Ok, if you read these diary entries regularly you may remember in the dim and distant past of 2009 I went to Gracie Barra Stoke to train with brown belt Simon McGovern for my first ever BJJ class (in a gi). The memory and experience of wearing a ‘loaner’ has long since stuck in my mind and nostrils and the rash has cleared up nicely (noise of Dave being sick in his mouth). Since then training has been a little hit and miss. I never got to Stoke again, I got injured, had Christmas, got fat(ter), had physio and decided I’d quite like to train properly again after what has amounted to nearly 5 months of hit and miss appearances at Grindhouse training sessions.
Watching a Braulio Estima video a few weeks ago re-ignited my passion for grappling in a strange way. First off I saw some new cool stuff I’d never seen before, yet at the same time it made me realise how shoddy some of my basics were. I had been trying some wacky new moves on the new guys in training, but kept getting well and truly owned by Matt, unable to get into any sort of dominating position apart from a strange half guard stalemate we have often ended up in over the last year. This never used to happen as regularly as it is presently. Now this can be for 3 reasons:
1. I am rusty having not trained regularly enough.
2. Matt has got better and/or has been holding back on me for nearly 3 years and has suddenly changed his mind.
3. I am flat out forgetting or ignoring some very simple basics.
I suspect there is an element of all 3 involved, but more than likely number 3 is on the money. Rolling with Steve (who is a brown belt) on Monday reconfirmed this for me. I could almost hear him thinking “this guy has fought pro... but he can’t even do x,y and z!” It would’ve been embarrassing had it not been for the fact that Steve is an incredibly nice bloke who decided subbing me 15 times in 3 minutes wouldn’t have actually helped me any. That said, I have no doubt he could! Its been frustrating, but I think the most frustrating thing has been that when I have been rolling with Matt I haven’t even had a sniff of a sub and I have been losing position so, so easily.
Anyway, I missed Steve’s first class on Wednesday as I was late at work, but seeing him on Saturday he said how he intended to do nothing but basic escapes for the foreseeable as his thinking was “you can’t attack if you’re being dominated for position”. Stupidly I made some comment about wanting to learn how to use the gi and Steve gave me something of a withering look but was too gracious to tell me what I have since realised. Knowing how to and when to get flashy yanking a gi clad opponent about can only happen when you have good position and good basics... I’m so rubbish at listening... it’s the teacher in me (we’re always right, about everything... even the things we know nothing about).
So, my resolution is to listen to Steve. And Matt. And Pep. More intently and more often. Again. I say ‘again’ as if you review my posts you’ll see I frequently say this. Ego is a terrible thing and can creep up you so quickly. The quickest learners are the ones who leave their ego aside and listen. I should get that tattooed somewhere so I don’t forget it, ‘cos clearly I do far too often!
My first ever gi has arrived from Nik at Naitiro Fighting Co ( www.naitiro.co.uk )and I am looking forward to trying it out in live fire exercises. Once I’ve done a few classes wearing it I’ll do a product review and let you all know how it holds up. At face value it seems very good, it certainly seems to fit well and I don’t think it’ll need shrinking. I noticed that as well as doing the regular A1 to A4 sizes Naitiro also do an A2L and an A3L for the longer limbed BJJ player. I like the look of their MMA gear as well and as I said to Nik in the thank you email I sent him, if the quality of the MMA gear matches the Gi then Naitiro are onto a winner. The prices are certainly very good, especially for someone who goes through as much kit as I do!