Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has come to Syosset!

On 4/28, Syosset Martial Arts Center had its first taste of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or BJJ, under the tutelage of professional MMA fighter Adam Schortz.  The offical Syosset Martial Arts Center, BJJ program will be beginning this week on May 1st.  On 4/28, at the Open House, we were lucky enough to get a taste.

Adam, or Coach as he prefers, did a quick overview lesson of what skills BJJ incorporates and what we'll have the opportunity to learn from him.  Rather than going straight into ground fighting techniques, Coach decided to introduce us to the standing aspects of BJJ by showing us how to perform a standing kimura and a standing guillotine starting from the over-under clinch.

Next, coach showed us how to go for an outside reaping take down followed by a rather trickier single leg takedown.  I can't begin to say how excited I am about this program.  I've been wanting to try BJJ for years, and this is a fantastic opportunity.

More information will follow as the lessons progress!

AAU Regional Championships

It really is a shame that the AAU is becoming less and less popular.  I feel that the competition there, or more specifically the type of competition (i.e., the scoring system) is far more superior than that used by the USANKF/WKF.  The AAU standard scoring system is shobu sanbon, incorporating both waza-ari and ippon.  At the national level, though, they introduce a shobu-ippon division (my personal favorite) and a WKF style division.  I'm all for good competitive spirit and all, but you can't convince me that making different techniques worth different points still preserves the budo attitude.  All it does, in my opinion, is encourage flashiness and ineffective technique.  Many critics of the shobu-ippon system say that the competition is boring because the variety of techniques used is smaller, and to a certain degree I agree, but if you watch the top fighters in the WKF, they all use the same techniques that are typically used in shobu-ippon competitions - gyaku-tsuki, kizami-zuki, mae-geri, mawashi-geri amd ashi-barai.

Regardless of the scoring, the tournament yesterday was on a smaller scale than most NKF based competitions.  Even with that in mind, the competition was fierce.  The fighters present for my division are guys that are at the top of any competition that they fight in.  These are the guys that don't care about rule sets, but make their karate work for them.  These are fighters that are very close to having similar attitudes to the likes of Frank Brennan, a fighter vastly successful in both traditional JKA shobu-ippon as well as in mixed-style tournaments.

I ended up doing fairly well, 2nd in kata, and 3rd in kumite.  The 2nd place in kata was largely due to my ankle rolling in the second jump in Kanku-sho...this hurt my pride more than the ankle which did hurt like a mother...my opponent was only doing Jion...no reason he should have beat me.  Oh well, kumite was great.  I felt like I was  moving more and being far more aggressive than usual.  Sensei says that I was still holding back, he said that he thought I was the better fighter and should have one but I was hesitant at the wrong times.  Well, improvement is improvement I say.

The semester is finally winding down, and that means more time available for real training.  And reall training is definitely in order...it doesn't look like I'm making it out to California for the Riverside tournament, but Euro-Cup is around the corner at the end of October.  Time to have some fun with training!

Wish me luck!

Frustrations

I find myself becoming more and more frustrated with training on a daily basis.  Not with training in particular, I suppose, but with the goal I've apparently given myself.  I'm dead set on being in Hungary with the US team in November for the Euro-Cup.  I know that the team will really need me if I'm not there with Nick out of the competitive arena, very likely permanently.  At the same time, though, I feel like I'm plateaued...I haven't been able to put all of my effort into the gym and the dojo the way I need to because of school.  Needless to say, school is my first and primary priority, naturally it has to be as my future rests upon this, but I really want to do this right!

Part of the frustration, I feel, is the fact that I'm trying to do both with full commitment, and I can't.  Something's going to have to give...and training seems to be the first to give, and I know I should be proud of that fact...shows commitment to my priorities.  I also know that if I'm going to be able to travel with the team I need to show something for all my time I'm putting into my school.  I need more structure.

It's just like my posting about the new rules for tournament management...I need to manage my time properly and set a schedule and stick to it.  I need to schedule the time I will spend studying from now until finals, and then throughout the summer.  Taking summer classes can be hard enough, taking a class like Organic Chemistry is even harder.

I guess what it comes down to, as always, is the common denominator...I want to succeed in academics, career and karate. I can do all three, but that requires significant determination and perseverance. The question is, can I do it? I guess we'll be finding out soon enough, won't we? Wish me luck!

Long hiatus

It's been a while since I've posted anything, regrettably really because besides the fact that I haven't really been keeping my training or anything else in proper order.  I feel like crap today, mentally and physically I'm just worn down.  I gained about 8 pounds like I was in Florida (we ate so much!), and I haven't had a proper workout in God-only-knows-how-long.  With this exam tonight, I feel like I'll be able to get into some kind of proper swing again with everything, but I can't afford to ignore this exam to go and workout the way I wish I could.

Tomorrow, I don't have classes but I am bringing my brother to campus so he can get a feel for what it's like.  I was hoping to let him sit in on a class, but as my one class of the day has been cancelled, that won't be happening.  That just means I can leave the house later, and I will have time during the morning to get in a proper workout.  I feel strange lifting out of sync on a Friday, so what I'm really hoping to do tomorrow morning is go out for a run as early as possible (ideally 5:30 or 6am), and then do a good long calisthenic routine plus some sprints if my knees hold up that long.

It's way past time for me to truly be in some kind of decent shape, but I feel like this semester has just been beating me down so much that my diet has gone to hell, and I haven't been getting proper workouts at the dojo.  Technically the training sessions are fine, but they aren't doing much for my cardio, speed or strength.  I've always known I couldn't rely solely on karate to get me in shape, but I wish I could.

Without exception I'm out the door tomorrow morning with my running shoes on!  Minimum run of 2 miles, if I feel like I can go longer maybe I will.  I just will not go less than that, I refuse to believe that I'm starting literally at square one all over again.

Wish me luck!