I spent a lot of time training over the long Easter weekend. I had some friends come around to my house with all their mats and we trained for two days. We spent a bunch of time showing each other new techniques and playing with existing ones. It was a heap of fun and I’m looking forward to having another one in the future. Probably the best thing about having the ‘camp’ at my house was that there was no pressure. I didn’t have to worry about the people I was training with because I knew each of them personally. We had a gi session and a no-gi session each day and there was lots of laughs along the way.
Recently I’ve been putting a lot of effort into getting over my fear of Rolling. I understand that it’s simply putting your training into practice, but there’s a very real risk of injury there. Training with close friends for long amounts of time helps me with that fear immensely. I’m using this new wave of motivation to get myself to more open mats and to roll more. I’ve also started taking photos of everyone rolling and the gym itself, which I get a lot out of, most importantly being another excuse to be in the gym. Rather than sitting at home and making excuses I’ll grab my gear and my camera and head down to the gym. More often than not, I’ll take photos for a little while and get excited about rolling. I put the camera away, put my gi on and go for it.
I’ve always been told that the best way to get better is to roll. If you have an understanding of the basic concepts of BJJ, you roll to put it into practice. In the last few open mats alone, I’ve seen a big leap in my rolling. When I was rolling last year I had a hard time figuring out where I was and what to do when rolling. I couldn’t maintain steady breathing and I didn’t know what to do in many situations. This year, I’m aware of what I’m doing, where I’m going and what my opponent is doing. I’m also much more aware of where and how I can move, and what techniques I can use in those positions. The trouble I’m having now is pulling off the techniques on a live, resisting opponent. The only way to improve that is to keep experimenting and working the technique until I find the way to make it work.
I’ve had a big change in my perspective of BJJ in the training sense. It’s almost as though I’ve spent the last year and a half in a constant state of panic and now I’ve suddenly calmed down. This change in perspective has also given me a clear sense of direction. I know what I want to get out of BJJ at this stage, and that’s a blue belt. Lots of people will say that belts don’t matter and that the only thing that matters is your dedication and how hard you train. While I agree with that statement in general, I think there’s more to it than that. I think that belts do and don’t matter. To a white belt, the upper belts at first seem like some sort of evolved person. Someone who can beat you in any way they want, whenever they want. Of course, as you train longer you start to realise that they’re exactly the same as you, just with a much better understanding of BJJ. Those upper belts become a goal for many white belts, a mark for when they’ve made it.
This idea can be extremely motivational and damaging at the same time. It seems like many people quit training when they hit blue belt, because they think about how much work and time they put I to get there, compared to the amount of time and effort required to get through purple, brown and then to black. Yearning after these belts therefore can be a curse as well. Personally, I think of them as goals, but not answers. The blue belt, to me, is a physical representation of the hard work and time I’ve put into this martial art. It’s also proof that I can progress in something I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to do two years ago. Every promotion, every submission I hit, and every compliment I get in training means a huge deal to me. This is by far the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve done in my entire life, and even imagining getting that belt wrapped around my waist fills me with pride.
That’s what this year is going to be for me. I’m going to dedicate it to working towards a blue belt to prove to myself and anyone out there that doubts themselves, that they can do it! If you put in the work, you’ll reap the benefits. I've added a gallery of some of my favourite shots of the gym, hopefully you enjoy them!
/Anthoney.
Recently I’ve been putting a lot of effort into getting over my fear of Rolling. I understand that it’s simply putting your training into practice, but there’s a very real risk of injury there. Training with close friends for long amounts of time helps me with that fear immensely. I’m using this new wave of motivation to get myself to more open mats and to roll more. I’ve also started taking photos of everyone rolling and the gym itself, which I get a lot out of, most importantly being another excuse to be in the gym. Rather than sitting at home and making excuses I’ll grab my gear and my camera and head down to the gym. More often than not, I’ll take photos for a little while and get excited about rolling. I put the camera away, put my gi on and go for it.
I’ve always been told that the best way to get better is to roll. If you have an understanding of the basic concepts of BJJ, you roll to put it into practice. In the last few open mats alone, I’ve seen a big leap in my rolling. When I was rolling last year I had a hard time figuring out where I was and what to do when rolling. I couldn’t maintain steady breathing and I didn’t know what to do in many situations. This year, I’m aware of what I’m doing, where I’m going and what my opponent is doing. I’m also much more aware of where and how I can move, and what techniques I can use in those positions. The trouble I’m having now is pulling off the techniques on a live, resisting opponent. The only way to improve that is to keep experimenting and working the technique until I find the way to make it work.
I’ve had a big change in my perspective of BJJ in the training sense. It’s almost as though I’ve spent the last year and a half in a constant state of panic and now I’ve suddenly calmed down. This change in perspective has also given me a clear sense of direction. I know what I want to get out of BJJ at this stage, and that’s a blue belt. Lots of people will say that belts don’t matter and that the only thing that matters is your dedication and how hard you train. While I agree with that statement in general, I think there’s more to it than that. I think that belts do and don’t matter. To a white belt, the upper belts at first seem like some sort of evolved person. Someone who can beat you in any way they want, whenever they want. Of course, as you train longer you start to realise that they’re exactly the same as you, just with a much better understanding of BJJ. Those upper belts become a goal for many white belts, a mark for when they’ve made it.
This idea can be extremely motivational and damaging at the same time. It seems like many people quit training when they hit blue belt, because they think about how much work and time they put I to get there, compared to the amount of time and effort required to get through purple, brown and then to black. Yearning after these belts therefore can be a curse as well. Personally, I think of them as goals, but not answers. The blue belt, to me, is a physical representation of the hard work and time I’ve put into this martial art. It’s also proof that I can progress in something I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to do two years ago. Every promotion, every submission I hit, and every compliment I get in training means a huge deal to me. This is by far the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve done in my entire life, and even imagining getting that belt wrapped around my waist fills me with pride.
That’s what this year is going to be for me. I’m going to dedicate it to working towards a blue belt to prove to myself and anyone out there that doubts themselves, that they can do it! If you put in the work, you’ll reap the benefits. I've added a gallery of some of my favourite shots of the gym, hopefully you enjoy them!
/Anthoney.