How does a noob know if someone is good at grappling? Anybody who has taken 6 months of grappling would look like an expert to a noob. I know this because I'm just starting out and everyone on the mat looks awesome, but I bet they aren't.

I think he was referring to a "perfect" gym, but I agree with both of you. My instructor is a purple, (I am from a small town) and its not like you need a black belt to teach basic BJJ for the first couple years.

I'm coming out of tournament retirement to compete on Saturday.

In my last tournament outing, I was double legged, slammed, and herniated my L5S1 disc (for the second time in 3 years). 6 months out of commission and surgery resulted. But I've been injury free for two years now.

The nerves are starting.

Jesus who double legged you, Brock?

Right, nothing wrong with learning from a purple or brown, especially if you're new. My first two instructors were browns and they were both great (still under the second one, although he has his black now). I also learned a lot from the blues when I was new. Just saying that if you have the luxury of multiple gyms to choose from the one with the black belt instructor is most likely a better choice. Of course the black belt could be a terrible teacher and the purple belt across town a great one, just speaking in general.

Which is why you want to check and make sure the guy isn't lying or embellishing about his experience.

It turns out that some random early twenty white belt with many years of wrestling experience is better at grappling than a 38 year old guy who has 7 months of experience.

Video of it:

http://youtu.be/sOTpk65ubPM

Re-watching it just now, for the first time in a couple of years, jeeez, I sucked. It didn't help that he was slapping me in the back of the head. And the way that I just gave him my arm after we moved and restarted.

Ok yea that was a pretty solid slam haha. You handled it well though, reguarded up nice. Its tough to deal with the intensity of a wrestler, especially when you are quite new. The ****ed up thing is every time I have injured myself its always something dumb. I broke my deadlift person best 3 weeks ago, 405 lbs, week later was doing a warm up and tweaked my back... sprinting? Like wtf.

The first time I herniated my disc was by playing golf. Go figure.

Pre BF, when I played a ton of online poker, I would constantly be thinking about the game and what I would do in different scenarios. Now that most of my poker time has been replaced with grappling, I find myself doing the same thing. I’m always thinking about different grappling scenarios. All the time! Do you guys do the same thing?

Absolutely. Its also a lot more fun heh.

Training partners that aren't selfish and that are just as invested in helping you get better as they are in getting better themselves. I've learned just as much from my training partners as I've learned from my professor. You're on the mats together everyday, exchanging ideas, pushing each other, etc. The quality of training partners is usually a reflection of the professor's teaching style in my experience. Solid training partners and environment are the first things I look for.

Tournament report.

10 guys in my division...with no age restrictions. I was 15 years older than the next oldest guy.

I adopted the "sit and butt scoot" strategy, which some may poo-poo...but thanks, I like my spine the way it is now. First match was quick. I got some grips, he arm dragged and tried to step over into mount. I rolled, thinking I had double unders...but didn't and got triangled/armlocked.

Double elimination though... Won my next match. Got to butterfly, he started to pass, I switched to turtle and then rolled him into side control. He got back to half guard, I passed and then mounted. Tried a few different subs, but time ran out and I won 7-0.

Someone got injured, so I luckboxed into a bye. So my next match would decide 2nd/3rd place. I made the mistake of preventing him from getting his second hook in to score for taking my back, and left my neck open. :/

Happy over all though. 3rd place. No injuries. Of the 4 of us that went, we brought home 5 medals.

Congrats Ice!

Right on Ice, a medal is a good feeling. I swear the first match of a tournament is always the worst, at least for me, its always a blur. My 2nd one I get the adrenaline dump over with and feel a lot more calm and focused. I want to start just doing as many as possible eventually so I can get the experience to just no get nervous at all.

I know you guys want to keep injury stuff out of the thread, but I had a quick question. I'm not injured, but I'm sore all the time. I mean every day. I do BJJ 5 hours per week and MT about 5 hours per week. Is it normal to always be sore? It's not like I can't train, it's just annoying.

suppliments may help, stuff like protein and fish oil are good and proven. I don't go to any class without taking 2 ibuprofen haha. Now people understand why full time fighters end up taking small amounts of roids in their camps.

I take BCAA after training has really helped me with post-training soreness (I train pretty much everyday s+c or grappling).

I bring a lil camera to class sometimes, and ask people sitting out to film recently. Got a bit of footage over the last 2 weeks or so and made a lil montage because well I just enjoy editing stuff haha. Nothing exciting but pretty funny.



Lots of crazy Judo girl in there as well.

funny timing, when 2p2 was down, a mma place by me was doing a week where you could try all their classes for free. tried each of the classes once or twice. i signed up today so i am excited, been putting off trying mma for the past 5 years or so.

there are 2 no gi grappling, 2 mma, 2 muay thai, and 2 other kickboxing classes each week. the mma is basically more no gi grappling. we learned a takedown, guard pass, mount escape and a basic armbar. in no gi i learned another two guard passes and a side control escape. there is the option to do gi bjj but it is at the same time as muay thai so im gonna hold off on those because its a little more expensive if i want to do those too and muay thai is something ive always been interested in. there is also a pretty cool gym setup with tires to flip and other stuff. i get to do any of the fitness classes i want also. ill have to figure out what do as far as normal workouts go. thinking a modified 2 day GSLP type thing.

Page, that sounds a lot like my gym. I have been going to a Renzo Gracie academy that has everything. The MMA instructor is 14-3 UFC fighter. I started going there mainly for the BJJ, but all the classes are great and we have a full weight gym. We also have an S&C station with Kbells, battle ropes, monkey bars, truck tires. Our BJJ Prof. is great, but I have a hard time understanding him. He has a very heavy Brazillian accent.

I started doing nogi like 6 months ago and now I'm doing BJJ with a gi. I didn't realize how many differences there are. I was rolling with an experienced BB and he was doing all these moves you can't do without a gi. Anyway, I really like using the gi, although it's so darn heavy. I feel like it's a workout just by wearing it.

Totally forgot I posted that video just before the crash. Anyone check it out?

I watched it a couple of times. Good stuff!

Worked the World Jiu Jitsu Expo this past weekend, cool to meet a lot of the top BJJ players, especially Master Renato Laranja! I had a feeling the Diaz fight was never going to go off, the Caio v Glover match was the best one IMO. (This is JJoseph btw, don't have access to my other email associated with that account)

Thats awesome. Would be a awesome show to attend.