Posts

White belts are people too!

 

Image

So today I learned that white belts are people too. They practice techniques and roll. . . just like us colored belts! 😛 Of course I’m kidding.

Today I had a blast with my white belts. They came in for our first special white belt training session. I decided to do this class because our gym is steadily growing, and as it does, I don’t want any of my students to fall through the cracks. Our gym standards and expectations are high and I want to keep it as such but I feel like I needed to do more with assisting the white belts to success. I’ve seen similar classes done at other gyms but usually they charge a fee. I honestly don’t care about snagging an extra 20-60 bucks from my students, I’d rather see them progress, stick with it and reach their goals. That’s my mission as an instructor.

One of the ways I personally gauge myself on my abilities as a coach is how well I can help as many people as possible reach their goals. Whether that’s winning in competition, weight loss and improved fitness, etc. Its easy with the freaks of nature who are naturally gifted. They pick things up easy. But I feel its a better challenge and a better judge of my abilities if I can take someone who isn’t as naturally inclined towards BJJ and help them achieve their aims.

During the class we went over several basic techniques that I require students to know before they can become a blue belt. I also randomly picked some of them out of the class to demonstrate and explain the techniques to everyone. I was able to watch everyone demonstrate the techniques and help correct any errors they had. With a few of the techniques we examined the mistakes that students were making together and corrected them. After drilling we had a king of the mat style rolling session. This was a really helpful. As I said about the women’s only class, its helpful to watch people compete against others who are relatively similar to themselves in skill.

At the end of class I had everyone sit in a big circle and talk about themselves a little and explain why they decided to get involved in BJJ. I don’t think anyone gets into BJJ to suck or to do it for a couple of months and quit. So I think it its important to hear why it is someone decided to take on something that could last indefinitely. It’s also fun to watch adults get uncomfortable in situations like this. As adults we become really uptight and its important for everyone to kinda of lose that. . uptightness when they’re training. I mean when you think about training and doing BJJ, it’s kind of a weird thing to get so crazy about. We roll around and sweat all over each other in robes. 

 

Anyways, enough rambling, it was a fun day and I couldn’t be happier with the results I received from the class. Now I have to get ready and promote some new blue belts!

 

Image

Teaching kids

I love teaching kids. I’ve said this before and I am positive I will say it again. Pretty regularly a parent will tell me how much their child has improved in some manner. Whether that be self-confidence, grades, behavior, etc and it really makes my day when I hear these sorts of things.  Here is a message one of my parents posted on Facebook.

“Joey is sooooo stoked about his belt testing coming up soon. I am so proud of how far he has come with his self confidence level @ Derby City MMA. His last stripe he earned was the highlight of his week, he was telling EVERYBODY :o) Can’t wait until his belt testing!!! Thanks for all you do Chewy and his other teachers/mentors!”

 

That pretty much made my night. Comments like that remind me why teaching children is a blessing and something to embrace, rather than something to shy away from because its difficult or uncomfortable compared to teaching adults. Even if I have a group of kids for a short time, that’s still enough time for me to have a positive impact on their lives. To etch positive images into their memories. Something that will stick with them, well into their adulthood. Think about all the things you experienced as a child and how the images are burned into your psyche. For better or for worse, many of the things we experience as youngsters have huge impacts later on in our lives in ways we would have never imagined. I would like to think that if I am able to instill a little self-confidence, mental & physical toughness, the skills necessary for basic self defense, and some discipline into a child, it will improve their lives as the grow older. Whether they continue to train with me or not.

 

 

 

 

 

Self Defense against Lawyers, Business Professionals and Hobos.

Last night was our 2nd annual suit rolling session. Once a year around Halloween we don suits that we bought at a Goodwill or any thrift store and . . . we roll. During this style of rolling it is important to submit your partner, but just as important is to rip their clothing. This is just a silly thing to do together and we had a blast. It is a lot of fun to see hard core competitors laughing till it hurt during a “rolling” session. If you ever want something stupid to do with your gym mates, try suit rolling, and if you do, please send me pictures! Enjoy the photos from the students and myself here at Derby City MMA in Louisville, KY!  😀

 

 

 Before rolling

Image  

After rolling

Image

 

 

I’ll leave you with a mustachioed version of myself. Enjoy

Image1

Custom gis for my gym!

Image

So after nearly 6 weeks of waiting our custom Derby City gis came in! I’m so happy about them. They came out really well and the gis are top notch. I’m normally suited up in either a Keiko or Shoyoroll but these gis are made by a Gi company called Da Firma. Their website is http://www.dafirmabjj.com . I’ll do a video review of their Gi in the next few days but for now, check out the new patches I had made for the gi!

Image

Image

 

 

I love teaching kids BJJ!

Image

 

So something I was thinking about today, is the lack of effort some BJJ gyms put towards their children’s programs. I’ve seen many instances where a black belt will refuse to teach kids or will just grab a random blue belt to teach with no guidance whatsoever. They often cite their lack of patience or time as the reasons. I honestly think many people are afraid to teach kids.

This is unfortunate because I personally find teaching kids Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as an amazing opportunity. Being able to have such a direct impact on these youngster’s life is incredible feeling for me. Sure it requires more patience and sure it’s tough sometimes. But when a kid comes up to you and says they stood up to their bullies, that they’re not scared at school, that they don’t hate to look in the mirror anymore or that they finally feel good at something, none of that matters. All that matters at that point is that you changed a young child’s life. Knowing that I have a beneficial influence on my children’s lives is incredibly powerful and fulfilling. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t gotten a little teary eyed after some of the comments from my kid students. Maybe I’m just a little over emotional?

I think of the positive effects my youth leaders and coaches had on me while I was growing up. I hope that I’ll have a similar effect on my students. Also, truth be told. I’m kind of an overgrown kid, so my students and I get along just swell.

Let me add this. Should you ever get a chance to teach kids BJJ. . . Do it! Not only will it test your ability to simplify a movement and further develop your teaching. . . and patience. But it really is an interesting and awesome experience.

10 years in BJJ and 10 lessons I’ve learned (Part 1)

I feel like it was yesterday that I took my first BJJ class. Sadly, that was over 10 years ago. That’s right; I’ve been training Brazilian Jiu-jitsu for over 10 years! Just being able to say this makes me feel proud and super old. In honor of my landmark I came up with 10 solid lessons and experiences I’ve personally learned and share them. Each lesson will have a personal story to accompany it and then I’ll give a take-away. I will share highs and lows as well as some embarrassing moments in my BJJ career. I hope that you get something out of the stories and the lessons that go with them.

“Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.” – William Temple

“There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.” – Henri-Frederic Amiel

“Self-praise is for losers. Be a winner. Stand for something. Always have class, and be humble.” – John Madden

“Arrogance invites ruin; humility receives benefits.” – Chinese Proverb

1.Be a humble person to those around you  – When I started training BJJ I was 18 years old. After about 6 months of constant training and competing I received my blue belt. At the time of receiving the belt, there were not many high ranking belts in the area. Most of the “higher” belts were purple belts. My streak of tournament wins combined with how quickly I acquired my blue belt as well as my 19 year old immaturity made me feel like a total “bad ass”. In addition to this, my instructor at the time wasn’t the best for putting a lid on this disrespectful attitude, instead he encouraged it. When I competed, especially at local tournaments, I felt like I was some sort of fighting animal that he could brag about after a win. Sadly, I kind of enjoyed it when I was in my “bad ass” phase. I was still a nice person, but I definitely had an obnoxious streak especially when it came down to winning, losing and competing.

3 examples of my antics

1. After being submitted I would smack the mat and drop the F Bomb.

2. I would gloat about winning constantly.

3. I would talk down about others and their BJJ.

Fast forward to early 2007 I had a conversation with my friend who would eventually become one of my BJJ coaches. He and I met up for lunch and he informed me that I could no longer train at his gym because of the negative associations that came along with my current instructor. At this point I had trained with Colin here and there for a while and considered him a friend. I didn’t want to be unable to hang out and train with my buddy! That moment made me realize the path I was on, and if I continued my path I would end up being like my instructor. He was someone who was isolated in the local BJJ community because of their brashness and poor attitude towards others. I knew deep down that I was not that kind of person, so soon after I separated from my instructor and began the “humblization” process under my new coaches. I am a confident person but I’ve done my best to rid myself of that my previous cocky, egotistical edge. I don’t think I would be a successful instructor, competitor or even liked in the community if I hadn’t done that.  This was one of the best lessons I ever learned through BJJ and has definitely carried over into other aspects in my life.

 

The take away

No one wants to be around a cocky jerk that is full of him or herself. One of the best parts about this sport is the amazing communities, and you cannot be a part of these communities if you don’t lose your ego! If you do not lose these negative traits you will find yourself more and more isolated. People will shy away from training with you. You won’t fit in with your academy because you will be “that guy” everyone loves to tap because he has a big ego. If you somehow manage to retain this nasty quality into your higher ranks you will most certainly be shunned by many of your peers and will have a hard time finding people to cross train with and share knowledge. To top it off, it will severely hinder your ability to learn and grow in skill. Trust me, you don’t want this. Take it from someone who was once “that guy” in the gym.  Just be humble to the people around you.

Competition, visualization and a look into my day

Today was a bruiser. I didn’t have any interviews for the podcast or private lessons and I am waiting for the hosting issues to get resolved before I can finish the work on the actual website. This freed up my day so I decided to take advantage of it and work hard!

When I weighed in this morning I was 207lbs which is good considering I had a pretty relaxed diet this weekend. I went on a camping trip this weekend and ate food that I normally don’t consume in great quantities like breads so honestly I expected my weight to be up a bit. This means I need to lose about 5lbs so that I will be 207lbs or under in the kimono. Whenever I am getting ready for an IBJJF style tournament, which has you weigh in right before your match, I aim to be a couple of pounds lighter than I need to be. This lets me enjoy a good breakfast on the day of competition. I am kind of a fat kid at heart and going without a sizable breakfast isn’t an option and when the day of competitions comes I want to focus on the match not having to lose a few extra pounds.

Here is what my day looked like. . .

11am-12:15pm: BJJ Takedowns. 10 minutes total of takedown rounds and then 15 minutes of rolling starting from the knees

12:30pm-1:30pm: Heavy deadlifts. Did work with 80% of my one rep max. Then some stretching.

 

7pm-8:10pm: More gi takedowns. Again 10 minutes total of takedown rounds and then 15 minutes of rolling from the knees.

8:15pm-8:50pm: Did the “Filthy Fifty” workout.  If you’ve never done the workout before it’s a lot of fun. Here’s what it is . . .

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

This work out is considered a chipper workout. Meaning it’s long and tough, and you have to simply chip away at it.

8:55pm-9:20pm: Live wrestling for takedowns. Going to wrestling straight after that workout was rough, but I did well and was happy I pushed through my fatigue.

 

I felt great today. The camping trip this weekend helped me clear my head a bit and I felt really refreshed on the mats today.  That being said, it was still rough and required a lot of focus.

Whenever I have rough days like this when I am leading up to a tournament I try to use visualization as a motivation.  When I am drilling my takedowns I am not taking down my partner, I am taking down an unnamed opponent in the competition. When my grip starts to fade during a heavy set of deadlifts I think about my opponent finishing their rep and clinch the bar tighter. When I am exhausted after a hard workout I think about my opponents training past discomfort and head back to the mats for wrestling.

This may sound silly but visualization is such a powerful technique that comes in handy when I am training for a competition and need an extra boost of motivation during hard sessions. Even if I am not preparing for a competition, if I have a goal I want to achieve, then visualization is something I use. During the hard work that is necessary to achieve any worthwhile goal (BJJ or otherwise) if I find my motivation waning, I start to visualize. Visualize overcoming the obstacles that stand in my way. Visualize how my hard work will aid in my road to attainment, and visualize the satisfaction of achieving my goal. No matter how tired I might be. When I think about these three things I get fired up to get after whatever it is I need to do.

I am tired so if this post came across as poorly thrown together I do apologize. I am a bit wipe so I am going to head to bed and get ready for another tough day tomorrow!

As always, thanks for reading.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send an email to chewjitsu@gmail.com

Lead up to competition series

Hey everyone,

This will be a short post. Myself, my students / team / association are gearing up for a few tournaments that are coming up in the next couple of months.

 

We will be competing at some of the bigger events like the Atlanta Open, Miami Open, No Gi Pans and we also have some regional tournaments stuck in there as well. I am also involved in an invite tournament that is going to be filled with some tough competition. One of my early grappling heroes, Chris Moriarty will be competing in it which is exciting. Some other insanely tough guys like Vitor Oliveira and JT Torres, among others will be involved.

 

I thought it would be a fun idea to take people along with us. Every Monday, until these big competitions are over, we will be focusing on mine as well as my teams preparation leading up to these matches. I will be posting a video, text blog or image sharing our journey with you. I hope you enjoy following a long with us.

Tips For Recovering In BJJ!

Here is a video of me showing a few pieces of equipment I use to help fight off my sore body after hard training sessions. Recovering in BJJ is important to keep training hard and making progress.

Make sure you get the most of your training

Almost every week I have students that complain about lagging performance on the mat(its more common in summer). They say they felt overly fatigued and just zapped of energy during training. When a student comes to me complaining about lack of energy and just missing that umph that they normally possess, I always ask two questions.

The first question is “did you eat enough today?” Almost every time their reply comes back as something like “no, I missed lunch” or “no I didn’t eat much today.”

The second question is “how much water did you drink today?” Again their reply usually alludes to a lack of consumption.

Now these seem like simple things . . . eating food and drinking water, but I’ve seen plenty of higher level BJJ players step onto the mat without taking in adequate amounts of food and water. Heck, one of my high level blue belt competitors nearly passed out on the mat recently because of not having enough in his body. Now this doesn’t mean you should stuff your face with whatever sort of food you can find and gulp down a half gallon of water 30 minutes before you step on the mat. You’ll probably spend the rolling session of class mopping up your puke if you choose to do that. You have to be kind of “strategic” about these things. That’s the fun word for the day! Now I know strategic sounds like a funny word to use when you are relating it to your eating habits, but when you look at the definition it makes sense.

Strategic : “of great importance within an integrated whole or to a planned effect”

Think of your body during training as a high performance vehicle. The food that you put into your body is the fuel for this vehicle. Imagine putting garbage fuel or no fuel at all into a high performance car. . . it wouldn’t run very well or run at all. This holds true with your body. When you eat junk or nothing, you’ll perform in a way that reflects as such. With that said, we want to eat in a way that gives us the planned effect of having plenty of energy so that we are able to get the most out our training. I mean if you are going to spend time driving to the gym, paying your gym dues, buying a kimono, caring for your kimono, purchasing dvds, reading BJJ related books, spending countless hours watching videos online and making your significant other angry because you’re obsessed with BJJ. Then why would you allow your training sessions to be sub-par because of lazy / poor eating habits?

I am not going to dive too deep into diets and nutrition but I will share some of my my pre training favorites and my typical diet routine during an average weekday. My pre training favorites are sweet potatoes (personal favorite), oatmeal, smoothies, fruit and a protein shake.

I typically space my solid meals out at least about an hour and a half to two hours prior to training. A meal like this would be something like sweet potatoes, asparagus and chicken. Sweet potatoes are a fantastic source of complex carbs and it is an incredibly nutrient dense food. When I eat a sweet potato for lunch I almost always feel energized during my training sessions.

In the mornings I usually have oatmeal with some fruit and honey, which gives me energy for my morning training sessions. Oatmeal is easier on my stomach and digestion than the sweet potato meal listed about, but I still try and have the food eaten no later than an hour before training.

When I find myself running late in the mornings or get knocked off my schedule during the afternoon I make a smoothie (protein, fruit, honey, sometimes oats) ,again, no later than an hour before training.

Should my schedule get really off track, I will at least throw back a protein shake and a banana 30-45 minutes prior to training.

 

I also don’t take any pre workout supplements. I have in the past, but when I did I would find myself in the middle of a hard roll with what felt like a humming bird trying to escape from my chest. I usually just have a small cup of coffee or tea for a boost.

 

My eating schedule during the week is pretty structured. Because I train and teach a lot during the week I can’t really afford to have a big fat meal during the day. Bad food will make me lethargic and I’ll do a crappy job of teaching my students and training myself.  That being said I still have my share of ice cream and cheeseburgers. I follow the 80/20 rule most of the time, 80% good and 20% whatever. I love having a burger and a beer with the guys, or sometimes on Thursdays we will go to the Mexican restaurant across the street and have a cheat meal AFTER training.

 

Anyways, here’s what my average diet looks like during the week, it’s not for everyone but it keeps me energized during the day.  Just as a note, I have fixed AM and PM training sessions, but I will also do extra training, privates and gym work during the day that’s not listed. I say this because I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I’m eating and sleeping between training sessions. Believe me, I’m not. I get up at 7-8am and don’t leave the gym till 9:930pm.

-Morning: Eggs, oatmeal (plain no sugar), piece of fruit and honey to put into the oats and a cup of coffee or tea

AM Training if I lift (Teaching, rolling, and a lift)

-Lunch(right after training) Sweet potatoes, asparagus, chicken.

-Lunch 2: usually the same thing as my first lunch with a cup of tea or coffee.

PM Teaching and Training

-Post workout protein shake

-A light dinner: veggies and some sort of protein source

 

 

 

Recap:

  1. Eat enough food and drink enough water. Your body is a vehicle and it needs fuel.
  2. Make sure you’re eating the right foods. You will get out of your body what you put in.
  3. Structure your diet so that its part of a conscious effort to enhance your training, not just eating to eat.
  4. Enjoy the energy boost you will feel during training if you are not currently eating consciously.

 

Thank you for reading the post! I hope that you were able to take something away from it and that it might help you get the most out of your training sessions if your eating habits are a little suspect right now. Also, if you have any BJJ related questions that you might want help with, feel free to send them to me in an email at chewjitsu@gmail.com.

 

Keep training hard!

—Chewy