Sunday Class Addendum

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to mull things over. I'm very comfortable letting my brain crunch the information on its own time and let me know when the heavy lifting is done. As a result, I experience "Aha!" moments fairly frequently. Some are big "Aha!" moments and others are... not so big. Most are actually of the relatively minor variety, but still "Aha!"

It occurred to me a few minutes ago that I've been mulling over the explosive bridging motion. It bothers me that I can't seem to do it well, but it dawned on me that something else bothers me, too. It's that, for me, this seemingly natural motion is very foreign. That's the "Aha!" discovery (I told you most of them were small). What specifically popped into my head was that when I try to bridge up, it feels like it did when I first tried to do the Vulcan hand... thing. You know the one, where you seperate your fingers into a V? It feels exactly like that, knowing that your body can do it and sending the signals to your body, but your body doesn't want to respond.

In the following video, you can learn how to do the Vulcan Salute.



In a similar way, I'm going to approach this whole dynamic bridging issue I'm having... teaching my muscles to cooperate with my brain.

Sunday BJJ Class 09/23/2007

Sunday's class was really full. We had several people in the class I've never met before. One of the guys was a judoka who was training no-gi. I guess he's a very high level competitor. All I know is that he was quite good on the ground.



Technique was once again a return to the basics. We worked on an escape from a sit out or scarf hold position. The image to the left is essentially the control position. The only significant detail I can see between this position and what we are taught is that White would have his base leg (left) up with his foot on the ground so that he can drive into Blue.


Some things to note are that White has his head nice and low. He also has Blue's left arm isolated and in a very vulnerable position because of both the underhook and keeping his right knee up tight under Blue's shoulder. You can't see that, but where Blue's right hand is peeking helplessly up over White's left arm, it's also somewhat isolated and immobilized due to White's right thigh shoved up underneath it. Anyone who has been in Blue's situation knows how bad it feels. Your upper body is completely locked down and if you've found yourself under either a Judoka of any skill or your big brother, you're in trouble.


My goal is to get out of this situation, and to regain guard at the very least. If possible I'll work to reverse to mount or transition to an armbar. We'll stick with just getting back to full guard. The first step is to get my right elbow down into contact with my right knee. So, if I'm Blue, I'm going to bridge up onto my right shoulder while at the same time cupping the back of White's head like palming a basketball and push it down and to my right side. This will create space. Now, the entire key is to get my right elbow down, so I won't drop out of my bridge until I get my elbow down. Once my elbow is back inside and on my knee, it's a relatively simple matter of bringing my knee inside to butterfly guard or all the way through into full guard.


If I manage to really push White off of me, I might be in a good position to swing my leg over into an armbar, or get his base all screwy and sweep him.


We drilled this for a good 20 or 25 minutes prior to sparring. While my hip is feeling okay, I just don't have any (I mean NONE) explosive power in my hips (I can't wait to see what google searches turn up as a result of that sentence). I'm realizing now that I need to do some more specific drills and exercises to strengthen this area, so I'll be concentrating on that for a while.

Sparring was okay. My first match was with one of the female students, a relatively new white belt. As I have at least 40 lbs on her and she's even newer than I to all of this, I tried to avoid grinding shoulder pressure into her, and to be methodical. She moves well and keeps her knees in making it hard to get around her guard although she still doesn't have a lot of offensive weapons to work with.


I also got to roll with Scott, one of the purple belts. I've also got about 40 lbs on Scott, but that's about it. Scott's got a lot more experience and skill. So, with him, I ended up spending 5 minutes trying to pass, avoid getting swept and avoid getting choked. I almost passed to side control once by controlling his knees and moving around the outside. Didn't stay there for long. I did avoid several sweep attempts and concentrated on good posture and strong base. Even with that, he got a triangle locked in pretty well. I postured up and as I started to walk around to escape and pass, he transitioned to an omoplata. Not sure if he was going to get it or not, but I felt pretty vulnerable. Then time was called.


During open mat, I worked on some chokes with another white belt. I'm interested in learning some finishing techniques from a few different positions I seem to find myself in quite a bit.

Next class for me is Tuesday if I can make it.

Wednesday BJJ Class 9/19/2007

Yet another thing I love about BJJ is that even when classes just kick one's ass, they're still fun. I'm not sure than anyone who hasn't grappled with a determined partner knows exactly how much energy is exerted. If you don't know what I mean, try this as an experiment. Have someone who's in good shape and maybe a little bit bigger than you take a good control position. Doesn't really matter what. Now, set a timer for two minutes and just try and get him off and stand back up. Whether you or he has any training at all, I think you'll find that at the end of two minutes, you'll be very tired.

The point of all of this is that there are days when you put out, work hard and at the end you're sweaty and sore. Then there are days when you REALLY put out and end up just flat out exhausted. Yesterday was one of the latter days for me.

The technique we worked on was a basic escape from mount. So, a guy is on top, his hips are in front of yours which means you're basically being sat on like the victim of a bully in grade school. This is a very, very bad position to be in. Your opponent can punch you, choke you, armbar you, or just sit on you and squish your diaphragm. The key to getting out is to always start with a bump, bridging up to change my opponent's center of gravity and shift his weight. I cringe when I find myself in this position because my hips are still weak relative to the rest of me as a result of my SI joint issues. I'm better and don't mean this as an excuse. I'm just saying that I hate being under mount when someone's got weight. So, I paired up, naturally, with two guys who outweigh me by 50 lbs.

The basic escape we drilled is like this: I bridge up strong and while my hips are elevated and my opponent's weight is forward I turn and hip escape, driving my hips out and posting my hands on his other hip creating space. If I don't get enough space, I keep driving to the side, widening his legs to create space. So, detail number one is to turn my hips WHILE in the air, not after.

Next, I just bring my bottom leg in and establish half-guard. Detail number two is bottom leg, not top. If I bring my top leg in first, I'm inviting him to pass into side control, which is only marginally better than being under mount.

Once I have established half guard, with an underhook if possible, I shift over to the other side and hip escape in the opposite direction to create enough space to re-establish full guard.

So, that's what we did. I worked hard and was determined to make it work, even though my right hip started aching from the abuse. Every class it feels better, not worse, so I'm not worried too much about overdoing it.

Then we started sparring. For the record, I'm going to armbar someone from guard soon. I'm not sure who or when, but I've been really working on it and feel like I can get it if I get the opening. The trick is to just not be afraid of getting passed and working from side control. So, look for that in the coming weeks.

So, sparring. I rolled with Mikey, the new blue belt. It was a good match that took a lot out of me. Then I rolled with Jeremy. That was fun.

Jeremy and I started at about the same time. He's really strong and studies hard, so there ya go. I started by trying to pull guard so we could get to the jiu-jitsu and he immediately got his knee up to pass. I held him off for a while, but couldn't initiate any offense of my own and eventually he got around into side control and then north-south. He was working for some kind of anaconda or head/arm choke. Not sure, but he had one of my arms locked up tight. I couldn't get it free and as a result couldn't get any leverage to escape. Toward the middle of the match, I ended up in a kind of butterfly guard, and he passed by basically leap frogging over my knees. I got a knee in, but he was able to push it through and ended up in mount. So, I took a second to steel myself to the task and then tried to escape the way we learned. It really took a lot of energy.

Later on in the match, I recognized the danger when he tried to lock in that choke and managed to avoid falling for it again, but dang. In the heat of the moment, I forgot to ask him where he was going with it. I'd like to learn the finish. At another point, he was working toward an armbar from mount. I was dog tired by then, had my arm locked down and was preparing to roll with him as soon as he fell back to the armbar. I guess he could tell, and ended up locking in some kind of no-gi choke. I need to ask him about that, too! :)

So, I was wiped after that match. Then my last match was with Mike. Mike's the big guy I was drilling with. He's been doing martial arts for many years, but is relatively new to BJJ. In spite of that, he's strong as a bull and heavy. I pulled guard, and got a deep cross grip in his lapel, so I went for a cross collar choke right off. It was deep, but he was able to posture up so I let it go. If I had a little more juice in the tank I might have persisted, but instead tried to immediately transition to a sweep. I didn't get it then. I did end up getting him once or twice when he failed to mind his base, but ultimately, my overriding memory of that 5 minute match was of utter exhaustion. From side control, I just did what I could to go to a happy place and breathe.

I'm pretty sore today, mostly through my shoulders, neck and in my hands, but I'm happy to say that my hip feels good after all the abuse. It looks like my next class will be on Sunday.

Monday Class - Drills and Conditioning 9/17/2007

Yesterday, I had the chance to make one of Jeff''s drills and conditioning classes. It also happened to be the day when Rick and Bing were installing the 3 sided cage for the MMA guys. It looks great. I know where my pictures will be taken! :)

What's great about the drills class is that there's no sparring, but there are timed drills. During warmups, we did a ton of abs, and worked all sorts of positional drills. We also did some timed drills where one person tries to maintain a control position and the other person just tries to escape. We did mount and side control.

My elbow is still a little gimpy, but not too bad, and my toe is healing well. Tape is great. I do want to make it clear that I chronicle my injuries major and minor just so that I can kind of keep track of them. It's a contact sport and the benefits far outweigh the minor bumps and bruises. To be honest, the bumps and bruises are kind of fun.

Why we do this: part duex

Warning: This post is going to be somewhat long, and maybe a little self indulgent. I get a little tired of reading on other blogs and in other martial arts discussions about how BJJ guys aren't real martial artists, and how martial arts should be about building character. I want to focus on character development, specifically how I believe that a system like BJJ is better for character development and inner strength then most schools that focus on breathing, kata, black belts, tradition and respect.

My belief is that the character development in BJJ is not unique to BJJ, although it is becoming so among martial arts. It's my contention that my kids learn the same lessons by applying themselves to any activity, be it a sport or learning to play a musical instrument or any activity where success can be marked objectively, but for which they have a passion to succeed. You see, there are two things to be learned, and it seems like the only lesson we want to teach our kids anymore is the easy one... the one where they're always winners. I want for my kids to realize that they don't have to play the clarinet like Benny Goodman to enjoy playing the clarinet. They don't have to be Picasso to enjoy painting. On the other side of the coin, I tell my kids that the difference between someone who's good at something and someone who's great at something is the desire to succeed once coupled with the willingness to fail countless times, over and over.

Disclaimer: I don't have anyone in particular in mind, so if you think the bad schools I'm describing sound familiar, well, let your conscience be your guide. If not, congratulations on avoiding the pitfalls I had trouble with when I started training in martial arts. I do refer to a few other specific posts by other bloggers, but want to be clear that I'm lifting their points out of context. It's not their posts or their training specifically that I'm addressing. Their posts only served to bring to mind issues that have been milling around for a while in the back of my mind.

We've had three big promotions in the school over the last few weeks. Last weekend, concluding the Mohler/Foster seminar, one of the guys, Jeff, was promoted to purple belt. Jeff's a professional MMA fighter, kind of quiet around the school. I don't take the MMA classes, but he runs them and everyone I've talked to likes them very much. I know that he's very helpful in class and every time I've asked him a question he's taken the time to answer it regardless of how dumb it might be. After he received his certificate, Coach Mohler said some things that I thought were really interesting. He said (paraphrasing from memory... and add your own Texas accent as you read it), "I just want you guys to think about what a major accomplishment this is. With all due respect, most of you will never get to this point. Life just gets in the way and most people stop training long before they receive their purple belt."

Yesterday at class, Coach Foster announced two more promotions. Josh and Mikey were both awarded their blue belts. After giving them their certificates, Coach Foster echoed what Allen Mohler said last weekend. I've talked about it before, but the belts work differently in BJJ than in most martial arts systems. In BJJ, you have to be proficient all across the board to get your blue belt... the first promotion. It takes a long time for anyone. Josh is probably the most naturally gifted guy in our school. He's young, athletic, strong and a quick study. It still took him... I don't know exactly how long, but I'd say 8 or 9 months to get his blue belt. This isn't a knock on Josh. Just the opposite. I'll consider myself lucky if I get my blue belt this side of my 2 year anniversary. So, the guy we jokingly refer to as "The Prodigy" still went 9 months as a white belt. In today's instant gratification society, it takes dedication and humility to work for so long. We've taught an entire generation that there are no losers... even though there are, and I for one think that's bad for character development. In my last school, he would have been promoted at least three belts in that time, guaranteed. I'd wager that it's the same in most schools... some I've heard test every two months.

So, when I see posts on other blogs that ask questions like, "Where's the inner development in martial arts?" or asking "Where's the inner discovery?" I just don't get it. What I mean is, I'm not an inherently spiritual person. I balk at suggestions that I develop any kind of "energy" at all. I don't like playing make believe. While I don't pretend to know what other people can do, I know that were I to engage in any kind of chi anything, I would be pretending. But when I think about inner development, or the building of character, I can't think of a better way to do it than to immerse oneself in a system that is objective, where a person isn't guaranteed success. In a system like this, you don't just feel warm and fuzzy for a few minutes because you got... another belt. You don't focus on the black belt... the prize. In BJJ, EVERY belt is valued. A blue belt is someone to be admired because they endured failure thousands of times before they tasted success, and EVERY blue belt has earned his or her promotion through a demonstration of applied technique.

Talking to my son about it, I described it in terms of an analogy. He and I had been talking about video games. For a while, when my son discovered the internet, he also discovered cheat codes. He always wanted to show me cheat codes and I kept telling him I wasn't interested. I explained to him that using cheat codes to get through the game or to unlock all of the achievements ruined the game for me. It made me focus on the end of the game and kept me from enjoying everything else. "I would rather,"I told him, "enjoy half of the game and never finish than cheat and not enjoy any of it." Truth is, the end of the game is usually just scrolling credits anyway... underwhelming to say the least.

I see many martial arts as being, functionally, like cheat codes. You don't have to be good at the game anymore to finish. You don't have to learn the technique or figure out the puzzles. Nope. All you need in many martial arts schools now is enough determination and money to stick it out long enough to get the promotions to black belt. I see belt factories as being counter to character development, teaching kids bad habits, not good ones. After all, why should a 10 year old black belt value their rank any more than they do the credits at the end of Final Fantasy X or whatever. Why, for that matter, should any adult?

Moving on to a related point, I was reading on another blog how the blogger was disappointed because she couldn't physically handle the punishment from continually performing certain throws. Perfectly understandable. My brother experienced similar issues while training in Judo. She was upset because apparently the founder of the style insisted that she be able to perform the full range of the style before being promoted to black belt. While I can definitely empathize, I think that this is another facet of the same issue. I can see the founder's point. Because every single promotion is objective and based on demonstrable technical ability, it is tangible. Concrete. It has practical value.

So, as a 36 year old guy a few months from his one year anniversary training in BJJ, I understand that a black belt may be beyond me. Maybe not, and I'm definitely not counting it out. I'm just saying I understand that I may not ever be a black belt, and that's okay. I'll still train. If I only get as far as blue, I'm okay with that, because I'm enjoying the game and not just looking to finish. At the same time, I'll value every promotion all the more because I'll know it's earned. Coach Foster says when he hands out the rank certificates that being registered shows that no matter where one goes, the rank will be recognized. What I think is more important to me is that because we're promoted based upon ability, no matter where we go, our rank will be recognized on the mats, and the certificate is a mere formality.

Sunday BJJ Class 09/16/2007

There's a lot of discussion on the internet about ego in Martial Arts. It's often asserted that there is a lot of ego in BJJ. I just can't see it. Frankly, I can't imagine how ego could thrive. It's such an unforgiving undertaking that anyone with any amount of ego must necessarily be driven away. Most classes involve failing over and over again. Sure, there are minor successes, but the classes are primarily about trying, failing and trying again.

So, then, why keep training? There are a couple of answers to that... at least, for me (the only person I can really speak for). First is some kind of ineffable quality. It's an addiction for many who try it that is unexplainable. In trying to explain this quality, I can only say that it's like when I was a kid playing tackle football after school in my cords and button up shirt knowing that my mom was going to kill me. The feeling that I remember after dragging my friend literally 20 feet into the endzone, bouncing off of two or three other guys for the TD. That's how I feel after 5 minutes on the mat. If you've ever felt it, you know what I'm talking about.

The second thing is that even though I fail over and over, I do experience some success. Sometimes, I'll go all class and am confounded at every turn. More often than not, a class is comprised of a combination of things that I do well and things that I didn't do well. Some classes, like yesterday's class, I feel like maybe way off in the distance I could actually be pretty good at this stuff. I still stink. But I don't stink quite as bad as I did a month ago. And I'm a hell of a lot better than I was when I started.

So, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I felt really good driving home after class on Sunday. Warmups were tough, but I was able to get through them feeling good. Rick was "in a mood" so we did a ton of abs and sprawls. But I felt good at the end.

I felt really good during technique. We worked on some very fundamental counters: stacking counter to an armbar from guard and a basic counter to a triangle. I don't do either as well as I should, but I picked up a few details that I feel good about (that's today's theme). Working with my partner, I felt really good about my armbar from guard, too. I felt like I was giving him a proper armbar to counter. I was able to really get my hips up high and swing my leg around, putting a lot of pressure on his shoulders and keeping his arm in tight, getting a good fit so that he had a legitimate armbar to counter. Also, one thing that I really felt good about was that I didn't need to push off of his hip to get enough momentum to swing my leg around. The armbar motion from guard takes a lot of core strength. Imagine someone pushing down on your shoulders and then you try to lift your legs and hips up really high. Then add rotation. It's not easy. I was, for the first time, able to do this without getting what amounts to a push off. It felt good.

Then we moved into sparring. I only got two matches during class (our technique went a bit long), but they were good matches. My first match was with a guy who hasn't been training for as long as I have, about 5 or 6 months, I'd say... maybe less. I'd also put him easily at about 230 lbs, and he's pretty strong though still working on his cardio. I worked from guard and felt in control all 5 minutes. I kept him busy by working on a collar choke and managed to sweep into his guard twice. I actually finished one collar choke, an armbar from mount, a rear naked choke and something else... forgetting now. Anyway, the main thing is that I felt in control, even when he was grinding his considerable size into my gut while trying to break my guard open. It was a good match.

My second match was against one of our new blue belts (more about him in another post). Mikey is a technical guy, but I'd say where I was giving up 50 lbs in my first match I was at least 2 weight classes up on Mikey. I think I'm around 25 lbs heavier than he is. But... since he's a blue belt now, I didn't hold back too much, though I did try to favor a sore rib of his. I can't remember everything that happened during the match. I know I worked from the bottom and from the top. The best part was that Bill, one of the purple belts, was watching and throwing out tips to help us both. At the end, he complimented me on my use of the space. While on the bottom, he said, Mikey was really maintaining tight position but I was creating some space and getting my knees in to regain half guard. That felt really good.

So, there you go. It was a good class. The kind of class that keeps a guy coming back for more.

Mohler/Foster Seminar: Day 2

For the record, I'm not a small man. I'm normal sized... 5'10". James is just a big dude. This is a picture of the two BJJ black belts who taught the seminar, James Foster and Allen Mohler. This was after the second day. I got a lot of mat time and learned a ton.

I'm not going to detail any of the techniques. It's just too much. We worked guillotine counters, from side and from within guard
counters to single leg takedowns (head out and head in). These were warm up drills. As I said in my last post, I just have to figure out a way to get to Kent by 5pm on Mondays for Jeff's Drills class. I really feel like it would help me get off this plateau I'm on.


Techniques we learned included the Gogoplata, which is a choke from guard where you choke your opponent with your shin. This is what it looked like when Nick Diaz shocked everyone by submitting Gomi last year.

We also learned a thumb choke, very similar to a guillotine in that it is a front facing choke. The main difference being, well, obviously you're choking more with your hands and your opponent is pinned in the middle as opposed to on one side. This is the same technique that Marcus Hicks used to defeat Scott McAfee in the WEC bout a while back.

We worked on several transitions from guard, including the omoplata.

Oh, and after the instruction but before open mat, I won a DVD. It's a DVD of the Lotus Club/No Limits BJJ seminar held a few years back where 6 Black Belts showed 63 different techniques. A lot of them are ones that I can work into my game. I just have to pick a couple and start trying to work them.

So, until next time.

Mohler/Foster Seminar: Day 1

Injury report: My little toe is all screwed up. The down side is that it's pretty bruised and tender, the bruise extending up onto my foot and making it painful to bend. The up side is that after it heals, it will now match my other little toe, which has looked like a sausage for about 8 months since this exact same thing happened to it. I should be fine with a little tape.

The seminar started with a very light warm-up and then some drills. The drills we worked on were partner drills where we'd work to regain guard and things like that. These drills, and seeing the ease with which Coach Mohler went from one submission to the next really brought home that I need to go to Jeff's Drills and Conditioning classes on Mondays. These sorts of drills are fun and very and the lockflow drills will help me down the road.

One of the drills we worked on was a way to take the back on someone who's turtled up really tight. In this drill, we'd start with the our partner in a strong turtle position, meaning that he's got his elbows in tight, and is protecting his head, neck and arms. I'm going to be facing him, pushing his head down into the mat with my stomach, using my stomach to sense his moves to one side or the other. I'm not going to clinch around his chest. This would set me up for a reversal. Instead, I've got my hands cupped around his arms, close to his body. My hips are low and my legs are out behind me with the arches of my feet to the mat (not toes down). From here, he taught us two ways to go, the small man's way and the big man's way. Both start from this position and involve moving to my parner's side. So, I'll bring my arm around to block him from reaching out and grabbing anything as I move to his side.

The small guy's drill involved reaching under and grabbing the wrists, then rolling over the top taking my partner with me into back control. He emphasized NOT putting my head down by my partner's. This would seem the thing to do, but he assured us that it would be uncomfortable as his body would drive into our face. Not good. Instead, as we roll, we were told to roll over our shoulder, as we practice in warm-ups. Very fancy.

The big guy's drill was for when you're grappling with someone who's got mass such that you might not want to roll him over you. Instead, you grab the near sleeve and the far lapel, making sure you pull it up and out so he doesn't trap your far arm. Then step out and in, planting my foot or shin against his leg and using that to get him over and on his back. Then make him uncomfortable.

There were other drills, but these were the most involved. The others involved regaining guard when someone's moving around the side and stuff like that.

Coach Foster showed us some techniques from guard. Starting in guard, get a good grip on both sleeves. He emphasized two good grips. The first (and the one I prefer) is to use four fingers with the cuff folded over, thumb out so it doesn't get broken. This is a very strong grip for me. The other is a pistol grip, where you basically bunch up the fabric at the cuff and then grip it like you would a pistol. Pretty much.

So, I have the grips. I'm going to plant both feet on my partner's hips, and then move to one hip and bring the top leg over my partner's arm nice and deep and keeping my knee wide to put a lot of pressure on his bicep. I haven't released my strong grip on his cuff, so his arm is very tightly held. I'm also keeping my elbows in to make my grip harder to break. Some other details for this position. Never plant your foot high into your partner's armpit. This is asking for a heel hook or leg lock. Even if you have a strong grip, his weight and momentum will cause problems for you. So, keep your knee wide to create pressure on his arm, but always keep your foot low on his hip or even hide it between his legs.

In the first technique, a sweep from this position. I've got my left leg over and locked into my partner's arm, so I would keep pressure on this arm, and then bring my other knee inside as I release my grip on his left arm. I would then need to hook his left leg, but that's more for control. The sweep comes from the angle and the pressure on his arm driving his off balance and over. This sweep takes me right into a bicep lock which is illegal in most competitions now. Apparently, from this position it feels like pain compliance, with pressure on the bicep, but there's actually a tremendous amount of pressure being put on the forearm. Competitors not realizing the danger weren't tapping and were ending up with snapped forearms. So, instead of breaking our partner's forearm, we let the arm go and moved to a knee-on-belly position.

We learned other techniques from this position, but they're going to have to wait. Hopefully, I my brain doesn't pop today so I forget everything. We learned a lot from Coach Mohler, as well, and I'm hoping I can remember enough to put some of that down in writing before I forget it.

I will say quickly, before I go get ready for today's no-gi instruction, that what I appreciated most yesterday was the attention to details. I picked up things from each of the two instructors that will help me in every technique, not just the ones we learned yesterday. I learned some tips on how to be a good partner, reacting in a realistic way, providing non-verbal cues to my partner when they're giving me too much space, getting sloppy or failing to attack the correct angle.

Which leads me to another general tip I picked up. Attack angles. Definitely not a new concept for me, but one which had slipped under the radar. As anyone who trains in BJJ or any MA probably knows, when you learn something the first time most of it slips by. You don't even realize that you're missing them. Sometimes, even larger concepts settle into the background, and this is one of those. Coach Foster is always talking about widening the elbows, using technique and not strength, and attacking angles, but this really stood out yesterday. We were working on a technique for getting out of from under side control (the nasty kind where someone's got what amounts to a pin in Judo). It finally clicked that widening the elbow means driving it in a 45degree angle, and if done correctly, I can make it very uncomfortable for the person on top. Angles. That's what I took from Coach Mohler. As far as I'm concerned, as a 2 stripe white belt, that's good enough. I learned some fancy techniques, but I'm pleased that this concept finally came out from the background.

Mohler/Foster seminar 9/8/2007

Today was the first day of two working with Allen Mohler. I really got a kick out of the work we did today, and in having the chance to meet another BJJ Black Belt.

First, two things unrelated to the BJJ. As I talked to Coach Mohler before the seminar, my first thought was how much he looks like Michael Keaton. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a geek. Between my wife and I, we have every geek stereotype covered. Seriously. Every single one. Star Trek, computers (my first was a TI 99A, although I also had a Vic 20 with a 300 baud modem... smokin'). Oh, competive math team, Dungeons and Dragons and literally anything else you can think of. I'm mentioning this so you know that when I say that Michael Keaton is the best Batman from the movies, I do so having given it some thought. Because for some subsets of geekdom, who is the best cinematic Batman is important. So, I guess you could say that Allen Mohler looks to me like Batman... sort of. Tell you what. You make the call.

The other thing that was really cool today was just listening to Coach Mohler, Coach Foster and some of the guys who've been around for a while tell stories and talk about BJJ, MMA, who's fighting and how things are going. Turns out that Marcus Hicks fights out of Dallas, TX and is one of Allen Mohler's students. I've been watching the occasional episode of Tapout and Marcus was featured in episode 6 against one of the Tapout fighters, Sergio Gomez. Marcus won with a submission (BJJ FTW!). He's won another one since and is currently 6 - 0 and I'm looking forward to watching the Wrecking Ball fight again.

More on the important stuff from the seminar later, but I think now I'm going to make myself a dirty Martini (Bombay Saphire) and watch UFC 75 on Spike TV.

No classes this week

Looks like the next class I'm going to be attending is the 2 day seminar with Alan Mohler and my coach, James Foster next weekend. I'm travelling for work, and with the first day of school being today want to make sure I get some time with my kids to debrief. I'm sure they'll have lots to talk about.

So, in the absence of any BJJ related information, I thought I'd share a couple of healthy food related things I've recently discovered. The first is Matcha Green Tea. I've been drinking lots of tea for about a year now, and really enjoy green tea. My favorite by far is a Jasmine Pearl Green Tea, just like this, although not from this company. The leaves are of high quality and I've found that 10 or so of the pearls will rehydrate and last me all day... or at least 3 to 4 cups of tea. Basically, the little balls steep in the water and become a surprising number of tea leaves. In the end, it looks a little like pond scum, but tastes pretty darn good.

But I digress. On my way to Starbucks for my afternoon coffee, I decided to wander instead into Koots Green Tea, the green tea equivalent to Starbucks. My kids must be having an affect on me, because my first thought was that it was like a Starbucks that had been reskinned or had a new profile applied... sort of like on MySpace. The counter was there, as were the tables and comfortable chairs. But while Starbucks are all dark browns and blacks, Koots is all bamboo, bleached wood, light greens and tan. The menu was marginally familiar, as well. My favorite espresso drink is a simple Americano, and so I settled on a green tea version, the Matcha Americano. Essentially, the tea leave is dried and ground to a fine powder. This is then mixed into hot water to make a very strong cup of tea. I thought it was great, and it's supposed to be very good for me in many ways, from digestion to antioxidants. I think it will even make my male pattern baldness sexy, or so it says*. Such is the amazing power of green tea. It should be noted that the reference to "pearl" tea on the Koots menu is different from the "pearl" tea I spoke about earlier. On the Koots menu, "pearl" refers to tapioca chunks, a la bubble tea.

I bought some matcha tea at Whole Foods today. Hopefully, I can make it taste as good as the lady at Koots does.

The second thing I've been munching on are little gems called Goji Berries. So far, I've only snacked on them along with other dried fruits, but in theory I should be able to use them in herbal teas, blended in smoothies or in any number of other ways. Like the Green Tea, the health claims are bold, sometimes to the point of absurdity, even to suggest anti-aging affects.

* No actual claims of this kind have been made that I'm aware of, although I wouldn't be surprised.