weeks ago, I got Stephan Kesting’s newsletter in my inbox. Reading it was surreal. It was like he’d interviewed me and my issues with claustrophobia. I highly recommend it. Hell, if you don’t subscribe to Stephan’s Grappling Tips, you should. Seriously. Do that now, then come back and finish reading this. Stephan is a thoughtful guy and his insight’s have helped me out a ton over the years.

I have issues with not being able to see. I’m sure that this mania stems from some childhood trauma that I can blame on my older brothers. It’s got to be their fault. But wherever this issue came from, I don’t like it. Just putting on a blindfold causes my adrenaline to kick in and my fight or flight instinct goes nuts. Add a little claustrophobia and I’m pretty unfit for BJJ.

I actually laughed out loud when I read about the MRI in the article. I was okay with the MRI in theory. As I showed up at the hospital, they asked, “Are you claustrophic?”

“A little, but I’ll be okay,” I replied. Seconds into the MRI, I was mashing the panic button. I made it through that MRI only because they turned me around, got me in feet first and they only needed pictures of my L5 vertebrae. So, as a result, I was able to crane my head back and see the opening. Seeing daylight got me through it… that and a lot of happy thoughts.

So, when I started training in BJJ, one of the first people I rolled with was Brick (or Big Rick). Rick is a cool guy. He’s been around forever, weighs about 280 lbs, and is a very good guy to roll with if you’re claustrophobic. Or a very bad guy to roll with, depending on your point of view. I’ll never remember that first roll with Rick. At the time, I didn’t really know what to do in sparring, so we locked up and wrassled around for a bit from our knees, then of course I got pushed to my back, he passed my guard and was so heavy that I tapped because I couldn’t breathe. Then, after getting knocked over again, he moved to North/South. Now, here’s where I immediately began to panic. Rick said, “This isn’t a submission. This is just pressure. Relax and breathe.” I tapped instead and began to seriously question whether BJJ was right for me.

Instead, I figured out ways to cope with it for myself, and while your mileage may vary, I’m happy to share what worked for me.

As a sort of preventative measure, try not to get smashed. That’s a good start, but of course, it doesn’t help with the problem… just helps you get better at avoiding it. I have learned over the last couple years that the key to sparring with a really big dude is to focus on hip movement and never give them a chance to settle in. Easier said than done, but when it works it feels pretty good.

That said, if I’m getting crushed, I look for daylight. If I’m in a position where things are tight, I’ll make sure I can see daylight just like I did in my MRI. I have found that sometimes, just turning my head a little so I can see the wide open spaces is enough to quell the panic. Even if I’m really getting smashed.

Second, relax. My tendency is to begin breathing faster when I’m in a tight spot. I want as much air as I can get, and it never seems like I’m getting enough. If I relax, focus on my breathing and slow things down, I can think about what to do next.

Third, keep my elbows in and remember my basics. The single most important thing I learned early on was to keep my elbows in. While that helped my defense, that was only a side benefit. The real value of keeping your elbows in on the bottom is that it helps you control the space, at best giving you an opportunity to hip out or upa and escape. At worst, it still provides a few inches of room. Your forearms might be all that stands between your face and a some hairy dude’s sweaty chest. Now, if that’s not motivation to focus on basics, I don’t know what is, cause I’m on the verge of panicking just writing that.

Finally, and this is nothing new, start from a bad position. I decided very early that if I was going to make it in BJJ, I’d need to learn to cope with tight spaces. I will almost always pull guard in sparring. I started doing this because I felt that getting on top was a copout and was avoiding the issue. In much the same way that I start from turtle now, it wasn’t that I felt comfortable from guard. Just the opposite.

I hope you’ve read the article I linked to over at Grapplearts.com. Stephan’s article goes into some detail about how you can overcome phobias in general, and some specific ways to tackle Claustrophobia on the mats. As always, though, if I can do it, anyone can. It’s not a matter of skill or talent. It’s a matter of just deciding it’s important and doing it. Jiu Jitsu isn’t always comfortable, but even at its worst, I can’t think of too many things that I’d rather do.

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A Friend in Need

17 January 2010, 10:58 am

I’ve written about Crusher on my blog in the past. He’s the guy that made me seriously question whether I was right for BJJ. I saw him and thought, “Oh crap. I’m in the wrong place!” As is the case with most BJJ guys, though, Crusher is a very cool guy.

When I began training in 2006, he was a brown belt, Coach Foster’s first student to reach that rank (and until recently, his only student). Crusher is a former power lifter… think world’s strongest man. He was built like that, like an oak tree. He was immune to being choked because his neck was only 2″ long and was as big around as my waist.

In the first month or so of training, I paired up with Crusher in sparring. Coach said to him, “He’s new, so teach him some stuff.” So, he promptly rolled me into mount (yes, he pulled mount on me… how demoralizing!), let me work for a bit, then reversed me and passed my guard. Remembering that he’s supposed to be teaching me “some stuff” he says as an afterthought, “Okay. Right here… you’re losing.” :)

Crusher’s real name is Jason McKissack, and until about a year ago, he was a police officer on the Seattle PD. As he tried to break up a fight, he was jumped by the group, including both parties in the fight. Here’s a link to the original article:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008009370_webcop20m.html

The brain damage he sustained has left his equilibrium completely out of whack. Well, now, because he’s no longer able to serve on the PD, they’re cutting his medical coverage. Since he is no longer a police officer, the only way his family could continue to get medical coverage is if he were killed.

Here’s the link to a video of the story and to the article itself that ran a few days ago locally.

We’ve had 6 officers killed in the line of duty within the last few months and that’s a tragedy. But I know that the families of these slain officers have received an overwhelming display of support, financial and emotional, from the entire community. They did their jobs and the community came through when needed. What really pisses me off about this situation is that Jason says in the article that his family would be better off if he had died. That just sucks. That he survived should be celebrated, not penalized. His family should be better off that he survived, not worse.

There’s a house bill being proposed that would insure that officers injured in the line of duty and unable to return to duty would keep their medical benefits. HB1679 would protect first responders by ensuring catastrophic medical care. Take a look. If you’re in WA, consider letting your State Rep know that it’s important to you. As things stand right now, I believe we’re morally obliged to take care of our first responders. It’s the right thing to do, and this bill does that.

Now, all of that aside, besides the personal interest I have in this story, this also brings up other topical points I’m curious about. What do you guys think?

Regardless of your stance on health care (although if we had single payer, this wouldn’t be an issue), what do you think about the reality that, as it stands, in the case of a medical emergency it’s often better for the family if the person dies than if they live but suffer from a permanent, disabling condition? How would you handle the loss of employment, loss of income and often the loss of medical insurance coupled with enormous personal debt and medical debt wreaks havoc on a family? Divorce is very common, bankruptcy also commonplace and homelessness for the disabled individual is a real possibility if everyone he or she thought was there… suddenly isn’t. “Sorry, honey. I just can’t handle it any more. You’re not the person I married.” Is this an issue for you? Important? Do you guys believe the chips fall where they may… just bad luck? What would happen to you and your families if you were in a car accident or something, could no longer work, lose your medical coverage and wrack up six digit medical bills? Are you prepared?

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I Survived the New Year and All I Got Was This Lousy Shirt

5 January 2010, 12:04 pm

Christmas was awesome, but… there were a few snags. For some reason, someone gets sick in our house for Christmas. Every year. Sometimes it’s only one person, and sometimes, such as this year, it makes a run through the entire house.

Christmas morning we awoke to the sounds of my oldest puking loudly in the bathroom. It was 4 am and at the time my wife and I weren’t sure if he was REALLY sick or if it was just nerves and lack of sleep. I know he was excited about the presents and so we largely wrote it off. He looked like he was feeling better, so we took it easy for a few hours. The kids opened their presents and everything seemed okay. But by 8 o’clock, Ken was back in bed, where he stayed pretty much all day long. He came out for dinner, but ate very little and then went back to bed.

Fortunately, he was doing much better the next day because I was the next to fall. I ended up losing about 6 or 7 lbs in 12 hours and was beginning to become concerned about dehydration. On the plus side, I broke 180 lbs by the new year, a goal I had set many months ago. I went to bed on Sunday night at 183 lbs and by Monday morning I weighed under 177 lbs. While, of course, this was just water and within a day or so I was back up over 180, I have managed to legitimately keep whittling away at my weight and am now right around 180 and dropping. I was 179 this morning and hope to stay on track.

Monday my wife and older daughter caught the bug. Ken really picked up the slack for us, taking care of the baby and keeping the house under control.

In other health news, my back feels really, really good. Better, in fact, than in a very long time. I’ve been seeing a chiro pretty regularly and have seen some real benefit from it. I’ll keep it up and hope that in addition to everything else I’m doing, adding an adjustment at least every couple of weeks for a while will improve the strength and stability in my lower back.

On the presents front, I was given a Dollamur Flex-Roll mat for my garage. I have one already, a green tatami style that I was given by my brother last year. It’s terrific, but at 5×10, it’s a little small for anything but static drills. To do any real rolling, I need a little more mat space and wanted to get another one to make a 10×10 area. Well, it’s on the way and I can’t wait. Should be a place where I can throwdown with anyone willing to come by. Maybe if my HOA gives me any trouble I’ll issue a challenge and we can settle it using the old Catch Wrestling rules.

Hold on. My wife is telling me that’s a bad idea.

… my attorney is also telling me that’s a bad idea. Okay. So… maybe no challenges to the HOA, but hopefully I can supplement my class time with some work at home.

My goals for the new year are to really hit another leap forward in technical understanding of Jiu Jitsu. I’m looking forward to being healthy and strong, building my cardio and either coming to terms with or overcoming my chronic back issues. I believe that if I can train regularly, this will be a very good year for me. I intend to compete for good or ill as often as I can in 2010, just to get the experience. I would love to go to the Pan Ams in April. That’s a big goal of mine, and one I hope to meet.

I hope you all have a great 2010 whatever your own personal goals might be.

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Giva Santana

27 December 2009, 1:13 pm

Giva is one of my instructor’s instructors (if that makes sense) and I one of the highest ranked Lotus Club black belts who lives in the USA. He runs a school down in California, and is one of the nicest guys around.

I was so excited to run across these videos. He’s attacking the entire time. There’s a great take down and some really cool transitions as he moves from guard to back control to mount to armbar.

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New Club Patches

20 December 2009, 4:58 pm

lotus patch Here’s a quick picture of the new Foster Lotus Club patches.  I think they look really cool.  Can’t wait to sport it on the back of a gi.

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Scramble Stuff: MMA without attitude

20 December 2009, 4:53 pm

I wanted to post a couple of pics of my new Scramble Stuff shirt.  As I said before, it’s a very thick, soft shirt.  The quality is noticeably higher than the typical t-shirt.  It shrunk up just a hair, too, so that it has a slightly fitted feel to it.  I’m 5’10” and about 180lbs and a large fits me great.

IMG_0748 IMG_0750

Matt’s also got a lot of cool stuff that’s pretty much unique to his site, at least in the USA.  DVDs, magazines and shirts that make great gifts.  He’s also got a sale going on, so please, check it out.   Give “stevebjj” a try as a coupon code.  Not sure if it will work on sale items, but it’s worth a shot.  You might just get 20% more off your purchase. 

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New Old Friends

18 December 2009, 10:53 pm

dev

I raced home from work to pick up the baby and called my other kids on my way back so that they would be waiting for me when I got home.  They took the baby inside and I was outta there, fifteen minutes to get to my chiropractic appointment.

Sidebar here: it’s GREAT having older kids with the baby.  I strongly recommend that anyone having a baby adopt a couple of 10 to 12 year olds first.  Seriously.  I couldn’t be prouder of my two older kids.  They help so much around the house and with the baby, I wouldn’t be able to do half of what I do if they weren’t there to pick up my slack.

Okay, back to the action, I’m racing down the street to the chiropractor.  I’m cutting off old ladies and tailgating student drivers.  I have places to go!  Maybe not quite like that, but I was feeling a sense of urgency.  My new chiropractor adjusted me once again.  Looks like I’m going to see him twice a week for a couple of weeks, and then back off to about every 3 or so weeks.  On a positive note, my flexible spending account should help me pay for these visits.  On the negative side, my insurance copay is higher than the cash amount.  Let me say that again.  My chiropractor saves enough by avoiding the billing/insurance process that he can offer a modest discount for cash, and a few dollars more off if you prepay.  So, if I pay cash, the price is less than my ridiculous copay.  Anyone who is against a public option or some kind of meaningful health care reform is nuts. 

But it’s all good.  I felt great after the adjustment and raced to class where I met Dev for the first time.  For anyone not familiar, Dev has been training and blogging for just over a year now.  He’s a very nice guy and it felt like we’d known each other for a long time.   We even got a roll in, probably at about 50% or so.  It was pretty cool.  Coach Foster rolled out the red carpet, rolling with him for about 30 minutes before turning him loose on several of our upper belts.  It was awesome to see.  Coach really wanted him to get some quality time while he was there.  He was pretty wiped out by the time we got to open mat.  Still, as my son would say, I got pwned.  But I was having enough fun that I didn’t mind.  In the relatively short time Dev’s been training, it’s clear that he’s picked up a solid foundation and I’m looking forward to seeing him again, hopefully down in Irvine in April.

I had a good roll with Thad, always a pleasure.  He’s always good for a little detail or tip that will make a difference for next time.  Josh was his usual, relaxed self.  Not that I could do anything against him.  I also got a roll in with Trevin, who’s about as close to Josh Barnett as I’ll ever get.  I made the mistake of pulling mount… yeah, I said it… and what you think might happen did.  Next time around, I was a little more alert and managed to get around his guard into side control.  His arm was very high, so I switched to the head/arm setup I like, but he blocked it right away, so I moved around for the armbar instead.  He blocked, and I tried the switch to the other side I learned from Thad a few months back, and I could tell it surprised him.  I almost had that armbar, but wasn’t tight enough and left him some space to counter and escape.  Oh well.

Overall, I’m a lot more hopeful about things than I was a few weeks ago.  While my L5 disc will never fully heal, I am optimistic that I’m doing the right thing.  I was 181 lbs this morning and managing to maintain even though I missed over three weeks of class.   The only real lasting problem with my back will be strength through my hips to bridge.  It took months last time to really get back to where I could generate power through my hips and upa, and I’m looking at that long road one more time. 

Oh, one last thing.  I picked up some Foster/Lotus Club back patches and they look really cool.  Can’t wait to get them on a gi.

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Good Class Yesterday

17 December 2009, 5:29 pm

I came to some conclusions and made some decisions.   A few weeks back, I mentioned that I was going to work with a chiropractor that I trust.  Dr. Sean trains with us at my school and were it not for him, I would likely never consider chiropractic care as a viable option.  The only problem is that his office is deep in Tacoma.  So, while Dr. Sean would be my first choice, I’ve had to figure out how I can get the attention I need somewhere a little closer to home.

Fortunately, another guy at the school whom I’ve known for years recommended his chiropractor, who has an office much closer to my house, about halfway between where I live and the BJJ school.  I went to see him for the first time on Tuesday and my initial reaction was very positive.  

There were some definite things he did that I liked.  First, he was extremely cautious.  The first day, he didn’t do any kind of an adjustment.  Instead, he did some tests along the lines of, “Do this.  Does that hurt?  Any tingling or numbness?  Okay.  Do this.  Pain?”   He also took some x-rays and requested my MRI that was done a few years back from the hospital. 

Second, he did a lot of explaining.  He described my symptoms back to me, a good way to let me know that he’d been listening and understood what I was saying.  He then told me some common causes for my issues and explained how he works.  And then he sent me home no worse off than when I came in. 

All in all, a very good start.  I went in the next day, yesterday, to take a look at the x-rays and talk in more detail about what is going on, and he then did an adjustment.

Turns out I’m suffering from disc degeneration in my L5 vertebrae.  If you’d like to know more about it, here’s a nifty, interactive video I found.  The intarweb is awesome and the narrator even sounds like the guy who did the voiceover for the films we watched in biology class in school.  If you’re getting the impression that this isn’t entirely good news, you’re right.  It’s not.  As the chiropractor said yesterday, once the disc is gone, you can’t get it back.   According to the doc, I’m not at phase 2 yet, but I’m also well past phase 1… somewhere between the two.

What I need to do now, according to my new chiropractor, is keep what I have for as long as I can.  I am not anxious to find any kind of surgical solution to this problem for many reasons (although if you ask me when I’m suffering from muscle spasms, sciatica and the subsequent sleep deprivation, I’d agree to just about anything if you promised to make the pain stop).   A combination of everything I’ve been doing, plus regular chiropractic care, according to this chiropractor, will help maintain what disc I have left, help stabilize everything and keep me functioning as well as possible.  He said that this might mean never having surgery or maybe putting it off for 30 years… as opposed to 10 as I progress into phase II degeneration and on toward phase III.

So, not altogether good news.  I appreciate that he didn’t blow smoke up my behind.  He admitted that I might experience blow outs in my back… it’s just the nature of the beast.  Where my disc should be nice and puffy, my L5 disc is about a 1/4 of where it should be. 

In spite of all that, I went to class and had a good time.  I was a little sore toward the end of class, but after a little ice on the lower back and a good dinner, I felt great by bedtime.

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