Tag Archives: pans

Tai Otoshi Judo Throw in BJJ Competition (2013 Pans)

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To me one the main benefits of judo for a jiu jitsu competitor is as simple as providing confidence in basic movement on the feet, basic gripping, basic posture, etc. That’s how it helped me, but it’s especially cool to see the occasional judoka pull off a textbook throw at the higher level of competition. I’ve seen a few drop morote seoi nage’s and a lot of excellent foot sweeps, but I haven’t yet seen a tai otoshi pulled off quite as nice as it was done in the following clip of a brown belt match from the 2013 Pans:

Here’s Jimmy Pedro breaking down this exact technique. He describes a useful grip variation for a BJJ competitor, but the guy in the above clip didn’t need the variation. He did it the old school judo way.

What Would Gandalf Do: Masters Division vs Adult Division

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In judo and bjj, being 30+ years old means you have the option to compete with other 30+ year olds in a separate “Masters” division. This year, I have joined the ranks of this group. My first instinct is that of Groucho Marx of not wanting to belong to any club that would have me as a member.

Early on, in my 3+ years of jiu jitsu, I was forced to acknowledge a simple reality:

I will never be as good as the current black belt BJJ world champion in my weight class.

I know this might seem like an obvious fact to just about anyone who knows anything about jiu jitsu. In fact, it’s pretty embarrassing just to write those words. But I’m human, I’m a dreamer, I have an ego, and I had to ask myself on a few occasions: how good can I get? The answer to that was painful, humbling, but ultimately liberating. I have found simple happiness in the day-to-day learning, hard work, improvement, and a systematic dedication to understanding the art and the sport of jiu jitsu.

Anyway, I’m off to DC for a presentation tomorrow, after several days and nights of programming, reading, scribbling in a notebook, and then more programming. My life is not that of a full-time competitor. For me, my work (research) is the main challenge and the main source of enjoyment in my life. Despite the occasional lack of smile, I’m sincerely a happy dude.

gandalf-you-shall-not-passSo for major tournaments (e.g. Pans) I’m faced with a choice: masters division or adult division. I know many people from white belt to black belt that go back and forth. The reality is that winning Pans in any age division is tough, but of course there is a reason why black belt masters matches are 6 minutes while black belt adult matches are 10 minutes. The guys that win the adult division don’t just bring technique, they bring an incredible level of physical preparedness (cardio, agility, flexibility, aggression). The 30+ guys have a bit more “old man strength”, wisdom, and experience (theoretically). Still, I believe that “wisdom” (the opposite of “recklessness”) is more of a negative than a positive. Ultimately, competition requires stupid confidence and focused aggression. If your brain is allowed to ask philosophical questions around the time of competition, you’re probably going to lose.

Also the masters divisions are usually smaller. At the 2013 Pans (see 2013 Pans competitor list) the purple belt middleweight division had 37 guys for adult and 25 guys for masters.

In some sense, thinking about age is the very thing that ages you. If you don’t give a shit, then you don’t age. I’ll leave with this quote from Satchel Paige (baseball player from over 50 years ago):

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?”

BJJ Community Loves Drama

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When you take up a hobby or a sport, you join a community by the simple fact that the people you communicate with most often online or in person will be participating in that same hobby/sport. Then, it’s easy to forget that there is a world outside of that community.

sam-osman-brown-belt-pans-2013

I’m part of two such communities. One is the grappling community. The other is the academic community. The latter (academia) loves private gossiping, the former (bjj) seems to love public drama (especially online). I was reminded of this when I briefly noticed the heat that a guy named Sam Osman received after winning Pans in the brown belt masters division. The drama was due to the fact that Sam received his black belt 3 months before the Pans, but still competed in the brown belt division. The reason was because the process for IBJJF to get you approved as a black belt is complicated and takes time. I didn’t read anything more about it than that, but I’m guessing Sam was a bit slow with filing all the necessary paperwork, but still wanted to compete. The picture to the left is of Sam winning the gold and here’s the Facebook comments that the picture received.

The guy was called a sandbagger and a lot more ridiculously exaggerating accusations. I have my opinion on this, but that doesn’t matter. Everyone has an opinion. What’s amazing to me is that in the BJJ community everyone with an opinion feels it their moral duty to make that opinion known. It doesn’t matter if they are an expert or a novice, whether they know anything about competing and whether they know any of the facts in the case, their opinion must be known! The result is often not something I’m proud of associating with. Still, having so many loud voices means that it’s hard to get away with shady stuff. That’s a good thing. The whole Lloyd Irvin thing is an example of that. Keep honest people honest, and jump on anything that looks like b.s.

In the end, I’m happy to be part of this unique bunch of pijama wearing folk, but I do try to stay away from the drama. I’ll admit, it’s often enticing to read and share the latest gossip. But it’s not good for your brain, your soul, and your long term outlook on life.

A Single Leg is Hard to Finish

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I tweaked my hip yesterday and was limping all day like an old wise judoka. Add to that a lack of sleep due to a bunch of deadlines and stress at work, and I was a damn mess (and missed the usually very good competition training session at Marco’s). When I’m mentally drained in that way, I’ll drill at home and watch some instructional videos on the same several positions I’ve been working on over the last year. Here’s one: the single leg.

Look at 5:50 in the following video. It’s two minutes of AJ Agazarm trying to finish a single leg on Victor Silveiro in a brown belt match-up at the 2013 Pans.

I see this kind of battle a lot, especially at the lighter weights, and especially in no-gi, but it really spans all weight divisions and styles. As is often said in wrestling, the way to win this battle is early aggression. It’s best to attack in combinations before the opponent gets a chance to establish good balance on the one foot. For this reason, I don’t like the single leg in training. If the training partner doesn’t want to go down, there often isn’t a nice and controlled way to put them down. I like to work technique that don’t hurt people, because I want to get a lot of reps in, and it’s easier to get reps in when the other person isn’t being destroyed in the process.

A lot of jiu jitsu guys (Marcelo Garcia is a great example) like the “running the pipe” finish. I think it’s effective, but it never clicked with me the way the “sweep the leg” finish has. Kolat shows a good version of it:

Here’s a nice set of 9 videos on finishing single leg takedowns:

The way to finish a single leg is simple: (1) keep them moving, (2) combine attacks, (3) aggression. All that is a lot of work. I like to think of the single leg finish as almost a position in itself, and like any position my goal is to make sure that I’m expanding less energy than my opponent. I think I’ve often fallen victim to that adrenaline rush that goes with the feeling that I’m very close to taking the guy down. There is no “almost” in grappling or life. You have to do the smart thing up until the very end. Don’t throw technique and sense out the window just because you’re “almost” there.

Riding Out the Lows

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“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.” - Dale Carnegie

sisyphus-happyI got trampled by the flu last week. For the first time since I started judo or jiu jitsu or even just working out in general, I didn’t want to do any type of exercise, not for physical reasons but purely mental ones. It was a strange feeling, and a pretty dark one that I still haven’t quite shaken. But I’ve lived just long enough to know that all such feelings pass, and all you can do is smile and watch it pass.

I still showed up to train every day this week, but far from my usual pre-planned purpose-driven practice. I just showed up and enjoyed it in a very different way than I usually do. I didn’t care about improving, learning, etc. I just enjoyed the simple conversation with the usual suspects. I get a certain comfort from talking to people who are always there, especially black belts and old timers, knowing that they’ve gone through this shit hundreds of times before. Everyone goes through dark times: due to injury, due to tension at home or at work, due to just the way the Earth rotates about its axis.

One of the things that was particularly upsetting to me is how little I wanted to compete. There was a local tournament this weekend that I was planning on going to because a couple of my buddies were going as well, but I just hated the idea of stepping on the mat. I promised myself a long time ago, that I can be scared shitless, tired, not ready, none of that matters. But if I’m not simply happy to step on the mat, there is no reason to do it. I compete to challenge myself, but at the end of the day, beyond the stress and nerves, I just love the thrill of “battle” if you could ever call judo or jiu jitsu that ;-) So it sucked very much not to look forward to competing.

I’m going to take it easy, continue drilling, training, watching videos, and hope to do the following upcoming tournaments. I might do none of them, but I sincerely hope to do all of them:

  • NAGA Philly (Feb 3)
  • World Pro Montreal (Feb 9)
  • Boston Open (March 3)
  • Pans (Mar 23)
  • NY Open (April 20)

Pans 2012 Blue Belt Middle Weight Division Results

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Josh Macin (pictured left with a super intense celebration face) won the blue belt middleweight division at Pans yesterday. I faced both him and his opponent in the finals before, and I imagine I will have to again. His opponent was Joel Hadden.

I think they both have a well rounded game, but I think Josh’s strength is takedowns and scrambles, and Joel’s strength is his spider guard or closed guard games. I know what it takes to beat them. And since they both beat me (in close matches) before, they sure know what it takes to beat me.

The main thing I remember from facing them is that the matches were good jiu jitsu. There was very little stalling and very little aimless expansion of energy. It was technique vs technique. And that’s a refreshing thing, especially at the blue belt level.

The other thing I remember is that their technique was backed by an intensity that only comes from a lot of confidence. That’s where lots and lots of drilling, positional training, and just plain old hard training comes in. I’ll have to step on the mat at Worlds in 2 months confident and ready for 6 minutes of war.

That said, off the mat, congrats to Josh for winning gold yesterday. I talked to him for a bit after our match last week, and he was a cool humble dude. Beyond everything else, these competitions build good character. Win or lose, I’m forever thankful for finding judo and jiu jitsu, because it really has made me a better human being.

Hey, IBJJF, Why So Blue?

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I’m not sure if this has always been the case, but it certainly seems that the blue belt divisions at IBJJF tournaments are exploding in size.

The Pan Jiu Jitsu Championship is this week. My division (if I were competing) is smaller than usual with 77 people. The divisions below have 126 and 98 people, respectively.

These are not your “regular” blue belts either. If you competed at an IBJJF tournament, you know that the people that show up to these tournaments are often experienced competitors, many of whom really do have a legitimate shot at gold. So to medal in a division of that size with that level of opponents, you can’t make a single mistake. It’s all about focus, incredible cardio, and technique.

I’m pretty sure that my “A game” vs the “A game” of the top guys provides too much possibility for losing. The real way to win all those matches, every time, is by dictating the pace and position in the match so that I am the only one playing my A game and my opponent is scrambling to catch up.

Good luck to the 3000 people competing at Pans this week.

By the way, when I say “good luck”, I don’t mean “you’re going to need luck to win any of your matches”. It’s just a nice polite way of saying “best wishes”. If you want to come away with the gold, actual luck has to be taken out of the equation.