My gold medal frm today!

I won 2 matches with double wrist lock submissions. I'll write my thoughts out after awhile... I need to let this all sink in.

-Brandon

Days before the tournament.

I am at school, however I am eating well and keeping my stamina up to par. I'm mentally going over my game plan. I'm ready to go!

Weigh in's are friday, and go time is saturday.

Never Out of Options

I weighed myself this morning before my workout, my weight was 126 lbs. I'm feeling super strong and have had a lot of energy. My workout consisted of:

Turkish get ups- five on each side. On the left side a ten pound kettle bell and on my right, a five pound dumb-bell. (these are great for jujitsu in general).

After that- The military press, three sets of ten.

Lastly- bridge ups, another great exercise that is great for the core and legs. It might not seem like much, but if you can do this within a fifth-teen minute time period, your heart will beat pretty fast and you will sweat a great deal.

Ever since I got my blue belt last Saturday, I have felt a great intensity inside. One that wants to hunt for submissions on any angle. Erik Paulson once said that the human body is a submission waiting to happen. I take that to mean that, at any position I am in there is always ways to attack.

I've been working hard on fighting from the bottom, as it's still very easy for people to get passed my guard. So my sweeps and transitions to deep half guard must be legit. Beyond that I've been working my top game a lot as well, mainly improving my posture. The submissions are there. It's about being heavy on top.

That's one of reasons I love the catch style of wrestling so much, because it weighs heavily on dominant position and attacking non stop. For me, I try and merge that same attitude within the practice of Jujitsu. I'm always trying to attack, whether I am on my back or not. Attack,  attack attack.

Lock flows then, are so very important to all grapplers, in the JKD spectrum of grappling one will learn to transfer from submission to submission without having to give it much thought. Personally I feel that that is something that is missing from a lot of grappling arts these days.

Sifu Larry Hartsell pounded this into the mind of his students, for the simple reason that you are never out of options in ways to submit your opponent.

Thoughts on getting my blue belt.

Today was a very special day for me, after the Eddie Bravo seminar today, myself a few other students earned our blue belts. This would be my third Bravo seminar, and it was probably my most favorite one yet. I learned so much, so many new tricks to add to the tool box.

I want to thank you some people, for providing me with rides to class, first off: my Dad, Brian Locke, Matt Hester, Ryan Yamada, Tijae Smith  and anybody else I forgot to mention I'm truly sorry.

Reaching this point in my journey, has taught me so much about  perseverance and my own personal selfishness as a person. Allow me to explain. Within the human condition, it can be so easy to become so wrapped up in our own personal happiness and success, that we totally brush aside the joy of being happy for others who achieve their goals as well.

The single greatest thing anyone can do in life is stay calm and wait for the wave to move toward you.    It's easy to get down on yourself, and be swallowed up in a self-centered attitude. Even in the midst of taking this journey, I forgot my motivations for even doing this.

Fist, it's fun! Some people take the game of Jujitsu so seriously, that in it's self isn't bad, but if it's not fun, if it's not a joy why do it? You'll burn out very quickly and not want to step out onto the mat ever again.

Secondly, I do this for those who would love to do Jujitsu, but physically cannot. It's so important to be humble and understand that Jujitsu is a gift. It could be taken away from you at any moment in practice or in a tournament. Our bodies are a gift, therefore, we must honor them.

As I'm writing this, the emotions are setting in... I need to work on keeping perspective, have more joy, don't worry about winning or loosing just keep working on getting better and better, helping others along the way.

Next Sunday, I move back into school, so my time on the mats will be limited to weekends. But I am not going to let that stop, I will keep moving forward.

-Brandon