Thank you for joining me!

Welcome to the Happy Grappler. The key to a consistent practice is joy. As an aging athlete, I continue to seek out methods that help to keep a smile on my face, relatively fit and pain free. This is my mental graffiti. Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

February Challenge Update

There isn't any.

I got sick.

Things were flowing as they should and life in the universre is grand. Focusing on strength and mobility training and BJJ. Then during a Tuesday night training session, I started to feel bad. I called off the next day and then felt even worse. I concentrated all of my healing powers and went to a seminar at our Academy and then the wheels really came off. Congestion, Fever, Chills, Aches, All-over-feel-like-crap Sinus, Flu, Cold, Allergy Tsunami. I went into work on Friday and was immediately sent home by a Physician (the up side of working at a medical clinic is easy access to meds) who greeted me by saying "Hi, Tim! You look like Dogsh@t!" Now I am feeling much better and even trained for several hours last night. However, it means that my February challenge (continuing IF, vipassana, kb swings work etc.) has been de-railed. But such is life, adversity and setbacks occur. Now it is time to pick the pieces back up, I will continue with the IF and vipassana, but may make some changes with the non-bjj training to focus more on balance, stability and maybe even some explosion. We shall see...

Speaking of training, last Thursday, our academy was visited by Marcio Feitosa and Flavio Almeida of GB Headquarters in Irvine, Ca. I have trained with Feitosa before, but this was my first exposure to Almeida. Flavio looks so ordinary from a distance, but when you are close to him, he is the most densely muscled man I have ever seen. They taught back takes from Side control and like most seminars, I had never seen the material before. It was so clever. Jiujitsu continues to expand and evolve beyond what it originally was and as long as I stayed balanced between fundamentals, self-defense, and sport stuff, everything will be ok. It was also very inspiring and gave me some dreams to aspire to in the future. Stay tuned.

Today's video is from the IBJJF European Nationals and is from the Blue Belt division and a French bjj fighter Nicholas Plessis. Nicholas wins by submission. What makes this spectacular? Nicholas is completely blind. Enjoy!



That's it for today.

Stay happy and on the mat!

2 comments:

  1. Hi stumbled upon your blog while looking up "BJJ and vipassana" on Google. I have a question - does vipassana help with your BJJ performance? I'm contemplating learning it.

    p.s. I usually take the time when I'm sick to try other things that may help my game - breathing exercises or light yoga for example, or watch and study BJJ fights (budovideos, marcelo garcia, etc).

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  2. Vipassana has helped my game immensely. By connecting to the present moment and reflecting on the breath during times of duress, I am able to avoid the panic that is associated with being in "inferior" positions. Peop;e expect me to freak out in bad positions and when I can calmly navigate the space, I am able to escape. Thanks for reading and come back any time.

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