MegJitsu

I am having a great time at Gracie Jiu Jitsu Victor! We arrived in Rochester just short of a year ago. The disruption of the past year has been pretty intense. On the one hand, I miss London, the UK, our friends, family and lives there very deeply. On the other, Rochester has a lot to offer us and our family-life is certainly more balanced and happy. Big achievement! As we begin 2016, we are much more settled here. Finding the right folks to train with both at Wolf Brigade Gym and at Gracie Jiu Jitsu Victor has really helped me to reclaim the Roc as ‘my home’.

There are some very skilful and welcoming BJJers in the Greater Rochester Area. For me, John Ingallina and the people at Gracie Victor offer the school that is right for me. I am incredibly grateful that this club started offering GJJ around the time that I arrived in Rochester. I am so pleased to have been welcomed and embraced by this group of practitioners. John is a very well-rounded and seasoned martial artist. This is clear from his skill and his humility. It is also clear in how invested he is in his students’ progress. John sets a great tone and his club is full of men and women of a wide range of ages and abilities. A very inclusive and loving place to train.

Settling-in here has taken a toll on my health and fitness. In London, I walked many miles everyday, attended a couple PT sessions a week and trained jiu jitsu. Here, we drive everywhere, it took several tries to get my gym and jiu jitsu situation right and last year much of my ‘free time’ was eaten up with renovating our new house. This resulted in the undoing of much of my hard work in the UK to get my fitness back after becoming a parent. When we arrived in Rochester I was 3 kilos off where I’d like to be, now I’m more like 6 kilos off. It may not sound like a big deal and in the scheme of things of course it isn’t. However, I do find it really demoralising and just don’t feel at my best, physically, while at the same time I seem to lack the lifestyle mojo I once had to eat well and to move about. As we’re getting on a more even keel now, I am hopeful that 2016 will see me lean out a bit more and get my diet to a clean and healthy state.

On a more positive note, I’ve been really enjoying strength and conditioning classes at Wolf Brigade Gym and I’m there pretty consistently twice a week. I’m making a deal with myself to up that to three times a week in February. In the jiu jitsu arena, I had a chat with my coach, John, about how I’d really like to work more conscientiously towards getting my Gracie Academy blue belt and be more involved with Gracie Victor. Over the course of last year, my attendance was okay, making it in once a week as much as I could, but overseas moves are no small potatoes and there’s been a lot of work getting ourselves set-up here. This impacted on my training frequency. It also impacted on how much my head was in the game and how goal-oriented my training was (or wasn’t). John has been more than happy to meet me halfway and we’ve come up with a timeline for my blue belt examination. This has really helped me to get focused and the process of working through the BBQD (Blue Belt Qualification Drills) has been a useful exercise for me.

I’ve practiced the techniques included in the Gracie Combatives programme for years. Even still, I never really internalised the names nor could I systematically name the variations for individual techniques. I could perform these techniques in class and sparring, but I was intellectually lazy about it. Having to commit the syllabus to memory has helped me to re-engage with my jiu jitsu in a number of ways. Firstly, it has helped me to consolidate and strengthen my existing knowledge of Gracie Jiu Jitsu by forcing me to properly and fully internalise a syllabus. Secondly, working through the BBQDs has encouraged me to put more mind-cycles on jiu jitsu. Since becoming a parent my visualisation and jiu jitsu daydreaming time has reduced to essentially zero; in my leisure-time laden pre-natal days I would spend several hours a day musing on technique, considering problems in sparring, writing in my training diary, watching interesting fights, reading jiu jitsu blogs. Readers know exactly what I’m referring to. After the boy came into my life and my leisure time was radically compressed, I dropped all of that ‘mental jiu jitsu time’. This affected my on-the-mat performance as well as my emotional connection to my art. Making a goal to get this blue belt thing done has helped me a great deal to build-in time for jiu jitsu contemplation. Finally, I feel much more motivated to make sure I am getting more and very consistent mat-time so I can get better at jiu jitsu and healthier in my body. Two things crucial for my sense of well-being.

So, with all this talk of getting a(nother) blue belt, I suspect some readers are curious to know what is the situation regarding the belt that I wear? As some readers may remember, the jiu jitsu Internets went a bit mad when I made an off-hand remark that I would be wearing a white belt in my Combatives classes when I joined my new school. I followed this up with a discussion of why, in my case, it felt like the right thing to do, though no one at Gracie Victor expected me to change my belt. Big feelings erupted. Not so much about me, per se, but my telling of my story acted as a catalyst for a flare up of tensions around the Gracie University system, how the Gracie Academy codifies its syllabus and delivers its instruction, and the intense opinions around ‘GJJ’ and ‘BJJ’. I respect and appreciate the complicated feelings associated with ‘GJJ versus BJJ’. I myself feel uncomfortable with the somewhat divisive nature of the term ‘GJJ’. At the same time, the material that term is used for and the material disseminated through the Gracie Academy’s CTCs is exactly the sort of stuff that I want to be involved with. With that preface, what friggin belt am I wearing?

I wear a white belt. It has a stripe on it. Wearing a white belt makes me feel like a part of my club, rather than like a swaggering interloper parachuted in from the UK. I don’t bully or ‘sand bag’ anyone, and the people who train with me understand, respect, and recognise my previous experience. The Gracie University system has a clear procedure for handling belts awarded outside of their system:

If you have achieved rank in Gracie or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from any school that is not accredited by the Gracie Academy, your belt color will be recognized in the Gracie University student database, but it will be tagged as ‘unverified’. In order to officially recognize your rank, we must verify your knowledge of the street applicable techniques of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and the only way to do this is for you to demonstrate proficiency in the Gracie Combatives techniques by passing the blue belt test. In other words, if you were awarded a purple belt by a BJJ instructor, and you pass the official Gracie Combatives blue belt test, then Ryron and Rener would consider assessing your skills to see if your purple belt can be formally recognized by the Gracie Academy ~ Gracie University FAQs

This suits me very well; of course it wouldn’t be right for all readers. My relationship with jiu jitsu has been on the fritz for a number of years owing to a knee operation, a pregnancy, an infant, and an international move. Methodically working through the Combatives syllabus, as discussed above, has been invaluable in helping me to reinvigorate my relationship with jiu jitsu. It is my intention to work up to the Gracie Academy Blue Belt one stripe material. Then, I’d like to seek to have my purple belt ‘verified’. Could that happen in 2016, maybe yes, maybe no. Lots of smaller goals and milestones to reach first and right now I’m targeting submission of my blue belt exam materials by the end of Q1. First things first!

Photos reproduced with permission of John Ingallina, Gracie Jiu Jitsu Victor.

Strength and conditioning for BJJ is a wise complement to one’s jiu jitsu practice. We often encounter two main strands of thought on strength and conditioning for BJJ in our community. On the one hand, some argue that to be ‘good’ at BJJ one must be exceptionally athletic (and by implication, young). This worldview prescribes a lot of gym work alongside jiu jitsu training. On the other hand, there’s the position that in order to become better at BJJ, one must simply put in more mat-time. Personally, I lean towards the latter end of the spectrum. That said, I’m a big believer in strength and conditioning for BJJ both to maintain one’s body and to recover from injuries. Full disclosure, I also happen to really like working out and lifting weights.

November marked my eleventh year in BJJ, and over this time strength and conditioning has taken on increasing importance for me. As many readers will know – and have experienced themselves – I’ve had two knee injuries; an MCL sprain on the right followed by a rupture of the left ACL some years later. I’ve also had a pregnancy and birth. The postnatal body has recently been viewed from a sports injuries point of view and I can attest, that sh1t takes a toll!

Exploring one’s physicality as personal development is an aspect of many athletes’ practice. Whether hobbyists, amateurs or professionals, athletes can find ‘flow’ in their practice. And flow, as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, has huge implications for one’s self improvement, sense of well-being and emotional and intellectual robustness. Personally, I experience flow from writing, from software development, and physical pursuits. Athletic endeavours have long been part of my flow experiences from dance, gymnastics and softball as a child to horse-back riding as a teen and, after the relative sloth of my undergraduate degree, martial arts. Strength and conditioning became an important part of my weekly routine from 1998 when I started martial arts practice. Over time, strength and conditioning, itself, has become an opportunity to experience flow, and reap its benefits.

My full appreciation for the joy and technicality of strength and conditioning didn’t emerge until relatively recently, when I began personal training in the summer of 2013 with Vicky Busby (Soho Gyms, Bow Wharf). Vicky addressed a number of suboptimal habits I’d developed and introduced more contemporary knowledge and techniques into my strength and conditioning practice. Her support and expertise was vital to helping me rehab after the pregnancy and the first – rather gruelling – year of motherhood. After a big, disruptive move from London to Rochester, NY in February of this year, I looked high and low for a personal trainer to keep me on track. I never imagined I’d find Heather McAllister and Wolf Brigade Gym. I started working with Heather in July of this year and was amazed by what she had to offer. Her dedication and application are fearsome; her commitment to her clients’ development is palpable. Just the past fortnight, I’ve started the strength and conditioning classes as Wolf Brigade’s proximity and timetable makes this an option for me.

What I really REALLY love about Wolf Brigade Gym is the level of technical proficiency and mindfulness applied to strength and conditioning. For me, it is truly ‘next level’. I love BJJ. What that means for me, is that I love the challenge of applying technique. That’s why I love drilling, there is no substitute for reps when it comes to nailing fundamental jiu jitsu movements, or single techniques or complicated ‘attack by combination’ flows. It is why I love sparring, there is no greater joy than (finally!) getting an offensive or defensive technique to work for you in live you rolling. Nothing compares. And with a great mix of training partners – bigger, smaller, older, younger, more and less experienced – you can scale the personal challenge and the technical milestone you’re trying to reach in the varying context of size and skill differentials. Jiu jitsu practice, to be successful and satisfying, requires intense mindfulness and being fully present in what one’s doing. This is what helps us experience flow during practice, which in turn helps us to de-stress and empower our minds, bodies and spirits. Like I say, I’ve long enjoyed pushing myself with strength and conditioning, but I’d never know it could demand a similar level of mindfulness and technical proficiency.

My heart belongs to jiu jitsu. Right now, personal circumstances continue to mean training once a week. In addition to less mat time, since becoming a parent my visualisation and grappling day-dreaming time has shrunk to about zero. When it was ‘just’ work and a partner to balance there was A LOT more room to invest myself on and off the mats. I’m optimistic that over the coming years, there will be increasing room for me to practice my jiu jitsu. Strength and conditioning at Wolf Brigade really helps to keep me together, physically and psychically. It hurts to feel so disconnected from jiu jitsu, and while there are dark moments when I feel like chucking it in, I need to hold on to the jiu jitsu pieces of myself, keep the embers glowing and bide my time. Strength and conditioning work at Wolf Brigade offers a great complement to my jiu jitsu practice and is teaching me so much.

Wolf Brigade is guided by a strong philosophical perspective and has a flavour of dojo about it; I always feel I should bow on the way in. Indeed, there is significant martial arts experience among the trainers and there are Muay Thai classes and a matted area for members. Wolf Brigade trainers are deeply passionate and have nurtured an empowering and supportive environment which has attracted men and women of a wide range of ages and fitness levels. What speaks volumes about the meritocratic and empowering environment, to my mind, is the number of women in classes and among the trainers. This gym has a formidable female presence among its staff; and the technique, strength, mindfulness, passion and ability of the trainers – men and women – is aspirational and inspirational. The ‘subversive fitness’ of Wolf Brigade wouldn’t be for everyone. But it isn’t meant to be. Greg Walsh, the owner, and his crew, have made a brave choice to forge an independent path, offering instruction which, promises to develop your self-reliance, your mental and physical fitness, if not always sinking to your comfort level. That said! – don’t get it twisted. All are welcome. Everyone can do something with the right adjustments and instruction. We can all be our best selves. That process, by definition, just isn’t comfortable. Again, with reference to Flow; the distinction between saccharine ‘pleasure’ and ‘enjoyment’ which, for us grapplers, arises in the nexus of challenge and reward.

This week’s class, case and point. I went in on Wednesday after a harrowing and conflict-heavy day of parenting feeling down on myself in a number ways, not least feeling disgusted with the lack of personal discipline which is manifest in my retention of a good bit of post-natal flab. Has been bloody difficult getting my mojo back since becoming a parent and after days like those, when I don’t tune into the boy and we don’t get on well, it can be a bit of a self-loathing spiral. Too bad I couldn’t dwell on any of that crap during strength and conditioning class, where I learned several power clean variants before a conditioning routine of KB ‘power’ swings followed by ‘death by Airdyne’. I have very little experience of power cleans and there is a lot of coordination involved as many readers will already know. We did skill work with empty bars then added weights for high hang, hang and full power cleans. More and more of it was coming together for me, but I was struggling to make the lifts from a coordination/technique point of view. Heather and Greg worked closely with me and then Greg was like, ‘Hold your breath from 1 one thousand at the bottom, hold that breath until the end of the movement, you’re exhaling as soon as you start the movement’. I hadn’t realised I was breathing out so soon and giving away all my power and as soon as I made that adjustment I could execute the lift. Cue shit-eating grin. Very much the feeling of getting all the moving parts of a jiu jitsu technique to come together for the first time, or for the ‘first-time’ at a higher competency. Looking ahead to 2016, I’m excited by all I have to learn and experience at Wolf Brigade and Gracie Jiu Jitsu Victor. Being able to train with professional and passionate people At Wolf Brigade and Gracie Vitor helps to make the hometown I left so long ago feel a lot more like ‘home’.