Brazilian jiu-jitsu

Went to train at Bangkok Fight Lab (BFL). Training was really fun, the people were friendly, which always seems to be the case with jiu jitsu gyms. When I got there I thought I recognized the teacher from a youtube video where he's the assistant in a tutorial video with THE Craig Jones. I didn't want to ask him straight away that I recognized him in case he would say it wasn't him, and then it'd be a bit awkward.

In the class we learnt single x (I think that's what its called), the key of the position being that you really wanna keep your back off the ground, and connect your heal with your knee. I ended up getting paired with a chubby guy from Singapore who had been doing bjj for 3/4 months. I enjoyed showing him the proper way of doing the technique. Later we switched partners and I was paired with a blonde guy. He seemed much better than the first guy. After learning the techniques we started doing positional rounds - rolling from single x and from turtle. I started rolling with the chubby guy, and was able to win pretty easily. Then I rolled with an asian guy who was about my size, and it was fun because neither of us knew each other's level, but we both knew the other was pretty decent. He ended up beating me, although I wasn't going 100% since it was my first class.

We finally did some roles at the end, I rolled with the blonde guy and submitted him via guillotine, although he did pass my guard multiple times later on. After rolling we spent time chatting. He told me he was swedish but came here often because his girlfriend was from here. After a while I wanted to ask what belt he was (I imagined white/blue), and was pleasently shocked when he said purple. I beat a purple belt, lesgoooo.

At the end I finally asked the teacher if he had rolled with Craig Jones, and he said yes. I still felt it was a bit awkward given its not great to be recognized for having been an assistant to someone famous, ideally you'd like to be the famous guy!

Decided to do one more session before leaving Bangkok - again at BFL. This time accompanied by my sister, who sat and watched the class (didn't manage to convince her to try), and her boyfriend Joe. The class was overall pretty good - we continued working single leg take downs, and x guard. Single leg, and wrestling moves in general are something I'm extremely bad at. I think it's because they are such fast pace moves that unless you've drilled them, you just can get right. Then again, when rolling after class I always start seated, so you can't really say you're bad at something when you never practice it!

At the end of the class I politely told Joe to fuck off (politely of course) so I could roll with some of the guys there. In the end I only rolled with one dude, and must say I did pretty well - didn't ask him what belt he was. Also, another fun thing was that a guy at the gym received his blue belt, which was a pretty wholesome moment, and wasn't in the least bit jealous, okay maybe 1% jealous and 99% happy, okay maybe 80/20 - thats still a whole lotta happiness.

Yesterday trained bjj at noon where I usually train. There was a brown belt, who trains mma, and who brought two of his students who also did mma. I rolled with both of them, and it was fascinating to see how different pure bjj is, to bjj specialized for mma is. When rolling with one of the guys, I kept reaching a position which I typically love, which is getting a deep underhook from half guard, and trying to take the back. As the person on top, you alwayyyys have to get the underhook yourself. However, in mma, that position is terrible because you would get your face smashed with punches. Anyways, I ended up taking his back and submitting.

Then there was the other guy, who also didn't seem very experienced, and yet he threw himself to a get a knee bar!! What a mad lad! In all seriousness, this stuff seems beyond stupid to me. Here's a guy with very little knowledge of bjj, doesn't know the basics of closed guard, side control, back control etc, not even the basics of leg attacks, throwing himself to a knee bar using all his force, against a guy that weighs 20kg less. The guy submits me three times with three different leg attaks that are all illegal at white belt, teacher watching the fight proudly, and he stands up all cool, saying "thanks for the fight bro". Are you serious bro?? Are you for real bro?? I didn't say anything, but maybe I should have.

This really reminds me of watching a beginner in chess start analysing some obscure opening until move 30. Are you serious bro? You don't know the basics of pawn endings and you're analyzing a tricky opening till move 30. Best you will do is catch a few people off guard, but at the expense of learning fuck all about chess.

Anyways, I wish him well in his bjj journey. Then again he is an mma practitioner, so I guess I can't be too harsh as it is a different world.

What pisses me the most is guys who apply strong pressure in a submission hold. Craig Jones, one of the best nogi grapplers, says if a submission hold is well applied, the opponent should not be able to escape, so there is absolutely no need to apply pressure. Unfortunely many apply the 50 iq logic of "I HavEe tO apPly foRce QuicKly and MakE hiM taP befOre he Can esCape". Ahhhhhh. All these things should be taught to beginners before they even step on the mat. It's so plainly obvious.

Long break from writing about BJJ. Have been training every day bar Sundays. I feel like I'm slowly progressing.

I think its time to look deeper in leg locks. I think the way to progress the fastest is to focus on high percentage and high frequency submissions. In other words, submissions that will arise often, and will finish often. This obviously includes the rear naked choke, which I think I'm pretty good at already. The head and arm choke from mount, which I also feel confident in. The last set of submissions which are high percentage and I know nothing about is leg locks. At white belt I'm obviously very restricted as to what I can attack (anything other than straight ankle locks are illegal afaik). Either way, I think its good to become more familiar and comfortable in the leg entangles, even if I can't go for submissions. Simply being able to understand what is going on, who has the upper hand in each position, when I'm in danger and when I'm not, etc. is something that would be super valuable.

One way to think about it is that so far my bjj game has been focused on only 50% of the opponents body!! This is obviously silly, one should be able to attack the full body. In addition, I think leg locks is the one game where size doesn't matter as much, so this would be especially suited to me as someone who is generally smaller than most people I roll with. I think what I will do is purchase the Gordon Ryan leg lock turorials, and go through those.

LONG time since my last post, since then have done a lot of bjj related things. The main one being I have commited to competing AT LEAST once a month. Mostly around spain, but hopefully in the US in the future as well. I think competing is THE best way to improve at anything. You meet opponents of different styles, who are giving it their all, and you truly see if what you're doing works. Competition intensity is different to training intensity. Also, I think there's also a component of competing which is managing nerves, which only comes with experience. I'll be continue competing each month for the upcoming year, and maybe write a summary of what went well/wrong for each competition. Also, would like to visit Marbella more frequently and take privates with the teachers there.

Competed in the AJP tour tournament in Barcelona. 69kg, blue belt amateur. There was quite a few people in my category (15 or so). An interesting thing was out of 11 total fights in the division, there were ONLY 2 submissions, both of them by me :). Fuck points, if you can't submit someone you didn't win. The first fight was pretty funny, he got me in a guillotine, I mounted, but hit my nose with my own knee in the process. For a second I was utterly confused why my nose wasnt bleeding, turns out his guillotine was cutting the blow flow so thats why, lol! As soon as he released the guillotine, blood gushed everywhere. Fight was stopped, mat cleaned, and we reasumed where we were after some debate on whether I already had his arm trapped. I then closed the head arm choke, switched to a figure four with my arms, and even after getting swepped finished the choke (the sweep probably made the choke tighter). Second fight was an absolute snooze fest, (similar to my fight in Madrid). Fucking short bulky wrestlers - that'll be something to think about in the future. Lost 7-0 on points. I felt like puking after that, only to be told I had to fight for third - ahhh. I went in, pulled guard, and thankfully the other guy was neither too strong, too tecnical, and seem as tired as me. Got mount, stayed there, then stalled until the end of the fight, and managed to arm bar him with 1 second left!! Overall was fun.

Todo: start training in Marbella with Carlos/Charlie, in Barcelona with Jonas.

Link to tournament