[KettoRyu]

okay, it's finally time to start a log, to track progress and try to make as many improvements as possible

my BIGGEST problem right now is that I'm smoking again, I smoked for 6 years, quit for one and I've been smoking again for the past 2 months. For a 2 year period I was living with a friend, no job, doing every drug I could get my hands on, so it's nice to see the difference between then and now

I train 3X a week in nogi, once a week in japanese jujutsu, and I plan to lift heavy twice a week, hit the heavy bag 4 times a week, 2 100 burpee challenges a week and 1 lsd session per week, as well as 20 mins of stretching daily

my accomplishments so far, last year I won 1st in nogi intermediate and 2nd in gi intermediate at my first tournament, I took 1 1st and 1 2nd at a local club tournament in open skill division, and I won 1st overall for the year in a series of tournaments, at under 140 lbs no skill divisions (I competed at 131)

I was in boxing for 2 years when I was 12ish, then around 18 yrs old I got a bunch of JKD books and self-trained for a couple years, then I started japanese jujutsu 2 years ago and nogi 1 year ago

after just having a cigarette, I decided I really need to kick that habit for good, and what better way than to have you guys flame me everytime I end up picking up a cigarette?

I teach for a living, I do private lessons for nogi and I do adult and kids classes for japanese jujutsu... the money sucks, but I make enough to help out and keep the fiance happy while I work towards teaching and training full time, and fighting professionally... right now I have all the time in the world to follow my dreams

so without further ado...

today is wednesday, I have 20 mins of stretching, 1 hour nogi (instructor cancelled, but I'll run the class), 2 hours japanese jujutsu... I have a 2 hour break between classes, where I'll spend most of the time drilling hip throws with a 270 lb class mate. I'll also goto the nogi class maybe 1 to 2 hours early to work on the heavy bag, low intensity, just to work on technique

I'll update tonight with what we worked on and how things went

[KettoRyu]

today was a big training day, as wednesdays always are
I spent about an hour on the heavy bag kickboxing
my roundhouses are getting much better, I was able to go quite a while full power before the shins started to sting, I'm getting good power out of both legs, and I still need to work on improving balance with lead rounds and hand positioning for both legs
the boxing portion went well, I had good power and my jabs were excellent today. I need more time on the bag, but that will come

during my nogi portion, we did alot of light rolling and some randori with a gi... I had good sweeps from guard and kept good positional dominance from the top. I also landed a nice drop seoinage.

I also did some padwork, doing various kickboxing combos, and all went quite well, although mixing hand and foot techniques left me struggling to find range with the hands on a few combos

I did some sparring, which I definately need MUCH more, but I was getting good lowkicks and my striking from the clinch was pretty good. I found quite a few overhands from the clinch, as well as some good knees when the opponent was on the wall. I'd like to go with harder contact, but I'll take what I can get

In japanese jujutsu we worked various kickboxing combinations, we also did 10 mins of anaerobic work, we did some self defence scenarios where our good arm was "injured" and we could not use it. We worked a guard pass into a inverted armbar from scarf, and an achilles ankle lock entry from a failed tomoenage. We did some kali drills, working mostly on stances, draws and basic strikes and blocks

All training was good today, I really pushed hard to keep the intensity up throughout the day. Also, I'm confident enough with my ability to defend myself during the standup long enough to either fight from the clinch or fight from the ground, so I'll be looking for my first amateur NHB match as of tomorrow

I smoked 1/2 of a cigarette, and I may smoke 1 more, although I'll be kicking myself if I do

tomorrow is going to suck, as I have to wake up early to goto court for a public transit fine, then move our cable cross machine into our gym, I'll also be taking part in an hour long private judo lesson, I'll be teaching an hour long private nogi session, and I teach 1.5 hours of japanese jujutsu tomorrow. If i have the energy I'll do the 100 burpee challenge, and If I have an extra hour I'll work the heavy bag some more

I'm off to take a shower, eat some food and goto bed

[KettoRyu]

fuck, just discovered that I will need to buy headgear, as I have slight cauliflowering in my right ear and it just popped when I was cleaning it with a q-tip

[KettoRyu]

1 cigarette last night, and 3 puffs this morning. shouldn't be any more all day, but man, waking up early to goto court sucks 8(

[KettoRyu]

quick mid training update
so far, did 1 hour judo, worked on 2 shoulder throw variations, 4 hip throw variations, 1 reaping throw and 2 stomach throws... alot of variety and review

nogi session went well, my student was working on guard passes and standing up from various positions. His hip movement is increasing and he is becoming much more mobile on the ground, more intensity and better scrambling. He's going to be plenty ready for his 2nd amateur fight next month (he's a MT guy, so we're working on defense, top positioning and standing up, after his fight we'll improve his ground game as a whole)

I have 1.5 hours of japanese jujutsu coming up, with fresh new students so it will be alot of basic review, then I'll get another hour of judo after class, so I'll update how that went. No burpees or heavy bag today, the 2 judo sessions and teaching 2 classes will be training enough, my body needs some rest after yesterday anyways

[C.Beeby]

Originally Posted by KettoRyu

fuck, just discovered that I will need to buy headgear, as I have slight cauliflowering in my right ear and it just popped when I was cleaning it with a q-tip

Jesus christ that's disgusting.

I had headgear so much.

I expect to hear about your NoGi.

[KettoRyu]

nice to see someone's following along 8)

class tonight went well, the new guys are picking things up, we spent time tonight on basic rolls and breakfalls, and a big chunk of time working some boxing combinations

the judo went well, all the throws I did in the first class were reviewed again with the other group, so even with the wide variety of throws we worked I got some good time in on each one

I still find myself not lowering my hips enough, and it really shows since these 2 guys are 230 and 250. I can still manage to toss them, but it's sloppy. 100 to 120 lbs difference can do that I guess

I'm pretty fatigued right now, so tomorrow will be less intense, I plan to only do a heavy lifting session and teach a nogi private lesson

The guy I'm teaching the nogi privates to is convinced that with my grappling background I'll be able to jump right into a professional fight, but I'm abit apprehensive and don't know if I should take a couple amateur matches or go right away into a pro fight... he said a few guys who were in higher weight divisions last year that won fought professional for their first times, and once the fight hit the mat they got the subs pretty quick, so I'm thinking that if I do go pro right away I should have a good chance of winning as long as I get a takedown

The city's biggest tourny is coming up at the end of march (this is the same tourny that was my first competition, where I took 1st in nogi and 2nd in bjj, intermediate divisions). When I enter again this year, I'll go into the advanced division, and even if I don't place well at least I'll get to test my skills and really challenge myself

I'm kinda nervous, as the competition will be pretty intense in the advanced division, and I'm nervous that if I do take a pro fight right away I won't be ready for it. But those are also reasons for me to train harder.

anyways, I'll try not to stress too much about it right now, I'll keep training hard for the advanced tournament and most likely take a couple amateur fights before I go pro

and yea, headgear is going to suck, but I figure it's worth it if I don't have to worry about corrective surgery, or immense ear pain when they pop open during a competition. plus not having to clean brownish puss out of my ear will be a bonus

court sucked today, the security guards confiscated my kubotan at the ****l detectors, and then I had to pay $110 as a fine for forgetting to validate my transit ticket. but the good training made up for it

[KettoRyu]

just finished teaching the nogi private, I won't be doing anything else today opther than approx 30 mins of snow shovelling, as I'm quite fatigued and I need to rest up for tomorrow (1 kids class, 1 grappling class, 3 hour open house, where I'll show off the mats, the gym and have some rolls if people are so inclined)

today for class we did alot of review on basic escapes to basic submissions (guillotine, triangle, etc) as well as mobility drils, and some light rolling.

[KettoRyu]

also, we worked mount escapes
his hip mobility is improving every class, it's neat to see the progression, and it seems he is picking up things very fast. I actually am looking forward to when we work submissions as well, eh's gonna be a good fighter if he sticks with me

[KettoRyu]

good, just confirmed all the info for my next tournament, it is on march 29th, and I'll be entering the advanced divisions for both BJJ and nogi
my big hurdle will be to relax, my first few tournies I was very relaxed throughout, but the last one I tensed up alot and didn't perform so well
my plan is to train hard so I know I'm ready, and integrate a grappling drill based cardio workout (twice weekyl, replacing 2 heavy bag sessions) that will force me to push myself mentally to complete it, as a means to try and better prepare me mentally

if anyone is interested, I'll give my first try on the drill workout tomorrow, it looks like this
3 mins each, no breaks inbetween
wall spins, chest spins, shrimping, snaking, step throughs, alligator walk, shikko, inch worm hops, stability ball, random ground rolling, shoot, armbar from mount, umpa, pistol triangles, sprawl

if anyone has questions on how any of the drills work, let me know. I've been using half of those to improve my nogi private student's hip mobility and ground movement, and he's making great gains... for me I'm already a flexible little fucker and have great ground movement, but it will be a great cardio session, as well as a way to help me sharpen up some ground skills

btw, no cigarettes yet today, had 2 last night