Direct Link Here: http://youtu.be/o8g8iJdjtOs
Very well done prank by Rener Gracie.
Feb 022012
Feb 022012
I made it to class last night and felt… okay. Last week, by the time Friday rolled around, I finally admitted to myself that I was getting worse, not better. I was planning on going to the doctor on Saturday if I didn’t feel better, but Friday morning, when I began coughing up a charming combination of phlegm and blood, I figured I’d probably better get some help.
Sure enough, I was diagnosed with pneumonia, given a stern look or two by the doctor, and a couple of prescriptions. By Friday evening, I was already feeling better.
Bing had some personal business to take care of, so we worked some basics. I showed a simple scissor sweep along with a couple of variations, including the elevator sweep. Nothing fancy, but we have several white belts, and I figure that you can’t get enough of the basics. I also talked a little about the “dead angle.”
My energy level remains very low and I’ve still got a cough, but I’m feeling so much better. I just feel like I’m dragging through the day, but I guess it takes a while to get over pneumonia. I’m just thankful that I’m on the mend and able to get to class, and I’m looking forward to Friday.
I was really pleased that Brandon was at class last night. I was able to give him his newly dyed gi and he really seemed pleased. In the second picture, I made the mistake of looking directly at it. While it’s not quite as bright as Bing’s Orange Crush, it’s pretty bright.
Also, after giving it a lot of thought, I’m going to offer my services if anyone is interested in having a gi dyed by me. While I think that the process of dying a gi is very accessible, I get there are people who want a unique color, but who aren’t interested in DIY.
The price is something that I gave a lot of thought to, and I’m going to charge $80 for a single colored gi. Considering the cost of materials, shipping and the time involved with hand dying each gi, one at a time, I think this is a very fair price.
I’m in the process of putting some actual policies together on a website so that everything is very clear. But the way I look at it, I’ll help you with information for free. I have made a lot of information available, and I encourage anyone who’s interested to give it a shot. But, I’m also available to do it for you, if you’d like to pay for the service. It’s something I enjoy, and I have done enough of them now that I’m confident that I can make your gi look really good. I’ll also be working on some hand dyed gi patches and shirts using batik. More to come on this in the near future.
Jan 302012
A new video from Coach Foster.
Will need to take it easy. While I’m definitely on the mend and the doctor says I’m fine to return to normal activities, I didn’t tell him that normal for me involves sparring. But he also advised me to listen to my body and don’t overdo things.
Yes. I went to the doctor. Probably about three days later than I should have, but I finally decided that my wife was right and I’m sick enough that I need some help getting better. The diagnosis is pneumonia, and the antibiotics are helping tremendously. I’m on day four of five right now, and my energy level is much improved. My head is clear and I can think again. It’s difficult to describe the feeling of… mushiness that I had, but I’m sure it’s something we’ve all felt at one time or another.
I’m a little concerned about the cough, still. The doctor said that the cough could persist for several weeks. Right now, I cough whenever I take a deep breath, so I suspect that when I do go back to class, I’ll need to stick to warm-ups and technique. Sparring will depend upon how I’m doing at that point, but if anything, it will be light.
I’m REALLY pumped to get back to class.
I’m really excited to be training regularly again. I had been diligently making two classes per week and was looking to bump that up to a routing of three classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Then the Snow Storm came, followed by the freezing rain and down went our power.
And now, after all of that, I have this really nasty cold. I started feeling bad on Sunday and by Monday morning, I gave up at work and went home to bed. Now, a few days later, I feel worse, if that’s possible. My head is pounding and I can’t stop coughing. I’m chugging Theraflu like it’s fruit punch, and I just can’t wait to feel better.
I’m going to give this through tomorrow, and if I don’t feel better by then, I’m going to go see what the doctor has to say.
In the meantime, I’m really enjoying all of the videos that everyone’s posting. Jason Scully has been killing YouTube with his terrific “8 minutes or less” videos. Here’s the latest:
There’s also this one I picked up on Facebook. It’s a compilation of some pretty damned spectacular takedowns from the Russian Nationals.
Enjoy and I’ll hopefully be feeling better and back on the mats soon.
Jan 182012
Well, I wouldn’t quite call it the storm of the century, but we did get a good three or so inches here in lovely Covington, WA. My work is closed. Classes at FosterBJJ are also cancelled for the day, and I’m presuming that Phantom BJJ in Maple Valley will follow suit. But as I sit here drinking a cup of coffee, I have a pretty full day ahead of me.
I have a three year old who’s never really played in the snow. She is pretty excited to try building a snow man. So, after the Sun comes up this morning, we’ll get bundled up and head out to play for a while.
After lunch, I’m hoping to get busy dying a gi. Brandon has a white gi he wants to make bright green. After the usual disclaimers, he picked Kelly Green from the Dharma Trading website. I continue to have people ask me about how this is done, so I am going to take some time and try to put together a simple instructional.
Dying the gi is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to clean up an old gi or personalize a new one. It’s not difficult. The way I look at it, if you’re detail oriented enough to train in BJJ, you can tackle dying a gi.
On Monday, my son and I rolled the mats out in the loft. He thought he could take me. Kids are so cute. Having just turned 16, and officially a moose at 6′ tall and about 210 lbs, he’s bigger than me and still growing. But I cheat. Hehe. It was fun. Maybe we’ll do that again this evening.
Jan 162012
Two things going on with this post. First, I’m bummed. That’s the amount of snow that it takes to effectively shut down Seattle and the surrounding areas. While it may not seem like much to people in the Midwest or other areas where it snows a lot, when you only see snow once or maybe twice in a year, it’s pretty traumatic.
The other thing was just to play around a bit with the video upload feature in my iPad WordPress application.
So, to recap. No class today (boo). And the video feature seems to function as designed (yay).
Jan 152012
http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-0114-blackbelt-20120113,0,1768188.story
This is such a terrific story. Not only does this demonstrate once and for all that if you train smart and listen to your body, BJJ is a legitimate life sport.
And whether the author of this article knows it or not, she articulates in just a few sentences several of the 10 Commandments of BJJ:
“He’s Mr. Consistency. He never misses a class, not ever,” said Buckels, who holds a black belt in jiu-jitsu, as well as kru in Muay Thai kickboxing.
In those 15 years, before Pace, Buckels had only awarded one other jiu-jitsu black belt, and it was to another instructor.
“The best way to describe Gene is that he just executes what you teach him to do,” Buckels said. “If you show him a move, he will go after that move.”
Gene Pace earned his black belt in BJJ by being consistent. He trained twice a week and never missed a class.
He earned it by being fearless. When his instructor shows him a move, he “goes after that move.”
He earned it by being patient and he earned it by being humble. The general estimate for earning a black belt in BJJ is 10 years, which is already a very long time compared to most other styles of martial arts. He earned it in 15 years. This epitomizes for me what I’ve said before. I’d rather train for the rest of my life as a purple belt than get my black belt tomorrow and have to give BJJ up forever.
BJJ is a life long journey and a true life sport. Stories like this just make my day.
I don’t know about anyone else, but this really makes me look forward to class tomorrow!
The latest from Coach Foster. A North/South escape.
Jan 102012
Bing Crook opened up Phantom BJJ, his Foster BJJ affiliate school, in Maple Valley a few months ago and it’s been excellent training consistently again. As of right now, he only has two classes per week, but he’s working on adding a third, which would be AWESOME.
As it stands, technically, I’m starting to get my groove back… a little. I was pretty much out for an entire year, from October 2010 to October 2011. As I said, I didn’t exactly drop out completely, but I was extremely sporadic and as a result, I surely slipped somewhat in technique and definitely took several steps back with regards to conditioning.
The cold, hard truth is that I’m once again overweight. A year of beer and Pick Quick burgers (best in the area and, sorry guys, but better than In and Out) and I was a solid 210 lbs in October. The good news is that, while my cardio is still terrible and I’m making slow progress there, exercise and diet go hand in hand. What I mean is that when I’m active, I want to eat better because I want to be able to exercise more. It’s a positive cycle, and as of this morning, I weighed 201.5 lbs. I’m going to work hard over the next few months to get back to my relatively stable weight of 180 – 185 lbs. I felt good when I was there, and that’s where I need to be. I’m on track to lose a healthy 3 or so lbs per month, which is great.
James Foster came out to the school yesterday and trained with us. It was really good to see him, and I”m going to try and get down to Kent at least one day each week. I’d like to get back to training 3 or 4 days per week.
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