Self-evaluation, Part 1

So I wrote in my earlier post that competing in and preparing for the Rickson Gracie Cup was a good opportunity to evaluate myself as a BJJ player and a fighter in general. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

Perhaps the most significant gain I got out of competing in the Rickson Gracie Cup was confidence – specifically, confidence in my gameplan. While I had competed in four tournaments before this, my performance in those tournaments wasn’t really indicative of the way I like to play the game. Even when I won two matches as a white belt in the Pan Ams, I didn’t do a whole lot of work from the guard, which is generally where I like to be. Since I’ve come to Japan, I’ve entered tournaments with the aim of shaking those competition jitters, and for me, that was mostly about knowing that the game I play every day on the mats is the same game that happens in a tournament. I needed to be able to know I could win in a match like I win in practice all the time. I needed to have confidence that my moves would work when I wanted them to. This was actually a harder process than I imagined. While I’ve known for the last few years now that I’m most comfortable fighting off of my back, and that my triangle is my strongest submission by far, I had two mental blocks to get through before I could build my confidence.

The first block was the fear of jumping to guard. My first BJJ/MMA instructor was Gabriel Ruediger – yes, that Gabe Ruediger – and since he’s an MMA fighter who specializes in BJJ, he tends to try and teach in a way that emphasizes the techniques and mindsets that easily cross between BJJ, submission wrestling, and MMA. Which means that he hated it whenever I’d jump to guard, because it’s not as aggressive as he likes to play, and it’s not something he’d want to do in an MMA match for fear of getting pounded out.

In a BJJ competition though, it makes sense for me to jump to guard. I have no significant standup grappling experience other than the basic Judo throws and wrestling takedowns I’ve learned through BJJ, no experience learning how to adapt those to my body type, and my guard-passing game is average at best. Jumping to guard lets me work off my back, which is where I’m most comfortable anyway, while denying my opponent the chance to score points from a takedown, and it gives me the chance to end the match via submission without expending nearly as much energy as I would fighting for a takedown, fighting to pass, and then winning by points. This is ideal for me because my conditioning has always been one of my weaker points, and if I’m fighting to win the tournament, not just the match, it’s in my interest to minimize my exertion as best I can.

The second block had to do with my confidence in the moves themselves. Training with the same people day in and day out forces you to expand your game – well, if they’re good, anyway. If you’re training with the right people, they should adapt themselves to your strengths and make you learn to work new things. Holistically, this is great for one’s growth as a BJJ player, but without the right perspective, it can be a little harder to put a gameplan together.

The guys at Alive are good. From Amazon all the way down to the white belts, everyone’s got a solid game in some way, and the guys that let me control the match however I want are few and far between. Which is great, because it forces me to diversify my game. It does mean, however, that what used to be my B-game becomes my A-game, my C-game my B-game, and my A-game, my C-game. Or, more simply, my spider guard -> triangle gets shut down more often than not.

It wasn’t until I got to roll with other players from other Alive gyms, as well as the Brazilian heads over at Rocha Toyokawa, that I realized my triangle was still alive and well and as competition-viable as ever. But then I fought in the Chubu Senshiken and lost twice to Kuriyama – the other Alive blue belt middleweight – and while I felt a little better about working my guard in a competition, I didn’t get to play the game I wanted to play.

That’s enough on evaluation for now – I’ll write more tomorrow, maybe.

Before I forget: here’s a few links that have caught my eye.

One is the Bull Terrier blog, which put up a few pictures from the Rickson Gracie Cup, including fellow Alive buddy Akira Hosokawa’s fight against Max Fernandes, and his fight against Kron Gracie. Check it out here.

Two and three are a pair of articles from a nutrition site I just found from Sherdog today called “Raise the Barr” – one of the articles is called “21st Century Eating” and has to do with the once-every-3-hours rule of thumb, and the other is called “Top 10 Post Workout Myths”. Definitely worth taking a look at.

Finally, for today’s food porn picture: breakfast.

That’s right. A big old stack of banana + blueberry whole wheat pancakes, and some Japanese fried chicken (“karaage”), all with a good dose of maple syrup. Yum.

I love being me.

pat m.