January Post! - Always Finding a Way

Hey guys, I want to say, right off the bat, that this month has been a lazy month for me. I have only trained three times this month at my training center most recently because of a recent surgery I had but also due to bad time management on my part. Regardless, I haven't been completely unproductive this month.

Because my testing for Blue Belt is near, I have to be in better shape and soon. Not only physically in body endurance and conditioning but through knowledge in technique. I've said constantly throughout my project that technique is one of the stronger priorities for a fighter over strength or speed and frankly, most of what my Blue Belt evaluation focuses on is actually on technique. Since the only way to better technique is through repetition and example though perfect execution I simply relied on a souvenir that my brother brought back from the Academy in Torrance. The Entire Curriculum of Gracie Combatives on DVD as shown by the third generation Gracie Brothers Rener and Ryron Gracie.

This whole collection is basically my mentorship on DVD. Every lesson I have learned is perfected in these lessons and breakdowns and for me it is a backup plan when AP Calc or senioritis get me distracted. Right now I am performing lessons I have only one lesson experience with like, "Punch Block Series (1-4) Guard" and "Taking the Back Guard."

It hurts not being able to make training with everyone else but in order to make up for it I choose to learn on my own and be ready the next time I head over. Unfortunately, I still have to sit through next week though class because of my reco
very but after that, I plan to be hitting
the mats and rolling against others.

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

EQ: "How can Gracie Jiu-Jitsu best train a fighter to "Not Lose" in a sparring session?"

With this EQ being the focus of my interview, my required ten questions would be as follows:

-How can Gracie Jiu-Jitsu best train a fighter to "Not Lose" in a sparring session?
-To you, what should be a practitioner's goal in a spar?
-What are the best ways to increase sparring stamina?
-How can practitioners train by themselves?
-What positional controls give the most opportunity to submission?
-Why is keeping calm or keeping focused more important?
-Why is reflection after a sparring session so important?
-How does "Focused Sparring" help a fighter's knowledge of options?
-How can you build faster ground reflexes?
-What parts would Gracie Combatives need to change in order to be 'controlled sparring' ready?
-Why would GJJ make the difference in a controlled sparring session compared to any other martial art?

Now like last time, all these questions are susceptible to change.

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?
-My mentorship for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is at the Gracie Combatives Certified Training Center in La Puente. I train with Jorge Balares who is a 1st stripe Purple Belt in the art and is my mentor for Senior Project.

2.   Who is your contact?
-My contact would be my mentor, Jorge. He is my mentor and also is the head instructor of the La Puente Combatives school.

3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?
- In total, I have been able to log in 21ish hours. I did have some dates that I forgot to record so I really have about 30 hours but I just forgot the days. 

4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.
-It feels like cheat being able to call this service xD. Anyways, throughout my mentorship, every training experience can be divided into 3 parts; Observation, execution, and reflection. This is the daily class method of learning for Combatives. Depending on how what lesson we may learn that day, the schedule is divided into "slices" and every slice of class focuses on a different variation of the move/technique we are learning. Observation begins every slice with the instructors demonstrating to us the first variation about 4-5 times all from multiple points of view to fully grasp what position our bodies should be in and clear "most common mistakes" and open the mat for questions. Then comes execution, and this is the part where we partner up and get a physical feel for what the move is like and build muscle memory (eventually). Finally we have reflection which is sort of like "The Pentagon" in a was that we give each other constructive criticism on what we did right, what we can better ourselves on, and can we better it?. Repeat this by 4 slices and you have an average class in Combatives. Repeat this by 3 days a week and you get my service in a nutshell.

Blog 10: Senior Project: The Holiday

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you over the break with your senior project?
-As my extra blog post suggested, I practiced Jiu-Jitsu with my brother. My school closes during the winter break because my teacher wants to give us family time but luckily for me, it reopened this week. My brother, as said in my blog comes down for winter break and summer break and when he comes over, we always try and have brotherly love fights. He learned Jiu-Jitsu from the East Coast and I learned from the West (obviously) but either way, we learned from different mentors and by doing so, we have different fighting styles. We normally sparred and broke down our technique after one of us tapped. It was rare for us to not spar in a day so I continuously gained practice. However now that my school reopened, I can now train there!

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why?  What was the source of what you learned?
-Well one technique that I grew fond of was a cross choke from side control. It was a weird technique that I didn't suspect when my brother tapped me out with it. Basically what it is is a arm blade choke that uses both arms; one to grab the opposite side gi and one to perform the neck slice. Because one arm normally grabs your gi in side control, I did not expect the submission as I thought it was normal and so it became a sneaky adversary. He kept on using it on me over break and so now I believe iv'e bettered my defences against it.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?
-I made it a goal early in the year to get an interview from one of the Gracie descendants since the beginning of this project and better yet they are most knowledgable of the subject and are based in Torrance so why not! The problem is that they're the Gracies and one does not simply go in and ask for an interview. Either way that is my goal.