Well,
as usual my time for updating the blog has been few, far and in between. I was going to write about the earning of my first gold medal, but the emotions from that has since faded. That is not to say that the desire to win more has faded too. (it hasn't) but that my knowledge to learn has grown even more.
I haven't been able to train much, (on the mats that is) but I have been keeping my strength and conditioning up, been eating a lot of fruits and veggies, drinking lots of water and even have a few friends here on campus that I can work on basics with.
Fundamentals have become huge for me, I know that the 10th planet system is very detailed one, but not having the time to practice all the details is the problem. The more I train and compete the more I discover what best suits my body.
Perhaps that why Bruce Lee said to accept what is useful, reject what is useless and add specifically what is your own. I am NOT in anyway suggesting that certain techniques in the 10th planet are useless to me, (their not) however with my condition, it will take me much longer to learn and perfect certain techniques. Which is okay.
For me, in tournaments, it comes down to the essentials. Arm-bars and choke, (maybe leg locks when I get up to different skill levels) I know it's nothing glamorous, I just don't feel very confident in my rubber guard, although I have used it in a match.
When I first learned the electric-chair sweep, I was using the half-guard, rather than the lock down. Why? I'm not very confident in my ability with it. Eddie Bravo saw me doing it with half-guard and he said it was awesome and to do what I could.
That to me meant the world to me, probably because he was affirming me as a grappling artist. As I've mentioned before, my hunger to learn has grown a great bit. Even while being in school, I am thinking about jujitsu and grappling all the time. I'm watching videos and always finding things to add to the bag of tricks.
I want to "master" a handful of techniques and do them well. All this to say, that one can learn, grow and be thankful for the gift with have in jujitsu. Never give on the journey.
