I MISS THIS

Last week I got promoted to purple belt. And its been a little strange. Not with jiujitsu at all, just the fact that I miss my old belt. 

Its there, sitting on my dresser. Walk by it. See it. Want to grab it and take it with me every morning. But it's served its purpose. Job well done, belt. 

Been through a lot of training, drills, battles, scrambles. I've taken it with me to Hawaii maybe 3 times. Been to Japan twice (but never got to use it there). Its also been with me to a few spots across our great states as well. 

It was given to me by a friend and training partner on the night of that promotion, which according to google just now, was a little longer than I thought. Its been almost 3 YEARS since I first starting wearing that belt. 2 years and 10 months ago. Wow (I had to use google to search because I couldn't do the math, weak). 

Yeah. I miss that belt.

But now its time for Purple Rain.

I'M JUST HAPPY

SO every other Friday night we have 6 rounds of 10 minute sparring sessions at jiujitsu. Its usually the guys that haven't gotten enough during the week because of their work schedule or guys that are there all the time, just wanting to get better. I can dig both. 

Either way - an hour of sparring in a virtual fight, a chess game of grappling can be pretty taxing. And it gets even heavier when there happen to be a couple of black belt visitors from Guam... from Purebred BJJ Guam, to be exact. 

Sensei Stephen on the far left, Sensei Robert far right. The yobo and the hapa popolo guys are my regular training homies - Josh and Masai.

And back to the two black belts. Its always such a pleasure getting to train with and have live sparring with visitors. Its even a greater time when they're solid black belts. At first, it can be kind of crazy to think that these strangers are going to slap hands with you and agree to fighting until one or the other taps... which says "you got me". A mutual agreement to finish each other in a technical match. 

For the most part though, I feel like I'm in good hands with black belts. 99% of them are not out to try and injure you. Especially not these guys. But I would expect it could get quite ugly if you were to spar dirty or, you know, be a total dick.

I've always wanted to say this, I'm going to be honest, its been even more fun now being further along the whole jiujitsu experience (I tried to avoid 'journey' there, ha ha).  It hasn't really been that long for me but I've consistently been there for about 4-1/2 years now. Never took any "life breaks" and luckily never had any serious injuries, other than a few that had me sidelined for a couple of weeks or so. 

I honestly feel like I just got started. So much more to learn and drill a thousand times over into my brain. Into my muscle memory, to make it second nature. Many lingering questions I never really put into words that just kinda float around there - every time I'm in that position or state of mind during training. Things kinda just pop up in my head then float away.

I do need to take more risks in training; put myself into unfamiliar territory, which will be the only way I can move ahead. But ah, I can go on and on about this. Bottom line that its been fun. 

And then I came home to this delicious meal. Dirty rice. Ground beef, peas and brown rice. And a poached egg on top! Soon as I seen it, I thought to myself "what happened to low carbs today?" But how in the fucking hell do you not eat this? It cannot be passed up. 

Took a second shot of it just to show off my poached egg game. 3 minutes and done. Mahalos to Sasha for hooking it up. I'm feeling loved. I'm just happy. 

I DONT LIKE EXERCISING EITHER

Marcelo Garcia - Working Out For JiuJitsu

Posted by Stuart Cooper Films on Wednesday, April 15, 2015

But I love doing jiujitsu.

ROLL: JIUJITSU IN SOCAL

WHAT!!!

BJ PENN - ROOTS OF FIGHT

MY DAY AT THE EXPO

On Sunday I went to the World Jiu Jitsu Expo at the Long Beach Convention Center and this is what I have to share: 

I made fun of team mates, like Lizzie here, that was competing and couldn't indulge in amazing acai bowls. I made good mother fucking acai bowls but the ones at the jiujitsu tournaments are solid...  and speaking of solid, Lizzie's performance was just that. Everybody was impressed with how she handled the competition.

I MET RENZO GRACIE. Look, I'm like all close to him, like I'm his best friend and shit. Seriously though, I was ready to invite him over to my house for dinner. What a fucking stud this guy. Tough as nails and cool as all hell. Gotta rep Rod too. 

I did the Renato Laranja show all by myself. 

METAMORIS 4 COUNTDOWN - GALVAO VS SONNEN

RENATO LARANJA SHOW - EP.3

HATERS GONNA HATE

The title really has nothing to do with this. Aside from the fact that this stripe below belongs one of our fellow pakajunkalunkas, The Hater. 

After a few months of training, blood, sweat, tears, shoulder surgery and sore everything, The Hater got his first promotion in jiujitsu. In most jiujitsu academies, you're gonna get down. And unless you're training at some shitty ass pansy place, you're going to end up getting into some pretty gnarly sparring sessions sooner or later. So personally, I think it's nice to see progress awarded just like this based on techniques learned. 

But considering the size and strength of this guy, does he really NEED jiujitsu? 

JIUJITSU HEADS - KURT OSIANDER DOCUMENTARY

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I WANT TO SEE THIS FOOTAGE SO BAD

Came across this photo I'd never seen before by Nick "The Tooth". He's got footage of this session at AOJ that I'd love to see.

RENATO LARANJA SHOW - EP.2

Renato Laranja Show: Episode 2 (Featuring Rener Gracie) from Echo Charles on Vimeo.

TRAINED AT... BLACK HOUSE?!

Got invited for a roll at Black House yesterday, courtesy of Mike Lee. Was super stoked of course, got invited before but just couldn't make it. Made sure I did yesterday though.

I was all like, what? I wore the friendliest t-shirt I had!

Large mat, same area all those photos and lots of video footage was shot that I'd seen on TV.  Mike Lee (pictured, black gi), their all around media guy, is here on a daily basis. 

I wanted to get in the boxing ring and mess around and act like I know how to box, kinda like how you'd "play kung fu" with friends as a little kid. 

Keeping it mellow, worked some positional sparring, some regular rolls. And while nobody was looking, I went and kung fu kicked everything and did eagle talon eye-gouges on that one rubber mannequin guy. 

The Spider, Anderson Silva's gear from his second fight against Chael Sonnen when he completely and undoubtedly demolished him with a knee to the solar plexus and there was no way Chael was going to get back up and it was over and finished. Did I mention that Chael lost on that fight? 

My half Japanese brother from another mother, you know I totally dig Lyoto Machida. How could I not? Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and now contender for middleweight. One of the very few karate guys that makes it work in the octagon. And if you're thinking to yourself, "nooo - he doesn't REALLY make it work, dawg!" you should read this paragraph all over again. 

RAFAEL LOVATO JR. AT J2L

I'm sick yet again. Catching colds is part of the deal with having an almost 3ish year old around I guess. But I got to watch some training last night with Raphael Lovato Jr., Justin Rader and Dallas Niles from Oklahoma City. These boys are elite level competitors in town for the Pan Am tournament.

Justin Rader (who moves like a ninja), Rafael Lovato Jr., Sensei Kevin and Dallas Niles.

Dustinator in the background rolling with Prof. Lovato.

It was a pleasure watching these guys train!

PURPLE REIGN!

Last week Wednesday, Makonabe from Hardcore Chopper aka Chopper Journal was in town from Japan. He visited our academy on the night flew in. Lucky for us, it was the same night that Mark aka 9half was getting his surprise purple belt. Makonabe took a few shots for us.

Sensei Kevin and Mark aka 9half

In case you didn't know... after your first given white belt, there are only 4 belts to obtain in jiu jitsu, which are blue>purple>brown>black. Each signify what technical level you are at. So you can imagine they are far and few between. Lots of time is spent, countless hours of drilling, sparring and drilling and drilling techniques, 10,000 times over. And over.

We like to grind, watch fights and try to break each others limbs for fun...?

So yeah, just got these shots from Makonabe tonight and I thought I'd share. I'm pretty delirious from training tonight as I type this now. But big time aloha and congrats to Mark!

3 HITS FROM BJJ HACKS

BJJ Hacks released three videos on YouTube throughout this week. Been waiting to see these, always quality videos. Here they are in order of release:

LIVING ON THE MAT

I'm more or less one of the "old guys" at our jiu jitsu club. I don't really feel old while I'm there though. Sometimes the talk of the latest video game or tv show might throw me off, yeah, otherwise I feel like I'm just with a group of people who share the same passion for this martial art.

If this isn't something you do, you need to understand, I spend quite some time on this mat on a regular basis - several times a week. And we're rolling, throwing and constantly trying to learn better ways to choke our partners or break each other's limbs thousands and thousands of times. And be nice about it. So yes, after a couple of years any person would become more personal with the place and it's people.

But it's like going to the skatepark or favorite dirt jump as a kid for me. I can't wait to get there, always have my gear ready. I know most of the guys feel the same, too.

Man, sometimes I gotta stop and think though... what if? What if I was younger, MUCH younger, with much less or maybe no responsibilities. Just living life a day at a time, not thinking too far ahead. I can't speak for Tony but its sure looking that way when I see him.

Tony's a solid purple belt, a total technician. He's been training and competing for several years... and now Tony's literally living on the mats. In his early 20's, college kid, on a full martial arts journey. Just enjoying every minute of his time training. I got to asking him, how's it been living at the academy?

"It's great. I try not to think about it too much because it's so awesome. I don't want to burn myself out. But it's just an amazing opportunity for me right now. Every time I walk by these mats, in the middle of night, any time, I just feel pretty lucky about it."

I'd never give up in a million years what I have now for this, I am nearly twice this guy's age. But I can't help but to be envious of his situation.

RICKSON AND KRON GRACIE

Ok, ok, ok, if you're even remotely into jiu jitsu and like Rickson and his son Kron Gracie even in the tiniest bit, you have to sit down and watch this video in its entirety. Have to. Because Joe Rogan and Eddie Bravo, they have a point here. Fuck.

CONGRATS TO BRUDDAH DAVEY BEARDO!

SINNERS NOMADICALS! Really stoked on this, congrats man.