Ive been training a little more lately but unfortunately have been neglecting www.chewjitsu.com, so I figured I would post this morning. I had a good rolling session last night at the gym.

We had learned a new choke that Rob Kahn made up. When I was learning it and drilling it, I have to admit, I had some doubts about it’s usability during a roll.

Last night however, I found myself taking side control, applying some “what time is it” pressure and setting up an armbar. The armbar didn’t pan out so I went back to the head pressure. Read the rest of this entry »

So, my training nights have grown few and far between. I made it back tonight and had a really good night. A good training partner was there so I got a good session in. I was able to pull out an Americana but I was worn out. Ive noticed that people are progressing so quickly around me so I know I need to get back in there more often.

I got to roll about 6 times tonight, so Im worn out. Im off to crash.

So, lot’s of stuff has been going on lately. This past month I was negotiating a contract that I probably shouldn’t have bothered with. Problem was, it was my job that I was negotiating. Since it had taken more than 2 weeks, I decided to hit the job market again, which is never fun.

In the meantime, I had no paycheck and no money coming in so I couldn’t justify going to train 3 nights a week. Instead I’ve spent the last 3 weeks doing freelance work and now I can tell. Read the rest of this entry »

I went to the gym the other day to do some cardio and this woman came in, got on the elliptical a few down from me. She was an older woman who seemed to be pretty new to this whole exercise trend. She pressed the buttons for a few minutes before she got herself going at a leisurely pace. Nothing really to note until the lady next to me suddenly got off of her elliptical and walked away.

I could see that she still had about 10 minutes to go and didn’t look like the type to just let her workout go like that. Still, nothing to note so I got back into focus. Then after a minute, I discovered why she abruptly left. Read the rest of this entry »

A friend of mine just told me something that really makes me wonder what I would do in this person’s shoes. Somebody that trains at the same gym was recently told that he has to have surgery and will no longer be able to train in jiu-jitsu anymore. Period. I don’t know the guy personally but apparently he has been training for 3-5 years and now he can’t train ever again (doctor’s orders).

I had to really think about this for a minute. I haven’t even been training for a year yet but to me, facing never training again is sort of like facing a divorce from a marriage that I thought was going beautifully. I don’t even have plans to compete or go into MMA but if I just had to stop training cold turkey, I don’t think I would handle it very well. Read the rest of this entry »

A post by Hazmat at whitecollarbjj brought up an interesting dilemma that I tend to go through. That dilemma being, should I analyze my training or should I just go with the flow and see what happens.

I go through phases where I really try hard to think about each move when I’m rolling and phases where I just “roll with it” (pardon the pun). Each phase I think I have the answer. Sometimes I choose a submission that I want to win with before I roll and Read the rest of this entry »

A while back I found myself weighing 205 lbs. Im 5′8 and it wasn’t much muscle. I used to be into body building and watching what I eat but then came the professional desk job. I found that I was taking work home, going out to lunch with co-workers and since I am a programmer, I was staying up way too late to get up early enough to go to the gym. So, I went from 180lbs of nice lean muscle to 205 of not so leanness.

A friend of mine told me about the Body for Life book and how much it helped him lose some weight. He let me borrow it and it was very close to how I used to train anyway, so I decided to try it out. In 12 weeks I went from 205lbs to 160lbs. Read the rest of this entry »

When training or sparring, your hands are a very important part of your game. You use them to control your opponent might use yours to control you. I found a very unorthodox method to work on my hand consciousness. It sounds stupid but I train with my dog.

To elaborate, I have a Miniature Pinscher. She is full of energy, very fast and only seems to attack my hands, so every now and then I will turtle up and try to avoid her chewing a finger off. I usually close my eyes and put my hands out there for her to mangle. I try to pull them back under me before I require stitches based on feeling how she is moving around me. Since she is small enough, she can work herself Read the rest of this entry »

About a month ago now, I weighed in at 187lbs. I was pretty surprised when I stepped on the scale and saw that because I thought that I was maintaining 170lbs. So, I decided to kick into diet mode and actually dropped down to 174 in the first week. Most of it was water weight but it was a dramatic drop. I didn’t do anything drastic with my diet either. I just ate alot of fruits and vegetables, drank only water and lots of it and did cardio everyday.

For the first 2 weeks, I felt great. My body was changing its energy source Read the rest of this entry »

This morning I had a pretty interesting roll. I didnt go to bed until about 2:00am last night then I woke up at 6:30am and went to train with a friend at 10:00am. I was extremely tired but I think it may have helped my roll.

I felt like my mind was much more relaxed and oddly enough, I just felt more fluid. I think it helped to let my instinct take over to a certain degree. Not going into it with every move planned Read the rest of this entry »