tallgeese

5/10 Man, I feel like I trained half the day. Drilled half butterfly guard sweep then to X Guard. Basic sweep followed by reversal. 30 min free roll. Spent time working open guard foot work positions. 15 more min of free roll. Finished day with stick work session consisting of single stick sparring and double stick pattern work. Finished by correlating sticks to empty hands. Whew! Good day.

Welcome aboard KF!

5/9 Drilled De La Riva transition from spider guard. Worked into ball and chan sweep from there and single leg. 3, 3 min rounds of slow roll. 30 min free roll.

5/8 Short Illustrisimo sparring session. Followed with some specific work on defenses and strikes. Moved into PTK review with forms and footwork.

Nice work! 'Grats!

For me, I initially started in the art form I did because I really wanted to be part of a combat oriented style. After that, it was either due to opportunity or a chance to look at something I was interested. I started in shoot fighting and later mma was to test myself. I got involved with BJJ to close up a hole I saw in what I did by learning better ground work. Finally, I started dabbling in JKD and the FMAs to explore blade work that had always fascinated me to a greater degree. As much as for the art of it as the fighting aspect.

5/7 Drilled half butterfly guard work. Sweep and taking back. 30 min free roll. 20 min free sparring. MT focused.

5/6 Drilled knife and stick patterns. Some PTK form review. Finished with fast round of stick sparring.

Finally got back from just over a week away. Great job related training. Over 1000 rounds in 6 days and two courses. What's even better is that during my time away I got the chance to train at two different BJJ academy's as well as attend a Kali class out of the Inasanto linage, which is different than my exposure to that group of arts. The week also dovetailed into a BJJ Over 40 seminar put on by Roy Harris at a friends school. This was excellent as was the private I got the chance to do with Prof. Harris on Kali's Illustrisimo. So yeah, great training week on all fronts. 5/5 Back at Triton. Drilled open guard drills, followed by spider guard fundamentals.

Welcome to KF!

Welcome aboard! Amazing.

Nice work!

Cool deal, Brian! 4/25 PTK night. Reviewed footwork and moved into new material Drilled new knife pattern and then translated this to unarmed tactics. Strikes and standing grappling training out of the system. I spend so much time doing work on PTK solo it's always great to get together with the my coach in the art and work out previous details and move forward.

I'll take a slightly different tact from the others on this, respectfully. The two arts are so radically different there's no confusion about fundamentals. One will in no way hurt or be detrimental to the other. The only downside is the split in training time. Improvement will take longer in each. But there's a good trade off on this as well. You'll start diversifying more quickly. That's quicker preparation for more eventualities sooner. If you have the time, do both. You'll probably gravitate towards one more than the other, but that's okay. It will start to define your martial journey a bit more as well.

Glad you liked it!

4/23 Drilled sweeps from bottom side. One sub from roll. 30 min free roll.

I spoke a bit about this in another (really cool in its own right) thread here: http://www.karateforums.com/the-toughest-part-vt46510.html After a couple of more conversations with people about related matters, I thought I'd expound a bit on my answer to the question- What's the toughest part about doing your art. My answer in regard to BJJ was easy and it popped right to me- the grind. I immediately thought of the 3 or 4 sore body parts that I was currently nursing and training around and started to tick off the constant stream of these over the years. This feature, even when proper rolling is considered, is a major factor. It can be mentally, physically, and emotionally draining. When I look past this though, and put it in context with the conversations that I've been having with a newer crop of students who look like they might actually stick around (which is when I will actually start having deep jiu jitsu conversations with them) I find that this answers a lot more than just a physical aspect. Fully 1/3- 1/2 of your jiu jitsu training will be open mat, or free roll. This is application of technique in a live environment. Because of this, you get beat. A lot. For a long time. And even after you gain some time you still flat out get owned by people better than you from time to time. This can mentally beat you down, and per my conversations with newish people, really make you think about walking away. This too is part of the grind. Getting beat in jiu jitsu during free roll isn't like losing in sparring (I did actually used to be a stand up guy) When you lose in jiu jitsu, you get physically dominated. Your partner sticks you in a position that you have no escape from and makes you quit. It's always in tight, right on each other, positions that are uncomfortable and controlling. There's no question as to what happened, its always very clear that the other guy imposed his will on you. And we've all gone thru it. Now, losing happens in all arts, but something about the constant proximity in BJJ seems more primal that just getting knocked around. Couple this with the fact that even when I was new and getting beat up in standing arts routinely (and we sparred pretty hard) it was only a part of training, you just can't spar hard every night. More often that not, we wouldn't spar or would only drill while we sparred. Compare one night of loss per week (with distance as your friend) to losing a full 50 percent of your training time due to the methodologies that grappling allows. Grind. Those methods and the constant testing are one of the great things about jits. It's also, if I stop and think about it, one of the big contributors to this "grind" and it can really wear. Particularly on new people. As I think about it after the aforementioned thread and my recent conversations, there's one more big factor that contributes to this, especially at early ranks. That's the non-linear progression of jits. Early on, you're constantly making progress. How can you not? You're new and don't know anything. Anything seems like something. But you get better quickly. This does not continue. You'll plateau. It's this pause that leads you to work new materiel into your game, or refine old material. While you're working on this, you'll actually lose skill (or at least lose matches) while you work to make new stuff fit. This can be a crusher. But it is the only way to progress. Then, as you progress, you start to increase in perceived skill again and all is right with the world. After a while (and I"ve been thru this so many times I'm used to it like an old friend) you start to understand this but new students don't. They just know that they aren't getting better or maybe even worse. Now, factor all these things together cycling in and out and you see why it can create a grind that will make you want to walk away. I've been at this a long time, and it even gets to me (March was a mess of injury to my game) and it bogs you down. The bummer is, the longer you've been at it, the easier it is to get thru, but the shorter time you are the easier it is for these things to drive you out. So, in conclusion of my little thought train, if you're new to jits start to embrace the grind of it. It will always be with you. Don't over analyze it, don't start quitting, just realize it's making you better.

Yes indeed!

Happy Birthday!

4/19 PTK footwork. Knife forms. 4/20 PTK form work. Single stick. 4/21 Drilled escapes from bottom side. 40 min free roll.

4/17 60 minute free roll 4/18 Drilled knee in belly transitions. Baseball bat choke variant and arm bar.

4/16 Drilled side to knee in position by a different manner than Monday. Far side arm bar and lapel choke variant. 35 min free roll.

4/14 Drilled side mount to knee in transition. Far side arm bar and kimura. Finished by north shin control transition back to side. 40 min free roll.

4/13 Drilled PTK knife patterns and footwork. Abs Arm circuit.

Welcome aboard KF! Looking forward to hearing from you on the threads.