So this not so regularly scheduled program lately is back on air, after a brief hiatus I will be bringing you my thoughts on the daily. Well maybe not daily (school is going to tough this semester), but as often as I possibly can. I am noticing that the new blog craze lately has been resolutions, well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I have none. My jiu-jitsu game is that of the Gods, and I will win the Europeans, Pans, Worlds, US Open, and every local tournament in every state because that's how disgustingly good I am...and I am a cyborg. Sike. As you can see I am in one great mood, besides the nagging shoulder injury that will not go away, I have reason to be. This year I feel is my year to evolve and although I may come out of every tournament win less, I could careless. Tournaments are no longer my focus because I realize that in my current situation...bjj level, age, marital and child status, lack of health care, and school; I will never be a world champion level jiu-jitsu guy. Yes, I train 5-6x a week (sometimes more)...yes I eat well, and yes I work out. But there is 1,000 guys at the least who are doing it 30x better than I am. With that, I do not stand a chance. Maybe I will shoot for another goal of being a good instructor, and live vicariously through my daughter who will be starting jiu-jitsu very soon at the tender age of 2 3/4. Lol. With all that being said this year I want to make very small goals in order to work my way up to the big un's. Here are 12 goals for the 12 months of 2011:
1st Goal: Win some local tournaments. I feel that if I want to compete at the top level, it would be dumb and pointless to do so if I can't win the local tournaments. I now look at it like high school sports. Not everyone makes it to regional or state, and in order to do so you have to win district. If I cant win the local Revolution tournaments here, I will not go and embarrass myself and my coach at Mundials, PanAms, or US Open. Case closed.
2nd Goal: Make my guard impassable, or as close to it as possible: Jiu-Jitsu is guard. No doubt about it. If people can't pass your guard, there is not much they can do except get frustrated, breath hard, and wipe sweat bullets from their brow. I have improved my guard a lot over the last few months, but it is not where I want it to be. I'm not a blue belt yet, but if a blue belt can easily pass my guard I don't deserve it yet.
3rd goal: Get my blue belt. I was obsessing over this thing for months, and when I was passed up, I realized that maybe I wasn't there yet. So I began to work harder, train smarter, check my ego, and help people. Over the last month I have made strides in my game. Amazing how much weight lifts off of you when you don't worry about those stupid little things. Yet, in order to reach other goals...I need to move up. So it is not necessarily a goal I am working towards, because I feel I am there it is just a goal I am waiting on, that will keep me working hard.
4th goal: Lose the nervousness, it ain't cute. Anyone who has seen me roll or have rolled with me knows that I do not lack skill. You can clearly go to competitions and see who prepared for the test and who didn't. My problem is I am weak mentally. I put so much pressure on myself that I completely lose focus when I am out there on the mats. I am always thinking what people think of me, what my coach is saying in his head, and wondering how long my opponent has been training that I completely forget jiu-jitsu during competition. Because of this I almost quit competing completely, because I hate that feeling. How am I ever going to do well if I'm afraid to put it all on the line? Something I am working on within myself.
5th Goal: Cross train more often. We have a total of 5 Gracie Barra's in Seattle, and I have only trained at 3. We have a few other gyms like Foster's and a new one (on of our purple's is doing the damn thing) too...all full of great people to train with. Our gym has really been stagnate lately, as majority of the people who train there don't really train to maximum potential, and more so do it just for fun. So I need to get in my car and go train at the different academies so I can get some better rolls in here and there. the more games I see, the better I will become.
6th Goal: Work on going for the kill. A couple months ago you could say I had a very lazy spider guard game, and this little period of time may have hurt my game a bit. I was not attacking with submissions as I was a sweep machine. Yes, I could sweep dust of a ceiling fan in a cathedral, but I wasn't really focused on finishing fights. Now whenever I roll, I am looking to end it and even time myself in my head. That is the point of jiu-jitsu right? defend yourself first, but go for the kill and end the fight as soon as possible. Although people say jiu-jitsu is a chess match, they must not watch the matches below black belt, because those lower belts are constantly trying to pass and finish at an unbelievable pace. That's what I need to work on.
7th Goal: Work on flexibility. This is something I used to be upset about. Every time I came to class I would say to myself, look at your leg...that is pitiful you can't put it in that position. I would try to sit in Indian style and say, wow Jamel you have the flexibility of an 80 yr old man. Now 9 months later I am noticing dramatic improvements. I am no idiot though. I am a guard player. I have pretty much been labeled and packaged as one, so I know I need more flexibility than what I have. I have kicked enough people in the head and face to know I am not there yet. I have had to grab my leg and put it somewhere enough times to know I'm not gymnast.
8th Goal: Tap more often. I was going to write a whole post on this, but I thought I would add it in here and kill two birds with one choke. I need to tap more. It's all about saving your limbs and I have had nagging shoulder pains in both shoulders for months now, because I refuse to tap to armbars early in practice. I know how to get out of armbars, so there is no reason why I should be using all my might to get out of them in practice. Just give it to the man/woman, no skin off my nose. I guess that's just a little residual ego, but I will learn.
9th Goal: Drill more. Everyone says this, but most of us don't do it. Well I do, but not enough. The only reason I don't like it is because I hate being the drillee. Getting arm barred 40x is not fun, but doing 40 arm bars is. Any who, I need to do it more because seriously it is an important part of the sport, and if you don't do it...you won't be ready when the opportunity arises to do that move.
10th Goal: Get Stronger, Faster, and more Endurance. This is the big un. I need to literally kick my ass outside of class with the workouts. Right now I have a 4 fight maximum, and in my weight class that is piss poor. I need to be at a 10 fight maximum, or better yet just not get gassed at all. That may take a little while, but like i said, little goals first so I can reach the big ones.
11th Goal: Teach more. I have a thing I am starting. My last roll of the day will always be with a lower belt of my choice, and I will work on getting them better. Simple goal, that will help me in the long run.
12th Goal: Make this blog into something great. I would like this dinky little thing to actually help people out. I read a lot of blogs, and a lot of them don't say much of anything. I really want to make sure the content is always authentic and from the heart. I know that if I put the time and the effort in this blog will shine just like my jiu-jitsu. This year I want to reach 100 followers and actually start doing interviews (not with big names, but the small folks who make a difference in the sport that nobody cares to pay attention too.).
Thanks for reading folks, this year is going to be great.
